Chapter 71

Chapter 71

VEE

D eath had finally caught her.

But she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Vee snarled, lashing out with a clawed hand. The blow didn’t land. There was nothing there, just endless, formless dark. It felt cold, the emptiness an icy chill all around her. Filling her.

She reached out with that bright power inside of her, reached for a heartbeat, reached for blood, reached for anything .

But there was nothing. Emptiness. Nothing around her but the dark.

Desperate, Vee shifted, bones snapping and reforming. A Wolf emerged from Vee’s skin, with long fast limbs built for running.

If she couldn’t fight, she would run.

Vee raced into the darkness.

Endless. The black was endless and formless, and she ran and ran and ran…

“Where are you running, little Wolf?” a cold voice asked from the void.

Vee turned, snapping her powerful jaws. The voice was behind her. In front of her. All around her.

Come out and fight , she thought, turning her head side to side, looking for something, anything, in the dark. Come out and face me. I’m not afraid.

“There is nowhere left to run,” said the voice.

Vee dove into the darkness.

Nothing.

She snapped her teeth and flailed. She bounded and fought.

Nothing.

The voice was everywhere and nowhere, and in frustration Vee threw back her head to howl.

“Come out and fight me!” she cried, the words garbled and strange coming from her muzzle.

“I don’t need to fight you,” came that voice, that horribly cold voice. “You’ve already lost.”

Vee growled.

“You think you know suffering, little Wolf?” the voice mocked.

Claws sunk into her mind, and Vee whimpered, dropping to her belly. Pain. So much pain. Something was in her head; something was digging around in her skull. She whimpered again, shaking her head from side to side, trying to shake off those horrible claws.

Images came to her, unbidden and unwanted.

Memories of her past.

Flash .

Her mother’s face. Smiling. Happy.

Flash .

Her mother’s face. Bloody and beaten. Dead.

Flash .

Jayce’s brother. Bloody and beaten. Dead.

Flash .

A Shifter she’d never known, never recognized. Starving to death on the streets. Eyes vacant and hollow, flies crawling over his flesh.

Flash .

She and Jayce, barely more than kids, running from three men, knowing they were going to die. Her standing above those same men, holding their lives in her hands with this new, glorious power.

Flash .

Vee had shifted again, without realizing. She huddled on the ground, her hands gripping her head.

“Stop it,” she pleaded. “Stop doing that.”

Flash .

Kellos, struggling against the hold she had on him. Kellos, jumping toward his sister, blood on his paws. Kellos, who had felt so scared under her control. So… sad.

Flash .

The Vampire. He fought so hard against her. His thoughts were full of thoughts of his son. Full of horror. Full of pain.

Full of noble sacrifice.

Flash

Amalia.

“No,” Vee sobbed.

Amalia.

Amalia the first time she’d ever seen her, in that ridiculous red dress, lost and alone in the city.

Amalia smiling at her.

Amalia spinning in her new outfit, her power growing. Growing every day since Vee had met her, with no sign of stopping.

Amalia’s face crumbling.

Amalia crying.

“Stop,” Vee pleaded, her entire body shaking. “Please stop.”

“You have suffered,” the voice said. “And you have caused so much suffering. Was it worth it?”

Flash .

Her mother’s face.

Flash .

Amalia’s face.

Flash.

Flash.

Flash.

The images wouldn’t stop. The memories wouldn’t stop.

“You think you understand suffering?” Kallista asked, her voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. She was the darkness, she was the voice surrounding them, she was the cold and infinite void. Vee whimpered. “You think you have any idea what that word means?”

This was the Demon’s world. Her realm.

Kallista stepped forward, out of the dark, kneeling before Vee while she shook with fear and pain.

She touched Vee’s temple, gently.

“You don’t know anything about suffering,” the Demon told her. “Let me show you what suffering really is, mortal.”

Four thousand years.

Four thousand years of war, and pain, and death. Kallista took that pain, took those memories— her memories—and pushed them into Vee. Flooding them into her mind.

Vee screamed.

She begged.

She cried.

But the pain wouldn’t stop.

And eventually, when nothing else worked, she gave into the darkness and let it take her away.