Chapter 5 #2
I didn’t know what to do. How to help him. My fingers wrung together. “Maybe I should ring Caron—she might be able to heal him?”
Monique snorted as she dunked the cloth back into the bucket and started wiping again. “Absolutely not. That bitch is probably behind it.”
“Why would she do that?”
Monique’s eyes drilled straight through me. “Because she wants you.”
I recoiled, prickles swarming my arms. Would Caron work with Sarah to bring Karson down? Together, with all her witch contacts, they’d be formidable.
I felt a stirring then, something cold, something ancient, something lethal.
“That doesn’t make sense. If Caron hurts Karson, there’s no way in hell I’d go with her. I’d kill her.”
As my words gathered strength, so to did my anger. I felt like I could kill the person that had hurt him. Perhaps I was born to kill, after all?
“Sometimes I wonder if you were born stupid or just naive.” She sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead, her brow wrinkling.
“It’s not like she’s going to admit having anything to do with it.
She would have covered her tracks well, and if she finds out he’s compromised I hate to think what the bitch would do.
We can’t afford for anyone to find out about this. ”
Leon paced the floor. “It’s Portland, we all know how fast rumors spread.
I’m guessing both sides already know. I’ll call a few reinforcements just in case.
” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, his soft brown eyes falling to me before he left.
“He’ll be fine, Amy. Like he said, he’s a firstborn and also he’s a stubborn bastard. ”
Karson moaned, yanking my attention back to him, his face twisting in pain. My heart wrenched.
“Is his temperature dropping?” Josh asked, worry carving lines in his brow.
Monique pressed a palm to his forehead again. “No, we need the antidote.”
“What if I run him a cold bath?” Josh suggested.
Monique stared at Karson, debating, rubbing at the back of her neck. “It’s worth a try. Add plenty of ice.”
She collected Karson in her arms like a husband carries a bride.
I scurried behind them. A hand feathered on my arm. I jerked toward Pixie as she pulled her hand away, her eyes brimming with concern. “Uh … I’m sorry for the witch-buffet joke … I didn’t mean anything by it. Leon and I, and a few others, have no problem with what you are.”
“It’s fine.”
Both of our gazes followed Karson’s unconscious body being carried up the stairs. She swallowed and forced a smile. “I’m sure he’ll wake up soon like nothing has happened and growl at us for hanging around.”
“I think you’re probably right,” I said, my voice small.
She smiled sympathetically. “Let me know if you need anything.”
I nodded my thanks and ran up the stairs behind them.
They placed him in the icy-cold bath, naked now. He didn’t wake. After about twenty minutes, when there was no change to his temperature, they took him out and laid him on the bed.
Monique placed a thin sheet over his bottom half and an icy cloth across his forehead. I sat beside him on a chair, holding his hand and talking to him as he groaned and writhed. Every flicker of pain across his features struck my heart like a knife.
He can’t die, he’s a firstborn and immortal, I told myself over and over.
He looks like he’s dying.
Monique paced the room.
“Reinforcements are on the way,” Leon said, his voice hoarse as he stepped inside the room.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, his concerned gaze on Karson.
“I’m going to see what I can find out. Call me if you need me.
” A fresh burst of wind whipped through the room as he opened the balcony door and leapt off into the night.
Monique stopped pacing and chewed on her bottom lip, emotions flickering against her normally masked veneer. “I’ll make some calls to a few people I trust and see if they know anything as well.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and left the room.
“You’re going to be alright. Michael has gone to get medicine. Karson, can you hear me?” My voice cracked. “You stay with me.”
Nothing but a rattled breath fell from his half-open mouth. Tears filled my eyes, and I scrubbed them away with my sleeve.
The poison had reached the raven’s wing. I pressed a finger over the top of one, pinning it under his skin. Burning shot through my finger like I’d touched a hot plate. I gasped and snapped my finger away; the tip was red and stinging.
The black veins slithered in an angry frenzy. Karson’s body stiffened, his fingers clenching as he groaned weakly.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” I whispered, more tears sliding. “I didn’t mean to make it worse.”
“Yeah, don’t do that,” Josh said, holding up a finger. There wasn’t a mark on his; he’d healed already. He hovered near the door, leaning against the wall.
If it felt like that to me, it must be a thousand times worse under his skin. “You could have told me before I touched it.” I knuckled the tears off my cheeks.
“Sorry. I thought maybe because you were a witch it might not affect you.”
“What’s taking Michael so long?”
Josh ran his hand through his thick hair and it fell back messy again. “The witch he’s gone to see lives out of town. But I heard Monique say she’d never seen anything like it, and the same thing had killed another vampire when she found him.”
My heart thundered in my chest. “They died?” I rasped.
He straightened off the wall and grimaced like he regretted giving me that information, but too late now. “Yeah, he was a normal vampire … so uh … Karson should be alright.”
Should wasn’t reassuring. I couldn’t sit here. I had to call someone. I had to get him help.
I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket and dialled Dahlia. It was gone, ripped out of my hand, and my fingers were left open and empty. Monique stabbed the “end call” button and loomed over me, her cherry-red lips pulled into a snarl, flashing needle-sharp fangs. “I told you not to call Caron.”
“I wasn’t …” I could protect myself and I knew Monique wouldn’t hurt me, and yet, having her so wild and so near, fear rushed through my body. But I kept my tone flat. “I was calling Dahlia.”
“And who does she report to?”
I blinked. “I trust Dahlia.” At least as much as I knew her better than any witch, aside from BJ, and I definitely trusted him. BJ? He might know something, or his mom might?
