Page 63 of Taken By the Vampires
“I hope so, Ella. I’ve given her what I can, but she will need rest. And warmth. Come. I need to get you both out of the elements.”
I touched his arm. “Davon? Cassius?”
Xander’s face said it all. Horror engulfed me but his face softened. “They still live.”
I swayed against Xander, my eyes closing for a moment until my mind cleared and the reality of what he didn’t say set in. He told me that they were still alive – but for how long?
‘Come, Ella. Let’s go as quickly as we can. I’ll clear a path and you can walk in my footsteps.”
We set off through the snow, Xander not only carrying Mom, but sloughing through the snow so that I could walk without too much trouble. I wrapped my jacket more firmly around me, but the material was wet and cold and did nothing to keep out the chill that kept getting colder and colder. I’d long lost feeling in my feet and I felt as though I walked on wooden stilts for legs. I fought to keep my limbs moving, keeping up with Xander as much as I could.
If it was possible, the storm became worse with each step. Hail abraded my skin. Wind screamed in my ears. I hunched against gusts of arctic air, stepping back as it assaulted me with the force of fists, as though Ginevra still lived and still wanted to curse everyone in her path. Yet, still I didn’t let it stop me. I hunched my shoulders and put the chill from my mind. They weren’t important. I was only concerned with what was really important. Mom. Xander. Cassius. Davon. I repeated their names with each forced step, each stretch of my frozen limbs.
My foot scuffed something hard and I stumbled. A steady hand caught my elbow and kept me upright. We’d made the porch step and Xander had stopped me from falling. He kept his grip on my elbow and hauled me up the stairs. It took all my will to just concentrate and move one leg in front of the other up the stairs. The door opened and I stumbled into the foyer.
Instead of the delicious warmth I expected, the air was frigid. My breath condensed as I panted. The only relief was that the storm couldn’t rage behind the walls. But if it was one thing I had learned, was that magic and curses driven by evil intent and hatred were a bitch. Nothing was as it seemed.
Xander carefully placed Mom on a nearby chaise and put a blanket over her, but my attention was riveted on the figures sprawled on the bottom steps of the staircase. I stumbled over. Fell to my knees. Reached a trembling hand over his calf. “Davon?”
Davon stirred, his eyes lids heavy. A smile spread on his face. “I get to…see you one more time.” His arms were crossed over his chest, his top giving shape with his shoulders, but the material of the sleeves were flat. Both arms had disappeared. He panted, as though each breath cost him.
Tears flooded my eyes, obscuring my vision. I squeeze my grip on his calf, half fearing I’d find empty air, but instead I felt hard muscle and bone. My breath left my lungs in a whoosh. He was fading, but oh, so slowly. So painfully. A death creeping up on him where we could only watch it come and overtake him. “Oh, Davon.”
My gaze slid to Cassius. Dreading what I’d see, yet needing to see for myself. He held up a handless sleeve. His mouth twisted. “It seems the end is faster than we thought it would be.”
I cupped his cheek as Xander collapsed on the other side of Davon, sprawling out over several stairs. His skin was ashen, his chest rose and fell with exertion. I’d thought he was invincible, but maybe the curse was affecting him where I couldn’t see. Yet, he’d still braved the harsh storm to find me. And had still offered his bite to save Mom. I clenched my teeth together in an attempt to keep the sobs inside me. The pain of it all. The intense pain of it all.
“I’ve come to fix it. You. Everything,” I blurted.
What a mess of words, and yet they understood because a look of horror passed over Cassius’ face. “No, Ella. We can’t ask you to do this for us. If you don’t love us, then you’ll live a cursed life, like ours. We would never ask that of you. Ever.”
My sob broke past my lips. A big spluttering, wet noisy sound that punched from my chest and erupted from my mouth. My whole body jerked with each gasping breath of air and each noisy exhalation.
And right there was when my heart broke in two, and as it did, the bond had a chance – a real chance – to come in. Like water streaming into a rift, the true meaning poured in. I knew the meaning of the words of the bond, but now I trulyunderstood.
I fell backwards with the power and the intensity of their emotions. Staggered beneath the complete and utter understanding of my own. Panting with the enormity. I loved them. I always had. I loved them before I knew of my own existence. I loved them for as long as time existed. It always was, always had been and always will be. We were interlocked. Interwoven. An unending, ever-forming knot of the purest form of love. I could never understand it because it was too much. To great. I could only feel it, and feel it, I did.
There was only one thing that I could do to make our souls as one. And I would gladly give it. Saving them also saved myself.
I came up on my knees, quivering, sweating, humbled.
“I offer myself to you. I offer myself freely. Without regrets or second thoughts. Will you accept me as your mate? For now and ever-more. I…I need you. I beg you. Please. Please accept me.”
A stunned moment passed over them, their faces slack with shock. I concentrated on my emotions, pumping how much I yearned for this. How much I wanted it. How I understood. How much I loved them. They could feel everything I felt.
I knew that moment when realization set in. Xander came up onto his elbow, his face a mask of powerful intent as he leaned towards me. Cassius’ mouth became unusually serious and light ignited Davon’s eyes.
“Do you fully understand what you ask, Tu Ena?” Xander spoke, his voice no more than a growl.
I sent a surge of determination, followed by that flow of golden love towards them all. Davon sighed. Cassius’ shoulders slumped and he closed his eyes, as though basking in my emotions. Their relief, honor and awe answering.
A deep, purring growl reverberated from the center of Xander’s chest. The sound that of a predator. I was prey.
Only this time, Iwantedto be.
“Give Davon your left wrist. Give Cassius your right wrist. I will have your neck.”
A shiver of anticipation stole through me and with it, a moment of clarity that this was what my entire life had led to. Without the struggle and the hurt and the pain, I would never have sought comfort in the Grimoire. Never have taken it out of Gary’s meaty hands, stolen his truck and charged into the wilderness in the middle of the night. Never fallen down a mountain in a desperate attempt to hide the Grimoire. Never have been rescued body and mind by the three parts of my incomplete soul.
