18. Chapter 18
Carter
Never. Again.
Damn those lust Fallen. They were like sex addicts, throwing their knowledge to anyone in earshot.
I sat on the spot he was occupying before he left and turned on the computer. Once it was finally on, I clicked on the database’s search bar and typed:
Mate, angel, blood.
Three results. None pertinent.
Fallen, blood, curse.
Ugh, nothing. There wasn’t a single book or article that talked about the blood of a mate being a cure for Fallens. What if Jeremiah was right? What if there was some other reason behind this?
Something I might have learned by letting her damn brother speak? No. Casting him out had been the right choice. If she had any secrets, Lola would tell me in time.
We’ll get there. She’ll trust me eventually. I’ll prove myself trustworthy.
Shaking my head, I typed:
Nephilim, dead.
I was there, and Lola wasn’t waiting for me in my bed, so I could at least try and do some more digging.
But there was nothing.
Was everything we had about this in Arc’s room and not documented here?
Fuck, that was shady.
I hated the turn that this whole thing was taking.
“Maggie?” I tried, rolling a couple of feet away from the computer. “You there?”
Silence. She had to be around here though, she said so herself; she couldn’t leave this place.
“Since you seem to be all-knowing, anything interesting on Nephilims ending up dead over the last centuries or so?”
There was a shuffle in a faraway row. Okay…Did I get her attention? Did she know about something? Was she about to reveal something and give me the missing piece of the puzzle? Was—
The keyboard clicked.
Once.
Twice.
Stopped.
A simple No, was written on the screen. I frowned.
“Really? For a second there, I thought you’d actually be helpful.”
That was a low blow, but she did her best work when she was annoyed, always finding the hidden books when I taunted her and riled her up.
Astrals. Read journal.
“Ugh, I know you want me to read that damn journal, but I’m asking about something different here. Nephilims. Like Dimitri? The white hair guy, surely you remember him.”
It typed again and my fingers drummed on the edge of the desk, waiting as I stared at the words appearing slowly on the screen.
Don’t know Nephilims. Know Astrals.
I was wasting my time. She knew nothing about the issue at hand, and she was obsessed with Astrals. Might have been why she hid all the knowledge this place had about them. But why give it to Lola and now me, then? I needed to get to that damn journal.
I groaned and got up, leaving the Archives, purposely dragging my feet.
Three. Two. One.
I dodged the pencil thrown my way with a smirk.
“So predictable,” I said, looking over my shoulder with a grin. She hated when I dragged my feet.
Margaret didn’t attack again and two minutes later, I was out of the City Hall. The streets were quiet—as one would expect that late at night. We might have been Immortals, but even bloodthirsty Vampires or murderous werebeasts had jobs and a sleep schedule. All of us were getting old, after all.
I was nearly at my door when a whisper reached me and I froze, turning to inspect the empty space around me. What the Heavens was that? There was no other sound, only the weak plea scratching at me from inside my skull. My eyes narrowed.
“Help him,” it kept repeating.
“Help who?” I asked in a low voice to myself.
Distant screams echoed, overpowering the voice's potential response, and a sharp pain made me flinch and stumble. My knees landed on the floor as another piercing cry made my ears bleed.
“What the—”
My vision blacked out, and the last thing I felt was my shoulder and temple hit the cobblestone ground.
It was different. Stranger. I wasn’t in Arc’s head and watching the scene through his eyes but more like a spectator from the outside. Instead of the now familiar creepy room, the whole space was blurry, only shadows and shapes telling me I wasn’t alone.
“Hello?” I croaked as my head throbbed. Whether it was from my fall to the ground or the voice screaming in the room, I wasn’t sure.
But no one answered. Two blurred shadows were in the corner.
One seated, one standing in front of the other.
The one tied up to the chair screamed again, the shape of his head tilting back in agony.
Red and black smoke swirled around them, somehow muffling the sound enough for it to still be painful to hear but unrecognizable.
