He tips my chin up. “I’m not going anywhere. I promised I’d be by your side, and nothing will ever change that. We’ll figure it all out. Together.”
“Seriously, you have got to stop reading all of my emotions. It’s getting a little freaky. But also…” I grab hold of his shirt, yank him forward, and press my lips to his fast and hard. If I startled him, he doesn’t show it. He slips one hand around the back of my neck, while the other settles on the small of my back, nudging me closer. His lips part beneath mine, and I let myself get lost in the sensations as millions of butterflies take flight in my belly.
Taking a deep breath, he rests his forehead against mine, his fingers twisting around a lock of curls at the side of my face.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“For the outstanding kiss I just gave you? You’re welcome.”
“No, although the kiss was outstanding. Thank you for not thinking I’m crazy.”
A teasing grin plays at his mouth, his eyes taking on a mischievous gleam. “Wellll.”
“Hey!” I push him back a step and cross my arms.
He holds his hands up in surrender, his laughter filling the space between us. “Okay. Okay. Not crazy.” He grabs hold of my wrist, and yanks me forward so fast I stumble straight into his arms. “Well, maybe a little crazy. But so am I. We can be crazy together.” And then his lips are pressed against mine, and I couldn’t care less who’s crazy.
33
I stand at the foot of the bed, staring at Seth’s sleeping face. He looks nothing like the nightmare vampire my mind wants to paint him as. He doesn’t even look the same as he did at the park. He seems thinner now somehow, his cheekbones too sharp beneath the dark circles under his eyes as though he’s spent days awake, possibly starved and tormented instead of comatose. But everything else is exactly like how I’d imagine he’d look in a hospital-type setting. A bland hospital gown in the same shade of white as everything else in the room has replaced his clothes. Electrodes connected to his chest display his heart rate on a monitor at the side of the bed, while a bag of fluids attached to an IV is affixed to his hand. But still, I can’t make myself believe he’s been here in this room the whole time.
I glance over at Sebastian, who’s leaning against the wall beside the door. He watches me beneath his lashes, his expression contemplative. “Still think I’m not crazy to believe this isn’t real?”
“No. If I’ve learned anything as a chaser, it’s that things aren’t always what they appear to be. I see him lying here, same as you, but I see other things too.”
“Like what?”
Detaching from the wall, he moves to Seth’s bedside. “Like this.” He turns Seth’s head to the side, revealing a small sigil hidden behind his ear. “It’s to induce deep sleep.”
“He’s under a sleeping spell?” I lean in closer for a better look. It’s not much bigger than a penny, with looping lines and embellished flourishes. “How did you know it was there?”
“I could see the bottom portion of the sigil below his ear.”
I look up at him. “From across the room?”
“Chaser, remember? I’m trained to be very observant. Which is how I also know these marks on Seth’s arm shouldn’t be here either.” He points at a pinkish half circle barely visible on the inner side of Seth’s right arm, then flips it over, revealing several more marks spanning from his wrist to his elbow.
“They’re bite marks.” I cock my head to the side as I trace my finger over a slightly raised pinkish red scar. There’s something very familiar about them, like I’ve seen them before, but I can’t remember when or where.
“He didn’t have them when we were in the park, which means they had to have come later. The healing has also been sped up, which further confirms his coma isn’t caused by an aversion to magic.”
I pull my fingers from Seth’s arm as a chill slithers up my back. “So, you’re saying someone or something here bit him repeatedly?”
“Or he did it to himself.” Sebastian turns Seth’s arm back over, placing it where it had been before he moved it.
I turn my gaze back to Seth, watching his chest slowly rise and fall. He was happy I had given him back his humanity. He thanked me for it. Why would someone so grateful to be alive hurt himself?
The answer is he wouldn’t.
“No. I don’t think Seth did this to himself.” But if not him, then who? I highly doubt chasers are going around biting people brought in for interrogation.
