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Perhaps we can ask her—
Neo’s shades shoot up to the back of my neck, curling around my throat in a kissing caress.Already asked, my love. She was the first I went to. But this is some malevolent force from hell, even beyond my sister.
I lower my head as lament wades in the depths of my heart, an alew sounding there, while I breathe prayers for some mercy, for some hope as I gaze at the patients around me. Tears shimmer in my eyes, but I swipe them away, refusing to mourn before them, especially the children. The little ones smile at me, arms clutching stuffed animals, the kind that come to life thanks to silver blood tech while the adults read or watch shows on digital tattoos they’ve been provided with.
Pulse thrumming in my throat, I glance up at Neo, who notices my observation and winks at me, mouth etched with pride because he must have spent extra for such boons, potentially out of his own Court funds.
If it’s beyond Nita, does that mean your Father sent the Scourge?I think back to its lair, at the thought of descending into that abyss if it will bother returning since I freed its food source and left my Halo print everywhere.
I cannot conclude anything else, but I have not sensed him lately, nor do I wish to reach out to him, especially with the rise of the blood harvest moon. It would not be prudent to have both of us in the Tenth Court at this time.
I can’t argue with that. I shudder at the notion, considering how the Father could reap any he desires. I won’t let that happen, and I chastise myself for my selfishness, for my lack of concern when I formed the triumvirate and didn’t include the non-reap of his harem as a stipulation. Neo and I both have regrets.
After a few minutes of walking, Quillion brings us to another area separated by a divider and plastic sheeting. Beyond are twenty hospital beds with several patients. I recognize them. As soon as the group notices me, they sit up from their beds, extending their thanks, but I raise my hands and implore them not to move. Then again, they don’t seem like they’re about to. Not with Neo’s shade and flame presence towering over me from behind.
Off to my right, a dark-haired middle-aged man with cobalt blue eyes and fair skin, who seems to be their spokesperson, addresses me, bowing his head, “My lady bride.”
“Lady Elysia please, or Lady Rose, if you prefer.” Neo plays with the curls along my back as if gesturing his approval. “What can you tell me about the vampire who locked you in that lair?”
“We’ve all shared similar stories, Lady Elysia,” he tells me without getting up since Quillion’s treatment, along with other fluids, feeds his arm from a silver blood tech pump—an advanced replacement from the ancient IV system. “The vampire had no pattern and took a different form for every one of us. It was the perfect predator and lured us to the Spirit Realm as if it knew how to prey on our weaknesses. It took the appearance of my wife, who I’d believed was taken to the Tenth Court farms.”
“So, it can clone itself and shapeshift?” I glance toward the rest, who nod their affirmations.
When I turn to Neo, his neck muscles clench, veins glinting to the surface as if impatient to confront the Scourge demon. I attribute that to the blood moon cycle and still can’t help but wonder how much worse it will be. A chill creeps up my spine, partially from his shades.
When the child off to my left coughs up blood, that mournful longing in my heart returns, but Neo thumbs my cheek, summoning me in a whisper, “Rumors still travel despite your attempts to nullify them, my angel. Even if it takes all day, my love, I will remain at your side. No Court today.”
I beam up at him before rushing toward the little girl, my skirts swishing along the floor. These twenty are worse off than the rest of the quarantined. They were in the belly of the beast, drowning in that Scourge amber for Goddess knows how long. So, I collect the little girl into my arms, channel that midwife spirit, and pray and kiss her eyes.
Choking back tears and defying the ringing sensation in my ears, I imagine myself injecting liquid stars into her blood cells. Could my healing Halo power trigger the reconstruction of new cells freed from the pestilence? No, instead, my Haloabsorbsthe Scourge. Its hot venom trickles into my veins, causing me to wince with a fine sheen of sweat forming on my brow. But once that tainted bloodstream touches the Halo, the Goddess-blessed device surges to life and causes the black capillaries to fade, replaced by my healing wavelengths to penetrate her matter.
As the duskiness invades my mind, and I wobble from the dizziness, Neo catches me. It’s his arms I hold onto and take solace in so I may strengthen my power and finish healing her.
When I open my eyes, no more Scourge exists. The remaining nineteen sit up in their beds, alerted by the transformation, mouths open in longing, whispers of “Angel Bride” on their lips. Except, I fear I won’t be able to help them all. I felt weak this morning, and now…
“I still dream about it…” the little girl utters in my arms, shivering. “I keep saying ‘go away, bad dream’, but it’s still there whenever I close my eyes.”
Let her go!I cry out in my head to the Scourge because its pestilence still prowls within her mind. Like my Noralice invisible scars. And she doesn’t deserve it.She’s only a child!
“Perhaps I may help, little one.” He stretches out his hand to the girl’s mind.
Neo, Neo, Neo!I shout his name in a blessed new chant that soars around the fortress of our bond. My heartbeat rushes in a swell of elation because he may use his destruction for good or evil. He uses it for good. I envy his centuries of skill when all he needs do is touch her head, determine the eye of that nightmare hurricane, and snuff it out, destroying the bad dream.
She then tilts her head up to me, points, and says, “You’re so pretty. Oh! You’re the Angel Princess, and you’re the Dragon Prince.” She turns to him and asks, “Are you ever going to have a baby?”
* * *
By the timeI finish healing the last figure, I nearly pass out in Neo’s arms. Layers of sweat breed on my flesh, and all my skin stings from my power. Heart utterly spent. It’s nightfall, except Neo does not carry me back to the Tenth Court. Instead, he shadows me into the Spirit Realm, into those deformed woods, into the deepest and darkest throng of them.
“What are you doing?” I ask, curled up into his chest, nearly whimpering from fatigue.
My eyes blur open. Countless macabre ghouls flee in his destructive wake as his shades and flames surround us like guardian knights. When he doesn’t answer, when I notice his pupils swollen, smothering the silver mist, when his mouth opens to reveal his scintillating fangs whetted with hunger, I pause before confronting him. Here, all the Chasm energy feeds his black hole destructiveness, along with the blood moon beams slicing through the canopy around us. My husband has never been more dangerous. Is he even my husband? Or is he just Neoptolemus, Prince of Destruction?
“Where are we going, Neo?”
Neo growls under his breath. “To the demon’s lair.”
Chest tight and heart tentative, I tiptoe into the bond. Within that dark, destructive force, I don’t find the same seductive vampire who usually stands upon the drawbridge before his fortress. Instead, I crash right into a resting Dragon!
