Blood and Snow 12: Vampire Ever After? (5 page)

It didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t sharing, but consumi
ng. Stealing. Keeping magic for herself. That wasn’t acceptable. If I’d learned anything in school, it was that tyranny never won out in the end. People would always fight against oppression.

“It is your choice
,” I snapped. “You’ve been alive for seven millennia. You’ve ruled six. When is enough, enough?” I took a step toward her, my hands out, imploring. “Release the magic you’ve taken. Allow the magical creatures to roam freely once again.”

Sharra leaned against her chair. “Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I should
stop. Life is hard, and it just gets harder.” She snorted. “I’ve accomplished all I could possibly want anyway.” She closed her eyes.

I took another step toward her. Behind me was a flurry of voices. The Worker vampires were restless. Sharra’s words disturbed them. Or excited them. I couldn’t tell. Sadly, I understood their excitement. She
’d said everything I wanted to hear. “At least step down,” I pleaded.

Chapter 8

“You are a senseless,
foolish girl, Snow White.” Her eyes were still closed, but her words bit through me and held on, like vice grips. When they finally flashed open, they blazed with fury. “How about I start killing the Marked now? Liberate them from their miserable lives.” As she spoke, three of the girls fell forward, out of the sheet of magic surrounding them.

“
Noooo,” I yelled, rushing over to the nearest body. Their faces were frozen in terror, their eyes wide, as though they witnessed horrors, even in death. I felt for a pulse on the neck of the closest girl. She didn’t have one. Sickness rose in my throat.

The
remaining girls screamed, and tried, once again, to escape. But the magic held them fast. Each tear, every cry in pain, tore at my insides.

More senseless death, I thought.

I moved over to the next girl, hoping against hope she still lived, and
checked for a pulse. Nothing.

Several more girls fell forward. One
smacked into my shoulder, knocking me off balance. I skidded against the floor. The rough surface scratched my arm, but it healed immediately. I gently lifted the dead girl, and laid her on the ground next to the others.

“Stop. Stop it,” I murmured.

“Make me,” she hissed. Four more girls fell forward.

I pushed aside my devastation, and stood. My whole body shook, with frustration, and fear. It dawned on me I had no idea what I was doing. I’d been
alive eighteen years. Had almost zero life experience. And I’d decided to go up against a vampire seven thousand years old. Sharra was right. I was a senseless girl.

An image flashed in my mind. It was of the time Sharra brought me to her realm, and I killed some of the Workers.

I could retaliate. A death for a death.

The power of the Seal burned through my fingers. I whipped around. Lifted my hands and shot two bolts of red light into two Workers.
They immediately began to burn. I glanced at Sharra, my jaws clenched in frustration. “Stop,” I shouted.

She snickered, and four more girls fell to the ground. “You seem to think I care for them.”

I lowered my hands. I wouldn’t kill uselessly. “But you did care for them. The night you brought me here. You screamed when they started burning. You were upset. You were—”

“Faking it,” she finished with a shrug.
“It was for their benefit,” she waved her hands in the Worker vampires’ direction, and then went on, “as much as it was for yours.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

She sighed. “I do care, of course. I’ve created them for a purpose. Despite what you may think, every creature in Sharra and on Earth is important to me. But I must take into consideration cause and effect.” She smiled genially at the Workers. “My need for a new body far outweighs anything else.” She pointed at her Workers. “That includes them.” She pointed at the girls who were Marked. “Them.” Then she pointed at me. “Even you, dear Snow. But the difference between you and them is they understand.”

I shook my head. “But why? What more do you need?”

She made a tsking noise with her mouth. “I don’t expect you to grasp my rationale. How can you? Your life is nothing but an infinitesimal blip on the timeline that is my life.” She steepled her fingers, resting her elbows on the arms of her chair that had somehow reformed themselves. “If you agree to become the Vampire Queen, allow me to have your body, I will free the rest of the Marked.”

“Just until they turn nineteen. And then they die anyway, right?”

She gave me a knowing look. “No. I will remove the mark. They can go on living until such time as they would’ve died anyway.

Don’t trust her, my inner voice shouted.

If I agreed, she could do what she wanted. I wouldn’t know whether she kept her word or not. But if I disagreed, they would all die now. If I said yes, Sharra would possess the Seal. No one would ever be able to defeat her. But if I said no, hundreds of girls would die. My mind whirred in circles.

What do I do?
I wished I would’ve brought my friends, my family, my…

“Christopher?”
I shouted.

He
appeared from a door near the Vampire Queen’s chair. He pushed a person, a guy by the looks of him, forward. A burlap sack was over his head. But something about him was familiar.

“Christopher,” I said again
, and took a step in his direction. He let go of the guy, and moved so I thought he was coming toward me, but at the last second swerved. A smirk creased his lips. Lifting Sharra up by the waist, he dipped her into an embrace, and kissed her.

On the mouth.

I blinked several times; sure my eyes were deceiving me. But he continued to kiss Sharra, and she was kissing him back. Passionately.

I wanted to run away. I wanted to hide. To go back to the night I’d been bitten and have everything, all of my memories wiped clean. “I don’t understand,” I finally said. Even though I was beginning too. Christopher betrayed me.

When the Hunter first bit me, Professor Pops told me he wasn’t to be trusted. That he desired power above all else. I hadn’t believed him. I didn’t want to.

After several minutes, they stopped kissing. But Christopher kept his arm around Sharra. T
hey both looked at me, gloating.

I still couldn’t believe it. “Are you…
really Christopher?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t making sense, but too shocked to care.

