Why hadn’t the thing attacked? It could make confetti out of the couch. I peeked around the side of it. The demon had pulled the sword out of her shoulder, and the wound had completely closed. It was working on getting the knife out of her chest.
Hopefully that meant it was weakening and didn’t think it would have time to eviscerate us and heal its anchor.
Alaric tapped my arm. When that didn’t get my attention, he shook me. I smacked him in the arm with the back of my hand, but he didn’t stop. I turned toward him and focused on his lips. He was talking too fast for me to understand. I shook my head but he kept speaking.
I flapped my hands at him. “Shut up. I can’t hear you anyway.”
I turned back to watch Braxus and Sherra. The knife had been removed, but the wound wasn’t healing rapidly and the dark, congealed blood of the dead clung to the blade. No weapon had made her bleed before.
As suddenly as it appeared, the demon vanished. The knife dropped to the ground. I turned back around, searching for the knife Fallon had.
Alaric vaulted over the couch, knife in hand. I moved to follow him. The flex of muscles made the pain in my back scream to be noticed. Misha grabbed my wrist and shook his head.
Fine, I’d wait. I wasn’t sure I could get up anyway. In fact, I was glad that vampires couldn’t bleed to death. The whole back of my shirt was soaked in blood and it was oozing down to saturate my jeans.
I heard Sherra shriek distantly and turned back to watch the fight. Vampire healing was bad ass if I was already getting my hearing back.
Alaric slashed her arm. The cut was deep, all the way to the bone.
Something was pressed to my back and I jumped, glancing over my shoulder. Misha was holding his t-shirt to my lower back to stem the bleeding.
I mouthed a quick “thank you” before turning around again.
Sherra reached for Alaric, but he danced gracefully out of the way. An impressive show of vampiric agility and seven or eight centuries of practice. She plucked a discarded knife off the floor and a little tremor of fear went down my spine. She was fast, and now she was armed. I wasn’t sure Alaric could beat her. No, I was positive he couldn’t. It was time to retreat, but I didn’t want to say anything to him and distract him. It was one sure way to get him killed. So I watched, because I could risk nothing else.
Sherra swung high, aiming for his throat, but he dropped back. He must have known the situation was not to his advantage, but he still looked for a way under her guard. He would probably only get one shot at killing her and he knew it. She swung the knife again and he blocked hard with his forearm, striking her hand. The blade went spinning. I glimpsed the flash of red that engulfed her arm before she slammed her clawed hand into his chest. Alaric rammed his blade straight into her neck.
She withdrew her bloodied fist and smacked it into Alaric’s jaw. The blow would have snapped the neck of any human, if it didn’t make their head go flying across the room. Alaric flew into the wall behind us. The impact shook the whole house. He fell to the ground and didn’t move. I grasped his shoulder and turned him onto his back. There was a bloody hole directly over his heart.
My chest tightened. He had to be dead. There was no way he wasn’t. I listened for his heartbeat and heard an unimaginable pitter patter. It was soft and faint, and then it was gone. I reached out with my magic, searching for the tiny spark of life that animated him. I found it and wrapped it in my power, effectively putting it on a leash so it couldn’t flee his body.
Yeah, but what are you going to do with it now? It didn’t matter. As long as the spark of life was there I could figure out something.
I spun and watched Sherra. She was on the ground face down, but I could feel her dark power prickling across my skin. She wasn’t going to stay down. Damned zombies.
I turned to Misha. “We need to retreat. Now. We need a new plan or we’re going to die.”
He nodded and grabbed Fallon under the arms.
“Jairdan, grab Alaric.”
Both he and Misha froze before he whispered. “He’s dead, Kori. Taking…” His voice broke. “Taking his body with us now will slow us down.”
I shook my head. “I can fix this. Grab him.”
Jairdan grabbed the back of my neck and squeezed before running his thumb over my cheek. It came away wet with tears. “Your emotions are clouding your judgment.”
