Page 50 of A Bloodline Redeemed

Oh.That was nice, wasn’t it?And yet, for some reason… I didn’t like that.

I’ll be alone?I asked as I floated in warmth.And in that moment, the first hint of discomfort I had felt since coming here started to filter through and tickle at the edges of my being, plucking, worrying at the edges of what was left of me.

You have no need of me,the darkness whispered again, fainter, as if it were retreating.I will go.

The feeling of discomfort surged, growing stronger, becoming something more like panic.No!

No?The voice of dark night was closer than it had been, but still so far away.So full of doubt.

You can’t go,I insisted, everything that I currently was reaching for that dark presence.I felt like a frightened child reaching for a parent.Or a jilted lover begging for their world to return to them.I need you.

You do not need me to live.

I do!I need you.You are a part of me.

I do not belong here.

You belong with me.With us.

With the energies I could feel starting to bloom around me.With the warmth, and the fire, the nature, and stone, the water, the dreams, and the primal one.The darkness belonged here.Belonged to this thing that felt like home.

You would invite me to stay?Voluntarily?

I didn’t try to reply.I didn’t need to.“Speaking” wasn’t really necessary here in this space.I simply let the strong emotions flow through me as the memories returned, as hazy impressions became more.As I remembered the life Sunshine had granted me after my family turned me into an abomination in their quest for power and nearly killed me in the process.

There had been fear at first.Resentment.Hatred—of the wraithandofmyself, of the monster I had become.There had been loneliness, and suffering, chills and hunger, and the danger of being hated, of being hunted and burned alive by the witches who had once been my own kind.

But there had also been wonder—the childlike wonder of an ancient being seeing colors for the first time, understanding emotions, feeling love… figuring out that people were more than simple-minded livestock to be terrified and devoured.Eventually, there had been…camaraderie between us.Friendship.And, yes, love.The loyalty of a prisoner who had started the role involuntarily but who had grown to know me, and to become my fierce protector.Sunshine was a part of me.

Us.I hadn’t truly beenmein hundreds of years.I was us.We.Necromancer.Abomination.Two living, feeling beings sharing one cramped, gangly, fleshy home.

I love you, Sunny.The thought was startling.Absurd.And utterly true.I cared for the wraith, and because of the wraith, I had started to lovemyselfas well.

I do not want to leave,he admitted into the rippling warmth that surrounded us here in the afterlife.Or whatever it was.I do not want to leave you, my witch.I think you have damaged me somehow.No self-respecting ancient power such as I would hesitate to be free of this imprisonment.

I chuckled.A shock rippled through me, as I realized I had justfeltthat laugh.For a second there, I felt my body.I was waking up.Returning to the real world, the warmth of this place fading around me.I reached for Sunny again.Not with physical hands, but with my mind, with my energy.

I was relieved to feel him reaching back, the dark tendrils of his incorporeal brushing my aura, like the open arms of a long-lost lover.

I woke with a start, sitting up and sucking in a gasping sob of breath.My hand flew to my chest, pressing against the center, where my heartbeat seemed so much louder and stronger, after so long without a body.Warm, strong arms held me, and I turned my head to find brilliant blue eyes staring at me from the most handsome face I had ever seen.Light suffused my vision, angelic wings encircling me.“Elijah,” I breathed, still feeling confused and off kilter.His name anchored me.Elijah.My creation.The man who permanently carried a part of my essence inside him.Mine.Ours,Sunny’s thoughts echoed alongside my own.

“Hello, Dyre.Welcome back,” the angelic revenant whispered, a relieved smile curving his chiseled lips seconds before they brushed my forehead.“You’re safe,” he said as he pulled back to press his forehead to mine.“I was worried I would lose you, maker.”His strong arms squeezed me so tightly I had trouble breathing.Then again, that might have been because of his words.His relief.The love and adoration that shone from every atom of his being.Maker.I never thought I’d enjoy that so much.

His light was too bright.Too perfect for an abomination like me.And yet.At that moment, I couldn’t care less who or what the world saw me as.I was just happy as hell to be back in my physical body, solid, grounded, and… warm?

“I’m warm!”I said abruptly, scrambling out of Elijah’s lap to kneel on the rough ground and rub my hands up and down my long, skinny arms, marveling at the change.Still starved and scrawny.But warm.I hadn’t felt truly warm to my marrow in so long that the sensation was completely foreign to me.Uncomfortable, almost.Too hot.And everything was too bright.Too colorful andpresent.

Because I was no longer hosting an ancient evil inside me.Because I wasn’t being constantly drained of energy and barely clinging to the last scrap of my life force.Because…

I met Elijah’s eyes.He gave me an embarrassed smile and rubbed the back of his neck.“Um… Sunshine told me to keep what was left of your soul anchored to your body.I panicked.I was so afraid to lose you.I may have… overdone it a bit.”

I held my hands out in front of me, turning them over, staring at the pinkness of them.At the lack of dark blue nails, the lack of bluish undertone and exaggerated traces of blue veins beneath my no longer paperwhite skin.Then I looked up at Elijah again.

“You…”

“Somehow called back every last scrap of your lost soul energy and anchored it into your body with a little extra angelic magic lingering behind?Maybe.”He shrugged.

I laughed.I couldn’t help it.The deep bark of laughter escaped before I even realized it was coming.

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