AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sometimes I wished Shadow Wing would just make his move, come through, and that somehow in the mad scheme of life, we’d be able to beat him senseless, slit his throat. But the Unravel er, as he was cal ed, was intent on tearing apart the worlds. Al chances were that we’d be toast under his feet.
With a silent plea for a little luck, I slipped out of my seat and fol owed on Sharah’s heels. I ignored Tril ian and Vanzir as I strode into Morio’s room, where Sharah was talking to Camil e.
My sister was pale beyond the moon, pale as morning glory under the moon. She looked up at me, her eyes wide.
“Wil you do this thing?”
I held her gaze. She was hoping I’d say yes, but I knew Camil e. She would never beg me. She would let me decide even if it cost her one of her loves. We were sisters above al else.
Nodding, I reached out and took her in my arms. “I wil , if you want me to. I have no idea how it wil affect him, but I’m wil ing to give it a try.”
“Then please, save him if you can.” She leaned down and kissed the perspiring brow of the fox demon. His eyes were closed and he had tubes and IVs running out of his body til he looked like a machine man. Sweat drenched his forehead and chest, and I could see the wound—it was a horrid gash, gaping and red and swol en against his side. It was being loosely held together by some sort of thread—probably spidersilk—and was oozing a constant stream of blood and pus that trickled into a basin below.
“Oh gods,” I whispered. I hadn’t realized just how horrible he looked. I turned to Sharah. “Do it.” I sat down on a nearby stool and pul ed off my jacket, then rol ed up my sleeve while Sharah hurried to fetch a needle and tube.
Sharah gazed at the scars on my arm. “Where . . . I don’t know if I can find a vein . . .”
I rol ed down my sleeve and pul ed my braids back. “My neck. Take it from my neck.” I fingered the skin until I found my vein—I could feel the slow blood oozing through my system, no longer driven by heartbeat but by whatever force caused the vampirism.
Camil e knelt beside me. “Thank you.”
“Thank me if it works.”
We watched as Sharah prepared the needle—a good three-inch-long spike attached to a syringe that could hold a large test tube for col ecting blood. She rubbed my skin with a splash of rubbing alcohol and then, with Camil e watching, she plunged the needle under the skin in the side of my neck, sliding the length into my carotid artery.
I barely felt a twinge as the needle entered my body, but the cool metal nestled against me, oddly at home. I could hear the faint gurgle as Sharah slapped a test tube with a vacuum seal into the syringe and the blood began to rise. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the level slowly fil ing, angry crimson blood draining out of my body.
Vampire blood was darker, thicker than normal blood, but it was al life force. I didn’t need to have it pumping through my system to survive. I just needed to ingest blood and it changed, working its way through my body, through the veins, a magical river of life keeping me on this side of the veil. I would never die from lack of blood, but I might go dormant or mad, aching with hunger.
Sharah final y eased the syringe out and pressed a bandage over my neck. She removed the test tube from the syringe and slid it into a new one. Then she walked over to Morio, and glanced at Camil e and me.
“If you want me to stop, say so now. I can’t undo it once I inject it into the wound.” She waited.
“Please, help him.” Camil e sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, squeezing her eyes shut.
I nodded. “Now.”
Now or never. This could heal him or—or, it might do nothing at al . Or it might backfire or take him on a trip he wouldn’t be ready for. Morio was caught too deeply by his fever to tel us what he wanted and had to rely on Camil e to make the right choices.
As if she were reading my mind, Camil e looked up. “He’d say, Bring it on, babe. He respects you, Menol y. He’s not afraid of the death magic we work. He’s not going to quibble over a little vampire blood in his body.”
I hoped she was right. Not that I thought Morio would object, but the way the Nectar of Life had rebounded on Chase left me nervous and wondering about just how far we could go messing about with the essential nature of the body. My sisters and I were mixed bloodline, and it had screwed up our own powers. Images of Frankenstein’s monster rol ed through my head, and Dr.
Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. What would Morio become? A potential monster? Or . . . or maybe I was just being paranoid.
“Al right, then.” Sharah slowly inched the needle into the angry flesh surrounding the wound, and the three of us watched as my blood filtered into Morio’s system.
CHAPTER 19
The room seemed to darken, and there was a long hush as we watched the wound. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there was a sudden hiss and the gash began to foam, a steady stream of oily white liquid pouring out mingled with the crimson of Morio’s blood. It drained steadily into the basin, the stench rising.
Morio began to thrash, pouring sweat. He groaned, and the restraints threatened to break as he began to transform into his ful demon self.
“Stop this. We’re trying to save your fucking life, babe.”
Camil e leaned over him, avoiding the long claws that grabbed for her. She was holding it together in a scary way. The last time I’d seen this look on her face was when I burst through the door at home, hel -bent on kil ing and turning my entire family. Her look of desperation had been replaced with one of sheer wil , the wil of the damned.
With a loud yip that turned into a scream, Morio began shifting so rapidly it was hard to keep track, first to his human self, then his fox self, then demon, then human . . . al so fast we could barely keep up with him. The strains of so many rapid transformations were taxing him. Sweat soaked the bed, even as the fluids from his side poured in a deluge, waterfal ing out of the gash.
