
Not Zoey! He'd never meant to cause her harm. The knowledge wounded him worse than had her blow against him. Zoey's soul shattered and, as truly as his fall had carried him from one realm to another, her spirit departed this world. But less than a heartbeat after he had the thought, he felt it. Perhaps, once again, he should allow himself to be vanquished by her. Perhaps he should let this terrible struggle for life and its trappings end. For an instant the pain within Kalona was so deadening that he didn't fight it. The icy water engulfed him, smothering him. It lifted him with such force that he was hurled over the huge stone wall that separated the vampyres' island and the Gulf of Venice. Spirit was his essence-his core-the element that had sustained him for centuries and with which he had always been most comfortable, as well as most powerful.

It hit the immortal, striking him with force that was beyond physical. Zoey threw the full power of the element spirit at him. But there was nothing he could say to change what she had seen, and even if he could work the impossible, there was no time. He tried to formulate the words that might make her understand-might make her forgive him. He dropped the boy's lifeless body and whirled around in time to see Zoey racing toward him. The anguish of that one word froze Kalona's heart. So, indifferently, the winged immortal twisted the boy's neck and put an end to his life.

As had been the norm during the centuries since he'd fallen, Kalona felt very little. He didn't particularly want to kill the boy he didn't particularly want the boy alive, either. He would not allow anything or anyone to get in his way, and this human boy was standing between him and what he desired. There was no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what he had to do.
