Moonlight's Ambassador

by T. A. White

  She was going to get away, and I didn't know if I was glad for that or upset by it.

  Nathan was beside me before I could decide, rolling me over and distracting me from the sight of Caroline's retreat. "Aileen, stay with me." His hands busied themselves. Pain crashed through the numbing cold as he tightened his belt around my leg, creating a tourniquet. I screamed and tried to move away. He held me down, making sure the makeshift tourniquet was tied off before taking off his shirt and pressing it hard to my shoulder. The new pain was too much, and I blacked out for a moment.

  "Liam, she needs you," Nathan shouted, his voice tight.

  I opened my eyes as Nathan stared down at me, his face tight with worry. Impossible. The bite must be making me hallucinate. I thought I read that in the book. Werewolf bites could be toxic to vampires, especially baby ones who didn't have the sense to get out of the way in time. Nathan would never be that worried for me, not the pain in the ass yearling they got saddled with.

  Liam's face appeared next to Nathan's, his eyes wild. "Aileen, stay with me."

  I smiled. My face was numb, my body cold, so at least I hoped it was a smile. I didn't feel much of anything anymore.

  "Get Brax," Liam ordered.

  I might have imagined it, but his fingers felt gentle as they touched my face. "You, stupid girl. Why didn't you run?"

  "Then the big, bad wolf would have bitten off my head," I said in a slurred voice. "I'm rather attached to it."

  "You believe us now about how dangerous she is?" he asked, his mouth tight as he felt along my neck for my pulse. It struck me as odd. We had one; it was just significantly slower than a human's. Hm. I raised my head and looked at my thigh. Perhaps I'd already be dead if my pulse was stronger. Didn't the pulse have something to do with how fast you bled out?

  Maybe. It was hard to think right now.

  "She said she didn't do it." Why was it so hard to think? My eyes fluttered shut.

  Liam shook me. Hard. I couldn't bring myself to care.

  Fire across my cheek. "Ow. What was that for?" I asked in a plaintive voice.

  "You need to stay awake." His voice was urgent.

  Something occurred to my foggy brain. "Why aren't I healing?" I raised my head. "Why aren't you healing me?"

  "I've already tried. It's why you're not dead. Caroline’s wolf's bite is more toxic than anything I've encountered. Brax may be able to help," Liam said. He looked up, his expression darkening. "Where is he?"

  "He went in after the pup," Nathan said, sounding as angry as Liam looked.

  "If she dies, I will take it out of his arrogant hide," Liam snarled.

  "Not his fault," I said, my teeth chattering. My breath rasped out. Why was it so bloody cold? "Caroline should be the priority."

  "Bullshit," Liam snapped. Ah, there was the autocratic dick I was used to. It was a comfort to know he was there in all this, like a horsehair blanket designed to abrade and keep you on your toes. "He should have seen to you while he sent his pack after her."

  My laugh was a disjointed, broken thing. "Su-such a know-it-all."

  The tracks vibrated under me as footsteps approached. Sondra ran up, her eyes full of the wild and her hair an untamed mess around her face.

  "Where is your alpha?" Liam demanded, power in his voice.

  The colors floated in front of me twining around me like loving cats before darting after Sondra. "Such pretty colors," I said in a quiet voice.

  "He's gone after her," Sondra said, strain showing in her voice. I turned my face toward her, surprised that the loving cats had turned feral as they twined and nipped at her.

  Her wolf flexed and fought under her skin, power rising in green waves as they tried to force Liam's strands away.

  "That won't work," I said to myself. "They'll just slip in the cracks."

  Liam's gaze turned to me, and I smiled sleepily up at him.

  "We need him here. She'll die if the toxin is left unchecked," Nathan shouted. The argument between them faded into the background as the color in Liam's eyes grew until it was all I could see. He was my sole focus, the rest of the world unimportant.

  "What pretty colors, Aileen?" he asked in a soft voice.