I suck in a harsh breath and grab the sides of my head, my fingers curling into fists in my hair at the sudden pain jabbing through my skull. The floor sways beneath my feet, and I stumble forward just as the room around me changes. No longer in the bright white recovery room, darkness spreads all around. I lift the phone in my hand, the light illuminating Seth cowering in a shadowed corner.
“And then they brought her.”
Strong hands grab hold of my shoulders, and the darkness reverts back into the too-bright recovery room. I squint my eyes against the glare of the florescent lights shining onto the white walls just as my knees give out, and I’m crushed against a hard body.
Sebastian lowers me into a chair, then kneels before me. His fingers glide over my face as he brushes my bangs from my eyes, tucking wayward auburn strands behind my ear. He pinches my chin between his finger and thumb. Concern etches into the lines of his face as his gaze meets mine. “Are you okay?”
I take stock of myself. Other than a dull headache and an out-of-control heartbeat, everything seems to be in working order. “Yeah. I’m okay. I just got a little dizzy, I guess.”
“It was more than just dizziness. You grabbed your head like you were in pain, and then you said ‘and then they brought her.’”
“I did?”
“What did you mean by that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember saying anything.”
He pulls out his phone from his back pocket and opens the message app. His thumbs fly over the screen so fast I’m tempted to ask if he actually typed something out or if he was just hitting random keys. Not even Liv can text that fast, and her phone is practically glued to her hands. His phone chimes a moment later. He makes a face and types another message, then shoves the phone back into his pocket. He takes my hand. “Do you think you can stand?” At my nod, he pulls me up and heads for the door.
I dig my heels in just as he grabs the doorknob. “Wait. Where are we going?” I glance over my shoulder at Seth. “We can’t leave him here.”
He drops his hand from the knob and turns to face me, his gaze bouncing from me to Seth and back again. “How many people do you think you can whoosh at a time?”
My eyes widen. “You want me to whoosh all three of us out of here at the same time?”
“If you can. Once I disconnect Seth from the medical equipment, whoever is monitoring him will be alerted. It would be preferable if we were gone before they got here.”
I make my way back to Seth’s bedside, dragging Sebastian with me. “I don’t know. The only person I’ve ever brought with me is you.” My stomach flips, sloshing around a big bowl of queasy. “Maybe if I hold on to him and you at the same time?”
“It’s worth a shot.” He lets go of my hand and maneuvers around to the other side of the bed. “We’ll need to be fast. The moment I pull the leads off and remove the IV, I’ll grab your hand, and you whoosh. Don’t hesitate. No one knows we’re in here, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
I nod. “Okay.” I wrap my hand around Seth’s wrist.
He pulls the tape from Seth’s hand, then slowly pulls the IV out. Depositing it onto the bed, clear liquid drips out onto the sheets. Next he pulls down the front of Seth’s gown and scoops the wires into his hand.
“Wait!” I semi-shout. “Where am I whooshing us to? I don’t think I can successfully whoosh us into your car without hurting someone.”
“Take us to your house. I need to speak to your cousins.” He flexes his hand around the
leads, his arm poised to pull. “Ready?”
“Yes.” I tighten my hand around Seth’s wrist. “Wait!”
Sebastian relaxes his hand.
“What about the sleep sigil? Will whoever put it on him be able to trace it? I don’t want whoever it is following me to my house. It’s supposed to be a safe zone.” I don’t even really want Seth in my house. It seems wrong—and dangerous—considering he tried to kill me and still might, if Ludvikas’ commands are still buried in his mind somewhere. But I’ve got to take him somewhere safe, and at the moment I’ve got no better ideas, so...
“Your house is warded, right?”
“Yes. It’s completely protected.”
“Then Seth will fall under the protection too. No one will be able to trace him there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Eighty percent sure.”
“Maybe we should remove it first?”
Sebastian pulls out a silver blade from his boot. Flipping it around, he holds it out to me hilt first. “To remove a sigil you have to either destroy it, or let it run its course.”
