Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (38 page)

Adam finally stopped resisting and walked with them into a small room off the Great Hall. Once inside, he looked around the dark room. “How are we having fun in a dark, empty room?” he asked with a laugh. He turned toward Brian just as something smacked the back of his head. He went down hard, not expecting it at all. He barely registered what was going on before the second and third and fourth strikes came. Some were punches; some were kicks; and all hurt like hell. He felt the wind get knocked out of him, and for some reason, it wouldn’t come back. Pain and fire radiated throughout his body.

It all stopped just as suddenly as it had started. He opened his eyes and tried to look around, but everything was blurred and distorted. Then he saw some motion above him and heard a voice, although he couldn’t make anything out. He opened his mouth and tried to talk. He managed to say Syney’s name, or at least he thought he did. Then everything went black.

Leaf had to make a decision and fast. He grabbed a red banner off the wall and wrapped Adam in it. He picked him up and started toward Syney’s room. He could have gone to the infirmary, but then he would have had to explain the hows and whys. The mere mention of a royal, and there would be an investigation, one that would lead to nothing good. He had heard stories of the Viloris’ healing powers and prayed they were for real as he picked up speed. He pounded a few times on Syney door before walking in.

Syney stared at him oddly as she jumped off her bed. Leaf gently placed Adam on the bed and unwrapped the banner from around him.

“Adam? What happened?” Syney cried as she grabbed at Adam’s chest.

“He was attacked.”

“Why did you bring him here?”

Leaf looked at her. “Can you heal him?”

She shook her head, her face wet with tears. “I can’t. Oh, God. He’s turning blue. He can’t breathe.”

“I think his lung collapsed.”

Syney stepped back from the bed and shook her hands. “I don’t know what to do! Oh, God!”

“I’ll take him to the infirmary,” Leaf said, moving toward the bed.

“He won’t make it,” Syney said.

“What do you want me to do?”

She sniffled and looked at Adam. After a few moments her face changed, became more confident. She looked at Leaf. “I’m going to do something, and I need you not to question it. OK?”

Leaf nodded.

Syney took a deep breath and climbed into the bed next to Adam. She pulled her knife from the nightstand and ran it over her wrist.

Leaf bit back all his concerns and questions as she held her wrist to his mouth.

“Please, baby. Come on. Come on,” she repeated.

After a while Adam’s hand, covered in blood, slowly reached up and grabbed Syney’s wrist. When it did, Syney cried out.

“Are you OK?” Leaf asked her.

Syney grimaced but nodded. “I think so.”

Leaf watched as more and more pain registered on her face before he stepped forward. “You aren’t OK, Syney. Stop what you’re doing.”

She shook her head. “No. Not until he’s better.”

Leaf was about to yell at her and tell her no one’s life was more important than her own when the door opened and the Vampire walked in.

“Have you seen Adam?” he demanded.

Leaf nodded and stepped back for him to see what was going on.

Gabriel ran to the bed and looked at Syney. “How much have you given him?”

Leaf frowned. Gabriel obviously knew what was going on, which didn’t surprise Leaf that much.

“I don’t know, but it hurts, a lot,” Syney said.

Gabriel nodded. “I’m going to pull him off. Move off the bed when you can.” He reached forward and grasped Syney’s arm and Adam’s head. A moment later, Syney was freed. She scrambled off the bed as Adam jerked after her. Gabriel jumped on top of him, straddling him, to keep him down. After a moment, Adam’s body began to convulse.

“What’s happening?” Syney cried.

“It’s OK,” Gabriel said as Adam became still again. “He’s going to be OK.”

“Are you sure?” Leaf asked.

Gabriel looked at him, his expression none too friendly, and remained silent.

“Hey, don’t do that,” Syney said. “He brought him here.”

Gabriel got off the bed and looked Leaf over. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Is he going to be OK?”

He nodded. “I’ll wash him. Take Syney to the infirmary.”

“What? No, I’m fine.”

Leaf walked over to her and looked at her wrist, which was still bleeding. “You’re going to pass out soon.” He stepped into the bathroom, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around her wrist. “Come on.”

“I said no!”

“You can’t do anything more for him,” Gabriel said.

She gritted her teeth and looked up at Leaf. “Did you see who did this?”

He nodded.

“Then arrest them. I’ll find my own way to the infirmary.”

Leaf stared down at her. “I can’t.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it was a group of royals, my dear,” Gabriel said.

Syney looked back and forth between the two. “Really?”

Leaf nodded. “That’s why I brought him here.”

“There has to be something we can do.”

“I can kill them, and I plan to.”

They both looked at Gabriel as he lifted Adam as if he weighed nothing and brought him into the bathroom.

“He means that, I’m assuming,” Leaf said, looking back at Syney.

She nodded. A vacant look passed over her features, and he reached out to steady her. “Whoa,” she said.

“You need to get to the infirmary.” Leaf put his arm around her waist and led the way to the door.

