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Dusek seemed to understand my concern. He spoke from behind me as I clung to Cicely and the railing on our mad dash down the stairs from the balcony to the main level of the theater. "Robin will be there. She gave him sanctuary once. She was depleted, but she can probably manage it again."

"I don't know what that even means," I grumbled, nearly missing a step. Cicely steadied me and forced me to slow down.

"It's an alpha thing," Dusek said, his voice still cool and even despite the fact that there was a body on our front steps. Josh? Or was some new horror waiting for us? "If an alpha is strong enough, and if the other alpha is willing to allow it, they can… I don't know, shelter the enraged alpha. Contain their powers if they are a danger to others."

Hmm. Convenient. And possibly dangerous. Especially if both alphas were exceptionally powerful and one of them didn't have access to all of her magic because it had been stolen away. But I had no time to voice my questions and concerns or to see if my conclusions were correct. We reached the main theater level, then headed up a shorter set of stairs to the main lobby.

Sadavir made a strangled sound and pushed past us. Josh, then. It must be. But the fact that it wasn't a new body was hardly a relief. Sadavir's broken sounds of grief nearly brought me to my knees. I pushed away from Cicely and Dusek to join the others, who had gathered around the body, which someone had brought into the lobby.

"Is it him?" I murmured quietly, the numb priestess mask falling into place as I forced myself to ignore what I felt and focus on the matter at hand. Sadavir was my concern now. And keeping the others safe, keeping him from losing it, or fighting with Robin, or any other crazy, impulsive outburst his wounded serpent side might provoke.

Even if my own heart was breaking on the inside, I couldn't show it now. I pushed my pain down deep. The way I had been trained to do since I was a child.

"Yes," Robin said in an even voice that matched my own. A voice that said she was containing her own emotions. Probably rage. That someone under her protection had been murdered would not sit well with her. It was a wonder she hadn't turned into a dragon and started setting things on fire. "Savaged," she added for my benefit. "He's covered in blood. But… " she paused as if considering, maybe scenting the air.

"Not all of it is his," Martina finished for her. "He reeks of vampire."

I moved forward, reaching out blindly. I found Sadavir's broad, solid shoulder and went to my knees beside him. "Vir. I'm so sorry."

He gripped my hand and yanked me forward, and my palm landed on cold, smooth skin. "Help him."

My heart was already fractured into a million pieces, barely held together with sheer will. But now it shattered fully, the pieces raining down in a shower of devastation at the rawness in Sadavir's voice. The pleading. The desperation. And at the surety that there was nothing I could do.

"I can't," I whispered. "I'm so sorry. But I can't. I can't bring people back from the dead."

"Ruya," Robin said, her overly warm hand suddenly gripping my arm and yanking. "Something's not right about this body. Move away. Now!"

I tried to shake off her grip, but she was paranorm strong. As my hand slipped away from Josh's cold, dead skin, something hammered through my awareness. "Let go of me!" I demanded. "I just felt—"

Again. A pulse of awareness. Like an aura, but there and gone again in a flash that felt like a physical blow. Like a flash of lightning. Thunder before a storm. Robin growled. Sadavir hissed.

I was yanked backward so hard and fast that my shoulder protested and I nearly bit through my tongue. Robin's arm wrapped around my torso, and she held me, my back to her chest as she dragged me further away. Her chest continued to rumble with a deep warning growl. Sanka's magic washed over us all as he readied some sort of spell or ward.

That aura pulsed again. And again. The final time, it leveled out to something more normal and… stayed. Thready, but permanent. A soul crying out for healing. "I need to go to him," I said, struggling in Robin's arms. "He's alive! He needs help!"

And then all hell broke loose.

Sanka's magic flared. Sadavir yelled, "No! Don't hurt him!" There was some kind of a scuffle.

People shouted, talking over one another, and still, throughout it all, that strange new aura called to me, urged by the healer in me to help. Pain. Weakness. Starvation…

Sadavir grunted and I knew through our connection and the feelers I was currently sending out to the room around me that he had been wounded. "What's happening?" I shouted. "Sadavir?!"

It was Martina who spoke. "He's starving," she snapped. "The fuckers turned him and threw him on our doorstep before he even completed the transition. A new vampire who has never had blood. Fucking fantastic."

There was more scuffling. People were moving, but struggle though I might, Robin refused to release me. Her alpha aura was enraged, pulsing outward in waves that were almost painful to bear. And I realized she was struggling with control. Maybe she wasn't only holding me here for my own safety. Maybe she was clinging to me so she wouldn't completely lose it.

"Get them apart," Martina commanded, taking control of the situation, since she was the only alpha currently in control of herself. "Ruya! You can't freak out right now, we need you to do your omega thing. Cicely! You too, push that comfort shit like your life depends on it."

Sadavir hissed.

"Don't even try it, scaly," Martina said in an unimpressed voice. "Sanka. Magical binds. Now."

I tried to be calm. But the world had just tilted on its axis. Josh wasn't dead. He was… but how? Why?

Chapter 29

Josh

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