by Aliya DalRae
Nox slowly lifted his chin and looked me in the eye. His were still sparking, but there was an awareness there that had been missing before. I gave him a knowing look, but kept my mind blank. I had done all I could think to do, and Fuhrmann’s fatherly façade had cracked. Now it was up to Nox.
Nox continued to hold my gaze, but remained silent in my mind. With a final glance at Fuhrmann, and a slight shake of his head, he closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. When he opened them again, his eyes reflected all of the torment I imagined Nox to have experienced in his lifetime. His resignation was etched in his face, the trace of regret in his purple gaze confirming what I already knew. He was lost to us.
“I’m sorry, Jessica,” he said aloud, “but this is going to hurt.”
“Finally.” Fuhrmann threw his hands up, and Sylva laughed her musical laugh.
I had so hoped to have gotten through to him, to have convinced him I thought him worth saving, but his eyes said it all.
I concentrated my thoughts on Nox, hoping to try once more. But before I could form an argument my brain exploded with the pain of a thousand knives, stabbing me through my eyes, my ears. My mouth opened in a silent scream, still under Fuhrmann’s stupid spell, and tears sprang to my eyes, rolling down my cheeks in rivers.
“What are you doing?” Fuhrmann cried as he stormed into my line of sight. Nox stood up, stepped across my body and moved to stand between me and the Sorcerer.
“What I should have done weeks ago,” Nox said. “You lied to me, Helmut. You said that I was doing everything of my own free will, but that wasn’t true, was it?”
“Stop,” Fuhrmann shouted, “You’re no match for a Sorcerer, Noxious Thing. As I said before, the evil was in you all along. All I did was open you up to your true nature.”
“No, what you did was force something to the forefront that would have never surfaced if not for your bloody interference. Raven was the savage. He was the twin the Seer foretold. I would never have touched those girls without your interference.”
“Liar,” Fuhrmann hissed, and my head throbbed with each word they spoke. “If I hadn’t triggered your wicked side, something or someone else would have. You were a bomb waiting to go off. All you needed was someone to push the button, show you who you were meant to be.”
Fuhrmann turned toward me, his face beet red, his eyes bulging, and blood was coming out of his nose. His hair was flying in mad circles around his head, and he was waving his arms at Nox in strange, aggressive patterns.
Nox, on the other hand, remained calm, focused. He took a step toward Fuhrmann, and reached out to touch the magician, but Fuhrmann backed away, beyond my line of sight. A second later, they were both back in view, Nox’s left hand at the base of Fuhrmann’s neck, the right palming the madman’s forehead.
Sylva stood on the other side of the two men, screaming like a banshee, and I blinked my eyes as her form shimmered in the dim light. It had to be the pain. It looked like she was going to disappear right before my eyes. Then again, she was a ghost.
I renewed my struggles with the ropes around my wrists, desperate to be free, to clutch my head in my own hands, to ease my suffering if only a little. Fuhrmann and Nox fell to their knees beside me and the pain intensified. It had reached the point where I was sure my skull would explode, and I clenched my eyes closed in an effort to find relief.
In the back of my mind, beyond the pain, it registered that someone other than Sylva was screaming. I pried my eyelids open through sheer force of will, and looked up at Raven. His eyes looked like mine felt, though his were sparking like crazy, and bloody tears streamed down his haggard cheeks. Unlike me, he wasn’t magicked into silence and he was taking full advantage of his ability to vocalize his agony.
“Raven,” I whispered, and a small sound escaped my throat. I tried to reach for him, but of course that wasn’t happening. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, though there was little sound. “I’m so, so sorry.”
I knew I was going to die. No human could withstand the amount of torture I was experiencing without death or brain damage, but I was desperate for him to know. I was stupid. I got us into this. And I was so very sorry.
Raven was trembling, his own suffering increasing in concert with my own.
I stole a glance at Nox, and saw that Fuhrmann was no longer fighting him. The two were sprawled on the concrete floor, and as my pain increased, so it seemed, did Fuhrmann’s. Sylva had gone silent, and her form had reached full transparency.
