A Shade of Vampire 31: A Twist of Fates (16 page)

W
hat
? Saved Grace?

As Ben began to explain the significance of these five young men, I could hardly believe him. If what he was saying was true—that an extract from their blood was the missing fifth ingredient of the antidote—then fate had finally smiled upon me.

I was also shocked when Ben told me that Dr. Finnegan had been brought here. She was in some temporary accommodation, but one of the witches left immediately to fetch her.

“Lawrence!” she exclaimed on laying eyes on me. “You’re alive.”

“Yeah,” I replied grimly.

Everybody focused once more on the bird boys. They looked quite overwhelmed by everything. Obviously, they hadn’t had a clue of the significance of their bodies, or the role they had played in the IBSI’s history. In my mother’s history.

But they willingly agreed to give us a blood sample.

Corrine suggested that we all head to the “Sanctuary” to mix up the antidote. We already had the other four ingredients—Ben had kept the test tubes I’d given him back in the Chicago lab safe.

She transported the whole crowd to a large circular room surrounded by shelf upon shelf of potions. There were two large stoves and a long counter that circled the room, upon which lay drying cauldrons and other utensils. A dusty bookshelf towered near the door.
A spell room, indeed
. I could not remember ever stepping into a witch’s spell room before, though I was quickly distracted from the novelty as Dr. Finnegan and Corrine gathered round the counter.

Dr. Finnegan mixed up doses of the first four ingredients, and then Corrine, taking a syringe, withdrew a tiny amount of blood from Field, who’d been the first to volunteer. Dr. Finnegan said that even the drop that Corrine drew was too much; we could get by with a mere trace. But she doubted there would be any harm in adding the whole drop. We were all completely silent as we watched Dr. Finnegan add the blood and stir the antidote. Once she was satisfied, we returned to Grace’s hospital room.

As everyone gathered around her cage, Grace acted up again. Our blood was agitating her.

Corrine used her magic to stop Grace from moving so much and forced her to lie flat on the floor. Then she removed the magic cage.

Dr. Finnegan held out the tube of antidote directly above Grace’s face and to my surprise, Grace’s mouth opened.

Perhaps she sensed the blood.

Dr. Finnegan tipped the potion into Grace’s mouth. Grace swallowed, not wasting a drop.

Now was the moment of truth.

The tension in the room was tangible. I couldn’t even bring myself to think about where we would stand if this didn’t work.

Grace became still and quiet, but there was no noticeable change in her yet.

“There’s not really any set time for this antidote to work,” Dr. Finnegan said. “Especially since she’s half fae. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out… We just need to wait.”

And so we did.

One hour passed. Then two hours. Still there was no change. Grace lay there on the floor, calmly but still a Bloodless.

Then, after the third hour, something started to happen, causing everyone’s breath to hitch. Grace’s complexion warmed noticeably. The paleness faded, slowly but surely being replaced with a more natural skin tone.

The next noticeable change was her eyes. The blackness began to fade, her irises gradually returning closer and closer to their original turquoise color.

Then other parts of her face started changing. Her lips, which had been shrunken, began to smooth and gain volume. The oddest thing about her facial transformation was her nose.

It started to jut out, until it attained the length of a normal nose. But it looked bruised. As if someone had punched her hard. Like the bone was broken.

But she was coming back.

She was coming back.

The atmosphere in the room grew more and more electric as the hours went by until finally… Grace was back.

M
y nose felt
like it had been smashed by a baseball bat. Every part of me hurt. It felt like I had been put through a shredder. My limbs, still very thin, felt weak and hard to move. But at least I felt full control over them now.

I was back.

And, by some miracle, so was Lawrence.

I raised my head… and what a wonderful feeling that was. To finally have my body respond to me, rather than the terrifying virus that had overtaken me.

My mother broke out in tears, and so did my father. They were the first to smother me in hugs and kisses. They didn’t realize how fragile I still was and, both of them being supernaturals, I found their embrace rather overbearing. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I was too relieved to be holding them again.

After they let go of me, the rest of my family stooped down and had their turns. Also Orlando, who kissed me on the cheek.

And then, still standing and gazing over me, half overjoyed, half in disbelief, was Lawrence.
Lawrence
. Whatever had happened to him, he looked like he had been through the mill himself. His skin was uncharacteristically red, and when he moved his arms, I noticed nasty burns at the back of them.

I wasn’t able to hold my own weight yet. My mother and father helped me stand and sat me on the edge of the bed. Lawrence moved to me. He bent down to my level and, reaching a hand behind my neck, he pressed a tender kiss against my forehead, his breath constricted with emotion.

“You made it, Grace,” he said hoarsely.

