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Slowly, excruciatingly, the last of the vampire’s vicious hunger receded like a predator slinking back into the darkness, until only I was left standing half in light and half in shadow at the entrance of the cave, blood soaking my face and gasping breaths entering my lungs.
The vampire was back in its cage. Its needs ruled my body no longer. I was the one in control now.
My heart pounding, I looked back.
Ozias hadn’t moved.
Oh, gods.
I raced over to him. Still in the form of this strange creature, he lay on the dirt while blood seeped from the savage bite in the side of his furry throat, the flow slower now. His broad chest barely moved as shallow breaths passed from him, and even those were fading.
The vampire hadn’t lied. I’d taken too much. He really was dying.
Frantically, I bent down, licking the wound as I’d done with Niko ages ago at the Jeweled Coven’s hideout. Somehow, it would make the injury seal up, that much I knew.
But even as the bite closed, he didn’t stir. His breaths slowed until they were scarcely more than twitches of his massive, furred chest.
Oh gods…
“Help!” I cried. “Dex! Byron! Anybody!” Deep in the forest, birds scattered, chirping in panic as they fled. “Someone help!”
Nothing happened. No one came.
My eyes stung with tears as I scanned Ozias’s body, searching for a hint of how to save him. Because surely, surely, there had to be a way to save him.
His breathing stilled. The whisper of his heartbeat went silent.
No.
“Ozias.” I pressed my hands to his chest, praying I was wrong and that I would find a pulse after all. “Ozias, please. Please don’t do this.”
Nothing.
I couldn’t breathe. “Please…”
Icy horror crept through me. I’d killed him. Oh, gods forgive me, I’d killed the man who came to save me.
My fingers curled in his thick, coarse fur as the frozen horror inside me grew stronger, like ice from the deepest winter rising up to swallow me whole. “Please,” I whispered, my voice choked. “Please don’t die. I’m so sorry. Please.”
His fur grew cold in my grip.
And at the center of my chest, something suddenly burned my skin like frostbite.
I gasped, releasing him to grab at the source of the pain.
The diamond pendant given to me by the First Matron of the Jeweled Coven, ages ago before we left their home.
From beneath my sweater, I drew it out, confused. On the end of its silver chain, the diamond glinted in the sunlight.
A coating of rime ice overlaid its surface.
Confused, I looked back down. Ozias lay as I’d left him on the hard ground. His chest was still, his eyes closed.
Frost glinted on the tufts of his fur, exactly where my hands had been.
And then his chest twitched with a tiny breath.
A gasp escaped me. How…?