I knew I couldn’t take another minute of this torture, and I begged mentally for Nox to stop. He stole a quick glance at me, the amethyst spark in his tortured eyes bathing me in wicked luminosity, before returning his attention to Fuhrmann. With one final crescendo that seared through my brain, the Sorcerer collapsed in Nox’s arms, and simultaneously, the pain in my head was dispelled.
Fuhrmann rolled his eyes up to look at Nox, and Nox met his gaze stoically. His face was streaked with scarlet tears that matched his brother’s, but he said nothing to the creature who lay dying in his arms.
“Why?” Fuhrmann asked, his voice shaky, weak, but Nox shook his head.
“Sylva,” the Sorcerer whispered as he closed his eyes, but Sylva was already gone.
Nox cradled the spent body in his arms, silent tears flowing as the man he thought of, if only briefly, as a father, breathed his last. Then Helmut Fuhrmann went the way of his people, and turned into a puddle of goo.
Chapter
One Hundred Sixteen
N ox knelt in the middle of the warehouse, his hands and arms covered in the gore that was Helmut Fuhrmann, crimson tears streaking that face I knew so well. With Fuhrmann gone, my attempts at freeing myself turned manic. I pulled and twisted my arms and legs, but my struggles only succeeded in tightening the ropes and ripping my skin further.
I glanced at Raven, still secured to the wall with those four daggers, but he wasn’t moving. His head had fallen forward and he was slumped against the blades, which seemed to be the only thing holding his weight. He was dying, and I needed to get to him.
“Nox,” I cried, but his face had gone blank. But for the tears, he seemed to have completely checked out.
“Nox,” I tried again. Still nothing. I struggled more, pulling at the ropes with my entire body, banging my head and heels against the floor, trying to get his attention, but he wasn’t hearing me. I got it, I really did. Fuhrmann was a crazy, homicidal maniac, but other than the ferals, he was the closest thing to family Nox had ever known.
And yet Nox had pooled together all of our psychic energy, mine, Raven’s and his own, and used it to kill the Sorcerer in order to save us. A mere idea of a family. It looked like he might be having second thoughts, but I couldn’t deal with that now. I needed to be free. I needed to help Raven.
“Nox.” I said it softly this time, forcing myself to be still. He slowly turned his head, and met my gaze with those blood-filled eyes. “Help me, please.”
With one last glance at the goo-that-had-been-Fuhrmann, he scraped his hands against the floor, drug one less-disgusting hand through his hair, and made his way to my side.
I’d like to say that Nox was relieved to be freeing me, but there was a lot going on behind those eyes. He didn’t say it, but as he freed me from my bonds I could see that he was blaming me for what he was feeling, for what he had done.
Okay, yeah, I probably deserved it, and I would take all the responsibility he wanted me to later. Right now, getting to Raven was all that mattered.
Nox freed my last limb, and I scrambled to the wall where Raven hung. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow. The walls were streaked with his blood which had pooled on the floor at his feet. A lot of blood. Too much blood.
“Raven,” I said, my hands on his cheeks, lifting his face so he could see me. If only he would open his eyes. “Raven, it’s over. It’s going to be okay. Please, wake up!” But he didn’t move, and when I released him, his head fell back to his chest.
&nb
sp; I grabbed one of the daggers and tried to pull it out, but with no luck. I wished I had some of that enhanced Vampire strength, but that was just crazy thinking. The magic in the daggers that prevented Raven from pulling them out should have died with the Sorcerer. But that was no help when Raven was too weak to do the pulling. Hell, he wasn’t even conscious.
I braced one foot against the wall, and pulled with all my pitiful human strength. My other foot slipped out from under me and I ended up on my bare ass, landing with a splash in a puddle of my lover’s blood.
“Nox,” I cried again, “Please, help me! Help your brother!” I assumed he was still there, and when I dared a glance behind me, he was standing over the remains of the Sorcerer. “Please,” I cried again from my undignified position on the floor. I struggled to stand up, but slipped again, a frustrated scream building inside me. I grabbed the dagger nearest to me, the one in Raven’s right calf, and I pulled, but still it was useless. I yanked, and tugged, and Raven made a small sound of pain.
