Rebel Reborn

Chapter 1

One

DARIUS

From the moment my fangs pierced her flesh, I knew only her blood on my lips, the warm and salty taste of it bursting across my tongue as it slowly filled my mouth. I swallowed once, twice, unable to stifle a groan of raw pleasure as I continued to suck.

A flame flickered to life inside my chest, then ignited.

I was burning. Raging.

All for her. My witch. My love. My eternal mate, in this lifetime and all that would follow.

I would die for you, Gray Desario…

The words escaped my lips unbidden as I finally broke our connection, forcing the orgasmic flames in my blood to smolder, ignoring the ache in my very being that so desperately wanted more. That would always want more when it came to Gray. But she hadn’t yet turned; some part of me knew that if I took even a single swallow more, I would certainly kill her.

I lifted her off the ground and held her against my chest, burying my face in her hair, inhaling her scent. The gray mist of her soul had already slipped from between her lips, and now it floated freely, mesmerizing us all.

Jael whispered his fae magic, the very cadence of it so lovely it seemed to be weaving a spell around my heart as well. Slowly, peacefully, Gray’s soul drifted toward the moonglass held reverently in the fae prince’s hands.

“Holy s**t,” Asher whispered, and we continued to watch in awe as the essence of the woman we loved filled the glass sphere like smoke caught in a bottle, light pulsing from its misty depths.

Even the very winter’s night seemed to be holding its breath until the last wisp of her soul was safely contained, and Jael sealed the glass and lifted his hands toward the moon, thanking her.

Tears streaked Liam’s face, his wide, blue eyes like twin orbs in the dim. Gone was the omnipotent, ancient being we’d come to know as Death; he seemed in that moment quite young, and quite human.

His origins, his mysteries remained his and his alone. But there was one secret even the Great Transformation Himself could no longer hide:

He’d fallen in love with her.

I averted my gaze, feeling the need to give him privacy.

The woods surrounding our moonlit cemetery had gone silent during the spell. Before we’d begun, we’d sent the remainder of the group back to base camp under the protection of Elena, her shifter team, and one of Gray’s hounds. The other paced a perimeter twenty feet out, keeping one ever-watchful eye on Gray, the other on the darkness beyond.

Snow continued to fall all around us, collecting in tiny drifts on the headstones, filling in our blood-soaked boot prints, erasing all evidence of our earlier battle. Gray’s body began to tremble in my arms, but that was to be expected; the transition was never easy.

“It is done,” Jael said softly, bringing the orb close against his chest. We locked eyes in that moment, mirror images, each one cradling a precious piece of the woman I loved.

I nodded, and he bowed his head in acknowledgment.

It was a moment of peace and understanding in an otherwise treacherous night, and everyone seemed to feel it at the same time, all of us releasing a collective sigh.

Then the others looked to me, to the woman lying limp in my arms.

“She will survive the change,” I said, even as the tremor continued to snake through her body, even as the white mist of her breath ceased, her lungs no longer requiring air. “I can feel the life force inside of her. She’s stronger than any of us ever realized.”

“Stubborn as hell, too,” Emilio said, and the rest of us let out a quick laugh. Stubborn as hell? Yes, that about summed it up. Who else could’ve talked us into undertaking such a risk but the fiercely beautiful, determined, impossibly stubborn witch we’d all fallen in love with?

Lowering my eyes to the moonglass in Jael’s hands, I asked, “What of her soul?”

I was as desperate for the answer as I was afraid of it. Caught up in the intensity of Gray’s plan, none of us had stopped to talk through the logistics of what would come after. By the time we’d agreed to support her plan, it had been enough to know that her soul would not be instantly damned.

But now?

“I must take her to my home realm,” Jael said plainly. “It’s the only safe place for her now. My family will protect the moonglass until it comes time for her to honor the contract with Sebastian.”

“Your family?” Ronan’s eyes turned demon black, his shoulders bunching with tension. “And what happens when the wind changes direction, and Queen Sheyah decides it’s a fine day to stab us in the nuts?”

“My mother may be cold and calculating,” Jael said, “but she’s not cruel, nor is she a traitor to her blood. She will honor my wishes, Ronan. You have my word.”