  I blinked slowly, knowing there was a reason not to tell him but unable to remember why. I turned my head to look back at where Sondra was fighting unsuccessfully against Liam's power as it tightened its grip around her. "Them," I said with a soft smile.

  So pretty.

  I turned my eyes back to Liam, smiling up at the shapes that surrounded him. They smiled back at me. "They're all so pretty."

  "Brax can't help her anyways. Caroline's bite is beyond his control." Sondra's voice came from a distance.

  "Thomas has more raw power. He's like the sun, look at his power too long and you'll go blind," I confided. "Yours is a finely hewn blade, beautiful and deadly. Wielded with a surgeon's precision."

  The magic that stemmed from his core reached out and touched mine gently, brushing against my skin much like a cat would the object of its affection. My magic arched up, twining around it before his pushed it back inside me with a gentle nudge.

  "You can see magic." His voice was hushed and full of awe.

  I made a lazy sound of agreement. I no longer felt the cold or my body, just a spreading contentment.

  "Aileen, stay with me." He sounded desperate. I wondered why. "Aileen, you can save yourself. You can see where the wolf's bite has spread."

  I struggled to lift my head, glancing down at myself for the first time. Liam's hands were gentle as he helped me raise up until I was half-sitting, his weight at my back supporting me. Oh yeah, he was right.

  "I'm covered in oil," I said, surprise in my voice. With my othersight, I could see black splotches spreading over my body, smothering the slight flicker of magic that resided in me. The taint had already traveled to cover my entire arm and leg and was now spreading through my core.

  I lifted a hand to touch a spot and pulled it away, turning it this way and that in fascination. The black didn't transfer, which I found even more interesting. I touched another spot and another, until I was rubbing at them with a single-minded fascination.

  "They won't come out." My head fell back to look Liam in the eyes. "None of the black will come out. I think it's killing me."

  Pieces of the black flickered with a burnt umber, making it look like someone had painted me with the colors of Halloween.

  "If you can force it out, I should be able to heal you," Liam said, one hand coming up, his thumb brushing against my cheek. It felt good, and I closed my eyes to savor the feeling, one of the only things I could feel at the moment.

  "Don't know how," I confessed.

  "I'll teach you." His lips touched my forehead as he smoothed back my hair. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

  My laugh was raw. "Yeah, you threw me into a kitchen island. Broke several of my ribs."

  "And then I showed you how to heal yourself, right?"

  That's right. It was the first time I'd realized that the healing could be focused.

  "Have you been practicing?" he asked.

  "Every now and then." More like every chance I could get. Mostly just small stuff like a cut on my hand, but I was a little better than I'd been when I first started.

  "Do that now. Only this time instead of directing it inward, corral the taint and push it out."

  I tried. I tried so hard, but the tendrils that rested at the core of my being refused to obey. "I can't. It's not working."

  He rocked me back and forth. "No, no. You can. You can see what needs to be done. Just do it. I know you, you're more stubborn than this. Where's the woman who survived impossible odds to become a vampire? Where's the woman determined to make it on her own? Be that person. Beat this. Do it now."

  Tears leaked out of my eyes as I turned my focus inward, my thoughts sluggish. My mental forest rose up around me, the one I'd first created to protect my thoughts from telepaths. It had begun sticking around even wh
en I wasn't actively trying to guide against mental attacks. I was beginning to think it was the manifestation of my soul. A whimsical thought, I know, but it was comforting to think my soul was the shape of a forest. A place of peace and tranquility where nature could flourish.

  That's how it was normally. Right now, there was the smell of rot in the air, and the trees around me looked sick. This was the reason I couldn't force the black ichor out. It hadn't just infected my body, but the heart of me as well.

  My bare feet whispered across the land as I walked my forest, noting where the trees' roots were beginning to decay. I hadn't the first clue as to what was needed to fix this. This task seemed too big for me, too far along. Maybe if I'd had the thought sooner.

  I came to the large oak in a clearing that I suspected resided in the center of all this. The oak had two visible wounds on it and was leaking the black oily substance that pervaded the rest of this place.

