Crimson Dawn (24 page)

Instead of the snarling and growling that I expected to hear, I heard a deep chuckle coming from the hallway. "I can tell Anya's your mother, Trumaine. No female outside of my family would have the guts to do that to me, except for maybe you."

Marcus was wrong about that. I might enjoy aggravating him and pushing his buttons, but I wasn't crazy enough to lay an Alpha on his ass without fear of the repercussions.

No, my mother is a class all by herself. I looked around the room finally noticing all the hardware connected to me. There had to be at least four half-empty blood bags hanging from the IV post near my head. I knew I had broken bones, but that shouldn't account for that much blood. I broke my leg twice when I was a kid, two days in bed with an Extra feeding thrown in and my leg was healed, no problem.

"What did Tristan do to me?” The words were out before I could stop them even though I was scared to hear the answer.

Valerian grimaced and started rattling of the list of injuries I'd sustained. "All four of your limbs were shattered, sis, not just broken but ground to dust. There was nothing to knit together, nothing to heal. Your body had to re-grow the sections of bone that he destroyed."

I dropped my head to my hands not wanting to hear the rest, but Valerian continued in spite of Constantine's objections. "He almost drained you to the point of death, Val. There was less than a pint left in your body."

He looked to my mother and brother, "They couldn't transfuse you with Human blood because you were too low to convert it on your own. To guarantee you’d have enough blood, they tapped all of us, and we’ve all been here around the clock. Tam and father were here about two hours ago but their shift ended.

I paled with the weight of his words but he kept on going. He knew I needed to hear it all. “They’ve even been able to tap Irulan. The doctors weren't sure at first that her blood would be able to sustain you, but she raised so much hell, they tried anyway, and it worked! Val, if Irulan hadn't shown up when she did..."

Anything else my brother said fell on deaf ears. My mind raced back to what fuzzy memories I could recall from that night. Irulan coming though the skylight, the fire, she almost had him, but she let him go. She let him go, and I couldn't remember why. Jesus! Why couldn't I remember?

I wanted to, but the 'whys' just didn't seem that important. I'd almost died. I knew I was dying lying there on that decrepit floor, and the only thing I could think of was Irulan, and how much I wanted her to know how I felt. It took me almost losing my life to realize I already had everything I wanted. I was in love with her, and it scared the shit out of me.

"I need to talk with Irulan, everyone,” I said in a small voice. No one made any motion to leave the room assuming that whatever I had to say I could say in front of them. I pleaded to Valerian.
"Please Vedo,"
I called out so only he could hear,
"I need to talk to Irulan in private, there're some things...I mean I need...”.”

Even in my thoughts, I was nervous as hell and stuttering like a love-struck teenager. Valerian spared me any more embarrassment and herded my mother and Constantine out of the room.

"It's about time," he called out before he shut the soundproof door to give us some privacy.

I felt apprehension rolling off her in waves. She was just as nervous as I was, but for all the wrong reasons, "I'm sorry, Val, I know what you said about forcing my blood on you, but I didn't have a choice."

She thought I wanted to talk about the blood tap. I couldn't help it I laughed out loud.

"You think after saving my life and then becoming my living Pez dispenser, I want to rag on you about it?" I laughed again, "Now who's dense?"

Irulan got quiet, unsure of where I was going with the conversation. I looked everywhere in the room but at her and tried to find the courage to finish what I'd started.

"I almost died, Ire," I began with a voice that threatened to crack at any minute. I was so nervous that I could taste the bile traveling up the back of my throat.

"I almost died," I started again, "And the only thing, the only person that I could think about while I was lying on that floor was you."

I finally looked into her eyes and saw a glimmer of hope where there had been fear. "You've been a constant my entire life, and the only person besides Valerian that knows me inside and out." I swallowed hard and pressed on, "I know you've always loved me, Irulan. You've told me enough times, but until a few weeks ago, even though I tried to deny it, I didn't realize just how much I meant to you."

Irulan closed the short distance between her and my bed, but she looked afraid to touch me. "I didn't realize until I almost died how much you mean to me, how much I love you,” I reached out and pulled her down to sit beside me.

"How much I'm in love with you," I said and waited for a response. Irulan didn't say a word. She just sat there looking at the tiles on the floor. I had to reach out and pull her long red hair out of her face to see that she was crying.

I pulled myself up a little farther in the bed, and reached over to turn her face towards my own. "Please don't cry, Irulan.” I brushed the tears from her face with the back of my hand, fascinated by the softness of her skin. I don't know why I never noticed that before.

"Please don't cry, baby,” I whispered and pulled her forehead down to rest against my own.

Irulan whispered back even softer, "I never thought I'd hear those words coming from your mouth." I'd caused her this pain, and for God knows how long. Whether I was right or wrong, no matter how big or small the problem had been, she had always been here, and I'd caused her this hurt.

She choked on a sob and my heart clenched with shame and pain. I couldn't hold back my own tears any longer, but I was going to do my damnedest to try to ease hers. "I love you, Irulan, and I'll say it as often as you need me to,” came softly from my mouth before it sought hers out.

The kiss started out gentle and exploring. Her lips grazed my own, softly giving me time to change my mind if I chose to. When I didn't back away, Irulan lips became firmer, and the tip of her tongue lazily drew itself across my bottom lip as if we had all the time in the world.