But I recognized it. My brain knew that it was Dimitri and Arc in there. I knew they—
“Help him.”
I made a sharp turn only to end up facing the Warlock. Blurred by some thick fog and the same shadows that concealed the two others. Only his eyes were clearly visible, shining with a thousand golden stars.
“Nomin,” I said.
He tilted his head to the side, surprised. “You know my name.” Not a question, and yet I nodded. “Help him,” he repeated.
“How?” I asked.
“He’s lost within himself. He’s losing the battle.”
“What are you even talking about?”
It made no sense. Was it Dimitri’s madness? I guess that being tortured for days would make him even more dangerous. If he escaped now, I doubted anyone in the area would even survive…
“He’ll kill him. Kill us all.”
“Who?” I insisted. It could be either of them. Dimitri, if he managed to escape. Arc, if he got whatever he was looking for.
The Warlock grunted in pain as the shadows to the side shifted. His whole body blurred, like a screen glitching.
“Help us!” he gritted out, grabbing at his head. “When you come for the others, help us!”
“When we—” I gasped as the image glitched again. Nomin screamed, his voice distorted, switching from a screech to a growl before both sounds mixed together. Shadows attacked him from everywhere as he fell to his knees, pulling at his hair before he completely disappeared behind them.
“Nomin?” I asked, taking a step toward the spot he stood in just a moment before, only to be sent flying back by the shadows lashing.
Loud noises echoed around me as the smoke became thicker, hitting at everything in the room.
And then a voice. Familiar as it had spent a few days taunting me, but strange as it was laced with anger and cruelty instead of mockery.
“You thought you could keep me in a cage?” Dimitri asked, the sound sharp. Clear. “Keep me locked up for you to torment?” Glass shattering. Bones breaking. People agonizing. “And what do we think now?” he growled.
The whole room shook from the deep sound. My head swirled as if I was forced back to consciousness.
“You want to treat me like a monster?” he continued, but his voice grew distant. “Then I’ll act like one.”
“Carter!” Someone was shaking me.
My whole body tensed as I opened my eyes and sat up with a gasp. Lola’s eyes were wide, lips parted, her hands still holding my shoulders.
“What’s going on?” I asked, eyes darting over her shoulder where a couple of guards stood, their helmets still on. The pain was gone, but my muscles felt sore, my head dizzy, vision still blurring at the edges.
“You scared the crap out of everybody, that’s what’s going on,” Lola muttered, inching closer to grab my chin and inspect my face.
I winced as she moved my head from side to side. Okay, the pain wasn’t entirely gone.
“I-I don’t remember much,” I confessed.
Shadows. Screams. What the fuck had happened to me?
“You collapsed in the street,” a guard said. “Marcus found you during his round and called your mate. He should be back with Ann any minute now.”
I shook my head, trying to stand up. “No need for Ann, I’m sure it was nothing.”
Lola’s hands went back to my shoulders to push me back to the ground. “You’re not moving from here.”
Our gaze met. Her face was pale, and eyes went from wide and terrified to a confused but determined frown sometime during the two minutes I’ve been back to myself.
“Lola, I’m f—”
“No.” Her head shook a couple more times, eyes tightly shut. “We’re waiting for Ann. She’ll make sure.”
She was straddling one of my legs, her long T-shirt—probably one of Dimitri’s—reaching just above her knees. One of her hands was firm on my shoulder, keeping me seated on the floor, the other distractedly cupping my face, fingers fumbling with the hair behind my ear.
She was worried. Really worried.
“Lola…”
Her throat bobbed as her eyes opened and landed on my face.
“I’m okay,” I breathed out, placing a hand on her waist. “I’m here, I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding out of your nose,” she said.
Was I? I reached for it with my other hand, finding my fingers stained with gold as I looked.
“Must have hit it when I fell,” I concluded. “It’s nothing.”
“Maybe. But Ann will still take a look.”
“It’s really unnece—”
“Please,” Lola said, her eyes watering. “Fainting and nosebleeds aren’t common for Divines, unless they’ve been brutally attacked.
