Page 115 of The World Undone

“What—” Ro eyed the newcomers with suspicion, “Who?—”

“How is she?” I asked, cutting him off.

For a moment, he looked like he might press the issue, but then his gaze dropped back down to Charlie and he let it slide.

Her eyes were open, and Ro had a piece of his shirt pressed to the wound at her neck.

“Stable, I think. But I can't know for sure how his bite will affect them.”

Protectors rarely survived vampire venom unharmed, especially not when the bite was to the neck.

Normally, I’d panic, but Charlie had already survived Darius’s bite once before, and she only had a little bit of protector blood running through her veins. I figured that meant she had better odds than most at making it through this with minimal long-term effects.

“I’ll be okay.” Charlie’s voice was weak, and I could hear the waiver of fear lacing it. “But my baby. Make sure?—”

I placed one hand on her forehead, it was clammy with sweat, despite the chill in the air, and pulled Ro’s makeshift bandage back to get a better look at the wound.

“Sorry,” I muttered as she winced. It didn’t look too bad, but the outer appearance was rarely indicative of the damage these bites could do.

“Can you heal her?” Ro asked, keeping his focus split between me and the men at my back.

“I can try.”

“You know, last time this happened, I fell in love with my nursemaid,” Charlie said through a grin that was punctured with a wince.

“Bishop?” I tried to picture the gruff man I’d come to know being tender towards anyone. “Well, since that’s not an option, I’ll settle for you naming your baby after me.”

She chuckled, then groaned.

“Deep breaths,” I said, regretting my shitty attempt at humor.

Nash and Claude’s impatience chafed at my skin, but even they seemed to see that Charlie was the priority right now.

Closing my eyes, I focused all of my attention on shoving them out of my mind. Instead, I searched for Charlie. Healing my team had become like second nature, but it was always more difficult to heal others.

Still, I’d had a lot of practice in the medical wards and it helped that I’d gotten to know Charlie over the last few months. Not to mention I was hoping the fact that we shared blood would help the success rate too.

The world shifted as I tuned everything out, until all I could think about, all I could feel was the slippery thread of Charlie—her life force or energy supply, I didn’t really understand the mechanics of it.

I exhaled in relief when I realized that I could feel her, that the blood connection, however small, did seem to strengthen my ability, at least a bit.

As I focused, I realized that I sensed Darius too—his venom slipping into her bloodstream.

I pushed as much power and strength into mending the wound, into drawing it out. The familiar tingling heat burrowed beneath my skin, coating my hands.

I didn’t have much experience with healing pregnant people, or babies in general, but I felt a rush as the second lifeforce made itself known, strong but tenuous at the same time.

The baby was okay. I was fairly certain anyway, though I couldn’t make any predictions about long-term effects. It wasn’t often that pregnant human-protectors were bitten by a shadow-touched vampire and survived.

This was new territory.

Then again, it was probably equally likely that the world would end before the child was even born and we learned of the effects.

Vaguely, I was aware that there were more people joining us, that there were voices echoing in the breeze, though I couldn’t make out any of the words. My vision blurred, and I waivered slightly, dizzy, drunk on the feel of letting my strength flow into them.

“Max.” A hand grabbed my shoulder, gentle at first, but it grew more firm. “Max, stop.”

Light filled my chest and I wanted so badly to sink into it. To pour more of myself into the heat, to just rest for a while. Letting go meant I’d have to deal with the clusterfuck waiting for me on the beach, with Darius.

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