“This is my fault, she attacked Ryker to protect—” A sob swallowed my words, forcing me to cover my mouth as the pain finally overwhelmed me. Seeing Isis like this, half dead because of me was something from which I would never recover. “If she dies, I?—”
“It isnotyour fault, and Isis isnotgoing to die,” Dante vowed next to me, eyes swirling with darkness. “I’m not going to let her.”
“Come with me,” Vanessa urged, trying to pull me away, but my head shook adamantly.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You have to.” D’s voice was soft as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
I recoiled from his touch.
“You have to,” Bjørn echoed. “You need to let us heal her.”
Glancing at him, I saw the fierceness in his expression that said he would save her life even if that was the last thing he did.
Realizing I was in their way, I immediately stood but stayed close. “I’m not leaving her side again.”
“You don’t have to,” Vanessa assured, guiding me to the sofa right next to them. She sat with me, holding me to her side while pain and fear burned through me. “We’ll just be right here.”
D and Dante took our places straightaway, D kneeling next to her head while Dante gently grabbed her injured arm. Both of the Fae’s hands rested over Isis’ heart.
“I’m sorry, Natasha. You won’t like what I have to do, but Ihaveto do it.” With the words, D lifted his own wrist to his mouth and bit it, his fangs lowering enough to pierce his skin.
My entire body tensed when I saw him open Isis’s mouth and press his bleeding wrist over it, the blood dripping onto her tongue. I tried to contain the shock coursing through me at the sight, but the hurt in his eyes said I wasn’t exactly successful. He ignored me, continuing to feed her his blood.
Dante’s darkness wrapped around Isis’ arm as he began to heal it, and shimmery, burnt orange waves of energy flowed from Bjørn’s palms and into her chest.
“Vampire blood has regenerative capabilities, remember?” Vanessa asked, reminding me of our conversation at the diner, and pulling my gaze from the heartbreaking scene. “I used mine to heal Debbie’s granddaughter from a disease that was making her body attack itself. It was killing her slowly.”
I swallowed, focusing on her. “That’s how she knows you are a Vampire.”
“It is.” A gentle smile curved her lips, declaring she valued being able to save the girl’s life. “My brother’s is like that, but he’s…” She paused when his gaze bored into hers. “He’sspecial,” she said instead, causing him to shake his head even as he rolled his eyes. “So, his blood is far more powerful than mine. There, that’s all I said!” She made a face at him, then glanced back at me. “That is what Isis needs right now, Tasha. She needs him.”
Taking a calming breath, I nodded, forcing myself to accept that although all of this was strange for me, I was witnessing them save Isis’s life.
Nothing else mattered right now but her.
18
Silence swayed between us like a sullen lullaby while I watched the Fae, the Dark Witch, and the Vampire heal the woman who’d been like a mother to me all these years. The one who had traded her life for mine.
Vanessa’s hand squeezed mine, bringing me out of my head, and she gestured toward her brother.
When my gaze fell on D’s wrist, I noticed that Isis’ lips had closed around it, and she was drinking from him of her own will. My gaze flew to her face, finding her eyes still closed, but as I continued to observe her, I also realized Dante had pretty much healed the wounds of her arm by now. Bjørn’s magic still flowed into her chest, her skin regaining the stunningly tanned hue she possessed, and relief coursed through me, implacable.
Whatever they were doing for her, together, was working.
I doubted I would ever be able to express how grateful I was to them. Fresh tears rushed to my eyes, but I swallowed them trying not to make a fool of myself by crying in front of everyone again.
“Bjørn is sharing his life energy with her,” Vanessa explained in a hushed tone when she saw me focused on his hands. “He’s replenishing the life she lost.”
“Is that dangerous for him?” I whispered, spotting the beads of sweat gathering on his forehead and his slightly strained expression.
“It can be… for any of them. It takes great effort and ability to give what is needed to save her, but not so much that it harms them instead.”
As she spoke, I noticed the traces of pain carving Dante’s features, dark circles growing under his eyes. It was only then that I remembered he’d fed Vanessa his blood to heal her, and then spent three days replenishing my wolf and me from everything we endured. Now he was exerting himself by healing Isis when he hadn’t even gotten to rest.
Concern for him immediately captured my being.
