by Rachel Jonas
Seconds I realized Corina didn’t have, with those already shallow breaths so faint, I guessed she was near the end.
For some inexplicable reason, the idea of her slipping away horrified me. There was a sense of there being a greater loss than I could ever even imagine if that were to happen, an idea that an incredible light would cease to exist if I didn’t do something.
“Elle, I need you,” I said in a rush.
“I’m on my way,” she replied. Right away, the GPS locator on my watch flashed blue when she synced with it. In a minute or less, she’d arrive.
I slipped a hand beneath Corina’s neck and secured my other arm behind her knees, lifting her from the ground. In a perfect world, there would have been a medical house nearby, but all were far-removed from the Capitol, including Dr. Driskel’s practice—focused toward the treatment of Dolls. As I calculated the driving distance, and assessed Corina’s condition, I wasn’t sure we had that kind of time.
Still, we had to try.
I hurried to the end of the alley, holding her against my chest, feeling her warmth seeping through the soaked material of my shirt. My gaze drifted down to her face again, at first only intending to check that she was breathing, but then I saw more. I saw delicate features—long lashes that fluttered as droplets of water settled onto them, skin like porcelain and nearly flawless if I overlooked the small scar beneath her chin. Her mouth—a perfect cupid’s bow that quivered as she began to stammer. At first, I thought she might have caught a chill from the rain, but then she uttered a sound.
I leaned closer, until the softness of her lips grazed my ear. Her whisper was so quiet that I closed my eyes to give my full attention. It was one simple word that, in most situations wouldn’t have mattered, but under these circumstances … it did.
“… Mom.”
My lids opened as adrenaline rushed straight to my head.
Mom.
She said mom.
How could she, a human, possibly know her mother? They weren’t raised in traditional families like we were. Because their lives began in harvesting camps, they were raised in orphanages. Not by … mothers.
As if Corina wasn’t already an enigma, she’d just become even more complex.
Tires screeched, followed by the body of a large, dark vehicle barreling toward us. Elle had likely sensed the urgency in my voice when I called for her, so I knew she wouldn’t waste time getting here. The back door sprang open and I carried Corina inside, keeping her close as I held her tight.
“The guards are waiting just on the other side of the alley. Colin has his lights and siren on to get us through the early-morning rush much quicker, and safer,” Elle informed in a panic-ridden tone. ”Is she okay?”
I glanced down at Corina in my arms, and wished I knew the answer to that.
Every so often, she peered up and her gaze landed on me, but I wasn’t even sure she saw me, wasn’t sure she knew where she was. Each time she tried to focus, her dark irises danced in wobbly circles and then her lids would close again.
Damp strands of hair clung to her cheeks and forehead and, without thinking, I pushed them away, feeling what was left of her warmth pulse through my fingertips. I hadn’t forgotten what she mumbled in the alley, the implications of it, but right now I wanted to keep my thoughts in the present. Corina might not have needed me, but she certainly needed someone, and right now I was all she had.
My hand fell away from her cheek, and the second it did, dainty fingers laced with mine, squeezing lightly because she had lost so much strength.
I was torn. Part of me was positive she had no clue I was the one who held her and she’d only clung to my hand out of fear, disorientation. However, another side wanted to believe the strange state she was in only released her inhibitions, tore down the façade of social norms and left us both raw at that moment, more our true selves than we were allowed to be under other circumstances.
But that was just a guess. Knowing I’d never get a straight answer out of her, I just did what felt natural—I held the hand of the gorgeous stranger I couldn’t seem to turn my back on even if I should.
“If you place her down on the seat, I’ll be able to get a quick read-out of her vitals,” Elle suggested, when I didn’t respond to her question.
Corina seemed so fragile I hesitated for a moment, but then thought better of making guesses as to how well she was or wasn’t doing, and carefully placed her on the seat. I knelt there and eased my suit jacket beneath her head, to avoid aggravating her injury further. It wasn’t until now that I realized my hunger had almost completely subsided. My focus was only on getting her the help she needed.
There was a moment of silence while Elle conducted her scan. Those thirty seconds felt more like hours. However, when her voice came again, I couldn’t help but to wish I had declined the offer. Because, if I had, it wouldn’t have been revealed that Corina’s condition was worse than I thought.
Nor would I have known that, as she lay before me … she was dying.
Shock filled my expression with Elle’s analysis. “She’ll make it. We’ll get her to a medical house and one of the physicians will fix this,” I insisted, ignoring the cut and dry facts because denial was much easier.
I didn’t miss the undertone of worry in my voice, and was certain Elle hadn’t either.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but … I believe we’ve run out of time.” With her words, the hope I had grasped slipped right through my fingers.
Elle’s deduction narrowed our options down to two, and these choices were so drastically different they existed on opposite ends of the spectrum.
The easiest choice would have been to let nature run its course. Corina was dying. Elle had said so herself. With that being the case, I could have capitalized on this situation, adding whatever twists I needed to make sure I walked away from it free and clear.
