39. Lumi
Chapter 39
Lumi
T hey linger in the shadows of the trees. They can’t step into the sunlight, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t do some damage from where they are.
“Who did you hurt?” I ask, terrified they’ve gone on a killing spree while Ambrose and I were in bed together, completely oblivious to the pain our pack was enduring.
“No one, yet,” Draven answers, looking directly at me.
Rowena growls in their direction, putting her body between me and them.
Shift, dammit, shift.
“Call your bodyguard-dog off, Lumi, and no one gets hurt,” Draven says.
There is no way I’m going to be able to get Rowena to stop protecting me. I just need to shift; then, we can make a run for it. The vampires might be faster, but not when they can only step into the shadows. We’d have an easy escape.
I close my eyes, relax my body, and try to take myself back to that place I was last night. To the woods with Ambrose. To that peace. To that connection to my wolf underneath everything else.
I feel her stirring. I feel her wanting to come out. But it’s not enough. Nothing changes. I don’t shift. I can’t bring her to the surface. I don’t know how. I might not ever know how, not even to save my own life.
“Rowena, we have to make a run for it. Back to Ambrose’s house.”
Rowena turns her head back to me and shakes her head no.
I frown, she doesn’t think I can make it.
“As long as we stay in the sunlight, they can’t touch us. We just have to make it back to the house.”
She considers my words and then motions with her head toward her back. She wants me to climb on.
I hate it, but if it’s the only way she will run and save herself, then I don’t have a choice. I climb onto her back, gripping the gold fur there. She turns, and we are running back toward Ambrose’s house.
I can hear the swift movement of the vampires behind us, but they can’t reach us. It was stupid of them to try to attack us during the day. There’s not enough shade for them.
Faster and faster, Rowena runs. I’m pretty sure she’s faster than Ambrose; it’s incredible to watch. I can see Ambrose’s house on the hill come into view. We are so close.
“Stop!” I scream when I spot her.
But it’s too late.
Serenity holds out her hand, and it slams into Rowena’s chest.
I scream as we tumble to a stop, with Rowena taking most of the impact to her chest. I fall off her back and hit the ground, bruising my shoulder as I slide against the dirt road we were running on.
I hop up immediately, barely even registering the pain in my shoulder.
Rowena doesn’t get up. She’s not moving. Her chest doesn’t appear to be rising and falling.
“Rowena!” I yell.
She still doesn’t move.
I start to run toward her, but before I can move, I’m hit with a blast of Serenity’s magic. It’s immediately obvious that whatever Isolde did to me during my pack initiation was nothing compared to this. This otherworldly force knocks through my body like a bomb. A pulsing shockwave sends hot flames through me. I succumb to the dizzying rush in my head and heaviness pushing down on my lungs. There is no breaking free of this magic.
“Vampires, Serenity, Rowena…help,” is all I can get out to Ambrose before the magic blinds me and controls every aspect of my body to the point that I’m no longer breathing.
Breathing is a struggle. Every inhale I take is like pressing against the bars of a cage. I can’t take a full breath. Shadows surround me, but the room quickly comes into sharp focus.
I’m lying on a large bed with white silk sheets. Thick, dark shades cover the window, casting the room in darkness. I have no clue if it’s daytime or nighttime. My wolf eyesight allows me to see the room clearly, though. The room is simply decorated with abstract paintings on a light gray wall. A dark nightstand and dresser line the walls.
All of a sudden, I get a pit in my stomach as I feel eyes on me, watching me.
I pop up and see them—the vampires and Serenity.
“You’re a tough little thing, I’ll give you that,” Nikolai says.
I frown. “Where is Rowena?”
“I think you should be more concerned about yourself,” Verspera says.
“Where is Rowena?” I repeat.
“Dead, alive? Who knows? We left her where she fell after I hit her with my spell. She was weak,” Serenity says.
They all step closer to me, watching me closely. I’m not bound. And the magic Serenity used on me seems to have almost disappeared from my body. They aren’t afraid of me running or shifting. They know.
“I told you,” Nikolai says.
“She can’t shift, not even to save herself,” Vespera spits out in disgust.
“I can shift,” it’s not a lie. I know I can. I just haven’t, not yet.
“Don’t lie to us!” Serenity roars. “We are tired of waiting, child. Shift, prove to us that you can break the curse. We only have a week left. We are running out of time. Shift.”
I glare at her. “I’m not a dog. I don’t just shift because you command it.”
“You don’t shift because you can’t. You couldn’t to save your friend. You can’t to save yourself,” Serenity says.
“I don’t have to prove anything until the marking ceremony. But it doesn’t matter if I can shift or not; I can break the curse. I’m strong enough. I’ve already proven that.”
Serenity laughs. “Fool, no one can survive if they haven’t come into their full powers yet. Not that we care if you survive or not, but you have to survive long enough to actually break the curse. You won’t be able to. You’re weak. Too fucking weak for an alpha’s mate. I don’t know why he chose you or what his plan is, but you aren’t a match. We can smell how unlike mates you two are.”
“You’re wrong. We’re mates. I can shift if I want to. And even if I can’t, I’ll survive. I’ll break the curse.”
“Why should we believe you?” Serenity asks.
I open my mouth, considering telling them the truth. I doubt they would believe me, and I doubt it would be enough even if they did. There is nothing I can do to save myself except shift. And I don’t know how to do that on command.
“That’s what I thought. You can’t shift. That means you die, so the universe will give Ambrose a new mate. Kill her,” Serenity says to her vampire friends.
They move before she’s even finished speaking, and at once, I feel three sets of fangs sink into my neck and wrists.
This is how I die.