Were you?” I sighed, giving one single shake of my head.
“Then please, let Ann take a look at you. It’ll take a minute, and I can’t—” Her voice broke, the defeated sound shattering my resolve and heart all at once.
“Dimitri and Arc are who knows where, I can’t risk losing you too. I’m not—I’m…”
A pair of footsteps closed in on us, their pace hurried. The next second, Marcus' hand was on Lola’s shoulder, pulling her away from me softly.
“Come now, sweetheart,” he said. “Ann will take over. It’s all good, he’ll be fine.”
It took him a few tries before she reluctantly stood up and stepped back to remain at his side, her gaze never leaving me.
“What happened?” Ann said, kneeling on the ground next to me, catching my face between her hands to inspect it.
“I’m not sure,” I answered. Shadows. Screams. “I—Every time I try to remember, there’s like a thick fog in my head.”
She hummed, her eyes studying every inch of my head. “You didn’t just bleed out of your nose,” she said. “There’s dry blood coming out of your ears.”
Lola brought her fingers to her mouth, nibbling at her nails. One of Ann’s palms grabbed my forehead as she closed her eyes. A strange, warm feeling spread out inside my skull before slowly reaching the rest of my body. When had I became so fucking cold?
“It was an attack,” she whispered. “There are no reasons a Divine could end up with so many aneurysms exploding all at once.”
“Aneurysms?” Lola croaked, trying to take a step forward only to be held and pulled back by Marcus before she could get closer. “It’s not possible. Divines and Hellrisers are Immortals. We can’t have—”
“Actually you all can,” Ann interrupted her with a sigh, letting go of my head.
“As a matter of fact, lots of Immortals can develop tumors or aneurysms. Some Earthwalkers might even die because of something like this, as our blood isn’t as strong as a Divine’s or Hellriser’s.
The only things you guys are immune to are viruses and bacteria. ”
“Really? Tumors?” Marcus asked, tilting his head to the side.
“They’re harmless for Immortals though,” Ann explained, looking at him.
“I said they can develop, but not that they could be fatal. It’s usually killed by your blood without you even being aware that it’s here.
For example, Lola, living as long as she did, could have had over a hundred tumors in her life, and an unlimited amount of aneurysms.” She shrugged, turning her face back to me.
“They’re usually not an issue, unless a hundred of them occur at once.
Must have hurt like a bitch. That explains the black out. ”
My jaw dropped. A fucking hundred aneurysms? At once?
“How did that happen?” Lola asked.
Ann seemed to ponder it for a while before she said, “Not sure. It’s not natural, that's certain. Might have been caused by a…maybe a blood Witch? But we don’t have any here, last time I checked.
” Marcus’ face paled. Right, one of his lost lovers was one…
“Blood could also mean a Vampire is implied, but they do tend to stay away from dark magic.”
“Well, we do have an old unhinged Vampire that just joined us,” Marcus grumbled. Lola elbowed his ribs with a glare. “Ouch—what? That’s true. You abandoned me, you haven’t seen how fucking weird he is. Totally the cursing, dark magic kind.”
The Warlock I’ve seen during my previous trips in Arc’s head might have been a blood one…What if he had attacked me? No. He couldn’t have. There were wards surrounding the camp.
And I did banish the Vampire earlier. Could it be him?
“Anyway,” Ann said, standing up and wiping the dust and dirt from her pajama bottoms. “You’re fine.
I’ll inform Kai of what happened and we’ll look into the potential attack, but you’ll be okay.
Lola?” she said, turning toward my anxious mate.
“Make him rest for a bit. I’m prescribing a late morning, he needs to sleep in.
” Lola gave an eager nod before Ann looked back at me.
“And you might need some blood too. I know you’re weird about drinking any, but you’ve lost a lot. It’ll speed up your recovery.”
Lola met my gaze, a determined look on her face, her fists tightening at her sides.
“He’ll get blood,” she said firmly. “I’ll make sure of it.”