Page 62 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“Do everything you can,” I said, stepping next to Evangeline.

She nodded and pressed her hand over the mark on Lissa’s chest, murmuring under her breath.

Lissa convulsed like she’d been electrocuted. Vic snarled and lunged for Evangeline. I was faster than him, though, able to grab him and pin him in place.

“She’s helping,” I snarled. “She’s the best chance we have at helping Lissa right now. Evangeline healed me, and she will heal Lissa, too. You will not harm her. Am I understood?”

Vic stared at me, his chest heaving. The animalistic fury in his eyes melted into desperation and fear until he collapsed forward against me, and I put my arms around him.

“She’s everything to me,” Vic managed, clinging to me like I was the only thing keeping him upright. “She’s my world, Gabriel. I don’t…”

“I know,” I murmured. “I know. She’ll be all right, I promise you.”

Whatever Evangeline had done, Lissa seemed more aware, blinking up at us with confused brown eyes.

“I’ve gotten her stabilized, but I’m going to need to keep working with her for a while to get the magic out of her system,” Evangeline said. “I have potions that can help. Does she have any allergies?”

“Alliums,” Vic said after a moment. “Alliums and chamomile.”

Evangeline nodded briskly. “Gabriel, I need you to get the green bag from my go-bag.”

I rushed up the stairs and found the bag at the bottom of her duffel, then bolted back down to the entryway as quickly as my enhanced speed could carry me. Vic had settled onto the chaise, with Lissa’s head pillowed in his lap. He was speaking to her quietly, stroking a hand through her hair. I handed Evangeline the bag, and she unzipped it to reveal a thickly padded interior with dozens of tiny vials inside, each one slotted into its own compartment. She grabbed two, popped the cork on the first with her teeth, and pressed the mouth of the little bottle to Lissa’s lips.

Lissa drank.

“This second one is probably going to knock you out, okay?” Evangeline said. She spoke directly to Lissa but glanced up at Vic to make sure he was listening. Lissa gave a weak sound of approval and drank from the second vial. As soon as Evangeline took the tiny bottle back, Lissa went slack, her face going peaceful.

“She’s going to be fine,” Evangeline said. “This is a pretty nasty spell, but you got her to me in time. I’ll have to check on her a few times over the next couple of hours, and she’ll be weaker than usual for a few days, but there won’t be any lasting effects from the curse.”

“Is it safe to move her?” I asked, and Evangeline nodded. “Would you like a hand?” I asked Vic, but he’d already gathered Lissa into his arms.

“I’ve got her,” he said.

We watched as he carried his wife up the stairs and disappeared into one of the side halls. Evangeline slumped down onto the chaise as though whatever had kept her calm and focused dissipated as soon as her patient was out of sight.

“I need you to tell me everything that happened,” I told Theo.

They sighed and nodded tiredly. “Yeah, you should hear this. But I need a fucking drink first.”

We gathered around the kitchen island. It seemed unthinkable, somehow, to lounge somewhere comfortable right now, so we stuck with the barstools as Theo sloshed sheep’s blood and brandy into two large mugs. The third mug held straight brandy. I wasn’t sure if they had no concept of how much humans could drink, or if they simply weren’t in a state to care.

“I was supposed to be meeting Nathan,” they said. “We were gonna grab a coffee, then go to that music place he likes. He didn’t show, and he didn’t answer his phone, so…” Theo gave a small shrug, looking as though the effort required to lift their shoulders was monumental. “I went to check on him. His place was trashed. Someone had broken in, and it was pretty clear there’d been a fight.

“I called Lissa and Vic, and we went looking for him. It’s a shitty part of town, you know? Lot of vampires have been going missing there, and I thought maybe we could find something.” They huffed out a pained approximation of a laugh. “I guess I was right.”

My grip tightened around my mug. Nathan—shy, nervous Nathan—had been taken?

“And then you were attacked?” Evangeline prompted gently, taking a careful sip of her drink.

Theo nodded. “They were definitely vampires. Nothing else would’ve fought like that. Fae could’ve, I guess, but they wouldn’t have limited themselves that much.”

I stared down at my drink. One of my friends had been taken, and Lissa had almost died because of it.

“I should have been there,” I said quietly.

Theo snorted. “Don’t fucking start,” they said, their voice suddenly tight with anger.

“But—”

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