“Oh, shit,” Magnum said, catching a glimpse of what happened before snatching Blake and folding her face into his shoulder and carrying her out of the room.
“Cinder, what the fuck is going on?” I turned and glared at my brother’s fiancée, wondering why she was walking around smiling while Tulya was passed out on the floor. “Wipe that slimy grin off your face,” I scolded her. “You got what you wanted. Are you happy?”
I couldn’t stop the venom from pouring out of me.
“What did you do?” I directed my fury at the two women who’d been in the room—as if they had a clue. One was a full-fledged human and the other a Rubian nightmare.
“We don’t know. You were here too. You saw it happen,” Valerie stated from the chair she’d slumped into, rubbing her chest above her heart. “I can’t help her or anyone now,” was all she said, breaking out into tears. “My whole body hurts. All I feel is heartache and vile thoughts.” She seemed to be shaking her head to get the thoughts out.
I fell to the floor, unable to be pleased over the transfer working. Why? Because Tulya was out cold. Her chest was still rising and falling but she was completely unconscious. My lips yearned to run over her cheek, but I wasn’t that far gone.
“It was too much,” I whispered to myself, leaning over Tulya, choosing to caress her cheek with my palm. “Tulya, wake up!” I gave her a small slap on the face.
I was a man with feelings, who couldn’t show them, and the object of all my desires was lying there motionless.
“Tulya,” I said with more authority, crouched over her limp body.
“Don.” I felt a hand on my back. “Come on, let’s move her.”
Standing, I met Magnum’s face, shaking my head. “If I wasn’t so concerned, I’d lay into you. But we have one motionless Rubian and another woman sing-songing about getting her man back. Not to mention a human in despair and an innocentchildwithpowers.” I tried to whisper, but the last part came out in a yell; I couldn’t care.
“The child is in the other room,” my brother said sternly.
“I’ll go to the child, my daughter.” Valerie stood and said to Magnum, “You can deal with her.” She knocked her head toward the floor where Tulya still lay. “She got what she deserved, if you ask me. Not that it was her fault. That one over there pushed for it.” This time her gaze cut to Cinder.
“If it was anyone’s mistake, it was mine. I went along with this whole plan like the lemming my mother wants me to be.” I gritted my teeth at no one, furious at everyone. “Magnum, helpme lift Tulya and take her to the car. Cinder, get the door. Hope you are all happy now.” I spoke in clipped phrases, each word coming out gruffer than the one before
Magnum bent and slid his hand under Tulya’s back. “She’s breathing,” he commented.
“No shit, asshole. If she wasn’t, I would’ve called 911.”
“We can’t do that, and you damn well know it.”
He had the nerve to question my Rubian knowledge. Him…Magnum, the breaker of every rule. But he wasn’t wrong. We didn’t see human doctors. For the most part, they wouldn’t notice the small synapses that were at the root of our abilities, but we just didn’t do it—
“You let your daughter be born and raised right out in the open, tough guy,” I slammed back.
He pursed his lips.
We stood there, staring one another down. “Get your hand out from her, I’ll lift her myself.”
I lowered into a squat and slid an arm under Tulya and grasped her gently into my chest before standing and running my lips across her forehead.
Magnum raised an eyebrow and I shook my head. “Don’t go there,” was all I said.
“Mom seems to have traded one headache for another,” he had further nerve to say.
I walked out of the house, Cinder standing and holding the door, and never looked back at my brother who dared to challenge me when all this was his fault.
“Open the car door too,” I called to Cinder, who was flopping around light as a feather. This entire scene gave new meaning to the burden Tulya carried.
I slid the limp woman across the back seat, telling myself that as long as she was breathing, she would be okay. I wasn’t sure what to call the state she was in—comalike or maybe a trance?
All I knew was the Minister or fucking Ezza was going to answer to me. Someone had to have known this might happen, and they still forced Tulya to do it.
I drove back to the hotel, one eye on the road and the other on the rearview mirror. In the back, Tulya was…resting? Sleeping? In a coma?
I had no fucking clue.
