41. Lumi
Chapter 41
Lumi
M y pulse starts off fast, trying to keep up with what’s happening, pumping adrenaline through my body like that’s going to save me. The only thing that is going to save me is shifting, but even that might not be enough. Sweat drips down my brow and into my eyes, until I can barely see as the sharp fangs dig deeper into my veins. I can’t move as my skin changes from warm to cool. My head begins to spin, and my breath begins to weaken.
How much blood have they taken? How much longer until this pain ends?
It can’t take three vampires very long to drain me completely. My head feels lighter, and the room starts to spin. It won’t be long now.
“Enough,” a deep male’s voice rings through the room.
To my shock, the pain in my neck and wrists lessons. But the room is spinning so fast that I can barely register who’s in it. I feel weak, so weak that I can barely hold my own head up. They must still be holding onto me, or I’d fall to the floor.
Whoever spoke saved me, but just barely. Another second, and I would have drifted off to the other side. I’d be dead.
“Kill me, not her,” the voice says again. So familiar, the voice.
Mine — the voice belongs to me.
What?
I question my own thoughts. What the hell does that mean?
“Hold on, Rowena and Emeric are on their way. Just hold on,” the voice says in my head.
Rowena?
Emeric?
Who are they?
Think, think…
I try to make sense of anything. I try to lift my head. To open my eyes. But everything inside me is screaming that I should die, let go—that would be the best for everyone.
“Hold on, don’t you dare die,” that voice says in my head again.
But then why is my heart begging to stop beating? Why is it telling me to let go, that my death will save him?
Mine, he’s mine. I love him. Save him.
The words flood my head.
I love him. He’s your mate. Save him. Save him by dying.
My eyes fly open, and I see Ambrose standing on the other side of the room. He looks incredibly calm, but he’s all alone. There are no other pack members with him. Serenity is holding out her hand, holding him with her magic. I don’t know who’s stronger—her or him.
Ambrose doesn’t seem concerned. He’s looking directly at me with such intense focus.
“No,” I try to send the single word to him to not make this trade. If he gets the message, he doesn’t react or send me a message back.
“Done,” Serenity says.
With the single word, the vampires toss me to the floor and attack Ambrose with the same viciousness they were just attacking me.
“No,” I say in barely a whisper as I watch in horror as all three sink their teeth into his flesh. He doesn’t so much as flinch as their fangs find his veins.
I hit the floor with a hard thump a second before my head bounces against it. My head feels unbearably heavy, like it’s being weighed down by the vampire’s mind control. In reality, I’m just so weak my neck struggles to lift my head. Inch by inch, I find the strength to lift my head up. I have to find a way to stop this before it’s too late.
He loves you. That’s why he traded his life for yours. If he doesn’t die, then you will.
I shake my head. It doesn’t matter. He can’t die.
Mouthfuls of Ambrose’s blood leaves his body as the vampire’s sloppy drinking spills so much of his blood from their mouths onto the floor around him. Ambrose’s eyes meet mine. He looks at peace, like this is how he always thought he’d meet his end.
Tears streak down my eyes. “Save yourself. Please.”
The corners of his lips twitch upward, and then he starts to say the words into my head. Words he would only speak if he thought he was truly dying. “It’s true. I lo—”
“NO!” I growl. I won’t let us end like this. We barely even started. We have a whole lifetime together. We have a pack to save. This will not be how we end.
Pain, as I’ve never felt before, shoots through my body. I break my gaze from Ambrose, assuming that Serenity must have broken her promise to let me go and is now torturing me with her magic. But her focus is completely on Ambrose.
My head whips back to Ambrose, and for a split second, I see his eyes widen in awe before the pain overwhelms me to the point that I can’t see anything but the darkness once again.
Heat, overwhelming heat burns through my body to the point that I think I’m on fire. Bones begin to twist, muscles grow, and veins, arteries, and nerves restructure. My entire body shifts, and even my brain can’t think clearly.
The pain rips through me over and over and over. It will never end. I’m trapped in this body that’s spiraling in unending pain. It consumes me to the point that I forget about saving Ambrose. All I want is to die to make the pain stop.
And then, suddenly, it’s over.
My eyes are still squeezed shut. I’m terrified to open them. Ambrose is most likely dead. I was too late. I let the pain get the best of me.
Slowly, I open my eyes. Ambrose is still standing, still breathing. But he’s so pale I doubt there is more than a couple of drops of his blood left in his body.
I don’t think I just leap.