  As if in a dream, I walked up to it and touched it, my fingers coming away covered in black sludge. I stood back and looked at the tree. Already leaves were falling as whatever this was drained the life from it.

  I stepped close and put my hand on the tree again, closing my eyes and envisioning a bubble around the taint. My thoughts fought for purchase, wanting to run in all kinds of directions. Gradually though, I felt that bubble flicker into place, containing it. For the moment.

  I had no idea what to do now. I couldn't stay here forever working to contain this thing. Eventually, I'd run out of energy. Already I could feel myself flagging. Not to mention staying here would be the equivalent of being in a waking coma.

  Last time I was here, I used the power from Liam and Peter's marks to drive away the demon. Perhaps they could help me this time too. I reached for those strands only for them to slip out of my grasp time and time again, the effort exhausting me.

  "Shit," I said, looking up at my tree.

  The shadow of a wolf appeared at my side. It bared its fangs at me, and then attacked the dead spots on the tree, ripping pieces of it away. Pain flared, like someone was ripping pieces of me away.

  I screamed and flung out my hands. The wolf flew back, hitting the ground with a yelp and disappearing.

  I panted in the aftermath, my strength spent. Going back to the tree, I touched the damaged parts. They were smooth with no hint of the black ichor.

  I glanced back at where the wolf had disappeared. So that's why. Made sense. Sometimes the only thing to do with rot is to cut it out at the source.

  I turned back to the tree and attacked the weak spots, my hands forming claws as I yanked and pulled, scooping out the bad. This was a dream, with dream rules. It meant I was able to yank and carve out the wood of the tree, when in the real world, I would have needed a chainsaw or an ax. Perhaps Liam could have done it with his bare hands, but he’d had centuries to strengthen.

  Pain bit and nipped at me as I worked. It was like someone was taking a dull spoon to my psyche and carving it up one small bite at a time. I screamed and worked faster. This would not defeat me. I would not go out like this.

  I worked until I couldn't see anymore, until the tree's sap flowed free of the black. Then I collapsed face down on the dirt, the world around me turning dark.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  WATER SURROUNDED ME when I opened my eyes. It was dark, the gloom unrelenting. I opened my mouth and choked as the liquid ran into it. I thrashed, fear of drowning swamping me, my hands beating at the sides of the metal coffin I found myself in. For a long moment, I thought they'd buried me, thinking I was already dead.

  I screamed, and did my best to pound on the lid, trying to force it up. It resisted before sliding away. I exploded from the water, dragging in a deep breath as soon as I was out.

  Panting, I clawed at the gunk covering my eyes, wiping them clear as best I could. My hands were red, and I looked down at the water I sat in. It was black with a ruby tinge. Blood. They'd put me in a coffin and submerged me in blood.

  My gorge rose.

  "Don't you dare throw up any of it," Nathan ordered from the corner of the room.

  I swallowed back the vomit, my chest heaving as I tried very hard not to think about what coated my body. I might have been a vampire, but I still had a human's squeamishness. Not many people I knew would welcome the idea of bathing in someone's blood. At least no one out of the Romanian dark ages. There was a countess around then who liked bathing in young virgins' blood, thinking it would keep her young; I had no such illusions.

  "Why am I sitting in blood?" I managed to get out through the panic threatening to steal my voice. There was no way all of this had come from just one person. The average human body only holds about 1.2-1.5 gallons of blood. There had to be several gallons in this thing.

  "The bite was pretty brutal. You almost died. Thomas and Liam thought this was the best way to make sure you didn't," he said.

  "And how many people did they kill to ensure that?" I asked.

  His lips twisted. "None. It's all vampire blood. Your conscience can rest easy."

  "Vampire blood?"

  "Best thing for healing. Full of power and restorative properties. You should feel honored. I don't remember the last time they opened a vein for someone."

  I looked down at the blood cradling my lower half. "This is too much to have come from just the two of them."

  Nathan held out his hand. I grasped it and let him help me out of the metal coffin. My legs wobbled under me, and I would have fallen if Nathan hadn't caught me, uncaring as the blood stained his clothes.

