Troubled (The Binding Chronicles #4)

37. Fury, Anger, and Despair

Fury, Anger, and Despair

D eath was here.

Vivienne thought she’d been in its cold presence before, but she'd been wrong. None of her lived experiences compared to the savage destruction taking place all around her.

An hour ago, she never would have believed that five creatures could cause so much destruction in such a short period of time.

Now, though?

The awful proof surrounded her.

Black blood coated Vivienne's sword as she danced around one of the vile creatures that had stepped out of the darkness. She refused to call them vampires because they were nothing like her.

The aberrations had killed eleven vampire soldiers in less than a minute before the rest of the army realized what was happening.

Now, the strange creatures were battling the army. Even their movements and strategies made no sense. The undead seemed to be dancing to music only they could hear, switching places around the forest and terrorizing as many vampires as possible .

Vivienne was fighting alongside Jasper Boucher, a soldier she’d worked with several decades ago in the north. He’d been Made around the same time as her, and even though they’d never had any romantic connection, Vivienne considered him a good acquaintance.

Jasper panted beside her, gripping a battle axe made of shadows, as they stared at the monster in front of them. Crimson blood coated it from head to toe, but it didn’t seem to care.

Vivienne’s gaze darted past the creature to the prince. He was back to circling the First, the obsidian blade glinting in his hand. Every part of her yearned to be fighting at his side, but she couldn’t until these creatures were dealt with.

She’d already stabbed the monster in the stomach, and black blood was pouring out of the wound, but the creature didn’t seem to care.

Jasper glanced at Vivienne, yelling to be heard over the chaos of the battle around them. “This is bad!”

He’d always been one to point out the obvious. When they first met, it had amused, but now? Not so much.

“Yes.”

That was all she managed to say before the creature lunged towards Jasper. It moved with unnatural speed, snarling and snapping its long fangs together like a feral dog. It sounded like a Fledgling lost in bloodlust, but it lacked any sense of life that vampires had when they were Made.

The monster was dead, but alive. There was no life in its eyes, and yet it killed with fierce intensity.

Jasper swung out of the way, swinging his axe. The weapon hit the creature in the right arm, slicing clean through the limb. Ink sprayed everywhere.

The creature screamed, incensed at the loss of its arm. Instead of slowing down, it bolted towards Jasper. It was moving faster than before. How was that possible?

Even with Vivienne’s vampiric senses, she could barely track the undead monster as it raced in a blur.

“Jasper, look out!” she shouted.

He spun around, lifting his bloody axe with a roar and swinging it through the air. Shadows rippled around the weapon, and he snarled.

A discordant screech ripped from the creature’s lips as it evaded the blow. The fingers of its remaining hand curled into a fist and punched through Jasper’s tunic and chest as though his body were made of paper.

Jasper roared as the monster yanked a pulsing organ out of his chest. Vivienne’s eyes widened in shock, and her own heart hammered in her chest. Jasper’s roar morphed into a moan as the creature took a massive bite out of his heart.

Oh, gods.

Bile rose in Vivienne’s throat, and she swayed on her feet.

Jasper’s mouth opened as though he was going to say something, to scream or cry or right back, but he never got the chance. Black spiderwebs crept over his skin as though he’d been staked, and a moment later, his body disintegrated to ash and disappeared into the wind.

Vivienne hadn’t even known vampires could die by having their hearts removed and eaten. As far as she was aware, that shouldn’t have been possible.

But it was, because Jasper was very, very dead.

A silent prayer ran through her mind for the vampire, but there was no time to mourn.

Her blood chilled, and her breath came in short bursts as a war cry escaped her. She spun towards the monstrous creature, her sword held high .

The throbbing heart was still gripped in the creature’s fingers as Vivienne swung her blade diagonally, hitting flesh, then bone.

The monster’s remaining hand fell to the ground, and the creature released an ear-splitting scream. It turned to Vivienne. Blood and gore dripped from its mouth, tinging its grey skin crimson. It smiled, the remnants of Jasper’s heart still in its mouth.

It took everything Vivienne had not to be sick.

If this had been a normal opponent, they might’ve fled now that they lacked useable limbs. But these creatures weren’t normal.

Shadows swarmed from the undead being’s body, piling on top of each other. In the same way that other vampires used their darkness to create weapons, the monster’s shadows formed two working arms.

Black blood still poured out of its wounds, but the shadow limbs appeared perfectly functional as the creature flexed its new fingers.

Isvana help them all.

Dead eyes met Vivienne’s as the creature’s smile widened.

Ice-cold dread curled in her stomach, and she took a trembling step back. What would it take to kill these monsters?

Another soldier ran in front of her, shouting a battle cry. Shadows clashed, and the undead creature’s attention was occupied for the moment.

All around her, the battle raged.

Blood painted everything in sight, and vampires were dying. Even the royals hadn’t managed to dispatch their undead yet, although its limbs were made of shadows.

Vivienne glanced at the sky. The moon was still high, and several hours of nighttime remained.

How would this end?

Another aberration charged at her, pulling her from her thoughts .

She ducked and swung her sword, catching it in her new adversary in the stomach. It moaned as she yanked her weapon free.

At that same moment, a voice that Vivienne would recognize anywhere rose from the center of the clearing. Her heart raced, and she sucked in a breath, her head swinging towards the sound.

“Oh, no,” she breathed, fear chilling her heart.

The First had been circling Marius, the two of them engaging in a dance while the ancient being seemed to play with the halfling, but that was no longer the case.

The prince held his dagger in front of him, his grip unwavering as the vampire lunged towards him. He evaded her attack, swiping out with the obsidian blade. It hit her side, drawing black blood.

Vivienne’s heart raced, and her hand grew slick. She was usually calm and collected during a battle, but there wasn’t usually someone to whom she’d given her heart fighting an ancient creature poised to kill him.

