Page 49 of These Dangerous Fates

“So what do we do?” I ask, my throat burning. “We just let him die?” Tears are rolling down my cheeks now. There is a crack forming in my heart. It physically hurts. It hurts so fucking bad it steals my breath and makes me double over, clutching at my chest.

Cade looks defeated, his eyes swimming with unshed tears. “He won’t die without being staked. He will stay like this, in a coma-like state,” he says roughly. The pain etched across his face makes my heart break even more.

“We can’t leave him like this,” I cry. “We can’t just do nothing. We have to try to help him!”

Sterling asks, looking back at me through the rearview mirror. “What can we do?” His usually shining blue eyes are dark and strain lines the corners of them.

I shake my head. What can we do? We can’t take him to the hospital. Cade is right. It’s way too dangerous. The wheels turn in my brain. We can’t take him to the hospital, but what if we bring the hospital to him?

“Allie!” I turn to face Cade. “Allie is a nurse. Maybe she can do something.” A flicker of hope takes up residence in my chest once again. An ember that I want so badly to fan into a wildfire.

Cade doesn’t look hopeful, but I think he’s as desperate as I am when he says, “Call her.”

Ellis

He hasn’t moved.

I keep my hand on his chest just to make sure his heart is still beating. Logically, I know what Cade said is true. He won’t die without being staked, but I can’t shake the feeling that if I move my hand, his heart will stop. It doesn’t help that he looks like a corpse and the black sheets of his bed only make the gray pallor of his skin more pronounced.

When Allie enters his room, I release a nervous breath. This is it. The next few moments are going to shape the rest of my life. I can’t explain it, but there is an energy in the air, a heaviness that speaks of premonition, and I know something life changing is about to happen.

Allie looks nervous as she clutches her backpack straps and her wide eyes take everything in. From Sterling leaning against the far wall, to Cade looming behind her, to me sitting on the edge of a bed with a lifeless vampire. As soon as her gaze lands on me, she relaxes and rushes to my side, pulling me into a hug. I lean against her for a moment, soaking up her strength and letting it refill my empty reserves.

“I don’t know anything about vampires, El,” she cautions and looks fearfully over her shoulder to the other guys. “They are so different from humans. I’m not sure I can do anything.” She tugs on her blond braid pulled over her shoulder.

“I just … we have to try something,” I whisper, sounding so lost. My voice is small and quiet.

Allie swallows and nods, shrugging her backpack off. “Okay. Tell me what you can.”

Her no-nonsense, get-the-job-done attitude that makes her such a fantastic nurse, calms my nerves. If Allie is here, everything will be okay. It always is when she’s around. Without her, I wouldn’t have survived the past two years. My gaze returns to Malakai while Cade fills Allie in on everything. His lack of feeding, the injuries, the concern of him going rogue if Cade heals him.

Allie takes it all in stride, nodding and chewing on her lip as she thinks. “What if we get someone in here to feed him?” she asks. “Maybe that will kick start his healing?”

Cade looks at me, an unreadable expression blanking his face, and shakes his head. “It won’t work.”

“Why not?” I ask. “It makes sense. It’s at least worth a shot, right?”

Cade kneels in front of me and takes my hands. “It won’t work, Ellis. Just … trust me on that,” he says softly.

I search his gaze, filled with despair, fear, and exhaustion. And something I can’t name. “You’re not telling me everything.”

His violet eyes are more serious than I have ever seen them. He releases a breath and stands, walking to the window before turning back around to face me. “Because it’s not my place to tell you.”

“But, if it’s something that can help him, you have to tell me.” I walk over to him and place my hands on either side of his face. Leaving Malakai is almost impossible, my very being rebels at the action, but I have to convince Cade to tell me what’s going on. “Please, Cade. I don’t know why, but every part of me is screaming that I can’t lose him. I can’t lose any of you. That pain would destroy me. I don’t think I’d survive it.” My words are nothing more than hushed whispers as I beg him for answers.

He closes his eyes and presses his forehead to mine. “He is going to kill me for telling you this.” When he pulls away, he sits in the window seat and tugs me down next to him. He brushes a stray curl from my forehead before speaking. “Bringing in someone else won’t work because his body will most likely reject the blood. It’s the reason he hasn’t fed in a month. He physically cannot feed from anyone right now. Except you.”

Blink.

Blink.

I have to pry my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Me? What do you mean?”

“Malakai told me this morning that he thinks you’re his beloved.”

The silence in the room is deafening. Everyone is staring at Cade with varying degrees of shock. I glance at Sterling, seeking some kind of clarification, but he is looking at Cade with so much pain it almost distracts me from my whirlwind thoughts.

“B … beloved?” I stammer.

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