Unlikely Queen (Crystal Castle 1)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Some are injured but none are dead, apart from the angel and vampires. The one vampire who taunted us remains where he is, unable to move. My sister is now standing and so is John. I can see the limp in his leg where it was either broken or badly hurt. He’s not shapeshifting back into his wolf form, though, as Patrick did to heal faster. His hand hasn’t left my sister since he got her back by his side.

“You shouldn’t exist, you are an abomination,” the vampire hisses at me.

“I guess your queen told you that?” I ask.

He laughs and throws his head back. “No, bitch, I don’t need her to tell me, I can see it with my own eyes. No one should have that much power.”

“But your queen can?” I ask.

“She isn’t my queen,” he says through gritted teeth. I don’t understand, but I also don’t care why she isn’t his queen when he is clearly here to do her bidding. Maybe he just doesn’t like the fact that a woman is above him. The older the vampire, the harder it seems to be for them.

“What was it you said you would do to me again?” my sister asks, stepping toward him. She passes by me without even glancing my way.

The vampire leans forward, his hands tied to his sides by my power. “I’ll drain you, bitch, mark my words… I will drain you.”

“You know, my mother once whispered to me an old spell. She had never used it, but her mother before her had heard it worked for her mother.” I have absolutely no idea what Tatiana is talking about, but she drops to the ground, her hands digging into the earth as she looks up at the vampire. “I’m going to try it on you,” she says with a growing smile.

“Do your worst, bitch. But by the end, you will be under me, in all ways.” He cackles, and I shiver at the sound of his laughter.

* * *

“To this day, I take from you what you would steal from me.

To this day, I remove from you what you chose to remove from me.

To this day, I borrow from you what you never would have given me.”

* * *

Her head lifts and she pulls her hands from the dirt, walks toward him, and places her hands on his face as she leans in and kisses his lips. John snarls but does nothing to stop her. The vampire tries to bite her, but I pull his restraints a little tighter, locking his entire body down, including his mouth, as my sister breathes something into him. She steps back on wobbly legs, just as John reaches for her, and she turns to look at me.

“You can free him now.”

“What?” I ask, clearly confused.

“Free him. He will do you no harm.”

I trust her, even if I did just see her kiss a vampire. So, I do as she says, and the minute I feel the magic creep back into me, the vampire shakes it off and looks to all of us, then his eyes land on Tatiana. “What is it you would have me do?” he asks her, no hostility left in his voice.

“Help the wounded.”

“My blood will heal them faster.”

My eyes widen at his words. “What?”

“My blood. It heals. All vampires’ blood does. We just chose never to share that fact.” He shares the information as if Tatiana were his queen, his sire.

“Heal them, then.”

He nods and moves to the first wounded and bites his wrist, offering his blood. They step back, not wanting to take it.

“I gave him a little bit of his soul back,” Tatiana states.

“I trust you,” John says to Tatiana as he walks over to the vampire. He clearly wants to tear him to shreds, but he takes a small sip of his blood instead, and everyone sucks in a breath and holds it as we wait.

What will it do to him?

Kill him?

Turn him?

That’s a whole lot of faith to put into someone you don’t fully know.

I get she’s his mate, but in reality, they haven’t had time to get to know each other. There has been no time for long talks and dates with everything that has been happening.

John pulls back and we all manage to breathe again. It appears nothing bad is happening to him from the blood he drank. He lifts the bloody leg of his jeans, and we watch as the gash that was wide open, closes right before our eyes.

How has no one ever discovered this?

Why is it such a secret?

The lives the vampires could have saved.

The wars this could have ended.

It does nothing but make me angrier.

When John nods his head, the vampire tries again to offer his blood to an injured wolf, and this time they take it, and we all watch as they heal.