“Jael, there is no room for error on this,” Emilio said firmly. “No room for petty squabbles, judgments, or old vendettas. This is Gray’s soul. Should it fall into the wrong hands, even in your realm…”

The wolf trailed off, turning his face toward the moonlight, casting the new worry lines around his eyes into sharp relief.

I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know which vendettas he referred to, but I didn’t need specifics. The Seelie queen was a notoriously conniving woman; she never formed an alliance unless there was something in it for her, and like most bargains struck at an hour of desperation, her allegiance never came without cost.

I suspected she was one of the reasons—if not the reason—Jael and Kallayna had left their realm and made a new home in the Bay in the first place. Now Jael wanted to bring Gray’s soul back there? Under the protection of the woman who—if the centuries-old rumors held even a whiff of truth—had once burned an entire village of humans and their livestock on the mere suspicion that they’d been harboring a runaway fae child?

“I have given you my word.” Jael’s yellow eyes glowed fiercely, his brow drawn tight. “Never mind that Gray has become important to me as a leader, a warrior, as well as a friend. Her soul will be well-protected. I shall give my life to that end, if it comes to it.”

“You’ve been more than loyal, prince,” Liam said.

“It’s not his loyalty we’re worried about,” Asher said. “It’s that whole ‘if it comes to it’ part.”

“It won’t come to it,” Jael insisted, but I wasn’t convinced. None of us were, and in the uncertain silence that followed, the fae prince finally exploded.

“Gentlemen,” he began, his voice full of fire, “I have risked my sister’s life and my own to bring you intelligence from the Bay. I have fought by your sides in battles I could just as well have left behind, narrowly escaping an army of hybrids intent on burning me alive and nearly succeeding. I have risked eternal banishment from all the realms by calling upon forbidden moon magic, all in service to the woman I’ve come to call a close friend. I did not take such actions only to betray her at the very last.”

“Jael,” I began, but he would not relent, his entire body tense but for his hands, in which he held the moonglass as gently as a soap bubble.

“I would not take her within a galaxy of my realm if I believed for one moment my family would bring her harm.” Jael’s voice shook with defiance. “I understand your concern for her, but I beseech you to take an accurate accounting of my proven fidelity before accusing me or my family of future treasons.”

Emilio lifted his palms in a gesture of peace, but Ronan and Asher were still wound up.

That Jael believed he could protect her was obvious. But could we really trust Queen Sheyah, regardless of Jael’s noble intentions? And what of her royal guard, her servants, her subjects? When had Jael last communicated with his family? How could he be certain he’d even find welcome in his realm, let alone protection for the soul of a human witch-turned-vampire he’d just risked his own eternal existence to save?

I closed my eyes and pulled Gray tight against my chest, my blood humming in recognition at the blood now flowing through her veins. We were beyond connected, beyond bound, beyond mated.

We were one.

Trust him…

The message was faint but clear, imprinted from one vampire mind to another. The realization nearly made me weep.

She truly was assimilating.

Unconscious as her body was, Gray’s mind was right here with us—right here with me. She trusted Jael. And as much as I hated the idea of letting her soul out of our sight, I knew what Gray had known from the very moment she’d made the decision to turn:

There were no other options.

Opening my eyes, I looked from Ronan to Emilio to Asher to Liam, nodding at each before my gaze finally came to rest on Jael’s still-smoldering yellow eyes.

“Gray entrusted you with the extraction and guidance of her soul,” I said, granting him the same small bow he’d offered me earlier. “We entrust you now to protect it in whatever way you deem best.”

Ronan blew out a tense breath, but no one said a word to contradict me. We’d all come together to support Gray in her decision to change, and that—like so many things we’d done and shared together on this journey, whether I could remember the particulars or not—bonded us once again as brothers.

Jael wasted no more time.

“We must move quickly,” he said, “while night still holds. I need to draw upon the moon’s power once more, if she’ll allow it, and weave a portal spell to open a doorway back to my realm.”

“How long will it take?” I asked, eyeing the expanse above the snowy treetops. The sky was still inky black, but soon enough, the sun would begin her ascent. I’d very much prefer Gray and I were back at base camp with time to spare before the first rays touched the earth.

“Can you guarantee me complete silence and zero interruptions?” He headed off to find a clear spot beyond the headstones. He knelt upon the snow, nestling the moonglass into a downy drift at his side. “If so, it shouldn’t take more than—”

The rest of his words cut off abruptly as a blinding pain split my skull.