My head swam with emotions as I dug my hands into her hair to bring her closer. What started out soft and slow escalated with that action. I moaned, but the sound burned away inside the fire given life by Irulan’s lips. I arched up into her trying to get closer, and my tongue sought entrance to her mouth for a taste of my own.

When I got it, I wasn't disappointed. She tasted like strawberries, cream, and so many other sweet flavors all at once. So many that my mind couldn't find the exact words to explain what they were.

So many that, in that moment, I knew I would gladly spend hours kissing her just to try to name them all. I was so lost in the dance that our tongues were doing that I didn't even notice that she had laid me back on the bed and was straddling me supporting herself on one arm.

She broke the kiss to look down into my eyes. When she was obviously satisfied with what she saw in them, her lips came barreling down to crush mine. The emotions behind that kiss traveled down my body and struck the center of my own heat like lightning. I pulled her down trying to get her closer, but nothing seemed close enough to satisfy the ache that was pounding inside of me.

Her lips trailed along my neck, her teeth nipping me here and there leaving small infernos in their wake until they found my lips again. The growing storm that exploded inside of me when her teeth pulled my lips to her left me panting and breathless.

What I didn't know was that I had exploded in truth. When we heard the click of the door, Irulan barely had time to get off the bed and drop down into the chair next to me before Constantine limped into the room with a look of shock and confusion on his face. “What in the dog hell just happened in here?" He nearly shouted. “Valerian was knocked out cold by what came out of this room. Mother's still trying to bring him around.”

Irulan's rose-colored complexion faded to damn near white with embarrassment, and she dropped her head against mine. "Ooops,” she muttered before exploding into giggles.

"Ooops? Ooops is all you can say? You of all people should know better than to practice any magics in a hospital, hell you're older than I am,” Constantine gasped. "Every alarm on this floor is going off now. This room is warded. The security staff has called in Sentinels from the lower levels.” Constantine drew our attention to the flashing lights going off all around the room. "For Christ sake, Irulan, they think she's under attack from something."

I was under attack, just not the way he thought I was. Irulan's kiss assaulted my senses in a way no kiss ever had before. It made me eager to find out just what else her lips were capable of, and a surge of excitement coursed through me at the thought. As much as I wanted to take the situation seriously, the tingling butterflies coursing through my body make it impossible.

I covered my own mouth trying to keep from laughing. Constantine turned beet red, offended that I had the gall to laugh in his face. "I'm glad you find this shit funny, Val..." Constantine's words stumbled to a stop, and he looked at us with a funny expression on his face.

I could tell the moment two and two clicked in his mind because his finger darted between the two of us like a mad hummingbird. "Well I'll be damned,” he chuckled. Constantine pointed to the door and stuck his head out, "Everything's OK, Mother...yeah...no...Trust me. You don't want to know."

I could only imagine the look on my mother’s face right now. A twinge of guilt danced around the edge of my thoughts when I heard a soft moan come from Valerian drift through the cracked door.

Constantine closed the door behind him with the same look on his face he'd sport when I was a girl and he'd caught me in the dessert pantry, "Just promise me one thing, Val."

He waited for me to acknowledge the fact that he'd spoken, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction as long as he had that Cheshire cat grin on his face. I tried to show a good poker face, but a few giggles escaped. I loved all three of my brothers fiercely. One would think, considering the huge age difference between us (Constantine is two hundred and fifty one, and Tamerlane is one hundred and seventy six) that we wouldn't be as close as we are, but we are close, and I couldn't ask for better big brothers.

Constantine shrugged his shoulders, "Hell don't say anything just nod yes. Promise me I get to be there when the two of you tell mother and father.” I threw the closest thing I had at his head, a cup of ice water from a nearby table. He dodged it without even trying and left the room laughing at the top of his lungs.

Hells bells! Oh well.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I would have thought that after the fiasco in the hospital unit they would have been breaking their necks to get me out of their hair. Even my mother couldn't save me from Marcus' wrath when he found out that he'd dragged a battle-ready team of Sentinels tearing through the building for nothing.

Irulan and I spent three hours being interrogated by every Tom, Dick, and Harry, seer, empath, and tracer that Marcus could drag up from the lower levels. After those three hours, they subjected me to every medical test known to man, and then a few that weren't. Everyone wanted to know what happened to cause the power burst that fried every piece of medical equipment within two hundred feet. Irulan and I were just as confused as everyone was. We knew the why, just not the how, and through some small miracle, we were able to keep the 'why' to ourselves.

Three more days had passed before they deemed me recovered enough to go home. I think the doctors were secretly punishing me because they thought I was holding out on them about what happened. The nurses, on the other hand, were overjoyed to see me leave. (Rumor has it that they threw a party the day of my discharge.).

Once I was safe and sound behind my own two doors, it was four more days before Irulan and my mother would even so much as utter Marcus or Tristan's name. Finally, on the fifth day, they allowed Marcus to come for a visit. I was in the gym area sparing with Yosh, one of my father’s Lifeborns and my sensei since childhood, when he arrived.

"Looking better, Valley Girl, definitely an improvement since the last time I was allowed to see you.” Marcus stood with his hands folded over his broad chest. The lines of his face were tense and rigid. He looked eager to talk, but he waited patiently until Yosh bowed to the both of us and left the room.

I mopped the sweat off my face and walked over to him. "Why so serious, Marcus? You look like someone just died or something.”