Once they were in the hallway, she collapsed against him. He picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. After the doctors had bandaged her arm and given her blood, she looked up, appearing small and weak in the hospital bed. “You have questions,” she said to Leaf.

“Quite a few, but they can wait.”

“They’re going to wait a long time. I have so many other people’s secrets, and I can’t tell you them all,” she said, a single tear making its way down her cheek.

Leaf nodded and let silence fall between them. He could connect a few dots on his own. Adam wasn’t a Magic User, at least not fully. And Syney knew about it. But there were still some things that just led to more questions. Why couldn’t Adam heal on his own until she had given him blood? He was part Vampire, wasn’t he? The blood was a dead giveaway. He stared at Syney for a while before he had to leave to oversee guard training. But there was one thing he now knew for sure: Syney was here to make changes, and it involved more than just changing the Village. All the races were involved. He just wondered how much of this was Gabriel’s doing and how much she really controlled. He needed to keep a closer eye on all of them if he could, and he would.

Cass flew up in bed and cried out. It took Becca only moments to come to her bedside with a glass of greenish-blue liquid. This wasn’t the first time Cass’s pain had jerked her out of sleep. It had been getting worse in the few weeks since she’d traveled to the Human Realm and settled in at Becca’s. She had remembered the house the second she and Gabe had pulled up to it, and Becca had greeted her with a warm hug. Cass had felt at home the moment Becca had placed a mug of hot tea in her hands and sat her down on one of the overstuffed couches. This was nothing like living with the Lycins on the front lines. Over the past few weeks, Becca had become a confidant and guide. She even had taught Cass some more spells and conjuring techniques—that is, when Cass wasn’t withering in pain. The concoction Becca made for her helped, but it would last only a few hours.

Cass liked Becca a lot. She didn’t put up with Cass’s whining but was never disrespectful to her. She also encouraged Cass’s curiosity but always told her where the limit might be. The only other person to do that had been Raine. Cass missed her Protector. The other day she was surprised when she’d found his picture in Becca’s room. She was bringing up some laundry when she found it on the dresser. It was of Becca and Raine smiling and sitting on the back porch. She shouldn’t have been too surprised, considering Raine had brought her here in the first place, but still they seemed so intimate in the picture. She had wanted
to ask Becca about it but didn’t. She didn’t want to start asking questions like some inquisitor. The decision to wait for a good time was easy to come to.

Becca took the empty glass from her and placed it on the nightstand. “Is it getting worse?”

Cass nodded and put a hand on her swollen belly, which had grown in the past weeks. She had no idea why anyone would want to be pregnant. Nothing on her was normal size, although her enlarged breasts were a nice change from her normally flat chest—that is, until they started to become sore and uncomfortable. Add to that the fact that she had to pee every five minutes, and she was starting to hate her own body. “I don’t remember any Magic User going through this much pain while pregnant. Do you think something’s wrong?”

“No. Gabe mentioned that Shifter pregnancies are typically very painful.”

“Super.” Cass sighed. “Is there something more permanent we can do to alleviate the pain?”

Becca frowned. “There might be.”

“You look worried.”

“I could bind the baby’s powers, but it might bind yours as well.”

Cass ran a hand over her belly and contemplated it. She’d been learning so much lately, and it felt good to do the magic. She also worried she might lose her natural ability to make people do things she wanted them to. It had come in handy when she was out on the front lines, and she felt nervous to let go of it. It was her only natural defense. “Will it hurt the baby at all?”

“I don’t think so. He should be fine. It’s a natural instinct for a Shifter to shift into his animal state. The baby is just shifting inside your womb.”

“You said ‘he,’” Cass said with a smile.

Becca nodded. “All the royal lines of Shifters are male.”

Cass looked down at her belly and smiled. “My little boy.”

“Do you want me to bind the baby’s powers?”

Cass looked at her and nodded. “I don’t think I can take much more, to be honest.”

“OK. We’ll do it tomorrow. You should be able to get a good night’s sleep with the potion I just gave you,” Becca said. She placed her hand on Cass’s arm for a moment before walking out of the room.

Cass watched her go then lay back in the bed. Everything felt so overwhelming, but she felt OK with it all, she decided. She finally had a place where she truly fit in. Her own little family. Her only real worry was whether she’d ever see Wes again. She hoped Syney would make a difference in the Realm. That would be the only way she’d see Wes again, she knew. She hadn’t known what to say when Syney had told her she was part Daemon. The thought initially scared her, but then she thought of her unborn child. Who was she to criticize
Syney when she was carrying a part-Shifter child? One of the books she had read in Becca’s library contained the Treaty of Allegiance of the Great Races, from which she learned how harmonious the races once were. It was sad to see where the Realm was now. She used to think nothing of it because she had grown up with it, but now that she saw how things could be, she wanted nothing more than to try to change it—not that she could do much from where she was. She wrapped her arms around her belly and sighed. Or maybe she was doing exactly what she needed to.