It unfolded like a car crash—time slowing for an eternity before zooming forward, leaving my mind in a frenzied blur, uncertain where one moment ended and another began.

The agony and confusion brought me to my knees.

It was all I could do to shield Gray from the impact as we hit the ground, my head spinning.

“Beaumont!” Ronan shouted, but I couldn’t see him, barely registering the motion of his body lunging for me. Someone else scooped up Gray, and I bent forward and pressed my forehead against the snow, desperate for something—anything—to numb the pain.

Useless.

My body shook, head to toe, the tremble so violent I bit my tongue. Blood filled my mouth, and the walls inside my mind burst like ancient dams, ushering in a flood of disconnected images and sounds and scents, each one unlocking another and another and another, slicing through me like hot blades. Arms and legs wild with spasms, I roared into the night, unable to contain the torment, certain my ears were bleeding.

“Darius? What’s happening?” Someone was at my side, a warm hand on the back of my neck, another flat on my back. Ronan’s? Liam’s? I had no idea. There was only the torture unfolding behind my eyes. Only the haunting howl of a thousand ghosts inside my skull. Only the taste of Gray’s blood welling up from within.

Only… only memories.

I managed to get to my knees again, and clamped my hands around my head, desperately trying to keep my skull from exploding. A flurry of images and sights and sounds poured unbidden into my mind, imprinting themselves all at once, disconnected and fragmented, but… but mine, I realized suddenly. Every last one of them was mine—flashes of the life I’d lived and lost, the lifetimes I’d rebuilt in the decades and centuries that followed.

Memories.

Memories of my wife and children, the family I’d mourned on so many long, lonely nights.

Memories of my brother, my turning, the anger that had burned like hot coals inside my chest when he’d stolen my mortal life.

Memories of friends come and gone, of careers, of homes.

Memories of everything I’d once loved.

And then—impossibly sweet, impossibly precious—memories of a brand new love, unfolding as gently as a spring bud, then rapidly growing into a flowering vine that had somehow crept in behind my walls and blossomed, wrapping itself so thoroughly around my heart I could scarcely remember a time when it hadn’t been part of me, nor I part of it.

Gray. My witch. My little brawler. My vampire. My queen.

I remembered the night we’d spent in the cabin in the Shadowrealm, making love until we’d nearly no strength left in our bones, chasing away the cold with kisses and caresses. I remembered the heartbreak in her eyes as I told her how I’d been turned. I remembered the taste of her kiss, the promises inherent in each and every one.

I remembered the words she’d uttered so breathlessly at the mouth of the hell portal.

I love you, Darius…

I remembered my own words sliding into my consciousness, balancing on the tip of my tongue, desperate to be heard.

It seems I’ve fallen in…

The last had remained locked inside, stowed away as we came under attack from the demons that would steal my memories—memories that had just been returned to me.

Gray had saved me in all the ways that counted—then and now.

Her blood, our connection… she’d been right to trust it.

I would never doubt it.

My love for her knew no limits, no bounds, and deep inside me, that feeling expanded endlessly, chasing away the worst of the pain, steadying my hands. I was falling, experiencing each moment with her for the very first time, again and again and again.

“I’m in love with her,” I announced, my tears turning to laughter as I felt the force of that love hit me full on. With Ronan’s help, I got to my feet, swaying against his side. I was unsteady, but suddenly I felt unstoppable.

“For f**k’s sake, Beaumont.” Ronan gave me a shove. “We thought you were dying, asshole.”

“Ah, but I was. And now I’ve been reborn!” Again I laughed, bordering on maniacal, and grabbed his shoulders, hauling him in for a fierce hug. “You don’t understand, demon. I fell in love with her. I know I did.”

“Yeah, you and me and everyone here.” He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“More than you know, friend,” I said. “I remember it. All of it. All of you!”

Ronan glared at me a moment longer, then his eyes widened as the realization finally dawned. He gripped my arms, a smile cracking his stoic face. “You’re shitting me. You f*****g remember?”

“It must’ve been the—”

“Hate to break up the lovefest, but, uh…” Asher crouched down next to Sparkle and followed her line of sight to a dense copse of trees beyond the cemetery. The hound’s haunches were raised, a menacing growl reverberating from her chest.

Asher got to his feet and rolled his neck, the bones cracking. “Fight or flight, assholes. We got company.”