Page 70 of By Mistake
She smiled tiredly, eyes barely open, red from crying."Don't apologize.I'm the one who needs to do that.You warned me, Master Shimari, more than once, and I refused to listen.Did anyone else die?"
Oresti shook his head."No, thanks largely to Kressen, but also to Greivs and Coret.I'll explain everything when you're better.Just focus on resting for now.Don'ttry to do any work."
"I'm trying," Markus said dryly."I expect only drugging her will get her to rest properly."
"You shush," Alina retorted, but then yawned."Perhaps a bit of sleep.Tell the others they're welcome to come in, I'm sure they'd like to see me, even if I'm fast asleep.I'm sorry again.This is entirely my fault.A good queen listens, and I did not do that."
"You're not queen yet," Markus said gruffly."Plenty of time to improve.Now rest, twit."
"Jerk…" Alina said, barely finishing the word before she was fast asleep.
Markus gave a shaky sob-laugh."She barely made it.If not for Kressen…I found it so hard to believe, everything she told me about you…" he looked at Shimari, then the other two, then dropped his gaze to Alina again."I've never seen anything like it.He just…commanded the blood to stop pouring out of her."He picked up her hand and kissed the palm, tears falling down his cheeks."I nearly lost her.It was so very close."
"Alina is nothing if not stubborn enough to defy death itself," Oresti said dryly."I should know, because she did in fact defy death several times over this fiasco."
Markus glared at him.
Oresti lifted his hands."You're right, too soon.I'm having a hard time with everything myself."He scrubbed at his face."We'll go tell the others they can come in.Get some rest yourself.She'll need you more than ever, especially once she thinks she's well enough to start replacing that leg.Good luck."
"Thanks," Markus said with a sigh.He stood to hug Oresti tightly, then resumed his seat and took her hand once more, looking lonely and lost as he stood vigil at his wife's bed.
Back out in the waiting room, Oresti spoke with the others, who all but ran to see her."All right, much as I want to crawl into bed, let's go see our newest demon.I'm sure Kressen and the others are down there waiting to hear from us."
Shimari took their arms and whisked them away, down into the bowels of the palace, where sure enough, the others waited for them.
Coret sat against the wall, looking more asleep than awake, his clothes torn and mussed, hair a tangled mess.His hands were scratched and bloody, and there was a scratch and crusted blood on one cheek.Greivs was in even worse shape, his jacket long gone, shirt torn nearly to shreds and covered in blood and grime, his face even filthier.
Kressen, of course, seemed entirely unaffected by everything, as neat and pretty as he'd begun the night, except perhaps that his hair was slightly disarrayed.His eyes, though, burned bright blood red as he stared at the figure in the middle of the protective spell circle.
Farthing…except not anymore.Farthing was dead.
"What does this mean?"Andrus asked into the silence."Is he…will he take over Farthing's life?"
"No," Shimari said, stepping past the circle as though it wasn't even there and sitting down, dragging Renik's head into his lap, stroking his forehead like a mother would her sick child."Once the process is complete, he'll be able to make himself look however he pleases."His mouth quirked, amusement briefly filling his eyes as he looked up and added, "I can't promise he won't go around looking like Farthing for his own amusement at times, but like any of us, Renik has a preferred appearance."
Oresti said, "You always prefer innocent, bookish waif who would cry over hurting a spider?Why am I asking, of course you do."
Shimari grinned.
Kressen rolled his eyes."Death is never what anyone expects, even those who know very well the method by which they will die."
"So what's your excuse?"Coret asked.
"I beg your pardon?"Kressen narrowed his eyes.
Coret smiled teasingly."Cold, imperious, mysterious lord of a forgotten castle in the woods?Is that not what you're trying to achieve?"
"Impertinent brat."
"Yes," Shimari said."That is precisely his favored look.Lord of the Red, the original sullen vampire."
Kressen hissed at him.Or at least that was the closest Oresti could come to describing the sound."Shut up.I will sic a hundred vampires on you, just because it'll be as bothersome as a swarm of mosquitoes, don't think I won't."
Oresti rolled his eyes."What did you mean by 'the process?'"
The bickering fell away as both demons turned to him, and Shimari said, "We don't have any form natural to this world.Our options for existing are to be caged in something, like Renik was in the ring, to possess someone temporarily, or possess them and rebuild the stolen body from the ground up."
"Rebuild?"Coret and Andrus asked together.