I grasped his jaw and dug my nails in. He hissed, but I didn’t release him. If he’d treat me like a child, I had every right to treat him like one.
“No I’m not, and I don’t have the concentration or energy to argue with your stupid ass and hold onto his soul. Grab him, because if he does die, I’ll be sure to kill you.”
Jairdan released me and slung Alaric over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry while I led the way toward the garage.
“We’ve got more cars, right?”
Misha nodded. “And we have safe houses. We’ll have to go to one of them. We’ll call Casey when we get there and give her directions. She hasn’t been with us long enough to know all of them. I hope she and Dagger are okay.”
I snorted. “Dagger is a pain in the ass. Even half dead, I almost trust him to keep her safe.”
I held the door to the garage open and the boys carried our wounded through.
“The keys are hanging on the hooks there.” Misha pointed to the wall above the toolbox. I snagged them as Misha and Jairdan dumped Fallon and Alaric into the back seat.
I clambered into the back seat between Fallon and Alaric as the garage door rose slowly. Sherra’s power washed over me like a wave of white hot needles digging into my flesh. I collapsed into the backseat holding onto Alaric’s soul with everything I had. I didn’t know how I knew, but I was positive she had reanimated and was on her feet.
“We have to go now.”
The boys dropped into the vehicle at my shout. Jairdan started the car and we took off.
I turned as Sherra came through the door to the garage. She moved slowly, as if she wasn’t completely healed. Good, she’d never be able to come after us.
I spotted the ball of fire gathering in her hand and tensed.
“Jairdan. Drive faster or we’re going to get hit.”
He must have stomped on the gas, because we spun into the street, almost landing in the ditch, and then shot off down the road.
I placed my hand over the hole in Alaric’s chest. His heart had been hit, but barely. If I could shove enough power into his body, I could heal it. I hoped I could manage to do it. I wasn’t a healer. I would have no idea how to direct the energies to do something like that. Well, I had the theory of it, but using magic was different for everyone, and something you had to do yourself to learn. Theory only took you so far.
I’d have to jump in with both feet and pray I could do it. It was a dangerous thing to do. Healing spells could go horribly wrong, especially with life-threatening injuries. You could accidentally give too much of your energy out and kill yourself, or if the person’s will was strong enough, they could suck you dry when they were alive enough to do so. I’d have to hope that hundreds of years being a vampire would give Alaric some restraint when it came to sucking the life out of people.
Jairdan snorted and glanced at me in the mirror. “So what’s your big plan for his body, vampire hunter?”
I ignored him. I didn’t have time to argue with him. “Misha, please come back here and tend Fallon, but try not to bump me.”
I closed my eyes to block out visual distractions and focus my power as Misha clambered into the backseat.
I sent out a tiny tendril of power to start healing the wound to his heart. Starting out small was better than flooding him with energy, having no effect, and killing myself in the process. My small bit of power had no effect and I frowned. Something should have happened. Some small bit of tissue should have mended.
As I reached out with a bit more power, Jairdan broke my concentration again. “Seriously, what are you doing?”
&
nbsp; “Will you shut the fuck up?” Fallon rasped next to me. “Let the woman work. I’ve just been welcomed back into the family, and I don’t want two of my brothers to die before I get to spend any time with them.”
“Two? Do you know how to count?”
“Yes, I know how to count. If Alaric dies because you’ve ruined her concentration, I’ll kill you, brother.”
“I’m concerned. What if she creates another zombie? That’s something we don’t need.”
I glared at him. “This is different. Even humans can be revived after a short while dead. And if you vampires are to be believed, then that’s how you’re made. Didn’t Alaric tell me you weren’t dead? Just revived? Well that’s what I’m doing. So shut it.”
Jairdan thankfully didn’t respond and I reached out with twice as much power as I’d used the first time to try and heal Alaric. Nothing happened. I could feel his soul fading as I held it captive. I had to do something quickly or he was gone. My heartbeat sped up as my mind scrambled for an answer.
