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“Rose,” he says sharply, his eyes like daggers, “we are going to continue the fight, but not alone and you can’t fight like this right now. You may be alive, but you’re still wounded. Next time you may not be so lucky.”
“But I know he’s in there!” I protest but I sound weak and I start coughing. Maybe the stabbing did more damage than I thought.
“Just close your eyes and think of the hotel room,” Valtu whispers and I force my brain to cooperate, to picture it the way we left it this afternoon. I picture the book resting on the desk. “Accipe nos ibi nunc,” he recites.
There’s a sudden snapping sensation against my body, rattling my head, and swiftly the world shifts around us until the streets disappear and we’re standing in the middle of the hotel room, right in front of the book on the desk, holding onto each other.
Holy fuck. It worked.
“That was interesting,” Valtu muses, looking around our room in surprise. “Fucking terrible headache though.” He looks at me through a grimace. “Are you okay?”
I let out a shallow breath and nod quickly. “Yeah, just a little nauseous. Probably a combination of teleporting and being stabbed.”
The worry never seems to leave his face. “Let’s get you cleaned up and see what we’re dealing with here.”
He leads me to our bathroom, large and intricately decorated with a mosaic of teal tiles, and I hop up on the counter. He takes off my top and grabs a towel, wetting it under warm water and pressing it gently to my chest. “You’re already healing but it’s not as fast as it should be.”
“I think getting stabbed with the blade ofmordernescauses wounds to linger,” I tell him. “I’ve seen it before. When I first started slaying, I was stabbing vampires in the back, just doing anything to get them to stop. It definitely slowed them down.”
His black brows knit together, eyes roaming over my face. “Sometimes I forget you were a vampire slayer before.”
I give him a small smile in return. “You’re supposed to forget. Remember?”
He rubs his lips together and swallows. Something dark washes over his eyes. Something troubling. I don’t like it. It makes my scalp prickle with unease.
“I’mfine,” I tell him again. “Atlas missed.”
“By a millimetre,” Valtu says tightly, his jaw clamping together as he stares down at the wound. Little black and blue lines are snaking out from the wound, but I know they’ll be gone by tomorrow.
“I’ll take what I can get,” I say dryly but the gravity is etched on his face. I clear my throat. “I think I’m going to take a shower. Can you get me that bottle of vodka from the mini bar?”
He frowns. “For what?”
I shrug. “To help process the trauma.”
He leaves into the room and I hop off the counter, staring at myself in the mirror. I look like shit. But I guess when you come that close to dying again, you’re allowed to look like shit.
Valtu comes back in and hands me the bottle of vodka. He tries to smile but it doesn’t reach his eyes, and the dark energy that’s rolling off of him is palpable and chaotic and makes me instantly afraid.
“Are you okay?” I ask him softly, reaching out for his hand.
He lets me hold it for a moment, fear coming across his brow. Then he nods stiffly. “I will be. And so will you. Remember that, my dove.” He pulls his hand away and I feel strangely bereft without it.
He goes to leave and pauses, one hand on the bathroom door, ready to close it. He’s looking off into the room, and from the way his focus intensifies I know he’s staring at the book. “I’m going to call Abe and Solon and see what’s what,” he says quietly. He swallows hard. “We are going to get your brother back, Rose. I can promise you that.”
Then he closes the door.
There’s something so final about it that I feel panic rising through me.
You’ve literally just been stabbed, millimetres away from death, I remind myself.It’s okay for the both of you to be on edge right now.
I take in a deep breath, then unscrew the vodka cap and take a swig of it, enjoying the burn. Then I turn it over and pour some of it on my wound, hoping some disinfectant won’t hurt. But of course, it does. It stings like hell.
“Son of a bitch,” I swear and step into the shower, moving back from the stream as I turn it on.
I don’t know how long I spend in the shower, soaking in the hot water and using all the luxurious toiletries, but by the time I finally turn it off, I’m completely pruney and the blue and black lines have faded a lot. The wound itself is pretty much closed, though it’s red, raw and ugly.
I sigh, shaking my head. I can’t believe that just happened. I can’t believe I actually saw Leif, actually found the very place we were looking for. And I can’t believe I ended up getting stabbed. Like, right away. The worst part is that now Atlas knows something is up. He’s going to go back to Bellamy and tell him what happened, that he saw some vampires. Now I can only hope that Bellamy won’t have a clue who I am. That’s the only surprise I’ve got at this point. But I’m sure with Atlas’ description of Valtu, he’ll be quick to recognize Dracula.