I gulp. “Destroy it how? You don’t mean for me to cut it off, do you? Because I don’t think I can do that.”
“Nothing that extreme. Slicing a line through it should be enough.” He drops the leads. “Actually, why don’t you pull the leads, and I’ll cut the sigil. He’s likely to wake up violently once it’s destroyed, and I’ll have to hold him down.”
“Wake up violently? I don’t even know if I can transport you both, let alone someone who’s freaking out. Let me text my cousins before we do anything.” I slip my phone from my pocket and send a text to both Jack and Liv. Jack texts back a moment later, and then Liv right after him. “Okay, Jack says the wards will conceal him. And Liv says under no circumstances should we attempt to remove the sigil.”
Sebastian tucks the knife back into his boot. “Okay. Ready?”
I bite my lip and nod. “Wait!”
“You’re killing me here, Indi.”
“I know. I’m sorry, but I was just thinking maybe it would be better if we got into bed with Seth. You know, so he’ll be better supported since he’s asleep. I’ll lie on this side, put one arm under him, and then hold on to your arm over his chest, and you can do the same thing on the other side. Kind of like a big weird hug with Seth in the middle.”
“If you think it will help.” He tips his chin. “Go ahead and climb into position, and I’ll jump on once I pull the leads off.”
“Okay.” I pull the thin white blanket down to the bottom of the bed, having no idea what would happen if I tried to bring it along. Taking a deep breath, I climb onto the bed and shove an arm underneath Seth’s back. Surreal doesn’t cover what is happening right now. Never in a million years did I think I’d find myself here rescuing the person who tried to drain me dry. But he’s not that monster anymore, and I don’t want to be a monster now. “I’m ready.”
“Are you absolutely sure this time?” The corner of his mouth teases at a smile, and for just a second, I’m hit with the urge to giggle like a lunatic at the absurdity of this whole situation. I shove the urge down and nod, too afraid I really will laugh if I say a word.
“Then here goes.” He tosses the IV to the floor, yanks the leads off, and jumps onto the bed. The room fills with the high-pitched sound of the heart monitor flat-lining. Sebastian shoves his arm just below mine under Seth’s back then grabs onto my other arm thrown over Seth’s chest.
The room sways and becomes weightless as air presses down on my body. I close my eyes and send up prayer after prayer for the three of us to make it through my whoosh unscathed.
We land in a painful pile on my bedroom floor with the brunt of our combined weight coming down hard on my elbow. I grind my teeth as streaks of fiery pain shoot up and down my arm in an endless loop. Yanking my arm free, I cradle it over my chest, hoping whatever freaky self-healing powers I have eases it soon.
Sebastian rolls onto his back, gasping for breath for several seconds before sucking in a huge lungful. He shimmies to the side until his arm slips free from beneath a motionless Seth, then shakes it out. He sits up with a grunt and lists to the side, his eyes unfocused.
I heave myself up just enough to slam a palm against his upper arm to keep him from toppling onto Seth, then pull myself to my knees, so I can get a better hold. I push him up, but don’t let go. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He shakes his head for a second time. “I hate that part.”
The sound of feet stomping up the stairs has my heart shooting into my throat and my head whipping in the door’s directions.
What if it’s my aunt or uncle? Why didn’t I ask Jack or Liv if they were home before I whooshed us here? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“Are you good to move?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He meets my gaze, his eyes a little more focused. “The dizziness is mostly gone.”
I jump to my feet and grab hold of Seth’s ankles. “Help me get him into the closet.”
Sebastian hooks his arms beneath Seth’s, and I shove them both inside the closet with little finesse. I slam the door shut and lean my back against it just as my bedroom door flies open. Liv and Jack charge in, both of them in full panic mode.
“Hey.” I throw out a small wave like everything is copacetic. “Is anyone else home?”
“No. Thank God.” Liv clutches at her chest, her eyes darting around my room. “What the hell was that crash? I thought something fell through the roof.” Her eyes narrow. “Wait. How did you get here so fast?”