“Damn it.” I rubbed my face with my hands. “Think.”
“Kori,” Misha whispered, as if afraid to break my concentration. “I need to doctor your back. You’re bleeding a lot.”
I took my hands off my face. “Blood.”
“Yeah. We can’t die from blood loss, but it can weaken us. Let me—” He pressed a cloth to my back and I knocked it away. He stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“No. I need this.” Blood was the answer. It’s what vampire’s thrived on. I reached for my back with my left hand and nearly screamed as I ran it up the bleeding scratches. My hand came away drenched with blood. “Yikes, that looks bad.” But I finally felt Alaric’s power reach for me. I was almost overwhelmed by the need to start the healing process.
“Yes, that would be why I need to doctor it.”
I nodded. “Get on it, because he’s going to need to take my blood, and giving it to him from my back would be hard.”
“But what about distracting you and interrupting the ritual.”
I shuddered, trying to maintain focus on finishing my conversation with Misha. “I don’t think you’ll be able to if you tried.”
I laid my bloody hand against Alaric’s wound and shoved my power and his soul into him. It was risky. If it didn’t work, his essence would escape me before I could do anything about it, and he’d be gone for good. But I was about to lose him anyway.
The hole in his heart knitted instantly, but it still refused to beat. I continued to push my power into the wound, but I was cutting into my reserves, and soon only the power that was keeping me alive would be left.
You need more blood. I nodded absently to myself. That always seemed to be the answer with vampires. I lifted my right wrist to my mouth and scraped my teeth over it to break the skin while keeping my other hand over the rapidly healing wound in his chest. I pried his jaw open and placed my wrist in his mouth. When the first drop of blood hit his tongue his whole body convulsed. His heart stuttered to life, but then hesitated.
I distantly heard the startled cursing from the other men in the car, but paid them no attention.
I was weakening. This shouldn’t be this difficult. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t detect what it was.
Suddenly his heart rebounded. The pounding was so strong I could feel it in my head like a jack hammer. It was so loud. Too loud, and I couldn’t shut it out. I screamed, and tried to move my hand off his chest, but it wouldn’t budge.
His fangs pierced my wrist and the pain trebled. There were hands on us. Trying to pry us apart. They didn’t manage before I passed out.
Chapter Ten
I came too huddled next to Alaric in the backseat of the car. My memory was a little fuzzy.
“What happened?”
Misha sighed. “Thank God you’re awake. What the hell did you do? Alaric tried to drain you dry and then when we separated you, both your hearts stopped. You’ve had to stay touching. What witchy mojo went down?”
I frowned. What was he talking about? I could barely comprehend his words, like he was speaking another language.
Jairdan met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Well, witch? What the F is going on here?”
“J, Misha, lay off. I think she’s confused right now. Give her a second.” Alaric’s voice was a hoarse croak close to my ear.
I gasped and sat up. I immediately regretted it as dizziness blurred my vision and bile climbed up my throat. The rapid movement combined with a feeling, a certainty that I shouldn’t pull away from Alaric. The space between us was tangible and his pull was hard to resist, like pulling apart taffy.
Alaric took a deep, shaky breath and grabbed my hand. I laced my fingers with his and the uncomfortable tightness in my chest eased.
“Okay, now I have the same question they did. What the hell did you do to us?”
I scratched my head. “I’m not sure. I was trying to heal you, but I’m not a healer, and I’m not entirely sure what happened. Something witchy and bad, more than likely.”
Very bad. Even the thought of releasing his hand was painful. “I think for now it’s best to stay close to each other and hope this feeling goes away.”
But there had been blood involved. Life for vampires, and my power to sustain him. Would we ever be normal again?
But I would rather not dwell on that horrible thought. “So where are we going?”
Jairdan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “No place you’re going to like. But that’s too damn bad, because he’s got bagged blood and donors, and we’ll need both.”