  "You underestimate a master vampire’s healing ability. They both had to top up on human blood a few times, but they were able to fill the tub with just the two of them," he said as he helped me over to a chair.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  He tilted his head as he looked at me. "How much do you remember?"

  I glanced away, one hand going to my leg. It was healed, the skin smooth through the torn jeans. "Caroline biting me." And then escaping. "Did they catch her?" I was afraid of the answer.

  "No, she got away."

  I nodded. I remembered her swimming away, her larger size giving her an advantage over the smaller wolves trying to catch her.

  "She seems to be one of a kind," Nathan said, sounding unhappy about that.

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "The alpha forgot to mention that her bite can be highly toxic to anyone. Something about the demon taint affecting things again. It's why Brax was unsuccessful when he tried to pull out the toxin, and why Liam couldn't heal you when you were injured."

  I blinked. "Wait, didn't she attack that woman, Lisa, I think her name was?"

  "Yeah, her bite hadn’t fully developed yet." He leaned against the wall.

  He watched me with enigmatic eyes as I tried not to touch anything on me. I'd never been a fan of dirt, and blood was even worse. It covered every inch of me, and I knew if I licked my lips I'd taste it. Tempting as it was to experience the high their blood would no doubt give me, I needed to be clearheaded.

  "Where are Liam and Thomas now?" I asked.

  "Giving the alpha the third degree. They're not exactly happy about how things turned out," he said in a sardonic voice.

  "It's not his fault," I said in a quiet voice.

  Nathan snorted. "He withheld valuable intelligence about the danger she posed. If you hadn't been hurt, it could have been one of us. Not to mention she killed the companions."

  "She said she didn't," I said. "She got there after they were already dead."

  "And you believed her? After this? She almost killed you. She damn near ripped off that leg. Do you have any idea how long it would take you to regenerate that? Decades."

  I was silent a long moment. All that was true.

  "She's dangerous, Aileen. She can't be allowed to roam the city unchecked. I'm not even sure at this point if Thomas will allow her to live. Demon taint is very serious, and a wolf that can kill with its bite alone is a weapon he
won't allow his enemies to have." Nathan straightened. "You should prepare yourself for the worst."

  I stared up at him, unable to respond.

  His shoulders bunched before he relaxed. "Come on. You should get a shower and clean up. You look like a murder victim right now."

  "More like Carrie at the prom," I said.

  He chuckled. "You're right. Only you don't have the cool powers."

  True. Baby vampires were notoriously weak when it came to raw power. It'd be a century or more before I became any kind of player.

  I let him lead me to a shower that was thankfully part of the same suite I'd found myself I in, since it meant I didn't have to walk around the mansion letting everyone stare at me. Even for a vampire stronghold, I would present quite the sight. He left me alone in the large space, with a shower as nice as the one in my room. What did they do—design every shower in this place with a hedonist in mind?

  I discarded my ruined clothes on the bathroom floor and stepped under the warm water, letting it rinse the blood off me. I didn't let myself linger, even though I felt fragile after my brush with death—the closest I'd come in a very long time—since my turn in fact. There wasn't enough hot water in the world to wash that experience off.

  I didn't have the luxury of indulging my weaknesses either. Caroline's life depended on me finding a solution to the problems facing us.

  Despite her attack on me, I believed her when she said she didn't kill those people. Call me crazy or naive, but I know she would either have told me the truth or not remembered it at all. Even if it was a lie, I owed it to our friendship to verify it.

  Her talk of Thomas’s descendants had gotten me thinking.

  I stepped out of the shower, having scrubbed myself clean three times over, and wrapped myself in a big, fluffy towel—the kind you find in really high-end hotels. Clothes had been folded and left for me on the toilet. I wasted no time in getting dressed.

  Nathan waited for me on a sofa in the next room. One wouldn't guess he was a century-old vampire from the way he watched his cell phone. He would fit right in with people my age who never seemed to lift their faces from their smart phones anymore.