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She was crying, and it tore at my heart. How did I explain to her that casualties were just a part of being at war? Even if I found the perfect words to convey that, would she even believe me? It was pretty obvious to me that Ayla had been blamed her entire life for things outside of her control. It wasn’t like trauma scars that deep could just be filled in and shoveled over in a week.
“We don’t have the blood, which means no relic. That means the Shrouded Shriek and those armies are going to wipe us out. I’ve failed us. I’ve failedallof us.”
“No, no, no.” I tried to be soothing. It was hard to tell if it was working, however, as Ayla’s sorrow was so thick and choking through our bond. “We’ll find a way, Ayla. I’m sure if we go back to your coven and explain, they’ll be willing to change the deal.” Although they could absolutely go and suck eggs, it seemed at least Zara and Willa had soft spots for my mate. If they saw how truly affected she was by our loss, maybe they’d budge—a loss I hadn’t even really begun to contemplate yet. We’d lost one of our best scouts and one of our strongest vampires - or at least she seemedlost.
“Did anyone have eyes on what actually happened to Irina?”
“She was staked,” Darla said, rolling over and revealing a deep gouge down one of her shoulders, cutting into the front of her uniform. Had she had that the whole time? How had I not noticed it? Orsmelledit? “Happened right in front of me. They managed to pull her away just enough to surround her, and that was it.”
“What the fuck, Darla? Let me take a look at that!”
If there was one thing to knock my mate out of her eternal spiral of shame, it was helping others. Suddenly, she was out of my arms and over at her friend’s side, looking thoroughly at the wound.
“I’ve had worse,” the psychic said weakly. “Figured I could wait until you had a moment to catch your breath.”
“Well, consider my breath caught. Now, stay still.”
I watched, not for the first time, as Ayla healed her friend. But it didn’t go as seamlessly or as quickly as the first round, which made sense. She had to be utterly exhausted.
She managed to get her friend healed up, nonetheless, just in time for Mad Dog to sit up and give her a sheepish grin.
“Hey, do you think you have enough energy to give me a hand, too?” Rolling up his sleeve, he revealed a red, angry-looking bite.
“Shouldn’t that have healed when you shifted out of wolf form?” Ayla said, wearily crossing to him.
“Shoulda, yeah. Whatever that vampire was, they must have had plenty of extra venom.”
“That usually means they’re newly changed. Younger vampires have nearly four hundred percent more venom as a protective measure, since they’re comparatively quite weak and inexperienced.”
“Huh, not a fan, I gotta admit.” Mad Dog regarded Ayla. “Think you can do something about it?”
“I’ll most certainly try.”
Head bowed, Ayla pulled from her increasingly empty bag, cleaning the wound first, then moving on to the actual healing. But even though I could feel her magic simmering within her, nothing seemed to happen.
“I…dammit, I think I’m tapped out.”
“That’s all right. The burning has stopped, so that’s good, right?”
“Well, I was able to take the edge off and slow down the venom, so it probably won’t get worse, at least not for a couple of days. I need to get somewhere I can rest and recharge before I can completely clear it out of your body, though.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Mad Dog stretched and gave a borderline theatrical yawn. “Well, I’m going to pass out and hope I wake up in… what, a couple of hours?”
“Yeah, let’s do at least a couple hours rest,” I said, offering my hand to Ayla. All pretenses gone, she took it and settled down beside me. “We head to the coven as soon as we wake.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Heard.”
We all settled into a restless slumber, uncertain of what the next day would bring. We’d basically lost half of our party and had nothing to show for it, with no living vampire blood, which meant no relic.
Which in turn meant no hope.
I half expected to wake up surrounded by the enemy, but we rose without any drama or surprise attacks. It wasn’t nearly enough rest, but it was better than nothing, and we wearily forged our way back to the coven.
We were farther than before, so even with our short nap, it wasn’t like we'd be there anytime soon. Despite pressing on as far as we could, we still had to crash for a night.
