Chapter 5
HARMONY
Lucien slammed on the brakes and unbuckled his seatbelt. He threw open his door and went to the back seat, staring at Vesperin as Cyrus held her in his arms, nestled on the floorboard.
Her grey eyes were wide with fear as she placed a hand on her chest. "My—my heart. I need—help."
His own heart gave a sympathetic thump. He steeled himself. He was a doctor; he could do this.
As Lucien ordered Cyrus and Auren to clear the way, he realized why doctors didn’t work with patients they had a vested interest in, because his hands shook as he lifted her onto the seat, her head flopping against the back.
"Lucien," she gasped, "please—"
He shushed her, stilling her twisting limbs with a firm hand.
A low click alerted him to Rhyden, who had exited the vehicle, standing watch, his gun trained on the dark street. His red eyes kept cutting back to the open car doors, as Lucien began to remove Vesperin’s jacket.
Cyrus paced, hands in his hair. "What are you going to do? Can I—help?"
Lucien pressed his fingers to the underside of Vesperin’s jaw, counting the erratic beats of her heart.
"Come to the other side, hold her steady for me." Lucien gave the incubus a task to occupy him. Idleness was dangerous for him.
Cyrus obeyed.
Auren stood sentinel, scythe at the ready, as he stared into the silent night.
"Vesperin, hang on for me." Lucien watched as she nodded jerkily, gasping and jerking as his bare hand snaked beneath the collar of her thin sweater. He flattened his palm against her breastbone and closed his eyes.
There was a reason most in the medical field were Earthborn. Earth Stella gave a clearer connection to the human body.
Lucien had studied an illegal practice in medical school and even applied it on Tarz. He shoved the thoughts aside. There was no margin for error right now.
The process was crude, bordering on inhumane, because of the connection it forged.
Lucien had no other option.
Green glimmers began to fill the frosty air.
Cyrus cradled her hands where he knelt at her side. A question lingered on the incubus’s lips—Lucien saw it, which was why he said sharply, "Do not distract me."
And he let his eyes fall shut and felt.
It was as easy as breathing, the way Lucien’s Stella dove inside Vesperin, threads wrapping around her heart. Everything narrowed to the feel of her beneath his hand. He felt each weak, wet thud in her chest, the way the organ stuttered and faltered.
God, there was a reason why this was illegal. If anyone found out, his medical license would be revoked…
But the power he felt.
He held her heart in the palm of his hand. He could speed it up, slow it down, or stop it entirely. It bent to his will. He remembered the vague feeling from his past on Tarz, but the memory was like peering through a film; it had nothing on actually doing it, feeling it.
Lucien forced the beats of her heart to steady until its rhythm was slow and even, bordering on too slow.
The connection was forged, so he opened his eyes and saw her sagging against the seat, head tipped into the crook of Cyrus’s neck.
Her lids fluttered, and she looked so languid, on the verge of passing out.
For just one moment, knowing no one but himself would ever know, Lucien dropped the beat just a bit more and held it there, relishing how she was alive solely because he wanted her to be.
It wasn’t him—it was the power of it all. But it had gotten to his head.
He snapped out of his daze when her heart rate thinned, so faint it barely registered at all. Another few seconds, and the oxygen deprivation would begin to cause irreversible damage. He adjusted the rhythm with painstaking care. He guided the rate upward until it aligned with his own.
Harmony, it was called, when Earth Stella was used to control the beat of a heart, or any internal process of the body. And it was harmony that he felt, having their hearts synced, breaths in tandem.
For so long, Lucien commanded her heart, until his legs grew numb from half-kneeling on the seat at her side, fingers red with cold, but his palm was hot on her bare chest, beneath her sweater.
Her lids fluttered open, grey eyes blooming with stolen trust from their unnatural, unyielding connection.
Lucien swallowed. "You’re okay now, my V girl. I’ve got you."
Vesperin nodded, like he was worthy of her trust.
Slowly, he shifted to sit and pulled her between his legs, keeping a hand on her chest, forcing her heart to beat steadily.
"Go get the others. We can’t stay here any longer. She’s stable enough to be moved," Lucien told Cyrus quietly.
Cyrus nodded and left, calling for Rhyden and Auren.
Rhyden slid behind the wheel, eyes boring into Lucien. "Will she be okay?"