Why had she fallen for the prince? Why hadn’t she just done her job, guarded him, and been done with it? Why did she have to go and give her heart to someone who was such a beacon for trouble?

Why, why, why?

The questions swirled in Vivienne’s mind, and she was so distracted that she barely avoided the set of claws attempting to disembowel her.

This was too much. Too hard. Fighting these creatures and watching over Marius was like dividing her heart in two. She wasn’t built for this.

She could see the royals across the clearing. They were still battling their monster, but every so often, the queen’s gaze flicked over to Marius.

Like Vivienne, she couldn’t keep her eyes away from the prince.

And for good reason.

Marius and the First were engaged in a dance that could only lead to one thing: death.

It was evident in the way the ancient vampire had spoken to Marius that she thought she’d kill him easily, but the prince was well-trained. Pride warmed Vivienne’s chest as Marius evaded the First’s attacks with a soldier’s ease.

He was fighting well. It seemed he’d learned a thing or two since the last time they’d gone up against the First because he was holding his own.

But how long could he last?

That was the question that had Vivienne tightening her grip on her sword.

They had to end this now.

A shriek pulled Vivienne’s gaze from the prince, and her eyes widened as another one of the undead creatures dove straight for her.

Gods. She was really starting to hate these things.

This woman was one Vivienne hadn’t fought yet. Long blonde hair streamed behind her back, and crimson, blood-soaked fabric that might once have been a dress clung to her skeletal grey frame. A necklace hung from her neck, the jewelry shockingly similar to one Aurora, Vivienne’s mother, used to wear.

Vivienne hesitated.

Gods-damn it all, but something about this creature felt more real than the others. As if a piece of life was still attached to her that the others lacked.

Vivienne sucked in a breath, searching for a hint of humanity in the other woman’s eyes.

They were bottomless, empty pits.

There was nothing there to save.

Vivienne’s hesitation only lasted for a moment, but it was one moment too long.

The creature’s claws swiped across her chest. Fire ran through her, and she screamed as she stumbled back.

Burning .

Red-hot flames consumed her from the inside out.

Gods above, it hurt. Curses ran through her mind, and her body urged her to fall to her knees as blood poured from her wound, but she refused. She couldn’t give up. Not now.

Pushing past the burning pain, Vivienne spun on her heel and swung her sword, catching the monster in the upper thigh. Her blade sliced through flesh and hit bone. Her arm screamed as she tried to wrench the blade out of the creature.

It was stuck.

Vivienne grunted, digging her heels into the ground and yanking. The sword didn’t budge.

Icy dread spread through her limbs, a stark contrast to the flames eating her up from the inside out, and she could barely breathe.

No, no, no.

The creature reached down, her long fingers wrapping around the steel lodged in her thigh, and pulled.

Vivienne screamed and struggled, but this gods-damned undead being was strong. Inch by gods-damned inch, the creature yanked her forward.

The fire in Vivienne’s chest worsened until it felt like she’d swallowed embers and was burning alive.

She’d tried so gods-damned hard.

Done so much.

But as she stared into those black eyes that lacked all semblance of life, she realized it wasn’t enough. She would die here, in this forest-turned-battlefield, and her life would end. She’d spent a century as a soldier, but without a doubt, the past few weeks had been the happiest of her life.

The flames within her became a bonfire, consuming her.

Blood seeped out of her wounds .

The monster that had once been a woman screamed, yanked the sword out of Vivienne’s grasp, and grabbed her. Her fingers were claws as they dug into Vivienne’s arm.

So this was it.

Vivienne’s deepest regret, the one that she would carry with her from this life into the next, was that she’d never told Marius she loved him. She never told him that she wanted to go on more adventures with him, see the world with him, and experience life with him by her side.

And now, she’d never get the chance.

Burning tears gathered behind her eyes as the bringer of her final demise snarled in her face.

Death wasn’t beautiful. It wasn’t welcome.

But it had come for Vivienne.

She would not enter death’s arms willingly, though. Not now that she’d finally found love. Even as fire devoured her from the inside out, she attempted to rip herself out of the creature’s grip.

Razor-sharp nails clawed at Vivienne’s arm, peeling back layers of skin.

The burning intensified.

Vivienne screamed, her legs giving out as the pain grew worse. She fell, tears tracking down her cheeks as she crawled backward through the bloody snow. Maybe if she could find her sword, she could protect herself. Kill the undead vampire.

Maybe—

“Vivienne!” The scream came from the battlefield, cutting through the desperate fog that had taken over her mind.

That voice.

She knew that voice.

She tried to move towards the sound, but flames twisted and burned in her chest and arm. Pure fire engulfed her from the inside out .

The end was coming.

Cold unlike anything Vivienne had ever felt swept over her, and she shivered.

Death would not be warm. It would not be comfortable. It would not be filled with laughter and adventure and love.

Death would be lonely, and she was headed straight for it.

Tears streaked down her cheeks as she gasped for air.

Time slowed to a crawl, giving her one last moment before the undead monster, with its outstretched claws and black eyes, killed her.

Vivienne had always thought that when the time came, she would look death in the eyes and watch as it stole the final promises of life that had been given to her on the night of her Making.

She’d been wrong.

Vivienne turned her head away from the monster and looked at the bloody clearing. Her heart beat one final time, and her mouth opened on an exhale as Marius’s brown eyes locked with hers.

The fire abated. Just a little. Just enough for a tiny nugget of peace to settle in her heart.

She breathed his name.

The prince roared , the sound unlike anything she’d ever heard from him. It was fury and anger and despair twisted into one.

The First charged at Marius, a feral shriek ripping from its chest. Matching horrible sounds came from all the undead creatures at the same time.

And then, death descended upon Vivienne.