I frowned. “That was a nice non-answer. You want to actually say something this time?”
Misha shifted uncomfortably before the answer popped out of his mouth. “We’re going to see Nyx. There’s a first aid kit under the passenger’s seat, if you could check on Fallon.”
I clenched my jaw and reached for the first aid kit. They were right. I didn’t like this plan. Nyx was ancient. Much older than the vampires sharing the car with me. Age meant power. He was also reported to have a nasty temper. And all vampires hated vampire hunters. He wouldn’t appreciate me showing up, and he probably wouldn’t like that the boys brought me. He ran a bar that would be full of vampires by the time we got there.
I moved away from Alaric, feeling that uncomfortable tug through the distance. “I think this is a bad idea. Won’t he be mad that you’re bringing a vampire hunter to his bar? Putting all his patrons at risk?”
“Well considering he recently turned and is sleeping with a vampire hunter, I doubt he’ll mind. Besides, you’re a vampire now. And he turned Fallon, so he’ll probably be glad to see him.”
Fallon snorted and I jumped. I thought he’d been out of it.
“Nyx isn’t my biggest fan. Last time I visited the ensuing fight destroyed his bar. Though, that happens weekly. I will always be that pain in the ass he had the misfortune of turning. Don’t count on me to save us from his wrath.”
Jairdan shook his head. “Either way, it doesn’t matter, we raised Pagan. I’m sure he’ll put us up.”
Great. I was going to get killed because these guys thought it would be fine to take me into a vampire bar. Nyx would probably be the least of our problems.
I pushed Fallon’s hands away from his belly to examine the wound. It was deep, but his intestines weren’t bulging through it. Though I had no doubt that if he moved too much, he could tear the wound farther. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that it didn’t seem to be healing. Vampire’s healed quickly, but I still wasn’t sure what was normal and what wasn’t.
“How is it, doc? Am I gonna make it?” he asked with a crooked smile.
I replaced the soaked blanket he’d been holding to his middle and placed his palms back on it. “I think you’ll live, unless you know something I don’t. But should this wound still be this far open and bleeding so heavily?”
He glanced down at his stomach and shrugged. “It hasn’t been that long since the f
ight. You haven’t been passed out that long. Don’t worry too much. I’m sure it will right itself, though the bleeding should have slowed. I think I might pass out from blood loss soon.”
I nodded. “I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“Vampires can handle more than humans.” His gaze slid to Alaric and back to me. “How are you guys?”
Alaric touched the claw marks at the base of my spine and I hissed. “These wounds look fairly shallow, but they’re still bleeding.”
Misha’s curse caused me to glance at him. He shook his head. “Those wounds should be mostly healed. They weren’t that deep when I tended them.”
Jairdan glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Maybe it’s because she’s new.”
I sighed. “No, it’s not. It’s the demon that protects Sherra. It must have some kind of poison that slows down healing. Could be worse, though. It could have had a poison that kills vampires.”
We were a sorry lot. Not only that, but we needed a new plan to beat Sherra. Our one shot hadn’t worked. I massaged my temples and wished I could lean back comfortably. I couldn’t wait to see what awful plan we came up with next.
Chapter Eleven
The car rolled to a stop and I moved one of my hands from Fallon’s belly to check his pulse again. Against the laws of nature, his heart was still beating. But he was cold and still. His breathing was so shallow, it was almost impossible to detect. The bleeding had slowed, but I was pretty sure that was only because he was running out of blood to lose.
Alaric’s hand fell against mine and I jumped. “Stop checking his pulse. He’ll be okay. He can’t die of blood loss.”
“How do you know for sure? Have either of you ever lost this much blood?”
“No, but every vampire we know says you can’t die of blood loss. You only crave more when you wake. Sometimes enough to make you crazed. That’s what I’m more worried about.”
I shook my head. I was worried when he got more blood he’d continue to bleed it out. I wasn’t concerned about him having the strength to attack anyone. Not for quite a while.
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