“I had to whoosh us here. The crash you heard was the sound of us landing.” Twisting around, I open the closet. Sebastian is leaning against the back wall, half hidden behind my clothes, a still unconscious Seth dangling from his arms. I grab Seth’s legs. “Let’s move him to the bed.”
“You whooshed here? Are you crazy? What if Mom and Dad had been home?” Jack reaches down and scoops up a barking Coco. Cradling her in his arms, he scratches behind her ears. “Shh, it’s okay, girl. Everything’s alright.”
“I had to.” I huff as Sebastian and I lift Seth’s dead weight onto the bed. “I couldn’t leave him at the center. It’s not safe there. This was the fastest way.”
All the color drains from Liv’s face at the sight of Seth lying in my bed. She takes several steps back and schools her features, pretending his presence isn’t bothering her when I know it is. I’m not exactly comfortable with him being here either. My previously vampiric would-be-murderer-turned-thankful-human-lying spread over my covers? Yeah, that’s not going to fuel my nightmares or anything.
“You okay?” I ask when I catch her rubbing the spot on her neck where Ben bit her.
“I’m fine.” She drops her hand. “So, you can whoosh multiple people at once? Cool. Can you whoosh me sometime? I’m curious to see what it’s like.”
“You don’t want her to whoosh you. Believe me,” Sebastian answers before I can. “I’m still nauseous from it.”
“What are we going to do with him?” Jack tips his head at an uncomfortable looking Seth scrawled across my bed.
I pull his arm out from behind his back and stuff a pillow under his head, forgetting for a second that Seth is the enemy… or at least former enemy… and maybe still future enemy? I jerk my hands back. “No idea. Find a place to stash him, I guess, until he wakes up. Preferably some place that’s not our house, since it’s unclear if Ludvikas’ compulsion to kill me isn’t still in play.”
Jack looks him over. “Where is the sleep sigil?”
“Behind his ear.” Bending Seth’s ear forward, I point it out.
Jack drops to his knees at the side of the bed and leans in. “The sigil’s still pretty dark. He could be out for a while.” At my blank stare, he elaborates. “A sigil will start to fade as the magic wanes.”
“Oh. How long do you think before this one fades?” I let go of Seth’s ear and take a few steps away.
“I don’t know. It all depends on how
long the sigil was charged for. It could be hours. It could be days. There’s no real way of knowing.”
“Well, I can’t leave him here in my bed for Aunt Claudia or Uncle Caleb to find.” I rub at the back of my neck as I rack my brain for where to put him. “What about the basement or the attic? Maybe we can temporarily hide him there?”
“Mom’s been using the basement for her morning yoga, so that’s out, but the attic might work.” Liv leans against the bedroom door, about as far away from Seth as she can get. “Mom and Dad only go up there if they need something stored in one of the boxes, or they need to consult one of the Books of Shadows, which isn’t very often, so he should be safe there. We can perform a containment spell too, so he’ll be confined to a certain area and won’t be able to leave unless one of us releases him.” Her eyes bore into Seth’s sleeping form as if he might jump up and attack us all. “He’s still human, right?”
I press two fingers to his neck, needing the physical confirmation of a heartbeat just as much as she does. Despite seeing his pulse fluttering at the park, or feeling his heartbeat beneath my own hand, or even seeing the visual signs of it on the monitor at the center, it’s still hard to believe it’s real. That he’s alive. And I’m the reason why. “Yes. He’s still human.”
She nods and takes a deep breath. “Okay.”
“So,” Sebastian says, gaining the room’s attention. “What do you guys know about mind manipulation?”
34
I wrap and unwrap a loose string from one of the ripped holes in the knee of my jeans around my finger, only half listening to Sebastian as he goes over why we believe our memories have been messed with while I wonder about the why of it. What exactly did we witness that Gavin—because he’s totally who I’m suspecting—wants us to forget? Why give us fake memories and bother making it look like Seth was in a coma at all?
Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2 Page 34
