The tears running down my face splattered onto Cedar’s pale skin. The blood had all but drained out of her, leaving nothing behind to flush her skin.
I'd never felt a pain this strong. It was like someone had ripped my heart out and shredded it to pieces, and I was forced to live through it. I felt her death a hundred times over, but I couldn't turn off the pain.
Turning it off would mean letting her go.
And then I felt it.
A twitch.
I thought it was Aurelia at first, but when she looked at me, I could tell she felt it too.
I wanted to believe it, so I latched onto it. To the hope.
I looked at Cedar, analyzing her face for any sign that she was alive. It was still just as pale, but when I looked down at her chest, the wound was slowly knitting itself back together.
One by one, organs, muscle, skin—all of it had started to grow back, connecting to each other until her chest bore no sign of a wound.
“What’s happening?” I forced out, my voice rough from trying to keep my screams locked in me.
“I don’t know. She?—”
Cedar’s eyes snapped open. She was looking up to the ceiling, not noticing us there. Shock, happiness, confusion—I didn't know what to feel first, but I couldn't stifle my gasp.
Because her eyes weren't the same color.
The forest green had been replaced.
With red.
Much like a?—
“Vampire?” Aurelia breathed.
“Cedar?” I asked distantly. Her eyes moved to me, and I knew.
I remembered this moment when it happened to me.
One moment I was on the cold ground, shivering, slowly fading. Then, suddenly, I was pulled back, snapped into consciousness and into a body that didn’t fully feel like mine.
The first normal reaction was to freak the fuck out. And I had. But Cedar wouldn’t be able to, not with the chaos surrounding us.
“Back up!” Aurelia yelled.
Atlas and Caspian echoed her. When people started catching on, a collective gasp ran through the crowd. Somehow, the fact that a witch had turned into a vampire was even more surprising than whatever the experimental shifters we saw were.
“Slowly,” I breathed, putting my hand on her chest, the wound now closed.
She watched me, and I saw the ferocity in them. Hunger shot through the bond.
It's still here. She’s still a part of this. Of us.
“Breathe in,” I said in a whisper.
Aurelia moved closer to me, her hand covering mine.
“And out,” Aurelia added.
Cedar’s eyes shot to her.