I still wasn’t sure
how
I had made it. I had been losing my mind more and more as the hours passed as a Bloodless, and I hadn’t been able to pay much attention to the conversations that had been going on around me prior to being fed the antidote.

I still had a lot of recovery to make. I had no nails, for a start. And I was still bald. But hopefully those things would grow back with time.

As I gazed up at Lawrence, my eyes felt watery. “How did it happen? How are you alive?”

Lawrence’s eyes broadened. “How do you know I was supposed to be gone?”

I glanced around the room. From the look on everyone’s faces, they seemed to be wondering the same thing.

“I could understand things still,” I said. “I still had thoughts… though I’m not sure how long that would have lasted.” My eyes returned to Lawrence, not having the patience to go into details now about my trauma. “Tell me what happened!”

“It was all a hoax by my father,” he replied. “He was holding me captive and wanted to prevent anyone from The Shade from looking for me.”

There was so much I needed to be filled in on. So much had happened during my “time-out”.

“And h-how did you just cure me?” I looked to my mother and father with this question. “Why didn’t it work before?”

My mother, her eyes still swimming with tears, gestured to the door. Near it stood five young men… most peculiar young men. They looked like a cross between giant birds and vampires. She moved over to one of them and clutched his arm, leading him forward. I gazed up into his bluish-green-eyed face, framed by locks of deep brown hair.

“It’s all thanks to Lawrence finding this young man, Field,” my mother said, her voice choked up, “and Field kindly offering his blood. Field’s blood was the key to curing you.”

As my family and Lawrence explained that Lawrence had been given a faulty ingredient by his father—Bloodless venom, at that—and the journey behind their arrival at the real fifth ingredient, I could hardly believe it.

I wanted to ask more questions, but Corrine broke up the party by saying that I needed to rest. Although I wished we could have continued talking, she was right. I felt exhausted. Like I could sleep for four hundred years.

But before they left the room, I pulled Lawrence down to my level and held him tight, burying my face in his neck and kissing it.

Then I gazed up at the young man who was responsible for saving me. I reached for his arm and pulled him down to my level too, giving him a warm hug. Apparently he and his four companions were planning to reside with us in The Shade now.

After I had rested, along with getting some proper time alone with Lawrence, I wanted to get to know this mysterious boy Field better. I was sure that there would be plenty of time for that too.

A
fter Victoria
wisely suggested that we head back to the ship, I thought that we were going to be forced to return to land and travel by foot. That I would have to somehow run while carrying her, even with the pain every part of my skin was tingling with.

When she tightened her arms around me, I yelped in shock as the two of us lifted into the air.

Holding her tighter against me, I gasped, “Wh-What is this? Did a witch cast a spell on you?”

“Kind of…”

As she began to explain to me her journey since I had last seen her, I could hardly believe it. First of all, the existence of the vial came as a shock to me. But then her drinking from it? When it could’ve killed her? She had made herself part-Mortclaw— part
monster
— for me. She was crazy.

An insane woman.

As she flew with me over the shore and we searched the waters for my ship, it took a while for her revelations to sink in. Then she insisted that I explain to her my own journey.

I was profoundly relieved to finally tell her why I had run away from her back in The Woodlands. That I couldn’t be seen with her.

In fact, even now, I couldn’t be seen with her.

“Do you have any idea what that jinni was trying to do to me?” I asked her.

“Yes, I do have an idea,” Victoria said darkly. “I’m almost certain that they were trying to transform you into a half-scorpion.”

My mind returned to the pictures on the wall of that cave the jinni had led me to. I shuddered. Though I doubted I would’ve survived the full transformation, anyway. I had been minutes from death in that burning pool. Victoria was certainly convinced that I would’ve died before ever succeeding.

“What did you say to the jinni to make them do that to you?” she asked. “And why were you in The Dunes in the first place?”

Due to the same craziness that drove you to drink from that vial.

“Victoria, as I told you, if my mother ever finds out that I’ve seen you, you are in danger from my entire family. No matter what she might’ve said to you in the meeting you had with her, and what you have become, I still fear that she would reject you.” I sighed deeply. “I wanted to solve our problem for good, by making myself into something they themselves would want nothing to do with. Something that would bring shame and embarrassment to their entire lineage. If they disconnected from me, they would have no reason to keep tabs on you or hold grudges. But now that my plan has gone all wrong, you are still in danger.”

Her arms closed more tightly around me. She gazed into my eyes, fearful. But not the fear she should have held. “You can’t leave me again,” she said. “Don’t even think about it.”

The ship came into view beneath us. As Victoria descended with me, it was clear that we still had a lot to discuss. But my body was still shaking from the relief of finding her again. Now that we were returning to solid ground, I needed us to pause this discussion.

