Her sacrifice and Dimitri’s willingness to die with her, or the blood from her heart into his, was the magic that broke the binds that bound Dimitri’s soul. The chains broke and he was freed. His humanity restored, and guilt and sorrow crashed over him like a wave on a beach.
Shade’s sacrifice had not been in vain. She had unknowingly given Dimitri his soul back. She had awakened it and brought him to life. Her love had been so strong that it had defied death.
When Dimitri had realized that he was not going to die, but instead he had his soul back, he screamed for his angel. A broken man, with a shattered and now restored soul, roared in pain and denial.
He tore the stake from her chest, and his, and tossed it aside blindly. He used his fangs to rip open his wrist and held it to her slack mouth.
He had no idea if it would work, but he would try, until the last drop of his blood left him and turned cold as his own wounded heart.
When he realized it would take too long, he snatched the blade from her belt and slid it across his neck. It sizzled as it cut him from ear to collar bone, but he never felt it and never even noticed.
Dimitri dropped the blade and crushed her to him. He held his bleeding wrist to the wound in her chest and bent so that she lay across his lap and the blood poured from his neck down into her open mouth.
He froze so that every single drop made its way into her. Not a muscle moved, not a sound echoed within the jail, and not one person stopped him.
Dimitri would turn her into a full-blooded vamp, and together they’d escape to find a secluded spot, so they could be together forever. He was a full-fledged vampire now, but he was alive. His blood could possibly sustain her. He’d never be alone. He refused to accept that line of thinking and focused on saving his only reason for existence.
Tears, he was blind to, fell from his face to hers washing away the blood on her cheeks.
Ian was shouting orders in the background, but not one man stepped up to take her body from Dimitri. It was obvious he was trying to save her, and if anybody could it was him. Lane was crippled with fear and loss as she stood incapable of moving in a corner, knowing there was nothing she could do but hinder the vampire who held her best friend in his arms and struggled to save her.
Ash slumped to the ground, beside them both, at her feet in absolute loss. He stared at the floor in front of him, ignoring everyone and everything, hoping his punishment would come swiftly and harshly.
Dimitri was clearly broken by Shade’s death.
Ash had always assumed the arrogant and perfect warrior was using his angel. Now he knew different. It was not just obvious, but even a fool could see she meant more than life to him. Even as a vampire, he’d broken the laws of all they had once known for her.
Ash had not only fucked everything up, but he’d killed the only woman he’d ever loved. Pain worse than any he’d ever known before, encompassed and crippled him.
He felt a small weight lift from his shoulders as he identified, and finally respected Dimitri. There was now a certain kinship, one that was only there because they both loved the same woman more than life.
Ash put his hands on his legs and laid his head on his arms.
Dimitri would no doubt serve the justice that Ash more than deserved. As Dimitri had accepted death as his fate, so would he. Ash would not run, fight, or deny him.
As he noticed the silence in the room, he also realized that Dimitri was no longer desperately trying to save their angel. He’d finally given up.
He’d given in.
A moment or two passed without any sound or movement.
When he could take it no longer, Ash looked up and over at Dimitri, sure he would see a grieving man.
Only that was not what his eyes found.
All eyes were on Shade. No one breathed as they waited.
Dimitri’s eyes were not glazed over in pain and loss, but clearly curious and expectant. As if he waited for a sign.
When she took a deep, raspy, and heart stopping breathe Ash and Dimitri both smiled.
Their Angel was alive. She was clearly a vampire like him now. Her fangs extended and her eyes darkened to the black and red as they did when she fed, or was under a full moon.
She tenderly gazed into Dimitri’s face, completely mystified, as if she was seeing a demigod or angel before her. Her smile broke his already lifeless heart. He knew she would never be his.
It didn’t matter to him anymore. She was alive, not his, but alive. He had not taken the life of his angel.
She could now happily be with Dimitri.
Ash would face charges he was sure, attacking a higher ranking soldier whether he was a vampire or not, was a crime. Taking a hunter’s life for no reason, higher ranking or not, was a crime punishable by death.
Disobeying a direct order from Commander Ian was a crime. Ash’s chances were slim, that he’d get out of this with his life, which was no less than he deserved.
Lane finally spoke. She moved forward to ascertain Ian’s welfare, before she fell to her knees at Shade’s feet.
“Is it true that she died protecting you Dimitri?” she asked, her voice barely audible.
“I tried to stake Dimitri, Lane. Shade threw herself in front of me and took the hit meant for him. I murdered her. She died in his arms and he brought her back somehow…” Ash answered for Dimitri. There was no point in lying, there had been witnesses.
“I admit my guilt and accept my punishment willingly,” he added.
No one moved or even seemed to care. Everyone was stunned by the return of a hunter and the awakening of a vamp.
Ian did not command the soldiers in the room to restrain him or the new vampires. No one lifted a finger or spoke a word.
Shaeden finally tore her eyes from Dimitri’s and gave him a smile. A smile, Ash asked himself, in confusion.
“I forgive you Ash.”
Her words echoed within his head, sounding odder with each moment.
“I’m not sure I do,” Dimitri whispered, glaring at him, eyes like daggers.
“He may have intended to kill you Dimi, but he saved you. He may have killed me, but he also gave us hope. Someday we’ll be able to save our people from the madness that possesses vamps and other supernatural creatures. We can awaken them as well,” Angel countered.
“Who will sacrifice themselves for them?” one of the guards in the back, by the door, asked.
“Anyone who’s willing to die for those they love,” Angel whispered, as she looked into Dimitri’s eyes once more, her own full of love.
They could not stay at the compound, but they would settle nearby and protect the base just the same. Their new changes were too much to accept, too startling and terrifying, for them to continue on as before.
People were considering the consequences of traveling to find loved ones and save them. To awaken those who wandered out in the world, surviving on blood or flesh.
If one woman could sacrifice herself for someone and bring them back from death, then others could and would. Others would drop everything and rush out blindly to find those they’d lost.
The world had changed. An apocalypse had struck, mutilating the humans, changing them into something else. People had adapted and eventually accepted that their world, as they had known it, was over and gone. People would evolve and overcome another age.
Another dawn would break, another newborn would be born and scream with life, and another life would be taken. All would change and all would continue. The circle of life may have drastically been crippled and diseased but it would survive, just like love would always trump everything.
The End for now…
Table of Contents
About The Author
Prologue
Epilogue
Christina Worrell, I Sacrifice Myself
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