Sharra pushed him away. “Show her,” she said.

Christopher walked over to the bound man he’d left standing next to the throne, and ripped the burlap sack from his head.

My breath sucked in and two black spots blurred my vision. I couldn’t believe who it was.

Chapter 9

“Dorian,” I whispered. My fingers covered my mouth, and they trembled. It couldn’t be.

He was barely recognizable. One eye was bruised shut. His bottom lip was split, and dried blood stained his
mouth, and chin. His shirt was shredded down the front like a five-fingered lion ripped into him.

But. It. Was. Dorian.

He wasn’t dead. Beaten? Battered? Yes. But alive. My heart leaped with joy.

I said his name again
, tucking my hands into fists at my sides. “Dorian.”

He grunted, as though I’d awakened him where he stood. His good eye peered at me, and a smile spread ac
ross his face. “Snow?”

An aching sob tore at my throat. “
What are you doing with him,” I asked through gritted teeth. My gaze flipping from Christopher to Sharra. “Let me have him,” I added.

“
With pleasure,” Christopher said, shoving Dorian toward me. I caught him.

“Missed you,” Dorian whispered
, his voice hoarse.

I fought down the urge to cry. He needed a doctor.

He needs you, my inner voice quipped. And a light bulb flicked on in my head. Casually I poured some of the Seal’s healing power into Dorian. Under my hands I felt his ribs heal. His internal bleeding stopped. The bones on both wrists knitted back together.

Dorian took a deep breath. As though
there had been an invisible weight pressed against his chest and it suddenly disappeared.

Sharra leaned forward, and snapped. “Retrieve the boy!”

Christopher punched Dorian in the face, grabbed him by the shirt collar and brought him to stand next to them.

“Here is my final offer, dear Snow.” Sharra stood, and grabbed Dorian under the chin.
His nose was bleeding. “Give me your body. In return I will free the remaining Marked and allow this human to live.”

My heart
pitched. So many emotions pummeled my mind. I felt betrayed by Christopher, relieved Dorian was alive, and terrified I wouldn’t be able to help anyone.

“Don’t agree to anything. She’s a—
” Dorian began, but Sharra backhanded him so hard I heard his nose break.

“And his death won’t be quick. It’ll be painful.” She tossed Dorian to the floor near my feet. “This first thing I’ll do is rip out his tongue.”

“Fine,” I said. “You win.”

Sharra
’s evil grin turned to glee. She clapped. “Yay. I love it when I get what I want.”

I knelt beside Dorian. “It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, but I didn’t believe it. Perhaps I was just being cowardly. If Sharra took my body first, I wouldn’t have to witness the evil I felt sure she would bestow on
Dorian and the other Marked in this room. What else could I do though? Pretend I didn’t care? Watch hundreds die?

“Fight her,” Dorian said, his voice raspy
, as though he knew the thoughts flying through my mind. “You’re stronger than her. You can win.”

Sharra squatted down on the other side of Dorian so our noses nearly touched. I could reach out and grab her. Make her suffer. As I thought it, my hand snaked out, and I
wrapped my fingers around her neck. The power of the Seal pulsed from my hand, into her. With the power of the Seal, I sent out all the hate, and the fear bottled up inside.

She screamed.

But so did Dorian.

I looked down, and
watched Sharra drag her nails across his chest. Blood lit the wounds, leaving a red trail.

“Do
…” she took a ragged breath. “Do we have a deal,” she growled.

I swallowed, and nodded. “Yes.”

“Good.” Sharra stood, and moved over to Christopher.

He smiled, and my body swayed in agony, as though he’d struck me. Every word
he’d spoken. Every kiss we shared. Every touch. Had all been lies.

The knowledge rocked me to my core.

Sharra stepped in front of Christopher. The smirk on his face grew. He was proud of himself. Confident in his deception, and in his place as Sharra’s second.

“Give me your sword.” Sharra commanded.

Christopher raised a brow in question, but did as she asked.

He slid the blade from the sheath strapped to his back.
Christopher’s lips parted, as though he wanted to question her, but he remained silent.

Sharra planted a kiss on his lips.

Then she turned to me.

“Are you in love with your Hunter?” she asked, a knowing sm
ile on her lips.

I stood, facing her. It was happening.

My body would belong to Sharra.

She knew the answer. I wanted to lie
. Tell her I couldn’t stand the deceitful, arrogant man who’d pretended and tricked me. But saying the words wouldn’t change the truth.

“Yes,” I admitted quietly.

Christopher’s smirk changed into horror. Now he understood what came next.

The words,

Lips red as rubies

H
air dark as night

Drink your true love’s blood

Become the Vampire, Snow White…
filled the room. A continuous chant. Each syllable seemed to dance in repetition on the heavy air.

“Why?” Christopher asked. “I did everything you asked.” His voice broke in desperation and for a moment I felt sorry for him. “Snow is here
because of me. I did everything,” he repeated.

Sharra rolled her eyes. “I know, and that is why you must die. She loves you. In order for the ritual to work, she must consume your heart.”

One of the girls, Pocahontas, spoke. “I’ve already consumed my true love’s heart. I’m ready Sharra. Allow me to be your next vessel.”

The Vampire Queen paused, as though considering her words. “That’s true. And you were my second choice. But this one—” She pointed at me. “Snow White is the Seal. Her body contains a lot more power than yours does.”

Pocahontas glared. She should’ve been happy. Didn’t she get that once Sharra claimed my body, I wouldn’t exist anymore. Sheesh. If a look could kill, I’d already be dead.

Forcing myself not to shudd
er, I refocused on Sharra.