Dante (Blood Brothers Book 5) (26 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Dante drop-kicked his adversary in the chest
before flying
to
ward it with his claws extended. He took
advantage of the momentum he’d picked up. He ripped into the rogue’s neck and twisted, tearing of hunks of flesh before biting into the side of its face. He chomped on his screaming victim’s face until there was nothing but bone and ligaments.

The rogue fell to the floor in a dead faint. Dante raised his foot and stomped through the creature’s chest to squash its heart beneath his heel. With each kill, his bloodlust increased along with his strength. Never before had he felt such rage and passion during a fight. Years of frustration
radiated
through
his very core
and dispatching rogues was a way of rel
ievin
g it.

Like their prior fight with the translucent minions, these vampires seemed to come out of nowhere. There
was no apparent
end to their numbers, but as he fought on, he
noticed instead of being triple
and double-teamed, he was now facing one at a time. Dante took a moment to survey the room briefly to see how his team and family
fared. Nico pummeled
one of the red-eyed
creatures
and wa
s obviously winning. Marco back
-
handed
one of the rogues so hard it went sailing through the air. Romeo had one in a headlock,
making it eat fist. Maggie held
a creature from behind, her fangs sunk deeply in its neck while Christine rained punches on its body.

Dante didn’t have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief before one of
Beatrice
’s minions appeared from nowhere and grabbed Jagger from behind. Flashing across the room to offer
his nephew
assistance, he was stopped when a big ball of dark fur flew in front of him. He saw a shifted wolf pounce on a rogue that had obviously been about to advance on him.

He recognized that wolf. Dante didn’t know where she had come from or why she decided to help them after what she had done.
If she thought to switch her loyalties now
when his side was gaining momentum, she was too damn late
. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded through gritted teeth, hating the part of himself that was actually glad to see her.

She raised
her
head momentarily, her maw dripping with blood, before turning back to her antagonist. “
What I’ve been doing from the beginning
—
helping you, whether you believe it or not
.”

“Just stay the hell out of my way.” Dante remembered
the reason why he’d headed this way in the first place
. Jagger.
She’d made him lose his concentration, yet another strike against her.
He refocused his attention in Jagger’s direction in time to see Steel come to his aid in the form of sending an iron poker from the fireplace through the rogue’s skull. Jagger took over from there, using his own powers to telekinetically pull the poker out and shove it back into the rogue’s body. Over and over again.

The numbers were about even now, and there was nothing he wanted to do more than to get his hands on Adonis and
Beatrice
. He could feel
Beatrice
’s cold green eyes on him. Slowly
,
he turned to face her. No longer was that easy smile curving her
red
lips. Instead, she looked more than a little annoyed, her forehead puckered and her nostrils slightly flared.

She
,
apparently
,
didn’t reckon on them surviving another rumble of this magnitude, but
she hadn’t counted on the Grimaldi fortitude and determination. Nor did she count on how badly they all wanted to take her and Adonis down
. His
cut his gaze
toward Giovanni, who
had just moved
out of the path of one of Adonis’s attacks.
Dante
was torn.
He didn’t know whether to advance on
the witch while none of her helpers were around or assist Giovanni, who looked
to be in need of his assistance.
The decision was taken out of his hands, however, when she pushed her chair back and stood.

She wasn’t very tall,
probably a few inches above five feet
, but the imposing shadow she cast gave the illusion of her being larger than life.
Dante
knew better than to underestimate her. The trick would be to get his hands on her while dodging the magic.

Beatrice
folded her arms across her chest. “Should I be impressed by your display?”

“You ought to be, since you’re about to get a taste of it for yourself.”

Her mouth twisted as did the rest of her features, wiping away the artificial beauty of her face. “Somehow
,
I doubt that. You’re no match for me.”

Dante walked toward her with easy strides, careful not to make any sudden moves. She would probably easily avoid such a maneuver anyway.

“I would stay there if I were you. Unless
,
you don’t care about the fate of those poor, dear children.”

He halted
. She’d used the one thing he couldn’t fight against. If only the children weren’t a part of the equation, he’d tear her limb from limb, but he still didn’t know where she was keeping them.
Fuck! He
glared at her. “No matter what I do, you intend to kill them anyway, don’t you?”

She chuckled, flipping a lock of red hair over her shoulder. “We haven’t known each other that long, but you seem to read me so well. You look like him, you know.”

“Who?”

