Hearing the most powerful sorcerer on the planet say there wasn’t time for an ambulance was chilling, but Drystan understood the urgency when he saw Chander’s life force rising from his body. Dra’Kaedan’s hand was over his chest and was covered in a dark gold glow all the way up to his elbow.
The other warlocks popped into the hallway and Dra’Kaedan yelled, “What happened to his sentinels?”
“We had to tranq them,” Drystan explained.
“Alaric?”
“No clue.”
“Call Gavrael. He and Gedeon can track him,” Dra’Kaedan barked out. “Where’s my visual to get us to the hospital?” Conley waved a phone in his face, and the warlock didn’t hesitate to cast a teleportation spell. Soon their entire group was in the magic arrival area, and there was a slew of hospital staff charging toward them with a stretcher. Drystan felt his mate’s palm hit his and they backed themselves against the wall so they wouldn’t be in the way. They got Chander onto the gurney, Drystan was handed his crown, and the group whisked him down the hallway. He could only hope it wouldn’t be the last time he ever saw his good friend alive.
* * *
“Grand Warlock, what’s the situation?” a doctor yelled at him as they hurried down a maze of hallways.
“His heart is torn,” Dra’Kaedan called out. He’d climbed up onto the bed that held the Arch Lich. He wasn’t leaving Chander’s side until they could fix this.
“How bad is the tear?” the doctor asked as they arrived at a bay where machines awaited them.
“His heart is in two pieces,” Dra’Kaedan heard his twin gasp and tried to remain calm. “I’m holding it together. He has no pulse. I think the warlocks and my familiar can assist me in building a magical bandage to hold it together.”
“It’s the only chance we have,” the doctor responded. “Do it.”
“Ready?” Renny, his familiar, asked just before they all began slamming magic into the Arch Lich. Dra’Kaedan shot his hand out and simultaneously wrapped threads around Chander’s heart while he kept a funnel of magic flowing into Renny. They worked in silence. There was no time to waste with words. His life-force was leaving, and they needed to get blood pumping. Seconds later the organ and surrounding veins and arteries were coated in a four-way warlock mesh. The staff were frantically rushing around grabbing things they needed and cutting off Chander’s clothing.
“We’re done. Get his heart started,” Dra’Kaedan yelled as he jumped down and continued to send healing magic into Chander.
“Clear,” the doctor ordered just before Chander’s body arched off the table. The machine they’d hooked him up to while the warlocks had worked began to beep, and Dra’Kaedan took a deep breath. Chander’s life was still hanging in the balance but at least they had his heart beating again.
“How long since his heart stopped?” the doctor asked as the hospital staff began poking, prodding, and hooking Chander up to nearly everything in the room.
“No breath sounds on the left side,” someone called out.
“Chest tube,” the doctor demanded. Dra’Kaedan saw a nurse hand him a scalpel and then he cut Chander’s side. A thick tube was shoved in, and blood spurted out of the Arch Lich. “He’s probably going to need a transfusion. Where’s his mate?”
“On his way,” Dra’Kaedan said, not even knowing where his own was at the moment. “And it was maybe a minute or two that his heart was stopped at the most.”
“Good, that means he doesn’t have much risk for brain damage,” the doctor replied as the hospital staff continued their work. An IV had been inserted and drugs administered. Dra’Kaedan’s head was kind of spinning, but this was about Chander. He could collapse in a heap later. His familiar nestled into his side and his brother and cousin were huddled close. They were doing their best to keep out of the fray.
“Health history?”
“I don’t know,” Dra’Kaedan answered. “He has a lot of stress, doesn’t eat right, and rarely sleeps.”
“No previous heart issues?”
“Not that I know of, no. Any idea what could tear a heart into two?”
The doctor’s brown eyes met his. “I’ve never heard of such a thing and I’ve been a doctor for three centuries. How long will your magic hold?”
“It depends on what caused it to tear.”
