I let the breath out.Fix this. That’s all we have to do. Stop the bleeding. Heal what we can, or at least take some of the pain and make sure we can get Rachel to the hospital.
Voices reach me, distant, frantic. Vlad’s hand never moves from my shoulder. When I think of him, the shimmering gold of our bond fills the space behind my closed lids, but then I focuson the task at hand and the gold retreats, though it is always hovering at the corners.
Magic pushes from my hands and into Rachel, swiftly moving to the site of the injury. I see it even with my eyes closed, a black hole that pulses with each beat of her heart, except my magic fills it, pushing at the edges, until all I see is more light and Rachel’s breaths even out.
I open my eyes when the light dies down, magic sweeping back up my arms and into me. Rachel is still on the floor, but now Margot is with us too, eyes full of unshed tears.
Rachel stares up at me, mouth agape. “You saved me.”
I shrug, regretting the move when it makes my head spin and nearly knocks me on my arse. Vlad is there, of course, though he grunts when he catches me, and I want to heal him too, even though I know we have to be careful.
“She’s dead,” Asher says. He’s standing over Eirian’s body. Quinn looks dishevelled, if not injured, though I guess his injuries probably healed on the way here.
“You’re hurt,” I say to Vlad.
“I will heal.”
My magic won’t hurt him. I won’t let it, and I feel a faint resonance, like it somehow agrees with me on that point. “Please, let me—”
He catches my hand when I raise it. I scowl. IknowI won’t hurt him, not now. He shouldn’t have pulled on it himself. And he was going to do it again…
I draw my hand back before I can do something foolish like shove him over. Heishurt. Even if I’m mad at him.
Asher hesitates before he crouches next to us. “I could…”
“No,” Vlad says before I can. Not that I would. No, I’d let Asher heal him even if my magic is suddenly trying to force its way out of me and heal up the wound all on its own.Behave. It was so good a minute ago. “I will be fine.”
“Maurice is almost here,” Asher says with a nod. Margot helps Rachel up and onto the sofa. Rachel doesn’t look away from me the entire time. “I think he will manage to deal with the clean-up. What happened here?”
“Eirian already had Rachel,” Vlad says and looks at her.
She nods, curling into Margot’s side. “Someone grabbed me before I even made it to the beach. Then that”—her gaze lands on Eirian’s body, and she pales—“she told me I’d be queen with her. I just had to behave. If I didn’t behave, she’d kill Margot.”
Her voice cracks on the last word and Margot pulls her even closer, kissing the side of her head. I want to reach for Vlad, but I don’t want to hurt him. I slide my hand across the carpet, pressing it against his.
“She brought you here?” Asher asks.
Rachel nods.
“They arrived some time after you all left,” Vlad says. “Eirian used a puca to hide her approach and bring Rachel in without me noticing. She wanted me to turn Rachel so that she could take Rachel to the Otherworld with her.”
“You think she thought the power lies with you?” Asher says.
“I suppose it is as logical a leap as any,” Vlad replies. “She would never have managed it herself. She gave all her vampires too much power.”
“Yeah, you’re telling us,” Quinn mutters. He smiles, though, when Asher looks at him with concern, and I’m not sure that I like the way Asher’s glare echoes the one I gave Vlad earlier.
“What now?” Margot asks.
“Now?” Asher blows out a breath. “We’ll clean up here. With Eirian and Jakob gone, some of the vampires who used to live here might come back, but that will likely be over the course of weeks or months. If there’s anyone here you think we should talk to, we can do that tonight, too.”
“I can manage that,” Vlad says, but Asher shakes his head before I can open my mouth to protest.
“Youwill go back and rest. If you’re too stubborn to let your mate heal you, you can at least manage that.”
Vlad flinches. Only a little, but I see it. “Grant’s magic… I am not sure it is compatible.”
“Vampires can’t feed from wolves until they’ve done the rites,” Quinn says mildly. “Don’t see why that would be any different for you. Or us.”