“We can’t just sit here. We have to do something.
” I watched as a feather moved on Karson’s chest, as if the raven was fluffing its wings.
It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so devastating.
“Give it back.” I lurched to my feet and held out my hand.
My phone began to vibrate; Dahlia was trying to call me.
Monique glowered at me. “No.”
I was scared, and when I got scared, I got angry. “Give me my phone!”
“I said no.”
I gritted my teeth. “I want to call BJ.”
She hesitated when she heard his name. She hated all witches too, but everyone liked BJ, probably because his magic powers were limited and he was no threat to anyone.
Her phone rang and she snapped it out of her back pocket. “Michael, please tell me you have news.” She paced the room again, her dark skin growing pale. She closed her eyes for a long moment and tilted her head to the ceiling.
I looked to Josh for answers—he could hear the conversation. He frowned and looked confused.
“Where would they get that from?” She sounded stressed. There was a delay then she asked, “So, what do we do?”
“What is it?” I snapped as she slipped the phone back in her pocket.
She turned slowly, her eyes on Karson, filled with concern. “They used bone ash mixed with a concoction of arsenic. The arsenic is painful and it makes a vampire very unwell, but we burn it off after a few hours and it’s not an ongoing problem. But bone ash is lethal.”
I didn’t know what bone ash was, and I barely registered the name. All I heard was lethal. My blood iced. The ground quivered under my feet. He was going to die.
No. I couldn’t lose him. I’d lost my mother, the only other person in my entire life who had truly loved me, and now him. Please, no. A terrible whining sound peeled from my lips.
Monique shifted her gaze to me and it softened briefly. “It won’t kill Karson, but it will disable him for a while. He’ll have to ride it out until the death inside him withers …”
I sucked in a shaky breath and sagged into the chair.
Josh shivered. “By using both, they were making sure he went down.”
Monique nodded.
My fingers stroked up and down Karson’s arm. “Can we do anything to help ease his pain?”
“Michael has some mirthroot. It may help ease it, but vampires burn off anything in their system pretty quickly.”
“What is bone ash?” Josh asked.
“Exactly what it says it is. It’s made from the bones of dead vampires.
Years ago, they made arrows out of them.
A strike to the heart will kill most vampires.
Bone ash is rare because vampires are hard to kill to harvest the ash, and because the vampires hunted for any weapons laced with it and destroyed them.
I didn’t know there were even any left in existence. ”
Josh shook his head. “There are a lot of vampires now, five dead in the alley. If the humans or the witches know about them and make weapons from them, we are all royally screwed.”
“They’ve already been cleaned up.” She walked across the room and stared out of the glass door.
My phone stopped vibrating then started again. Dahlia wasn’t giving up.
“Besides, the older vampire lines were far more powerful than modern-day ones, and the most potent bone ash comes from child vampires.” My gut twisted.
Children like Karson was, who were hunted and slaughtered without mercy.
Monique went on. “There are no children anymore, and while the ash of modern-day vampires would still hurt, I doubt it would kill. And there’s barely anyone alive skilled enough to hit the heart of a vampire if they’re moving.
” Her eyes shifted to me. “It would take another vampire or a witch with certain powers.”
Witches born to fight.
“If the vampire is moving, he would be hard to hit.” Josh raised his brows. “If he’s unaware …”
Monique rubbed her forehead. “I doubt they have any more blades. Like I said, those weapons were all destroyed.”
“Not all of them, clearly.”
“So, who would know about bone ash?” I asked. “It would have to be someone who knew about the history or was connected to it in some way?”
Was that surprise I could see in her eyes that I thought to ask the question? “I suspect it was handed down through the generations.”
“Someone like Sarah,” I said gravely.
“It would take a witch and a strong one, probably a direct descendant from the old lines, to know the spell. A witch like Caron, for example.”
Both sets of eyes fell to me as if I knew more than they did. I shifted in my chair, my gaze falling to Karson. God, he was so pale. As if death lurked, waiting to pounce.
“Except it was vampires who attacked, not witches,” Josh said, pacing back and forth.
My gaze twitched to Monique. “Vampires attacked him, not witches?”
“The dead vampires were Sarah’s lowborns,” Monique admitted reluctantly. “But witches made the blade.”
I raised my brows. “Or Sarah knew where one was stored.”
Josh stopped pacing. “But if Sarah knew it wouldn’t kill him, why use it?”
Monique’s jaw clenched. “Maybe she thought the seven she sent were enough to kill him with it in his system. Maybe she was going to finish the job and couldn’t get to him in time.” She threw out her hand. “Who knows with Sarah.”
My phone had stopped vibrating.
“Maybe she wanted the distraction,” I murmured, then my voice gathered strength as it seemed to make sense. “Think about it, maybe she did want him dead, but even if he didn’t die, the top tier of vampires in this area, you, Michael, and Karson are all out of the picture for a while.”
Monique’s eyes widened.
Josh cocked his head to the side. “What would she want them distracted for?”
No one answered for a long moment. Monique strode back to the glass doors and stared out. “Time will tell,” she murmured.
That’s what it had felt like my entire life, as if I hovered on the edge of an hourglass, trying my best to balance, and at any moment everything could come crashing down.
My phone started vibrating again. Monique tossed it to me.
I didn’t need to look at the screen to know it was Dahlia. I wanted to ask her if she knew anything about the dagger and poison. She might be able to help heal Karson. Monique stared at me as if challenging me to answer. As if daring me to choose a side. Witch or vampire.
I let out a shuddering breath and declined the call.