Lucien felt her heartbeat beneath his palm, in his very Soul. "Yes, she will be."
The vampire started the vehicle, and Auren took the passenger side, while Cyrus crawled into the very back, crouching among their things, his hands curled over the seats near Vesperin’s head as he rested his chin on the headrest.
Lucien held her the rest of the drive, his palm flat against her chest to ensure her heart did not falter—and it didn’t, not even once.
Rhyden turned the vehicle off the road and into Nullwood, where his base lay hidden. Nestled in the treetops, tiny red camera lights blinked.
Snow fell through the fucking gaping hole in the roof. It was colder here in Lunar City, and goddamned quieter too. Almost too fucking quiet, as he sped down the bumpy dirt road. Nullwood was Rogue-infested, but his alarms and precautions kept them far away. No one knew that, though.
His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. His tiny wife rested against the doctor’s chest, his hand over her heart.
Something about them set his nerves on edge—the green glimmers, the slow, synced breaths.
She was out like a light, and the incubus was no better, the lazy, besotted motherfucker. Cyrus’s fingers were curled around Vesperin’s shoulder, arm dangling over the seat backs.
The gates groaned as they opened. Rhyden drove through, fingers tightening on the wheel as they fell shut resolutely behind the vehicle. The electric hum of the gates made him grin, and he felt the Soul Searcher’s stare hot on the side of his face.
His wife was back. Trapped on his turf. Finally, he felt at ease.
In the underground garage, he parked among his cars, trucks, and beloved motorcycle.
Rhyden cut the engine, and the sudden silence was deafening. "Home sweet fucking home."
As he got out, his boots thudded dully on the concrete. He swung open Vesperin’s door, finding the doctor tightening his arms around her with those damned glimmers in the air. Rhyden swiped his hand through them like clearing fog.
"Get out and get inside," the vampire ordered, red eyes dropping to Lucien’s hands, which disappeared beneath his wife’s shirt. "I’ve contacted the doctor under my employ, and he’s already prepared the equipment for her."
Lucien stood, keeping Vesperin cradled against his chest.
Rhyden led them inside, strides long and sure.
The others followed, mumbling, eyes taking in the windowless halls and dark, drab decor.
He may be living up to his namesake as a vampire with all the gothic architecture.
Flames flickered as they passed. He felt the allure of the fire; it felt like driving into the wet heat of a woman.
There was a reason Rhyden’s base was windowless and littered with flame.
No windows because, well, he was the leader of Noctis.
Everybody wanted his head on their mantle.
No windows meant no easy access for intruders—the concrete walls were fortified, and his dwellings were tucked right in the center of his base.
And the flames? Rhyden twisted his fingers at his side, feeling them dance around his knuckles. The flames roared hotter as he passed, and he heard their steps falter behind him, pulses quickening.
Better safe than fucking sorry. He wouldn’t be bested again. Especially not by a tiny girl with a goddamned mess of a love life.
He didn’t buy into her pitiful act for one moment. She was a fucking temptress. She had the others wrapped around her littlest finger, and they didn’t even seem to care.
Well. Not Rhyden. He’d never let her own his Soul. She might try, but his Soul was his own.
Rhyden crossed his arms, leaning his hip against a steel table.
The monitors began to glow with the outline of Vesperin’s body as the old vampire doctor hooked her up to the monitoring leads. A steady line marked her heart, as well as a bunch of other shit Rhyden didn’t really understand—that was why he employed the doctor.
Nessen and Lucien both read the numbers and lines with ease, while Rhyden, Cyrus, and Auren stared in perplexity.
"You—you said she experienced a sudden arrhythmic episode?
" Nessen waited for Lucien to assent. The doctor’s feeble hand raised and pointed to the glowing shape of the feminine body on the monitor.
"Her heart rate is remarkably steady. Strong, even. Vesperin doesn’t need the level of care you outlined. "
Lucien cleared his throat. "Then why is she still unconscious?"
"She is resting. Whatever happened to her appeared to have taken a lot of energy.
When she awakens, she will feel weak and tired.
Her heart will need to be continuously monitored until its rhythm evens out—well, I thought so.
" Nessen shook his head, puffing out a breath.
"But her readings are exceptional, considering they match the onset profile of a Pulse… "
"What’s a Pulse?" Cyrus murmured from his spot near Vesperin.