Мишель Роуэн - Reign or Shine

Her mouth tensed. "It doesn't matter. You'll be gone soon and Michael will stay here with me. The servants will understand what's happened and they'll do as I say."

"Where is the antidote?" my father asked, his low voice barely audible.

"It's too late for that. There's no going back now." Elizabeth turned to me. "I need you to know something. What I said about your Darkling side killing you if you harnessed its power-it wasn't true."

She had to feel guilty. That's what this was, wasn't it? A woman who had done horrible things was now trying to justify her actions. She was trying to come clean while she still had the chance. Maybe then she could live with herself.

I wondered what she'd think if she ever found out the truth about Kieran. I mean, I didn't know the whole truth, really. The only glimpse I'd had of him was a few minutes over the gazer, but I knew he didn't love my aunt. He was using her. And she'd done horrible things to gain his supposed love.

If I didn't hate her so much for what she'd done to my father, for what she'd done to me and to Michael, then I'd feel sorry for her.

She twisted her hands together. "The facts that I did research were true, but the results I told you weren't. Dark-lings are very powerful creatures. They were once bred to be warriors who could easily move from the human realm to the darker worlds despite any barriers there might be. Their power is pure and vast, but they became too powerful, and that's why demon/human relationships have been forbidden ever since. That's why there have been no other Darklings until you."

Michael had come over to stand at my side during Elizabeth's speech and he looked at me with concern. He was ready for me to slip into my potioninduced amnesia at any second. What was he planning to do? Pull me along like a child to the gateway? Leave me on my front porch all confused and wondering who the cute guy was who had walked me home from the dance?

"I guess Dax didn't tell you that I already knew turning Darkling wouldn't kill me," I said.

Elizabeth frowned and turned to look at her thug before returning her attention to me. "What are you talking about?"

"I appreciate the kind-and-well-intentioned-aunt act, but you're not kind or well-intentioned." I glared at her. "You can fool yourself but you can't fool me.

You're horrible. You sent Dax to kill me. You don't want to kill me here, where my father can sense it, but you're fine with killing me at home. You failed. Dax failed, because I turned Darkling and kicked his butt."

Her expression tightened. "I would have liked to have known that earlier, but it doesn't matter anymore. In a few short moments you'll be-" She tilted her head to study me. "What is happening to your eyes?"

"My eyes?" I raised a hand in front of my face and saw the red glow reflecting off it, then I looked back at her. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

She looked so confused then. "What is going on?"

"I guess you could say that I have my father's eyes." I looked down at him. He, too, looked confused, but then the realization of what I had done must have dawned on him. He squeezed my hand.

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't understand. You drank the potion. I saw you. Your Darkling should be destroyed by now. You should be forgetting everything." She looked at her brother. "The potion. Did you give her a placebo? It wasn't a real potion at all?"

"No, it was very real," he said.

I breathed out and concentrated all of my energy on my dragon's tear bracelet. My father had given it to me to help focus and control my powers. It had worked with breaking open the door to the dark room my aunt had locked me inside and it was helping me now.

My canine teeth began to elongate and sharpen. "I told you I wasn't going to drink the potion, but I didn't tell you that I'd actually made that decision earlier.

You're the one who told me to trust my heart and that's exactly what I've been doing all this time. Trusting my heart. And my heart told me to flush the potion down the toilet at my Winter Formal. I filled the vial with fruit punch and that's what I just drank. When I saw it was the exact same color I decided it was fate. I'm believing in fate a lot lately."

She held a hand up to her mouth as she watched me painlessly shift to my Darkling form, an expression of disbelief and shock turning her beautiful face ugly.

My black wings unfurled behind me and I felt my father's weak gaze on me. I looked down at him. "I thought I'd hate you when I met you. But I didn't know who you really were and what happened so long ago to make you leave us. I love you and I'd never destroy the part of me that makes me your daughter."

He smiled up at me. "You make a beautiful Darkling."

"Princess, watch out!" Michael yelled.

I looked up to see Elizabeth lunging for me, her own talons extended and aimed directly for my throat.

Despite her initial attempts to stay calm and collected on the surface, my aunt had now brought forth her demon form to try to rip out my throat.

She grabbed hold of me and we went flying over to the far side of the room.

Her skin was now leathery, but not black as my father's was-instead, hers was a dark red. Her ears were almost as sharp as her black, spiraling horns.

She glared out at me through red slitted eyes. Her chest had sunken in and I could see her ribs, as if only a skeleton was covered by the red skin underneath her dress. Her black lips peeled back from her razor-sharp teeth and she hissed at me.

While I looked half demon and half me in Darkling form, Elizabeth was definitely fully demonic-and scary as hell.

"Shouldn't have done that." Her voice was dry and edged with violence. I tried to hold her back but I felt the edge of her talons scrape against my throat.

"Should have done what I said. It didn't have to end this way."

"You're evil," I managed to say through clenched teeth.

"You're only sixteen. You don't know what evil truly is."

"You know what? I don't think I ever would have been clued in if I hadn't spoken to your boyfriend," I hissed. "He's so transparent. But even then it didn't matter. I'd already flushed the potion. Where's the antidote, Elizabeth?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You're a fighter." "If I have to be."

I managed to grab her arms and hold her back, stumbling away from the side of the bed. She was so strong. One of her talons moved to scratch my shoulder and the pain was intense, but I forced myself to ignore it. If I let my concentration slip, the next talon would go through my jugular.

And then Michael was there, trying to drag Elizabeth off of me. "Leave Nikki alone!"

His eyes flashed as green as his amulet and I could sense he was summoning power to blast her away from me, like he'd done with Dax yesterday in the park. But before he had the chance, Elizabeth whipped her head up to glare at him and with a shove she effortlessly threw him across the room. He was up on his feet in a flash and came right back at her.

"No, Michael-be careful!"

His expression was fierce as he attempted to protect me, but he was still weak from losing form earlier. Elizabeth grabbed him by his T-shirt.

"Love hurts, doesn't it?" She threw him to the side even harder than before. He hit the wall and slid down to the floor in a heap. He wasn't moving and his eyes were closed.

"Michael!" I yelled, fear twisting inside me. I wasn't sure if he was unconscious, or injured, or. . dead.

Elizabeth's attention returned to me. "Your Shadow is weak, Nikki. He can't protect you anymore."

My moment of distraction had given her the chance to curl her taloned, leathery hands around my throat. Her red eyes glittered.

"Let go of her, Elizabeth," my father growled. He'd forced himself up to a sitting position in his bed. "I'm warn-ing you… if you harm her, you'll be the one who dies today."