“We’ll begin running blood tests. If you can keep close, we’d appreciate it. There’s no amount of medicine I can administer or druid that works here who can fix a heart that badly damaged,” the doctor explained. “Damn it, get an ultrasound in here so we can see if there’s more than magic holding it together.”
“Of course, you couldn’t kick me out of here,” Dra’Kaedan said and he meant it. Chander wasn’t going to die on his watch.
Someone came in with a machine on a cart, and a green substance was squeezed out onto the Arch Lich’s chest before a technician began using a wand on it.
“Grand Warlock, your magic is surrounding it, but you’ve managed to heal the heart itself. I can see a line where it was torn through,” the doctor revealed. “We’ll need bloodwork to see if the muscle is still breaking down.”
“That’s a relief.” Dra’Kaedan watched an astonishing amount of blood spurt out of Chander.
“His chest cavity is full of blood. He lost a ton of it before his heart was mended,” the doctor explained. “He will definitely require a transfusion when we can get this blood cleared out of here.”
The doctor began barking out more orders. Medicines and other things Dra’Kaedan had no clue about but knew they were all to help Chander. He was going to stick to his side until they knew why this had happened and until Dra’Kaedan was damn sure they weren’t going to have a repeat. He’d do everything in his power to see to it that Chander didn’t die. Dra’Kaedan could only hope it would be enough.
Chapter 27
Alaric was busy going through every piece of parchment in the stacks of crap in his office, looking for clues. There were so many mysteries about sentinels—he was sure he could find something somewhere in this giant heap of stones. He pulled out a drawer and his head spun. Dropping into his chair, he was aware of a tugging against his soul. It yanked nearly clean out of him and then in a flash slammed back into him. Alaric had no idea what the hell was going on. He had an odd feeling of being disconnected and was trying to reorient himself but it was difficult when he had no explanation for what had just happened.
“Alaric,” Gavrael said as he stepped into his office. His eyes were troubled. Gedeon was behind him and the expression on his face put Alaric on full alert. Something was wrong.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“You need to come with us to D’Vaire. My phone is there and Brogan is texting me a photo. It’s Chander, he’s in the hospital.”
Alaric jumped out of his seat and whipped his cloak over him. “Let’s go,” he replied before teleporting to D’Vaire. Once he arrived, Gavrael showed him the text with the image of the magical arrival area and he transported there. Gavrael and Gedeon materialized next to him. The first thing he saw was Duke Brogan D’Vairedraconis.
“This way,” the dragon shifter said and Alaric followed him at a fast clip. He took them to a waiting room where the Reverent Knights and Chander’s sentinels were. Drystan and Conley were pacing and while Baxter and Benton lay unconscious.
“What the fuck is going on?” Alaric demanded.
“Chand collapsed,” Drystan explained. Like Gavrael, his eyes were swimming with emotion. “Dra’Kaedan and the other warlocks are with him.”
“Collapsed?” Alaric asked. He was having that head-spinning feeling again and wondered if that strange episode a few minutes before had something to do with his matebond.
“Yes,” Drystan reiterated. “He collapsed in the hall at Council Headquarters. But the warlocks are with the doctors and they’re taking care of him. I wish I could tell you more, but that’s all I know at this point.”
Alaric was hardly happ
y with the amount of information the Reverent Knight had imparted. He needed to know what the hell was wrong with Chander. Marching over to a giant desk he caught the attention of a young shifter sitting there. “Excuse me? My mate is here, Arch Lich Chander Daray. I need to know his status.”
The shifter looked at him with wide eyes and Alaric knew he was scaring her but he couldn’t care less. “Um, sir, do you have your ID card?”
Alaric fished it out of his pocket and handed it to her. She scanned it and returned it. “Arch Lich-mate, your mate is here. He’s currently being worked on. I will let the doctor know you’re here so they can come out and give you an update on his status.”
“You can’t tell me anything else?”
“I’m sorry, that’s all I know,” she said. Alaric was far from satisfied but he had no options. He could track Chander in the hospital but he didn’t want to interfere with his care. Wandering back to where Drystan and Conley were, he looked down at the heap that was Baxter and Benton.
