Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

soul is extinguished . Tried everything to get out of the vow . . . fighting it even now.”
    He’d known all along that he’d have to do this? Even she understood that vows to the Lore were unbreakable. “Let me run, Lothaire.”
    More pacing. “You could be on the other side of the earth. Won’t make a difference when I’m forced . . . forced to . . . end you.”
    She couldn’t quite get enough air. “Will my soul be extinguished from this body—or from everything ?”
    “Gone! As if you never were!”
    Breathe, Ellie, breathe. “This is what you were hinting about! Why didn’t you tell me? To prepare me?”
    “Couldn’t . . . physically couldn’t set you on a path that might interfere with my vow. Thought I could save you anyway.”
    Desperation deepened. And still I’m going to die. Right back to where she’d started.
    No, now it was so much worse. At least before, she hadn’t been falling for the vampire. At least before, she would have gone from death row to heaven, or so she’d believed.
    Now she was to go from a paradise of pleasure to . . . nothingness.
    I’m to be no more? Destroyed by the man I’d started to love?
    He shoved his fingers through his sooty hair. “Couldn’t even remain in the sun. . . .”
    Her lips parted. That was why his skin had burned? Balery had told her that pain was excruciating for a vampire. “You tried to die for me?”
    “Of course!” he bellowed, yanking her into his arms. “I would rather die than hurt you!”
    She couldn’t quite believe that, but knew he couldn’t lie.
    Today, Lothaire had sought to end his life for her, had defied a survival instinct that had kept him alive for thousands of years. “How are you able to tell me all this now? Because it’s as good as done?”
    He clutched her shoulders, gazing down at her face. His expression answered her.
    “Oh.” Tears gathered and fell. Why not cry? She’d never felt more hopeless.
    At last she knew what he’d been struggling with. “Will it h-hurt?”
    At her words, he roared with anguish, blood tracking from the corner of one eye. “Lizvetta, don’t. . . .”
    “Can you use the ring to bring me back?”
    “Can’t reverse a wish! But I will find a way to bring you back!”
    “Lothaire, I’m”—she gave a sob—“I’m afraid .”
    Another agonized bellow followed, then he enfolded her against hischest. He was shuddering all around her, fighting that inner battle. “If I can’t save you, I will follow you.” Clasping her tighter, he rocked her, murmuring unknown words in Russian.
    His charred skin and clothes smelled of ash. He tried to burn for me.
    Would that be the last scent she ever perceived? “Don’t follow me, Lothaire. I don’t want you to—”
    “RIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!”
    Ellie’s head whipped up. “What is that ?”
    “Remove my riiiinnnnngggg!” sounded a woman’s shriek from just off the balcony—twenty-five floors up.
    At once, Lothaire pushed Ellie aside to take off the band. “ Dorada. How the fuck did she find us?”
    Some female outside was controlling him? Just as they’d feared!
    “Enemy of Old!” Dorada’s words sounded staticky, as though they’d been passed through a filter. “Allow me entry. Do not resist me.”
    “I can’t fight her,” Lothaire snapped under his breath as he crossed to the wall beside the balcony door. Symbols were etched into the plaster. “Get to the front door, Elizabeth! You’ll be able to open it soon.”
    Once Lothaire had unlocked the boundary, Dorada dropped down over the balcony railing, as if she’d just stepped through an invisible entrance. With a wave of her hand, the French doors flew open.
    While Ellie gaped, the sorceress floated inside, half a foot off the floor.
    Lothaire had revealed some things about Dorada—how she’d been half-mad, grotesquely mummified, shrieking for her ring.
    Now the sorceress was regenerating. She still had only one eye, but it was striking—olive green with sweeping lashes. Some strands of her hair were a thick, luxurious black, others lank strings. Half of her face had smooth, tawny skin; the other was crusted with rotting gauze.
    A solid-gold breastplate covered her torso, a skirt of golden threads wrapping around her hips—
    “Run, Elizabeth!”
    Ellie snapped her jaw shut, and whirled around, sprinting toward the front door. Down the halls she ran. The front entrance in sight.
    She reached it, unlocked the ordinary deadbolt, then threw open the door—
    Ellie