Landing on the deck, I took Victoria to the control cabin, where Cecil was asleep, head leaned against the log wall. I hated to wake him but I had no choice.

“Cecil,” I said quietly, shaking him.

His head lifted, his eyelids fluttering open. His eyes widened and he looked quite stunned to see the two of us standing side by side.

“B-Bastien?”

“I found Victoria! We can leave this land now.” And go where, I still wasn’t sure. But it didn’t matter for the moment. We just needed to put distance between ourselves and The Dunes.

All I could think about was being alone with Victoria. Somewhere safe where I could hold her and kiss her properly without the distraction of the waves and the wind. Just a few minutes was all I asked for…

“How has Yuraya been?” I asked.

“Fine,” Cecil replied. “I’ve been sure to check on her every hour.”

“Wait here,” I told Victoria, before dashing down the stairs to where I had left Yuraya. Indeed, she was still unconscious, lying next to the heap of potent weeds I had collected from The Woodlands.

I returned upstairs to Victoria and Cecil. Interrupting the conversation that had started between the two, I took Victoria’s arm.

“Cecil, would you mind taking charge and navigating us away? I need some… time with Victoria.”

Cecil obliged. As he began to make the preparations to sail away, I led Victoria to the opposite end of the boat. About three quarters of the way along the deck there was a lower platform—a balcony. Its lower position created a kind of shield from the upper deck, allowing a sense of privacy.

I picked Victoria up and carried her down to the balcony. Setting her on her feet, I leaned her back against a pole. Her arms draped over my shoulders. I buried my head against her neck, breathing her in deeply. It felt like an age since I had last held her. It felt like, before my brain could move on to other matters, I needed to reconnect with her first. Body and mind. For me, as a werewolf, everything started with scent.

She moaned softly as I ran my lips down the arch of her neck, across her shoulders. Even as this hybrid being who was still a complete mystery to me, she still smelled like my girl. The same Victoria I’d first laid eyes on while trapped in that cage back on Earth. The same Victoria I had traveled for days through The Woodlands with. The same Victoria who had shared my bed. She was
my
Victoria, and now, as I caught her lower lip between my lips, I felt the desperate need to finally make her mine. Fully mine.

The time and distance that had separated us had only made my desire burn stronger for her. It made me realize that I truly would do anything for this woman. Although I was still afraid to even be with her now, with my mother’s threat playing at the back of my mind, I could no longer resist my urge.

I wanted to create a bond with her that would never be broken. One that would keep us bound together, even if we were torn apart again in the future.

I must’ve looked a mess right now, my skin red and burned. But all she was looking at was my eyes. Her crystal-blue ones gazed deep into mine.

My heart pounding, I hardly even knew how to control my passions. I wanted to shed our garments, the barrier that stopped us from pressing together, skin to skin. As our kiss deepened, her body responding to mine, I knew that she wanted the same.

As untraditional as I might be labeled due to falling in love with a human, there were still some traditions that were ingrained in me.

“Victoria,” I whispered. I unclasped my lips from hers before trailing them up her cheek and kissing her eyelids. I struggled to find the words to express what I was feeling inside right now. It was impossible. Her scent was driving me wild. Her hands roaming through my hair, the hitching of her breath… Anything that came out of my mouth would sound horribly insufficient. But at least I could try. Clearing my throat, I blurted the first words that came to me. “I need you, Victoria. You… You’ve made me
insane
.”

Her back still pressed against the pole, I lowered myself down until I was kneeling. Resting my hands on her lower back, I lifted up the ends of her shirt and kissed her perfectly formed navel, trailing my way down to the border of her pants.

My mouth dried. I
knew
what I wanted. But I… I didn’t know exactly how to get there. In The Woodlands everything was so… arranged.

How is this done by humans?
I didn’t even know.

I glanced up at her. Her eyes had widened, her lips parted. I seemed to be doing something right.

And who cared even if I did everything wrong? Victoria didn’t. She loved me for whatever I was.

A blush rose to her cheeks as she knelt to my level. That blush… it was my undoing.

“I want you to have my children, Victoria Vaughn,” I whispered, gazing intensely into her eyes, our lips an inch apart. “Even though we’re still stuck in this mess, I… I’m asking you to be mine.”

Victoria was barely breathing as she stared at me.

What was going through her head? I wished that she would say something. Had it been wrong to mention children? Did they not do that where she was from? I was just trying to be honest. It didn’t help that my passions were raging for her.

She leaned closer until our foreheads touched, holding the sides of my face.

“I already am yours, Bastien,” she breathed. “Are you so blind?”