Scattered in endless heaps were the bodies of the dead enemy.
Wandering around, aimless, sniffing, slithering, hopping, were the animals.
And on their knees, weirdly motionless, was our enemy.
“Told you, pussycat, whatever you got, that shit is the shit,” Abel told me.
“Wh-what?” I stammered, my eyes drifting to him.
“That blue light?” he asked, and I nodded. “Went through them. All of a sudden, they quit fighting. It took them down to their knees. Left ’em there.”
“I…you’re joking,” I whispered.
“Look around,” he threw out an arm then grabbed my hand and pulled me to the nearest one. Keeping me close, he asked the female vampire. “Feel like moving?”
Her eyes fired and her body jerked.
Only slightly.
But she stayed on her knees.
“Holy shitoly,” I breathed, then stopped doing it altogether when it crashed into me.
My head shot to Wei.
“Already checked, pussycat,” Abel whispered to me. “He’s still with us.”
Xun was looking at us. “He’s breathin’, brother, but we gotta get him home.”
“I’ll see to that,” Teona said, prowling to them. She crouched, then carefully lifted Wei’s body between her legs and into her arms, pressing his back to her torso.
I squeezed Abel’s hand tight as Wei’s dead weight swayed lifelessly when Teona took him into her hold.
“Touch me if you’re going back with me,” she said to Xun and Chen.
“You go back. I’ll stay,” Chen said to his brother.
Xun nodded, touched his hand to Teona’s shoulder, and Teona looked to Cain.
“Later, baby,” she said softly and disappeared.
I let that impossibility filter through me before, mindlessly, I turned and slowly started walking, my hand in Abel’s, taking him with me.
As Abel and I stepped over bodies, I saw Yuri crouched over his father, his head down, his gaze to Gregor, his frame blocking our view of the man who kept us safe so we could fight the good fight.
And whose death, apparently, led us to victory.
“Allow me to take him home, sweetheart,” Barb said quietly, bending and touching Yuri’s shoulder.
“Take Aurora with you,” Yuri replied, his always-smooth, cool voice gruff with unconcealed emotion.
Hearing it, my throat clogged.
“Okay, honey,” Barb whispered and bent over Gregor.
Aurora got close.
“Yuri, sweetie—” She touched the back of his hair but got no further speaking.
“Go, button,” he ordered gently.
God, they were so freaking cute together.
“As you wish,” she whispered, bent, kissed his hair, and moved to her mother.
They clasped hands, and after both of them turned sorrowful eyes to Yuri, they disappeared, taking Gregor with them.
Abel and I got close to Yuri’s back as the rest of us gathered around him.
He lifted his head but didn’t come out of his crouch.
His eyes turned to the vampire who took his father’s life.
“You will not die so mercifully,” he whispered, and at his tone now, goose bumps rose all over my skin.
We heard sirens in the distance and I suddenly felt cold.
There was a reason for that as three phantoms, with a bevy more behind them, as well as some wraiths floated in front of us.
“We’ve taken out the cameras. You’re free to do as you wish with the others,” the phantom in the middle of the three at the front stated.
“Cameras?” Leah asked.
“This was televised around the world. Everyone saw it. Now the cameras and microphones have been disabled,” the phantom to the left said.
“Brilliant,” Lucien clipped.
“Yuri, let’s go home.”
I looked down to Yuri to see Sonia on her knees in front of him, Callum standing close behind her. She was bloodied but clothed. There were claw marks slashing across her upper chest, more across her hip, if the blood seeping through her jeans was any indication, and bite marks on her neck and arms, but she looked strong.
“Yuri, honey.” She lifted her hands to his cheeks when he made no reply. “Let’s go home.”
“You survived,” Yuri said, his voice freaking me out because it was not cold, it was not rough. It was nothing. “The Three survived. He fell.”
A tear tracked down Sonia’s cheek as she said nothing but kept holding Yuri’s face.
“He fell,” Yuri whispered, and there was no longer nothing in his voice.
It was full.
Full to the brim with pain.
My eyes got wet.
“Please, come home with me. We need to be with Gregor,” Sonia begged, her voice edged with a sob.
Suddenly, Yuri stood.
“Yes, Sonny. Home,” he stated shortly.
She nodded, straightening, but I moved fast.
Getting in front of Yuri, I got close and wrapped my arms around his middle, pressing my cheek to his chest as I hugged him tight to me. And only when I had him close did I say, “Your dad was to the total bomb, Yuri. The absolute bomb. The vampire Gregor was awesome.”
Yuri stood motionless in my hold for a long time and I was going to give him that. In that moment, I’d give him anything.
But finally, I felt his hand curl light on the back of my neck.
“Yes, Lilah,” he said quietly. “He was.”
“We’re fading, honey. Grab hold,” Sonia called.
I let go and Abel wrapped his arm around my chest, pulling me back just as Yuri lifted his hand, Sonia took it, and she and her brother faded away.