He rolls his neck and shakes nervous energy out of his arms. I’m tempted to mimic him as my body starts to hum with adrenaline. Bastien’s palm lights up as he activates the six circular diamond runes. Slowly one by one, each of their palms light up. A blue glow fills the room, and it feels like everyone is holding their breath and waiting to see what will happen next.
Siah watches me as I activate my rune, and then his palm lights up with that same eerie blue light.
“I’ve never changed anyone before,” he admits, looking to Sorik for help.
“You know when you’re feeding and you can feel something inside of you latch on to the power in the blood?” Sorik asks.
Siah nods and looks at me quickly before looking back at Sorik.
“You’ll do that, but instead of pulling the power into you, you’ll push it further into him. You’ll keep doing that until Vaughn is full. If it works, he should wake up a lamia, and hungry.”
“Okay,” Siah agrees, and then quick as lightning, he slashes across Vaughn’s forearm.
My initial reaction is to defend Vaughn from any more injury, and I have to talk myself down from reacting the way my instincts are screaming for me to react.He’s okay, Vinna. Siah needs his blood. Would you rather he bit him, knowing what that bite can do?I roll my neck and open and close my fists in an effort to regain control of myself.
Siah focuses on the line of blood that’s seeped into the scratch, and it’s as if time stands still. I don’t feel anything at first, but after maybe ten minutes or so, I start to feel tiny tugs right in the middle of my chest. The pull is soft, and even though I can’t physically see any evidence of the magic that Siah is pushing into Vaughn, I can picture it in my mind. I imagine that there’s a steady flow of blue light running from Siah’s hands into Vaughn’s chest. I can picture Vaughn filled to the brink inside and then sitting up, gasping for air.
Sorik watches Vaughn and Siah closely, and I wonder what’s going through his mind. Is he as tangled up inside with conflicting emotions as I am?
Torrez goes down first. My heart hammers with alarm, but Sorik gets to him before he can crumble all the way to the ground. Sorik lays him down gently and whispers something to him that I can’t make out. Knox is next, and then Sabin. Worry begins to consume me as one by one, Siah drains each of them, and there’s still no hint that any of this is working.
“They’re okay, just sleeping like before,” Sorik reassures me.
I nod and try to convince my heart that this will all be okay.
Bastien and Valen both look pained, like they’re fighting what we all know is inevitable. Bastien grunts, and the next thing I know, Sorik is positioning both of the twins on the floor. I fall forward and grab onto the side of the bed to keep me from going all the way over. I don’t feel like I’m going to pass out, but the tug at the middle of my chest just got infinitely stronger. I feel like someone just harpooned me and is trying to drag me through the water to them.
Ryker sways on his feet, and I prepare myself for the increase in the intensity of the magic pull when he goes down.
“Vinna,” Ryker calls to me through gritted teeth. My eyes snap to his. “Call on the runes Siah gave you. I think they might heal. Lace that in your magic and see if it helps,” he tells me, and then he’s down for the count.
I gasp as the harpoon in my chest gives another hard yank, and then I do what Ryker suggested. I activate the runes on my right shoulder that Siah’s bite left behind.
I feel like someone just bitch slapped me with a lightning bolt. The runes I just activated saidhold my beeras they shoved the harpoon out of my chest, cracked my rib cage in half and swung each side open like opulent French doors. Power pours out of me like I’m doing the fucking Care Bear Stare, and I grit my teeth and try to hold my ground. I look down at myself and see that my skin is still just kissed by the eerie blue light from the rune on my hand and shoulder, but I feel like I’m lit up like the fucking sun right now.
“He’s close,” Sorik announces, and Siah inclines his chin, his teeth also ground together from the force I’m now feeding into him.
I begin to pant. My insides start tofeellike the sun as a deep burning starts in my chest and works its way out into my limbs. The burn becomes searing, and pain radiates through everything that I am. I grit my teeth and will against it and keep shoving everything I have into Siah. He growls and a drop of blood spills out of his nose. His face is filled with strain and agony, and I know my features reflect the exact same thing. A keening starts in my chest as I keep pushing power out of me and into Siah. It fucking hurts, but we’re so close.
Will this work?Fuck, please let it work,I beg as I burn from the inside out, my keening on the verge of a scream. I release my plea to float out into the universe, and just as I do, Siah disconnects his rune, and his legs give out. Like a rubber band from hell, the magic I was pouring into Siah snaps back at me, and I get hammered by the force of it. I gasp and then cry out from the impact, and then the next thing I know, everything goes black.
28
Iopen my eyes and squint against the bright sun streaming through the windows. My Chosen are still asleep around me, and I’m not sure how long we’ve been out. I crawl out of bed and press Healing magic into each of them, but they all seem to be okay aside from the whole unconscious thing. I head out into the main room, and Kallan and Becket leap up from the couches.
“She’s up,” Kallan announces, and then they both become hovering mother hens.
“How are you feeling?” Becket asks at the same time I ask, “How long was I out?”
“About seventeen hours now,” Nash announces from the doorway of Vaughn and Sorik’s room.
My heart rate picks up like a galloping horse as I try to see past Nash into the room. My hopeful gaze falls on Nash, the question clear in my stare.
Nash shakes his head, and everything in me drops.
“Nothing?” I ask, my voice cracking with emotion.
I thought for sure this was going to work. It just felt so right when we worked it out.