“What happened to the Arch Lich’s sentinels?” he asked.
“We tranqued them,” Drystan replied. Alaric knew sentinels were helpless when their necromancer was in danger and could not disobey their instincts. Baxter and Benton’s actions told him all he needed to know about how grave Chander’s situation was. His heart sank. He was resurrected; he wouldn’t die with Chander like other magickind, but that was no consolation. They’d never even managed to be a couple; he couldn’t lose him now.
“Arch Lich-mate?” a nurse inquired as she entered the waiting room.
“Do you have an update on my mate?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, no,” the nurse replied. “But the doctor asked me to find you so you could donate some blood for him.”
“Of course, whatever I can do to help.” Alaric didn’t want to even think about why Chander would need blood in the first place, but he followed the nurse down a busy hallway. She led him to a room and told him to have a seat.
“I apologize. This is going to be painful,” she explained. “We have to use a poison to penetrate your skin. It’s pretty powerful so you don’t heal around the needle.”
Alaric shrugged out of his cloak and held his arm out for her use. He couldn’t care less about pain. She tied a strip of rubber around his biceps, smeared him with a wet cloth covered in alcohol, and stuck him with the toxin-coated needle. It stung all the way up to his shoulder but he shut his mind off from the sensation and focused solely on Chander. This was for him, and Alaric would not complain about anything he had to do to help.
It seemed to take forever for the bag to fill, and Alaric was impatient to get back to the waiting room so he could talk to the doctor. He wanted to know why Chander had collapsed, why the hell he needed blood, and when he could see him. As soon as she pulled the needle out of his arm, Alaric was on his feet.
“You regenerate blood quickly since you are resurrected,” she told him as she walked him back to the waiting room. “I’ll be back to get more from you in a couple of hours.”
“How much blood did my mate lose?” Alaric asked.
“Don’t worry, we always take more than we need as a precaution,” she said which was hardly reassuring. Alaric arrived back to find the fallen knights had grown in number in his absence. Both Venerable Knights were there as well as a few other men he didn’t recognize.
“Has the doctor come out?” Alaric asked.
“Not yet,” Conley replied.
Alaric was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do. Chander was in this building somewhere suffering from something he knew nothing about, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do. It was as frustrating as it was irritating. He needed to know if Chander was okay. Unable to sit and calmly wait, he began pacing. He wasn’t alone, and there was little talking while he and the other men in the room tried to find patience in a situation that was straining them to the limit.
Minutes became hours. Alaric was forced to cough down food brought from D’Vaire. Baxter and Benton had regained consciousness and Alaric was relieved they were no longer acting on instinct alone. It didn’t mean Chander was all right but only that he wasn’t in imminent danger of losing his life. While it offered some comfort, his need to know more had not lessened.
The waiting room began to overflow with people. Fallen knights crowded in alongside necromancers like Evergreen who was teary eyed. At his side was his sentinel Dudley, and Alaric was grateful that yet another one of his men was outside of the compound. As the Council day ended, leaders began to trickle in, asking questions and offering words that were supposed to comfort Alaric. The Emperor was there with his two brothers, and so was the leader of the wizards. It was a testament to what Chander meant to the world around him, and Alaric was humbled by it. Chander was loved by many people, and it spoke highly of his character. This was the man Fate had given to him, and he was fervent in his desire to know how he was faring.
As if the world around him was finally listening, he heard a new voice call out, “Arch Lich-mate Daray?”
“I’m Arch Lich-mate Daray. Where’s my mate?”
“I’m Doctor Tranelephas,” the man replied. “Your mate was brought into our emergency room early this afternoon. He’d suffered what we would categorize as a catastrophic event. He had the most severe heart attack I’ve ever seen. The heart muscle tore into two separate pieces. Had the Grand Warlock not been there, there is no way he would have survived. Together the warlocks created a mesh that’s covering the organ and its surrounding veins and arteries. He arrived without a pulse, but we think his brain wasn’t deprived of oxygen long enough to have to worry about potential brain damage, and we’ll keep an eye on that when he wakes up.”