Or … I could take the hard road.
The one that would require me to break the law, would require me to put myself in the hotseat yet again.
For her.
I was only mildly surprised by how easily I made the decision. Removing both cufflinks, I rolled the sleeves of my shirt to the elbow, and then loosened my tie.
Today, I’d faced my father, had been consumed by his disappointment. There was no mistaking how lightly I ought to tread. Having his thoughts toward me be anything but proud and approving were once my biggest fear.
However, as I stared at Corina, taking notice of how the color had drained from her face, how shallow her breaths had become, how her grasp on my hand loosened, my priorities began to shift.
Suddenly, my thoughts became aligned and I was prepared to do the unthinkable.
Still on my knees beside her, I brought Cori closer, feeling the blood-dampened hair at the nape of her neck where my hand now rested. She groaned lightly when I moved her half an inch—just enough to cause her head to slightly tilt to the side. It was enough to expose her neck to me, where blood barely pumped through the veins and arteries. Elle was right; she was slipping away.
I bared that thought in mind as I leaned closer, letting my lips rest on her slender throat.
My teeth sank into her skin with ease, but there was something so pleasurable about the slight resistance before my fangs punctured through. Something bordering on sensual.
“Your Highness!” Elle protested as we barreled down the street. It was an attempt to stop me because she knew the cost of this action I’d taken, but I ignored her completely.
Mostly, because this was the only way to save Corina, but it was also due in part to something far more primitive within me.
I simply enjoyed the taste of her.
It’d been so long since consuming blood straight from the source. It was so easy to lose control and I was at war with myself now. The side of my nature that craved it screamed for me to keep going until there was nothing left, until Corina’s lifeless body slumped in the seat and I had my fill.
But then there
was another side, one that seemed to prefer her alive.
I did my best to let that half of myself rule as more of the warm liquid slid down my throat. She had already lost so much.
My priorities realigned, and I focused on what I set out to do. I swallowed one last time, as I gained total control of the primal instincts that drove me. Next, my fangs filled with venom and I purposely didn’t think as I allowed them to empty into Corina’s veins, pulsating as the flow of blood reversed. Eventually, I was no longer the receiver, but the giver.
Giver of life, yes, but … so much more.
It was a common misconception among her kind that an Ianite’s blood could heal an ill or injured human. That was never so. There was, in fact, only one way to cure their diseases, or repair a body on the verge of death.
And that was to turn them.
Our venom—poisonous when ingested by one of our own—was a miracle cure for those in a state similar to Corina’s. It would work its way through her system and change her forever, in ways she could only imagine.
From studies I’ve read, becoming an Ianite brings out the true essence of a human. Whoever they really are, deep down on the inside, whatever their passions, those characteristics are heightened tenfold. In the coming weeks, Corina would become more herself than she’s ever been. However, it was much too soon to tell if that would be a change she welcomed and embraced, or resented.
I’d seen how devastated she was today when receiving her mark. It was like something inside her died a little. I could only imagine how she’d react to finding out she’d been made one of us against her will, without having any say in the matter. In a perfect world, she’d understand I only acted to save her life, but … as I spilled poison into her body and initiated this irreversible process, I wondered if she wouldn’t have preferred death.
Don’t think like that. You’re doing what’s best for her.
As her once lifeless figure began to squirm, I believed the statement I chanted internally to be true. I was doing what was best for her. The evidence was in the fact that she’d regained control of her limbs. Only, what was best for her came with a hearty sentence for me. One I hoped I’d be able to talk and reason my way out of somehow. It was true that I knew people in high places, but couldn’t guarantee any of them would go to bat for me when all was said and done. My father’s favor would only grant me so many passes.
I opened my eyes a moment when Corina’s back arched upward, causing her chest to press into mine, lessening the space between us. Next, a soft hand grazed the side of my neck as I drained the last drops of venom inside her, feeling that same hand settle at the back of my neck. The sacks in my gums finally emptied and I slowly withdrew my fangs. The taste of her against my tongue made me slow to retreat, but when I didn’t back away, it wasn’t of my own doing.
It was hers.
She held me there, my lips locked to her skin as she groaned and writhed in a daze, still only semi-conscious from the loss of blood. My heart leapt again and I breathed deeply, inhaling her at such close range.
What was she … doing?
My attraction toward her caused me to revel in whatever was happening, although I wondered if she’d gotten confused. Maybe she was still in a dreamlike state, and mistook me for someone else, but I stopped thinking so much when she turned.
With her face angled toward mine, the next thing I knew my lips were no longer pressed to her neck, but to her mouth. The smoothness of both her palms grazed my jaw and I let her draw me in, let this kiss happen. It was no secret she’d been my undoing from the moment I laid eyes on her. That fact was only reinforced when I leaned closer, hovering over her now as I allowed her soul to take root in mine just a little more than it already had.