He was alive!
So I pulled harder, tried harder, but still was unable to free the dagger from Raven’s flesh. I slapped my palms against the wall. Why did I have to be so weak? Knowing further attempts would be useless, I grabbed Raven’s leg and hugged it to my face, my bloodied hands clutching him to me the best I could. I hoped he knew I was there. I didn’t want him to die alone.
“Please,” I whispered. “Please, please, please.”
Strong arms pulled me away from Raven, and when I turned, Nox was holding my shoulders, shaking me. “Stop,” he said, and a sense of calm washed over me. “Hold him, here,” he said, placing my hands on Raven’s chest. “Lean in, so he doesn’t fall.”
I did as he said, holding onto Raven with all I had, doing my best to keep him in place.
The daggers in Raven’s wrists were out a second later. His arms fell limp and lifeless to his sides, dripping what had to be the last of his life’s blood down the walls, and into the growing pond of blood around my feet. After another second, his legs were free, and Nox was helping me lower his brother’s body to the ground.
I sat with another small splash, scootching around until Raven’s head was in my lap.
“Please don’t die on me,” I begged, brushing the tangled locks of hair from his face. “Don’t…don’t leave me.”
Raven’s body shuddered, and he opened his eyes, beautiful eyes looking up into mine. A tear splashed on his face, my tear, and he frowned, struggling to keep his eyes open.
“Dreaming,” he whispered, as his eyes closed and failed to open again. He took a shallow, ragged breath, the exhale long and slow, and then he grew so very still.
“Raven?” I said, shaking him a little. “Raven!” But it was no use. He’d lost consciousness again, and his breathing was way too slow. He needed my blood. I knew this, but usually he was the one saving my life. I’d only ever saved him once, but he’d had the strength at that point to bite me. Of course, I only had his word for that because he’d whammied my brain and made me forget.
I was still seeping blood from where the ropes had torn at my skin, so I laid a wrist against his mouth, hoping it would be enough to get things going. But the blood wasn’t flowing sufficiently. I searched for one of those cursed daggers, but they were nowhere in sight.
Without thinking, I jammed my wrist into my mouth and bit as hard as I could. When I pulled my wrist away, there was a nice imprint of my dull, human teeth. Sure, it was bleeding, but not the nice steady flow a sharp set of fangs would have provided.
Nox was standing a few feet away, watching me fumble through my pitiful attempts at heroism, his expression closed. I held my wrist toward him, weak and limp, eyes pleading. Raven was so still in my lap, I could barely see his chest moving. I needed to help him, and fast.
But how could I ask Nox to bite me, when I’d made it perfectly clear I would never willingly allow it? The words were there, like little soldiers on my tongue, but I couldn’t make them march. I’d been adamant, yet here I was all but begging him to do just that. And why? So I could give my blood to his brother, of course. Yeah, way to burn bridges.
Nox didn’t move, and neither did I. I sat there with one arm extended, the other holding Raven to me. Seconds ticked by, seconds Raven didn’t have. And finally, Nox moved—away from us. He took a step backward, another, and when he shook his head, I knew we were doomed. I closed my eyes, wrapped both arms under Raven’s and pulled him more fully into me, rocking back and forth, trying to say goodbye to the man I loved. The man I’d betrayed.
It wasn’t fair. I knew I was wrong, I knew I’d screwed up, but there should have been time. Time to fix things. Time to make up for my lack of faith in us, in him. For my infidelity. He was a Vampire for God’s sake. He was supposed to be immortal. Still, he was dying, and I couldn’t help him.
Strange keening noises echoed around me in the stone room, sounds emanating from me that I couldn’t stop. I’d lost him, lost everything, because I was unable to make a couple of holes in my wrist. I was a horrible person, a horrible girlfriend, and a ridiculously horrible hero. Raven had saved my life twice, but now it was my turn, and I was failing him.
