Semua Bab BETRAYED BY HER BLOOD, CLAIMED BY THE NIGHT: Bab 61 - Bab 70

SOFIA QUIPES’ POV“My head is ringing,” Sofia finally said, her voice abrading against the heavy silence of the odd forest. Sofia pulled herself up from the wet, mossy ground, the taste of blood in her mouth. The odor of the forest was intensely foreign—to pine and soil, there was the tang of lightning and the ancient smell of pulverized amethyst.“That wasn’t a landing,” Nomo Holt’s voice crackled back, strained and ice-cold. He had moved a few feet back and was bracing himself on the twisted trunk of a tree whose leaves were colored with wild, sickle moon silver. “That was being blown out of reality, thanks to your Fae Priestess girl toy.”Sofia stumbled towards him, her own Dhampir senses trying to snag on something familiar, but it was painful. The raw magic in the air thrummed with a vibrating hum, a buzz against her internal core that bucked reality sideways. Her heightened senses, sharp enough that she could break down fears in a room by their minutest variations, were operatin

SOFIA QUISPE“I am going to slow you down. The only way you survive is if you leave me here,” Nomo Holt declared, coughing heavily with a body that was caving in on him, his voice frail but emphatic.Sofia felt the sting of tears, but not from sadness, but from her seething, blistering rage. She crouched beside him in the deep shadow of the crumbling Faerie wall, the damp earth surprisingly silent and cool against her palms. The blood seeping into what was left of his expensive shirt was dark, and it seemed to have a will of its own, refusing to clot."Don't be a moron," Sofia snapped, pushing the emotion away. She wanted sharp words, not sympathy. "This Guardian is tracking the Triple-Blood. It recognizes my smell. If I walk away from you, you'll die. And if you walk away from me, I'll die alone – and then this Guardian will inevitably find me anyway.""This is not strategy," NO_MO countered, his eyes, normally a chilling gray, cloudy with fever. "Logic. I am a Blooded vampire with n

SOFIA QUISPE“Then we don’t wait for it to adapt,” Nomo continued, his gaze settling on Sofia's determined face, his high-boned features softened by a kind of desperate urgency that eliminated any trace of a cold, superior tone as he spoke. “We discover where that melodic hum is coming from. That kind of chaotic power. it's alien, Sofia, but it seems remarkably attuned to you.”Sofia knelt beside him,/bind/ assessing the heavily bandaged wound. The anti-vampire toxin was still spreading, this flesh growing colder along the ghostly incision. Sofia understood the correctness of Nomo's reasoning; they could not tarry there. Nor could she – or anyone, for that matter – effectively tap into the Triple-Blood ability without risking an overwhelming of the target, providing Zilo Graves with a psychic blueprint to her very heart."You need shelter, now," Sofia said, her voice deep and matter-of-fact. She shook off the allure of the magic hum for just a moment and addressed the current danger.

(SOFIA QUISPE'S POINT OF VIEW)"You're shaking, Sofia," Nomo Holt whispered, his voice catching on the dry air. He didn't look up from the dark, non-healing wound on his ribs, but his awareness remained sharp enough to catch the tremors in her hands."I’m not shaking. I’m vibrating," Sofia corrected him, her voice tight with the residual static of Zilo’s psychic intrusion. She stood by the mouth of the crevice, her hands clenched so hard her knuckles were white. The snap of the link had felt like a bone breaking inside her skull. "He was right there, Nomo. It wasn't just a memory or an echo. He was trying to tear through the air to get to me. I could feel his anger. It felt like... like being suffocated by velvet.""He's a Sovereign, or near enough to one," Nomo said, closing his eyes as a fresh wave of pain rolled over him. "They don't understand the concept of 'gone.' To him, you are a piece of his own soul that has wandered off. He won't stop until he carves a path through the dime

(SOFIA QUISPE'S POINT OF VIEW)“I won’t do it. Find another way,” Sofia said, her voice cutting through the ethereal melody of the courtyard like a serrated blade. She stood over Nomo, her legs shaking from the previous exertion but her gaze fixed firmly on the shimmering, starlight-draped figure of Priestess Elowen.“Sofia, don’t be a fool,” Nomo rasped from the floor, his breath hitching as the grey toxin flared beneath his skin. He tried to push himself up, but his arms gave way, leaving him slumped against the mossy stone. “You heard her. The bridge is unstable. If you don’t anchor your power here to heal me, we both perish in the void. It’s basic arithmetic. Sacrifice the part to save the whole.”“I’m done with your arithmetic, Nomo!” Sofia shouted, spinning around to face him, her eyes burning with a violet intensity that made the surrounding silver trees shiver. “And I’m done with being told what to sacrifice. Every vampire in the Covenant spent years taking pieces of me. Zilo