My muscles are new, but they’re strong. Even though they are untested, I know what they are capable of. And if I’m wrong, then I’ll die trying to save him.
I go for Draven, who is at Ambrose’s neck first, and sink my own teeth into his neck.
“Stop. Release me,” Draven says firmly. I feel the magic in his command dig like a knife into my brain. It feels like he’s torturing me from the inside out, but it only makes me more determined.
I clamp down harder, tasting his cold, hollow flesh.
Save him, save him, save him.
The words I sing to my wolf are the only commands she listens to.
Kill Draven; save our mate.
“Release me!” Draven tries again.
I snarl against the magic that feels like a thousand stabs to my head. I release him, but only long enough to swipe at him with my massive white paws speckled with a golden hue of moonlight.
I’m Ambrose’s mate. The color of my fur confirms it. His fur is black with gold flecks; mine is white with gold—a perfect match.
I don’t know how to use my new body, but my wolf knows exactly what to do. The swipe of my paw hits Draven in the cheek. My claws dig into his skin, ripping a deep gash into his cheek.
He stumbles back. He’s weak, weaker than I expected from a vampire who has recently been feeding on us. But I won’t stop until he’s dead.
My hind legs squat before I leap into the air, launching the full weight of my wolf form onto him. My front paws hit his chest, knocking him to the ground before my teeth tear apart his neck piece by piece.
I go for his arm next, clamping my teeth down onto his bicep. My head swings hard, ripping his arm from its socket. His second arm comes off even easier than his first.
Draven is lifeless on the floor, but from what I know about vampires, he won’t truly be dead until a stake pierces his heart.
I’m tempted to shift back into my human form to finish the job when I see Ambrose lying still on the floor.
The other vampires and Serenity have fled—the cowards. I run to his side and watch as his chest rises and falls. He’s still alive.
“ Ambrose! ” I yell through our bond, the connection coming even easier than before now that I’m in my wolf form.
He doesn’t respond, doesn’t so much as twitch a muscle. He doesn’t have much time. He needs blood and a doctor.
I let out a soft whine as I circle him, trying to figure out how to pick him up without shifting into my human form. My wolf strength and speed is the only chance he has at surviving.
I nudge my snout under his body and toss him up in the air just enough to get my neck under his heavy body. Even in this form, he feels heavy to me. My muscles strain as I gently shift him from my neck and onto my back.
“ Hold on ,” I tell him, hoping some part of him will listen. Somehow, his fingers tighten ever so slightly into my thick fur.
And then I run.
The stairs are tricky to manage without bouncing him off, but I somehow manage to get downstairs. Thankfully, the front door is open, and I burst through the doorway. My muscles scream at me to slow down and take it easy. They are brand new, after all. But the wolf, she knows—she knows we can’t stop. She knows we have to save our mate. And she knows exactly where to run.
Ambrose told me Rowena and Emeric were coming. We just have to make it to them.
They don’t appear for hours. Ambrose must have been far ahead of them when he came to rescue me. But despite my heavy breathing and aching muscles, I’ve managed to keep running the entire time, until I finally spot Rowena running toward us as she darts between the trees.
“Help! Ambrose lost a lot of blood!” I scream at Rowena before remembering I’m in my wolf form, and she can’t hear anything other than a growl from me.
She’s at my side within seconds, seeing Ambrose’s limp body on my back.
Emeric appears on my other side but barely standing. He looks like he’s on death’s door, which means…Ambrose. Emeric feels Ambrose’s pain. Did I make it in time?
Rowena shifts into her human form before gently rolling Ambrose off my back. His body hits the ground with a loud thud. She immediately starts chanting something over him.
“What happened?” Emeric asks, looking at me in awe.
“Vampires,” I say the word before I remember he can’t hear me.
But Emeric nods, like he completely understands.
“I don’t know how to shift back,” I say, but of course, Emeric doesn’t understand me.
Rowena’s body is blocking my view of Ambrose, but I can see Emeric’s color returning to his face, his pain receding.
“He’s going to be fine,” Emeric says.
He’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay.
But am I going to be okay?
Suddenly, I feel very weak. The world starts to spin around me as the pain returns in harsh waves and heats my body. The burn is fast this time, like wildfire burning away the fur and leaving human flesh in its wake.
Emeric screams as he takes in my human form. “Rowena! Lumi lost a lot of blood. I’m not sure she’s going to—”
Darkness engulfs me, and I’m pretty sure I saved Ambrose only for his curse to kill me.
He loves me…