Chapter 142 - The Price Of Freedom

My heart caught in my throat, but just then JJ tore the sword out of Christina and send her flying several steps away in the same movement. I let out a breath of relief and unclenched the fingers I fisted in my shirt without noticing.

Instead of following her, JJ kept standing still. A new tension appeared in the air, as if the street itself held its breath. Even Captain stopped talking and turned towards the paused fight.

"You hesitated after all, Christina. If you didn't, maybe you would've reached my heart. Left a scratch, at least. It would've incapacitated me enough that you'd have a chance to escape or even win. Why wouldn't you?"

His voice wasn't angry anymore, or sorrowful. It was just empty, and it was even worse to hear. Empty and tired, like he didn't even care for the answer to his question.

Christina lifted her matted locks away from her face with a hand that was more human's than monster's again and looked straight into JJ's eyes. For once, there wasn't that obsessive craziness I've seen each and every time she looked at him before. "I couldn't, my love." Her voice was weak and shook with emotion. Sorrows and regrets, as if in that moment she sucked all the feeling out of JJ into herself. "I could never touch your heart… No matter what I did for you or to you. You shine like the moon in the sky, and just as impossible to reach. I thought…"

She threw a glance at me, and a flash of wild jealousy that appeared in it made me flinch, but it disappeared in the next moment.

"What? What more could've you thought?" JJ raised his voice, the anger returning to it. He flailed his sword in the air in a frustrated gesture. "I always was your goal. You should've never aimed your madness at Diana, too!"

Christina's head fell. "You protected her. You always protect them. Always smile. It was so long since you last smiled at me… Please, just this once, smile at me again, my love! Remember the better days! Maybe then I will be able to go in peace." She pleaded now, with tears glistening in her eyes.

And like that, she looked like a simple woman. Not gone were the ghastly wounds and the paleness of her skin, the fangs and the cat-like eyes, the claws and the wings—but it was in her expression. She looked distraught, heartbroken, hopeful against all hope, but as sane as most other people were.

"No," JJ's voice was colder than a glacier. Then, the ice broke, but under it was only emptiness again. "No. I won't lie to you or myself. Prepare!"

He disappeared from his spot in a blur of movement. Christina raised her claws again in defence, but it felt half-hearted. The fight ended before I could even fully process everything that was said. In one moment, Christina was snarling at JJ as she bat away his sword, in the next moment it was stuck in the middle of her chest and a little to the left.

She fell on the ground like a doll with broken strings, and I watched with morbid fascination like rivulets of blood gushed from the dozens of bloodless until now wounds on her body. All her harpy features disappeared, and her skin to wither.

But in these last moments, she spoke.

"Mon coeur est libre... enfin libre. Je n'ai jamais voulue te faire du mal... comme je l'ai fais. Merci... mon amour... tu peux me sourire lorsque tu seras prête. Je l'attendrai... de l'autre... côté..."1 The last word was almost impossible to hear as it fell from the shrivelled lips. Then, the last movement left Christina's body, or what was left of it—a mummy that looked like it was a couple hundred years old.

Never once did JJ lift his eyes from her. Then he spoke, his eyes sad and gentle.

"Je n'ai jamais voulu te faire du mal comme je l'ai fais, Christina. Nous étions tous les deux sous l'emprise de nos désirs puérils, immature, mais incontrôlable... Au revoir."1

It felt like such a private moment that I was glad I didn't know French. Even so, I felt like I was intruding. My eyes dropped to my feet, then moved to people around me.

Then I realised that there were way too many suspicious glances poking into me. Only then did I realise that in all this drama, my connection with vampires, and JJ in particular, was totally busted. With how angry Captain was even before JJ mentioned me, I wasn't surprised to see him even angrier.

But it was a relief to see at least Ghost simply puzzled. It was jarring to see him smile at that moment, though not unexpected. Still, he appeared to read the mood well enough to not speak yet.

Captain was the one who broke the heavy silence. "You!" He pointed a finger at me, and with my new awareness, I saw how his well expanded sharply, as if in preparation for a fight. I tensed, preparing to interrupt a spell, but then he pointed a finger at JJ, who still stood over Christina's corpse. "And you! Don't move!"

"I wasn't moving…" I murmured. Then, with a force of will, I focused not just my eyes, but my tried brain on the man, too. "Look, the fight is over. Why won't you just… relax, or something. I will help Ghost heal the wounded and then we will all go home… On foot…" Because our car was an accordion now.

I really hoped that we were five minutes away from Nightingale and not five minutes away from Eternalroot. That would've sucked. I would've just walked ten steps and fell asleep on the sidewalk. Maybe I could make it twenty steps if there was a bench in sight.

At least nights were warm.

"Elder Elena will have questions for you, Diana," Captain spat through his teeth, not pacified in the least. "Are you a spy? Are you a danger? It's my job to protect the coven, and I will protect it even from you."