Chapter 372: In Pursuit Of Perfection
I thought she might do it, succeed at killing Ameline, save me the trouble, but the moment Mia came close to her hated rival, red energy flared. My friend impacted the barrier, her lavender family magic zinging against the blood power, throwing her back toward me.
Toward us.
Sunny caught her, eased her to the ground, a little stunned, but unharmed. I was certain if she wasn't a coven leader, if she didn't have all the family magic at her disposal, Mia would be charcoal. Instead she staggered to her feet, eyes blazing with insanity.
"Give him BACK!"
For a moment I couldn't believe what I'd heard. Him? Ameline was about to try to take over the world and Mia was focused on Rupe? Until I understood her state, the importance she'd placed on him, on the guy she knew as Blood, probably the first person she'd ever met who loved her and didn't judge her or try to make her be someone she wasn't. To Mia, Rupe was a lifeline, her reason for being.
Which meant we were in big trouble. Because from the look on his face, the way he rejected Mia with everything about him, told me as weak as she was, she was about to be crushed.
"I'm with the woman of my dreams," Rupe said. "Strong, beautiful." He looked up at Ameline with a smile and she smiled back. "Not some weak girl who doesn't know who she is." Rupe snorted, disdain clear on his face. "You really thought I could ever love you?"
Mia's face crumpled and I was reaching for her, to hold her up, when her family magic flared around her, rage consuming her face so quickly I worried she'd finally shattered her mind.
"TRAITOR!" Something flickered behind Ameline's right shoulder even as Mia dissolved into a shrieking, ineffectual mess.
I knew that flicker. Called it out with my magic until Alison was full form, floating behind my enemy.
More betrayal, then. Her eyes were still black, but from the unhappy twist to her mouth a part of the girl I knew still remained.
Ameline glanced over her shoulder at Alison before laughing at me. "Ah yes," she said. "Your little echo."
Now I knew who had been feeding Alison's jealousy, who drove her to steal the vampire essence from me. The "she" Alison talked about. And I also knew now Ameline had known exactly where I was at all times, her spy following me everywhere.
The weight of that betrayal wasn't as heavy as it could have been. Not while I still struggled with my guilt.
Charlotte grumbled next to me. "I still can't smell her," she said. "Why can't I smell her?"
A very good question. "Yes, Ameline," I said, "why is that? It's been driving poor Charlotte here crazy not knowing. New perfume?"
Her answering smile was dry. "Simple," she said, "I'm the furthest along the hybrid path. Maybe I was right before when I assumed you were stupid, Sydlynn."
Feel her. The vampire inside me whispered, soft and subtle, but I heard her, loud and clear. And without warning, sent her toward Ameline, the vampire power penetrating the blood magic as though it didn't exist.
Well now. Wasn't that interesting? No more so than the feeling of Ameline, the coldness penetrating her expression and diving deep inside her.
Oh. My. Swearword.
"What have you done?" My words came out in a whisper as the vampire inside me stirred at last.
Ameline ran one hand down her own arm as if enjoying her own touch. "I've made myself perfect."
Witch, yes. And vampire. The power all wound together inside her. But she didn't have access to the essence I had. Instead, she'd stolen power from vampires and absorbed it into herself.
I could feel the energy devouring her, even as her witch magic healed her, forming a battling symbiosis, a never-ending war for her soul.
She'd mentioned making a meal of Rupe. She hadn't meant eating his flesh.
No. She just wanted to drink his blood.
"The ways of the maji are diverse and complex," Ameline hissed, white fire warring with red inside her eyes. "But they held themselves back, were creators of nothing. I am adapting myself to use what they could only fear to imagine. And this is just the beginning."
I found myself shaking my head, horrified by what she was becoming. "This will kill you," I said.
"I had wanted the virus you carry," she went on as if I hadn't spoken, "but these fools couldn't deliver."
Piotr scowled at her. "We've given you more than enough," he said.
"I've taken what I deserve," she snarled back. "And I'm not done yet."
"Piotr," Sunny said, voice quiet, "you must know now she's mad. Yvette must be warned, this evil one destroyed."
He hesitated, frown so deep it cast shadows in the creases of his face. "I shall consider it," he said.
Ameline's laugh was high-pitched. "Fools," she said. "I'm stronger than you know. And growing more so by the day. You can't stop me, not now." She glared at me. "And when I kill you, Sydlynn, I will have that vampire power you carry inside you for my own."
Never, she whispered in my head. I will destroy myself first.
Ameline jerked back on Rupe's hair, pulling him closer. "And when I'm done with the vampires, I'll go after the Sidhe next. Fill myself up with their magic until I am the queen of the earth itself."
"And then Demonicon, I suppose." The idea she could even consider taking on the entire demon plane was ludicrous.
Wasn't it?
Ameline settled at last, though the madness never left her. "The power of the sorcerers will be my final conquest," she said. "And then I will be unstoppable."
Piotr didn't seem as upset by her plans as I really thought he should have. And from the grim look on Sunny's face, I knew she wasn't holding her breath we might have allies in his blood clan.
"Now," Ameline said, her power surging around her as she called up the red mingled with the white, a spinning column devouring the blue she siphoned from Darin and his witches, all of whom moaned and collapsed to the floor as she drained them, "we end this."
I felt her shields reach out to block us off from the outside world. So it had been she who restored Darin's shredded protections, she who warded the house. I had to be faster than her.
We definitely needed reinforcements.
And the first mind I thought of to reach for help was Quaid's.
Though our connection was gone, I sent everything I had and it was more than enough. His momentary anger at me slamming into his mind vanished when I threw the picture of what I faced into his head and, just as Ameline's wards sealed up and cut me off, I felt him running.
Toward me.
Cavalry called. Now all we had to do was survive until they arrived. Though I suddenly had doubts about any of our survival as Ameline spun and pointed at two young witches. Witches who died in a flood of blood from their torn out throats as two of the vampires showed their true loyalty and released the precious liquid she needed to feed her power.
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