“I didn’t know,” he said. “Not at first. But the last couple of days she’s been getting paler, more tired—and this morning the readings spiked. I tried to throttle it back, but every adjustment made it worse.”
I took a slow, deadly step toward him. Ezra backed up until his spine hit the cabinets.
“She’s human,” he said, voice cracking. “Cristian, I’m sorry. A human body can’t withstand that kind of energy pull. It was already draining her—my interference just accelerated it.”
The room tilted, and I grabbed hold of the counter to keep my control.
“You knew,” I said, each word carved from steel. “You knew she was in danger.”
“I didn’tknowknow,” he said desperately. “I suspected. I didn’t want to say anything until I had a fix?—”
“You endangered her by not telling me.”
Ezra’s breath hitched, the guilt spilling out of him. “I’ve been trying to save her. I swear. But after what happened just now? Cristian…”
He looked at Nadia, then at me.
“I don’t think she’ll survive unless you turn her.”
The world went silent.
Completely, utterly silent.
My thoughts went to Ambrosia and her sentiments. She had been taunting me with this.
The bond inside me thrummed weakly, erratically, like Nadia reaching for me in the dark.
I inhaled through my teeth. Slowly. Carefully. Because if I didn’t, I would tear Ezra apart where he stood.
“This,” I said softly, “is your error to repair.”
Ezra nodded, shaking. “I’ll try. I’ll do everything I can.”
“No,” I said. “You will succeed.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but one look at my face shut him up.
Behind us, Nadia’s breath hitched faintly—too shallow.
My hands trembled, but it wasn’t from rage. It was fear.
For the first time in centuries, I was truly afraid. I could not lose her. Not to them. Not to this. Not to my own damn failure. I should have already found a way to break this bond, but instead, I was letting it destroy her.
Her scent—the one that usually grounded me—was thin, like something being pulled out of her in threads.
She was slipping.
Lena. She was a nurse. Mortal medicine would not cure what ailed Nadia, but it could hold her in place while I fixed the rest. I gathered Nadia against my chest and took the stairs two at a time. Lena’s door was shut. I did not bother knocking. Subtlety was for people with time.
Lena shot upright in bed, hair wild, eyes unfocused. “What the fu—?” Then she saw Nadia in my arms. “Put her on the bed,” she barked, suddenly a general. “Now. What happened?”
I obeyed. For once, I obeyed instantly.
She moved around Nadia with swift precision, checking her pulse, her pupils, her breathing. She flicked on a lamp, then sprinted to a closet and dragged out an orange medical bag.
“What happened?” she demanded again, snapping latex gloves on with the speed of an assassin.
“She said she didn’t feel well. Then she fainted,” I answered. My voice sounded calm, but only because centuries of discipline made it so.