“Your father. You are the walking image of him, right down to the eye color. I always
thought Gio favored him the most, but I see I was wrong. T
hat’s why I think I’ll make your death the most painful. You’ll die like him
,
too. Do you know he begged as he lay dying? Oh, not to spare his pathetic life because even he wasn’t stupid enough to think I would. He cried for his precious Maria and for her
bambinos
. It was music to my ears, especially as I splattered his little bitch’s blood right before his eyes. Tears ran down his face
,
like he was a child. It was pathetic. Are you a crier, Dante?”

The more she spoke the
greater
his fury grew. That she could casually talk about the murder of his parents
,
as if it had been an amusing event instead of the great trauma he’d remembered it to be
,
made him see red. No longer thinking clearly, he charged toward her, but she teleported to another spot. “You’re
as pathetic as he was
. You can’t hope to beat me.
I know more than any mere mortal
ever has before.”

“Yet
,
you are one,”
Dante reminded her.

She shook her head with a smile. “I’m better than one. I’m even better than an immortal. I’m a goddess. And
,
you will find out for yourself soon enough. Shall I let you in on a little secret, Grimaldi?”

Dante forced himself to stay calm as he contemplated how to catch her while her guard was down. “What?”

“
I killed your father because
he was a weak fool. A
pitiable
, weak fool.”

“No, you killed him because he didn’t want you. So who’s the p
itiful one? He wasn’t impressed by your so called beauty
. How does it feel to be cast aside,
Beatrice
?” he taunted, noticing
the unattractive sneer that snarled her lips. He could tell
he
was getting to her and he hoped it was enough of a distraction to attack. “
My
father never talked about you. Not even so much as thought of you. You probably
believed
you were significant in his life, but you were barely
an afterthought to him
,
once he was rid of you. You
hated
that he saw past your exterior to see the withered dark soul of a bitter woman. You’re angry because he chose my mother
,
a woman whom you couldn’t hold a candle to.
And you know it, don’t you? So don’t pretend there was any other reason for what you’ve done. You’re a maniac who couldn’t get what she wanted, pure and simple.”

“Shut up!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. The entire castle shook with a boom, but Dante could tell
Beatrice
was shaken. This time, she wasn’t able to disappear before his fist connected with her jaw.

She crumpled to the floor, holding the side of her face. Her eyes turned the same bright red as her followers’. “You’ll pay for this with the blood of the children.”

When he would have rushed at her again, she vanished in a mist of smoke.

His heart sank
because instinct told him
she was going after the children. He had to find them even if it meant tearing this castle apart stone by stone.

<><><>

“Promise me you’ll stay right here and don’t move. And if possible, be very quiet. If someone tells you to open the door, don’t do it, okay? I know this place is dark and scary, but it’s much scarier in the castle where the witch is.” Nya didn’t want to frighten the little boy more than she needed to, but she had to impress upon him just how precarious his situation was.

Just as Nya and the shifter headed downstairs to help the Grimaldis, Nya realized she couldn’t leave the children where they were. Even if they were away from
Beatrice
, she could easily appear in the room. Suddenly remembering the little hut in the woods where she sometimes went to clear her head, Nya
decided she would take the children there
.

In one of his more generous moods, Adonis had charmed the house, making it impervious to other spells so that she could have her privacy. She had no doubt in her mind, however, he could come and go as he pleased, or seek the children out, but at least
Beatrice
wouldn’t be able to. And
,
Nya had a feeling Adonis would be too caught up in battle to think about the children. It had been
Beatrice
’s idea to abduct them in the first place, after all.

Nya had told the shifter to go ahead while she checked on the children one last time. Taking the baby in one arm and Adrienne in the other, she bade Jaxson to follow her as she secretly prayed that
Beatrice
wouldn’t come looking for the children anytime soon. She led them down the servants’ stairs to a hidden underground tunnel she often used to get out of the castle.

Jaxson stumbled a couple of times as he tried to keep up with her, and she ended up carrying all three children at once. Swiftly, she negotiated her way around trees and bushes until she came upon the old shack. Dark and dank though it was, it was the only place she could think of where they’d be safe, at least temporarily.

She squeezed Jaxson’s shoulders, careful not to shake him
since he now held
the baby. Adrienne sat at his feet with her thumb in mouth, her eyes slightly glazed. “Do you understand all I’m saying to you?”

The child finally nodded.

“Good.”

She managed to scrounge up a few candles she’d stowed away during her last visit and lit them so they would have some light. “Remember what I said. The girls’ safety is in your hands.” It was a lot of responsibility for a six-year-old to have, but
the alternative was far worse.
They could either stay in the castle and wait for
Beatrice
to return to them or they
remain here out of her reach
.

