The Lady of the Valley

TLoTV Chapter 46 and Epilogue

46.

Astrid pulled the blade lightly over her wrist bringing th familiar tang of her blood to the air. Derek's mouth watered, but Astrid's arm went to Ellie instead of him.

That was fine. He hasn't jumped through a wall of flame. And they'd have their own time later.

Ellie's face twitched, it was hard to tell what the expression should have been. "I didn't ask."

"I know," Astrid said. "I'm offering. You look like shit."

Ellie humphed, but she took Astrid's arm and drank. Several moments later Ellie fell back to the bloody marble floor, laughing like a madwoman. "Hot damn, it's like drinking a shapeshifter."

Derek raised his eyebrows. Not an experience he'd had before. Ellie laid on the marble, giggling and drunk on magic as her body slowly, but visibly reshaped her. Her skin crawled and shed, flaking away on the blood and marble and sea glass. For several long moments he watched, fascinated, as the flesh, raw and pink, reshaped his sister into something resembling a human. He breathed again.

When he'd first seen her he wasn't sure she'd survive. Fire was no one's friend, least of all vampires. She hid it, and professed to feel no pain, which may have been likely given her nerves had probably been burned off. Also, her legs were exposed down to the bone in spots, she was hiding the fact that her guts were trying to fall out and "sooty" could be her new ethnic identity.I guess, he told himself, I'm not ready to see the end of her yet.

Astrid walked to him and collapsed tiredly on the stone throne, looking every bit the warrior queen. Something blazed in him, but this wasn't the time.

Against the throne Drake groaned, the gash he'd gotten when Derek landed on him and his head smacked into the floor finally clotting. "Fucking sirens."

Fucking sirens, Derek thought.

"Don't worry, princess," Astrid said, kicking her feet up onto the arm of the throne. "We killed them for you."

"How about a summary for us poor foot soldiers," Ellie asked, still laying in the sand and blood on the marble, her pupils dark holes as she stared up into the seamless blue sky. She almost looked human again, albeit a raw pink human with hair starting to sprout along her skull. She might have eyebrows again before Astrid's blood was done with her.

He sat on the opposite arm of the throne and Astrid leaned against him. He felt her heart pound and sucked in the scent of her heat from the battle. Perfect.

"Sirens are extremely rare. And I was under the impression there were no males of the species, which is why I didn't even think of it. The High Lady styled herself to be a sidhe of European lineage."

"Imagine that," Ellie giggled, "a fairy queen lying."

Drake tried to stand, but failed the attempt and settled back down when his wound reopened.

Good. This was a better speed for him, in Derek's opinion, than the burning lord of fire. Derek could smell the tang of his blood in the air. But it held none of the dark, seductive magic of Astrid's. It smelled like danger.

"Sarris said she'd killed his mother before he tried to scream us to death. My money's on that as the source of his trauma here." Derek said. "I'm guessing that it's not that males don't exist, it's that they aren't allowed to remain existing for long."

"Fae, witches," Ellie huffed. "What a charming, restful little town you've retired to, dear brother. It feels more like some elaborate trap."

He didn't like that observation. Not at all.