Alaric heard shocked sounds coming from several people in the crammed room. He now knew what that feeling had been earlier. Chander had died, and it was their matebond trying to tear apart.
“What is his condition now?” Alaric asked.
“The situation is still grave. He’s in a coma and we’ll keep him in one to give his body a chance to heal. All that blood had to go somewhere, and we’re draining it from his chest cavity. It collapsed his left lung and we had to put in a chest tube. That means he’s lost a significant amount of blood volume, and he’s going to need to be transfused. We want to get him into the intensive care unit and have him a bit more stable before we begin giving him your blood. When you have an event like this, it fills your blood with proteins from the heart muscle being broken down. We need to make sure that process has stopped.”
“It hasn’t yet?”
“No, and that’s not unexpected given the amount of damage done to his heart. It may be many more hours before the protein is flushed out.”
“When can I see him?”
“When we get him moved to ICU, we’ll let you in to see him—that should be within the next hour. We’ll have someone come and get you. The Grand Warlock will be staying to assist should we need his magic, and His Grace will be allowed to join his mate. The Arch Lich’s sentinels can come back as well, but that’s it. The Arch Lich is very ill as well as the other patients down there, and it’s impossible for us to care for them properly with lots of visitors milling about,” the doctor said.
Alaric couldn’t care less about visitors; he wanted to see Chander.
“As his sentinels, how did we miss that he was so ill?” Benton asked in a soft voice.
“It isn’t clear yet what caused this event. There’s an anomaly in his blood we’re investigating, but we have no idea if it’s related or not. For many people, symptoms of heart disease or even the heart attack itself may be minor or non-existent. The Arch Lich is underweight and I suspect malnourished. That tells me he hasn’t taken the best care of himself, though it’s still shocking to see this in a sorcerer this young. The truth is you may have suspected nothing because there was nothing to detect. Or the symptoms like fatigue may have gone unnoticed because he routinely suffers from it. It’s impossible to say,” the doctor explained
.
“Tell me more about the anomaly in his blood,” Alaric demanded.
“It’s just that. Something unidentifiable, and it’s nothing our lab has seen before. We’re still investigating,” the doctor responded.
“The Spectra Wizardry would be happy to assist you,” Prism Wizard Vadimas Porfyra said.
“Prism Wizard, I didn’t see you there. We’d love your help. If you follow me to the lab we can get you some samples of it.” He turned back to Alaric. “Are there any more questions for me Arch Lich-mate?”
“No, I’d like to see my mate as soon as possible.”
“I understand. We’ll bring you back as soon as we can.”
“Thank you very much.” The news the doctor had given Alaric was devastating. Chander was fighting for his life, and he wanted to be with him. Though they hadn’t had nearly enough time to get to know one another, he was already certain he would never be the same should he lose him.
“Fuck, I want to see him with my own eyes,” Baxter blurted out.
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Alaric said.
“Should we let the elders know?” Benton asked.
“Look around you,” Alaric demanded. “This room is full of people who care about Chander. Guess who is not here? Fuck the elders. They couldn’t even be bothered to come here. If they want to know how he’s doing, they’ll have to go through me.”
“I won’t tell them anything, I promise,” a teary Evergreen assured him.
“I trust you,” Alaric responded. “You don’t need to go to the office until Chander is well again if you don’t want to.”
“No, I’ll go. I’ll keep everything in order for him. It’s the least I can do.”
“He’s lucky to have you.” People began offering words of comfort and some of them headed out to return to their lives. It all coalesced around Alaric as he paced and wished he was with his mate. Chander had to live through this, and Alaric was not going to lose hope that he would. The Arch Lich was strong and Fate couldn’t have paired them together just to tear them apart before they ever learned to be true mates. Alaric simply couldn’t believe Fate could be that cruel, but time would tell.
Rise of the Lich Sentinel Page 19