“I won’t let you down, Miss Nya.” He cradled the baby closer.

“Thank you, Jaxson. I know you won’t and I’m very proud of you.”

She left the children behind without a backward glance because it nearly broke her heart to see them standing in the middle
of the room looking so innocent and so lost
.

<><><>

Dante tore through the castle looking for her. “Come out,
Beatrice
. Your fight isn’t with the children, it’s with me. Come out!” he yelled again, his heart beating frantically. Fear and worry guided his steps.
It frightened him to acknowledge the consequences of not finding them before Beatrice.
They were just babies. He’d promised his brothers nothing would happen to the children, but now he wondered if he could keep his oath.

“
Beatrice! Don’t hurt the children. Take my life instead!”

“That can be arranged.”
Beatrice
appeared in a haze of smoke in front of him and shot out a bolt of power so strong it felt as if he was being ripped asunder.

“Where are they, you bastard?” Her face had turned a bright red
and
had
contorted into what looked like a grotesque mask. She no longer resembled anything close to beautiful.

That shot of magic seeped into his bone marrow, sending pain through every single
cell in
his body. Winded, he wobbled back to his feet. “What are you talking about?”

She struck him with another bolt. Dante had once accidentally stepped on an active power line and had been electrocuted to the point where he could barely move. He almost wished for that feeling again. The force of her m
agic sliced through him like a million
sharp needles.

“What have you done with the children? Where are they?”

The children were gone? If they had managed to escape
,
it was probably because someone had helped them. He was grateful to know they were
out of
Beatrice’s
reach for now, and he could worry about their whereabouts when this was over. If he managed to get out of this alive. At the moment, excruciating pain like he’d never experienced seared through him like a thunderclap, and his mind grew fuzzy.

He had to fight through this for his family. He charged forward, unmindful of the pain. It would have to be his ally for now, making him aware he was still alive. He forced his way through the wave of power she shot toward him and tackled her to the ground. She screamed her frustration, but before he could wrap his fingers around her neck, she was gone
,
again.

Shit. The bitch was more slippery than an eel. As he hopped to his feet, Dante was propelled into the wall face-first.

“Give up, Grimaldi; you have no hope to defeat me.”
Beatrice’s
breathing
was heavy and she didn’t sound
nearly as confident as she had earlier.
He could only hope that she was losing steam.
Even with all her years of practicing the dark crafts, she’d probably never fought any real battles, never mind
battl
ing
against anyone as old as he.

Whirling around, he flashed over to her, moving fast enough to grab her by the arm and spin her into the wall, returning the favor. She crumpled to the ground.

This time when she screamed the sound was definitely something not human. It was low, guttural, and unearthly, almost as if her voice had come out of a synthesizer.

What the fuck? Dante took a step back and remembered what Giovanni had said about the demon.
It was coming. And from the sound he’d heard, it would be
here
soon. Regardless
,
he wouldn’t back down from it no matter what. As Dante was on the verge of kicking her in the midsection,
Beatrice shot her hand out
and a bolt of lightning hit him, even stronger than the first two hits.

A wet, sticky substance seeped down the front of his chest as he fell backward and landed on his ass. Blood! Dante placed his hands on the floor, using his arms to
hold him
up.
It was difficult to move. More than it had ever been.
He could feel his strength ebbing away and he wasn’t sure how many more of those bolts he could take.

Beatrice
made it to her feet first, her face bleeding and left arm hanging lower than the right. He must have dislocated her shoulder when he’d thrown her into the wall. Her eyes were no longer the bright glowing red, but a deep, dark crimson, and all her teeth had grown large and pointy. They were so big
,
they overlapped each other and she couldn’t close her mouth.

Some kind of transformation
had happened
and he didn’t understand what it was. “You will die now.”

She raised her hands and hit him again, harder than ever. Dante fought to maintain consciousness, but the ache in his body was so unbearable he could barely breathe. His heart skipped several beats and he
sensed
it was on the verge of stopping as he fell to his knees to meet the cold earthen floor beneath him. He closed his eyes to catch the tears that threatened to spill. The tears weren’t for his pain, or the imminent sensation of death coming, but the taste of failure, of letting his brothers down. Before everything went completely black, he heard
a howl in the distance. Isis. She would meet the same fate as him if Beatrice exerted the same amount of power as she had with him. His heart was well and truly shattered because a revelation suddenly hit him. He
lov
ed her, had felt so all along. And just as he acknowledged that fact to himself,
he fell into the arms of sweet oblivion.