The Reaper (Book 3 of the Vanessa Solomon Series)

Chapter 18

             After Damarius gave the order, Kamar vanished into a cloud of black smoke and it was just us left in the room. Damarius stood there for a few moments, and then suddenly fell to his knees.

"Damarius," I said, rushing to his side before placing my hand on his back. I could feel his muscles moving beneath his skin as his upper body shook. I kneeled down in front of him and wrapped my arms around him. I didn't know what to say. This was the first time he had broken down in front of me and all I could do was hold him close. I rubbed the back of his head and just sat there with him until he was ready to talk.

          Once his upper body stopped shaking and his breathing returned to normal, he slowly lifted his head and pulled back from my arms. He gently held my hands in his as he looked at me with tear stained eyes.

"I know what he did to us was wrong, especially you. But I hope that you can understand that it doesn't make it any less difficult for me to do this to him."

I gave a nod. "I do understand. I'm sorry it came to this."

"I know we both had feelings for you and you loved us both. But he doesn't understand love, not in the way that you deserve. It may be selfish of me to want you as my own, but for him to lie to you like that and put you in danger," he shook his head as if he couldn't even finish the thought. "I won't let that happen again. I will always love my brother, but you are mine. You will be treated like the Queen you are." He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it softly.

"I thought demons didn't have queens?"

He smiled. "We do now."

**** We both took a shower after that, taking our time as we made love and enjoyed each other. It felt so wonderful to only belong to him. He was right, I did love Kamar, but he was too much. I knew I would continue to care for him as Damarius' brother, but I would never allow myself to fall for him again. My heart finally felt at peace as if this was the way it should have been all along. 

        After getting dressed, we met with the remaining vampires to see how they were doing. Kamar originally had 64 vampires living in the castle, now there was only 14. It was safe to say that vampires were no match for demons, and it turned my stomach to see all of their dead bodies in the front yard. The sun was coming up, and they would all turn to ash soon. Damarius asked the remaining vampires if they would like to save their bodies and bury them, but they declined. They said letting them turn to ash was normal since vampires didn't have souls. I remembered one of Vali's vampires mentioning that. Speaking of, I really needed to talk to Damarius about that.

"Damarius, can we talk in private?" I asked as we stood in the front doorway to the castle.

"Yes, outside?"

I gave a nod but didn't necessarily want to watch the bodies go up in flames. There was still snow on the ground but it stopped falling from the sky. I led him around back to where we could sit on the bench that faced the ocean.

"What is it that you need to tell me?" He asked softly as he wrapped his arm around me for warmth. I didn't get cold like I used to before this power, but I appreciated the gesture. 

"There's a lot that happened while I was away with the vampires. And I'm afraid to tell you one of them."

He straightened his back as if surprised and turned my head to look at him. "You should never be afraid to tell me anything."

My eyes watered. "I know but to me it's horrible, but I also didn't feel like I didn't have a choice."

He rubbed the tear away from my cheek with his thumb. "Would you prefer to show me instead?"