Her body was in perfect sync with my own, and the evidence was in how her lips moved freely with mine, how she surrendered as I captured her tongue. Her heat surrounded me, and this time, I knew without a doubt I wasn’t the only one being vulnerable. Whether this was the first sign of her true self being revealed, or a latent reaction to the undeniable magnetism between us … it was real.
Perhaps the purest, rawest moment we shared thus far.
Much to my disappointment, the kiss began to slow, my lips turning cold the instant the blip of consciousness faded from Corina. Her lids fluttered a few times, this time with a hint of rosiness to her cheeks that hadn’t been there a moment ago. It was enough to let me know she’d be okay. Enough to let me know the risk I’d just taken hadn’t been for nothing.
Who was this girl?
The one who could start my dormant heart with just a glance.
And why had I allowed her to upend my entire life so easily?
I asked myself these questions as she drifted into a deep sleep. It wasn’t lost on me that, when she awoke, I’d have to explain so many things.
I wasn’t certain I was ready to break the news to her, but her kiss filled me with something I hadn’t had before.
Hope.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Corina
This feeling of being weightless was new. Typically, coming out of an episode left my limbs feeling heavy, difficult to move, and this was nothing like that. It took a moment to realize there was a bed beneath me, not cement like there should have been.
The last thing I remembered clearly was running in the alley. After that, there were only pieces—some that fit together, others that … didn’t.
My hand went to my forehead and I blinked slowly, filtering the amount of light I let reach my eyes. It was only what naturally seeped in through the window, but there may as well have been a spotlight shining in my face.
I’d never felt this before, had no idea where I was or how I got here. It didn’t take long for panic to set in, and I struggled to sit upright to get my bearings. However, a firm male voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Lie back,” he urged.
A silhouette came into view, one lined in silver as he stood like a barrier between me and the window.
“You’ll feel strange for a while,” he stated. “But I assure you, you’re safe.”
“Where …” I couldn’t say more. I was so weak, confused.
The side of the bed slumped beneath Julian’s weight when he sat next to me, his arm brushing mine, the variance between his temperature and mine as different as fire and ice. I eventually moved away an inch or two, but took note of how I hesitated to do so. It was almost as if I wasn’t so put off by the thought of touching him.
Almost as if I welcomed it.
My gaze was suddenly fixed on his back, at muscles that looked more like rolling hills beneath his gray t-shirt. I bit my lip while scanning the breadth of massive shoulders that fed my imagination. All I could think of for a moment was holding them, running my palms across their smoothness.
His golden-brown hair was tousled like he’d had a rough day. Damp, it jutted out all over his head in every direction. I wondered if maybe he showered, but that didn’t quite make sense because last I’d seen him, he was already clean and dressed to the nines. I stopped rationalizing as I zoned out watching him, and only one thought came to mind … he was absolutely, undeniably beautiful.
I closed my eyes at the thought, uncertain of why it popped into my head so freely.
What’s wrong with me?
Yes, I’d only ever thought of him as handsome, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him in ways I shouldn’t have now—whereas before, I’d done a pretty good job of controlling my thoughts and feelings. Now, the pull was perhaps even stronger than when we first met at the gala.
Lifting my gaze, I tried to stare at something other than him and felt even more confused. We were back at the palace.
“How’d I get here?” I was finally able to ask, clearing my throat.
When he didn’t answer right away, my heartrate spiked just enough to notice.
“I carried you,” he revealed.
My head lowered and the subtle spike in my heart beats that I f
elt a second ago turned into a full-on leap with his words.
“You ran off,” he began, the harshness in his tone making me anxious. “Why?”
“Because I … I wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
He scoffed before turning away. “This could have all been avoided,” he mumbled so softly that I barely heard him.
I swallowed hard. “I needed to be alone for a while, and your security detail would have never allowed it,” I sighed, explaining further. “My privacy hasn’t exactly been at the top of anyone’s list of priorities here.”
Unable to meet his gaze, my eyes remained trained on the blanket covering my legs.
To my surprise, he didn’t force me to elaborate.
“There’s something we need to discuss,” he added, changing the subject.
Forced to swallow hard again, my thoughts went back to the events that led up to this—how I attempted to run, attempted to hide from him before being overcome by the seizure. The deeper answer to his question, the part I kept to myself, was that I knew how his kind responded to such things.
A ‘flaw’ like mine equaled death.
My thoughts raced, trying to decide whether I’d be better off coming up with a lie to get myself out of this, or taking my chances with the truth, but …
“I found you,” he informed, cutting into my thoughts before I could make a decision.
My gaze drifted to him and things were starting to come into focus. Colorful bursts of light were now objects.
And still, amidst the brief moment of sensory overload, his response rang loud inside my head.
… He said he found me.
Meaning, the secret I so desperately tried to keep suddenly wasn’t so secret.
“So, what now?” I asked, feeling my chest heave with each labored breath I took. While fear flooded my bones, I held my composure, running a shaky hand through my hair. “The condition is manageable,” I blurted out, “but I suppose you don’t care about that. An imperfection is an imperfection, right?”