My body was shaking with ragged, wrenching sobs as I rubbed my cheeks against Raven’s hair. It was only when I felt two pricks of pain in my arm that I realized Nox was there, kneeling beside me in his brother’s blood, holding my wrist to his mouth.
I felt the first pull deep inside me, as he coaxed my blood to flow, and I raised my head from Raven’s to look into his brother’s eyes. He watched me as he took another slow pull, another swallow of my blood, and I shivered when his eyes closed in something close to ecstasy. A third pull, another swallow, and Nox drew his mouth from my skin. His eyes were blank when he pressed my wrist to Raven’s mouth and massaged my wrist to encourage a steady flow.
I took a long, shuddering breath, trying to find the words to thank him. Before I could come up with something appropriate, some way to adequately express my gratitude, he was gone.
I stared another moment at the smeared spot in Raven’s blood where Nox had knelt beside me, before turning my attention to the Vampire in my arms. He was so still. So quiet, and though my blood was now flowing freely into his mouth, he wasn’t swallowing. A scarlet stream trickled from the corner of his lips, and my heart collapsed. It was too late.
“Come on, Raven,” I begged, pressing my wrist more firmly against his lips. “You’re stronger than this. You don’t give up. You’ve faced far worse odds, and come out of it alive. Don’t you dare give up now!” I stroked his throat, like I’d seen the vets do when trying to get an animal to swallow a pill. I pressed my wrist more tightly still, hoping to create a seal, and I stroked.
Raven’s throat quavered. It was a small movement, but it was there, followed by an honest to goodness swallow, and again, and once more.
“Yes,” I cried, “Oh, yes Raven, drink!” And he did. I jerked a little when he sank his fangs into my wrist, but it was the sweetest pain I’d ever felt. I heard movement in the warehouse, but I didn’t look up. Raven was alive, and with my blood he would heal, and we would be fine. Everything was going to be fine.
“Jessica.”
I tore my gaze away from my beloved to find Harrier standing above me. His eyes were sparking gold, and I could feel the emotions flowing off of him like a river of lava. I managed a small smile to let him know I was okay, and he nodded, relief apparent on his rugged face.
A drowsy glance around told me that Harrier had not come alone. Mason, Tas, Viper and a whole slew of Legion Soldiers had swarmed the place. Our Cavalry had arrived, albeit a bit late. I sighed with relief. Though the danger had passed, it was good to know I wasn’t alone anymore.
Someone threw a blanket across my shoulders to cover my nakedness, and I was grateful. Another blanket found its way on top of Raven, whose hands now held my wrist firmly to his mouth while he fed from me in greedy pulls. My head was spinning, and I was dizzy with adrenaline, endo
rphins, something. But I relaxed, knowing the danger had passed.
Mason knelt beside us, where Nox had been but a few minutes earlier, and put a hand on Raven’s wounded chest.
“Ease off, my brother.” He said it like he was giving an order, and Raven growled at him. “Now, Warrior,” Mason barked, and Raven released me, only to snap vicious fangs at Mason, eyes open at last and sparking for all they were worth. I swayed a little at the sudden movement, thinking it would be good to lie down for a minute, but Raven held me up with his grip on my arm. That was okay, though. He was alive. He was safe. And that was my last thought before I closed my eyes and knew no more.
Chapter
One Hundred Seventeen
N ox watched from a distance as Jessica coaxed his twin to drink her blood. It took some doing, but the girl was persistent, determined to save his worthless brother’s life.
His part done, Nox accepted that he had been relegated to passive observer. Having opened her vein, his services were no longer required. Not that he hadn’t taken an obscene pleasure in tasting her.
It rankled a bit that she couldn’t bring herself to ask him to open her vein. To hear her beg would have been even better, and when she didn’t say the words, Nox was willing to walk away. Had walked away. He was halfway down the tunnel before something, his conscience, maybe, pulled him back to that blood-soaked room.
He’d stood in the doorway far longer than was wise, watching the scene before him. Jessica Sweet sobbing, Raven all but dead in her arms. Such devotion, such love. Nox had never seen anything like it. And with his mouth still tingling with the taste of Jessica’s blood, he knew the true meaning of the word envy.
