Page 33 of Princess
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~Nadira~
“What is going on?”Nadira cried out as she rushed towards the front door of the Olaru mansion. Toma had called Nicu, informing him that they had run into versi trouble and Cooper was unconscious. Thoughts raced all throughout her mind as she watched Toma carry Cooper over hisshoulder.
“Teague, what the hell happened?” She grabbed Teague as he walked through the doorbehindToma.
“We don’t know, he took off in the woods after something,” Teague said, pulling Nadira behind him as they marched down the hallway. “We lost him for a minute, dealing with the versi. When we found him, he was on the groundunconscious.”
“Take him to my room,” Nadira said, shoving her way past Teague toToma’sside.
Toma paused, looking down at Nadira. “Are you sure? He’s not the lightest thing to carry.” Nadira nodded her head quickly as they headed for the stairs. They settled Cooper on her bed. She discarded his shoes and pulled the covers over his still form. Toma paced the room while Teague leaned againstthewall.
Her heart pounded in her chest at the site of Cooper lying so still in her bed. His chest slowly rose then fell. His features stilled and he looked as if he was just taking a nap. Dirt lined his face and his midnight black hair. She scrambled to her bathroom, gathering clean towels and a basin of warm water. She made her way back, ignoring the soft chatter from her brothers on the other side oftheroom.
She crawled into the bed, sitting next to him, gently washing his face. She took her time cleaning all traces of dirt from his face. She pulled leaves and twigs from his hair. She used the wet cloths to semi-clean his hair, removing the rest of the dirt from his short hair. Her bedroom door burst open with Nicu and her father storming intotheroom.
“What the fuck happened out there?” Nicudemanded.
“Two versi attacked the van. We took them out,” Teague started, looking around the room ateveryone.
“They were easy to put down. The next thing we know, Cooper’s yelling and taking off into the woods,”Tomasaid.
“Where are the bodies now?” Vladimir asked, his eyes glancing over toNadira.
“We brought him here right away, not knowing what was wrong with him,” Toma says firmly. “We had Viktor and Gadiel take the bodies to the containmentfacility.”
“Can you figure out what is wrong with him?” her father asked her softly, coming to stand next tothebed.
Vampires were known to have special skills. Nadira was a healer, hence her going to school to become a nurse and working in a paranormal hospital. For most of her almost four hundred years of life, she had been able to take aches and pain away, heal wounds faster than they would normally on their own. Her skills had come in handy over the years with her brothers being members of the DarkShadows.
“I don’t know,” she answered, placing the basin of water and towels on her nightstand. She placed her hand on his chest, as the room drew silent. She closed her eyes, blocking out all of those in the room. She focused on Cooper and she mentally scanned his body, not finding any physical wounds. His heart beat steadily beneath her small hand. She moved her hand to his head, finding his mind was in a fog. A powerful being wrapped Cooper’s mind in a cocoon of magic, putting him into a deepsleep.
Nadira was not worried about removing the magic. She was more concerned about who was able to get close enough to Cooper to place a spell on him while Teague and Toma was not too far from him. She dug deeper in his psyche, trying to catch a tracer from the magic, taking note of the wisps of darkness and evil that had been woven in the spell. She opened her eyes and looked at her father thenbrothers.
“Necro magic,” she whispered. Curses could be heard aroundtheroom.
“Here, let us call a witch to remove the spell,” her father suggested. She shookherhead.
“No, I can do it,” she saidfirmly.
“It will drain you, Nadira,”Nicusaid.
“I will do it,” she snapped, gazing at Cooper. “He’s my mate. I will heal him.” The tone in her voice signaling that she would fight them tooth and nail on this. They all knew that standing in between a vampire and her mate could befatal.
Nicu cursed, sending Teague to the kitchen for a couple bags of blood. She ignored her family, as she looked over Cooper once again. Because of her family and the war brewing between the necros, he was in this predicament. She turned back to Cooper, moving closer to him, placing her hand across his forehead. Maybe she should just erase herself from him again, setting him free from her. They have not bonded yet; it shouldn’t affect her too much. She quickly discarded that thought, knowing Xalak had set his sights on Cooper there was no telling what he woulddonext.
She ran her hand through his short midnight hair, wishing she could gaze into his warm brown eyes again. She stilled next to him as she concentrated. She breathed in deep, pulling the magic from Cooper into herself. Her fingers tingled as the power was drawn out of Cooper. It flowed up her fingers and was slowly absorbed by Nadira. The room spun as she fell back against her pillows, lying next to Cooper, and closing her eyes as she was pulled into the deep sleep, that a few seconds before heldCooper.
* * *
~Cooper~
Cooper sat up suddenly,gasping for air, waking up from his deep slumber. He looked around the room quickly, taking in Nadira’s brothers and father. They were in a lavishly decorated bedroom that he recognized as Nadira’s. Teague and the queen burst back in the room, holding bags of blood and supplies. Cooper looked to his left, finding Nadira lying deathly still next to him in the bed. Nicu and Toma rushed to her side. Teague jumped into the bed, pulling Nadira into his lap to rest her against his chest as the Queen and Nicu worked to place a needle inNadira’sarm.
“What the fuck happened?” Cooper asked the room, jumping out of the bed to make room as they worked quickly around Nadira. He stumbled for a second, his legs weak as he watched her family work on her. His heart slammed against his chest and concern clouded his mind as he forgot about what happened to him.Is she okay?He tried to move towards Nadira but her father grabbedhisarm.
“She healed you,” Vladimir said, pulling Cooper to the side while they connected Nadira to a machine and started a bloodtransfusion.
