Chapter 27 #2
My mind raced, searching for options. My hands were bound. I was barely able to stand. Behind me, Dimitri was dying, the wolfsbane spreading through his veins with every passing second. But I wasn’t going to just give up. Wasn’t going to let this bastard win.
My eyes darted around the warehouse floor. And then I saw it—a pile of loose sand from a broken bag near the wall, maybe ten feet away.
As Ethan raised the knife, I lunged sideways toward the sand pile.
My bound hands scrabbled at the ground, fingers closing around a fistful of gritty sand. Then I spun, ignoring the screaming pain in my ribs, and threw it directly into Ethan’s face.
He groaned, clawing at his eyes, temporarily blinded.
I didn’t hesitate.
I launched myself at him while he was vulnerable, my shoulder driving into his midsection. We crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs. The knife fell from his grip, skittering across the concrete.
We grappled on the warehouse floor. Even blinded and caught off guard, Ethan was stronger than me. His hand found my throat, squeezing, cutting off my air.
My vision started to darken around the edges. My lungs burned.
My hands were still tied behind my back, but I kept searching anyway. My fingers scraped over rough concrete, catching only dust and grit, until they finally hit something solid. The knife!
I curled my fingers around the knife immediately, twisted my wrists and pressed the blade against the rope, trying to saw through it.
Ethan’s grip tightened around my throat, cutting off what little air I had left. The edges of my vision began to blur, I was starting to gasp for air.
But I pushed harder. The blade slipped once, slicing into the side of my hand. A sharp jolt of pain shot through me, but I forced myself to keep going. I didn’t have a choice.
The rope didn’t break completely, but it loosened just enough for me to yank my arms forward. And with the last bit of strength I had, I drove the blade upward in one wild, desperate motion.
It hit his side.
Ethan’s eyes widened in shock, and his grip on my throat finally loosened.
I twisted the knife, pushing it deeper, feeling it slide between ribs.
Ethan’s hands fell away from my throat completely. He slumped to the side, blood spreading across his shirt.
I didn’t wait to confirm if he was dead or not. I scrambled toward Dimitri. His skin was gray, his lips turning blue. The wolfsbane had spread through his entire chest now, black veins visible beneath his skin. Blood still seeped from the wound, but slower now. Too slow. He was dying.
One of Dimitri’s men—the only man left from the battle that ensued—moved toward me, helping me with the bind and the gag.
“No, no, no.” I tried to stop the bleeding with my bound hands, pressing against the wound, but there was so much blood. “Dimitri, please. Stay with me. Call Edmund. Tell him to send the helicopter!” I yelled to the man who darted outside to do as I told.
“Please hold on,” I whispered amidst the tears forming in my eyes. “Help is coming.”
His eyes found mine, fluttering. He was struggling to keep them open. “Isabella…”
“Don’t talk. Save your strength. You’re going to be fine.” Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood from my injuries. “You have to be fine. We need you. Adele needs you. I need you.”
“Love…you…” His voice was so quiet I had to lean close to hear it. “Both…of you…”
His hand, when I grabbed it with my bound ones, was cold. So cold.
“No, no. Dimitri.” I pressed my forehead to his. “Don’t you dare give up. Don’t you dare leave us. We just found each other again. We’re supposed to get married. Supposed to be a family. You promised!”
But his eyes were closing. His breathing was shallow, irregular. Each breath was weaker than the last.
He was slipping away, and I was losing him, and I couldn’t…
In the haze of my desperation, a memory surfaced. It was the night of her accident. I’d watched Uncle Asher feed her his blood in a bid to save her. But then she’d said, “You know it won’t work. I was never your Fated Mate. Just a woman you loved.”
It was something she’d always said to me when she told me stories at night.
“The bond between true Mates is the strongest magic in the world, Isa. It can heal any wound, break any curse. They say the blood of a Fated Mate can even cure wolfsbane poisoning. Because love is more powerful than any poison.”
I’d always thought it was just a fairy tale. A story to help me sleep. But what if it wasn’t?
I didn’t let myself think. I just acted on instinct, on desperate hope, on the tiny chance that maybe, just maybe, the old stories were true.
I brought my wrist to my mouth and bit down hard. Hard enough to break skin. Hard enough that blood welled immediately.
Then I pressed my bleeding wrist to Dimitri’s lips, my hands still bound, making the angle awkward.
“Drink,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please, Dimitri. Please drink.”
For a terrifying moment, nothing happened. His lips remained slack, unresponsive.
Then, weakly, I felt him swallow.
Hope flared in my chest as the black veins around the wound stopped spreading. And after a few seconds, they started to recede. Slowly, so slowly, I thought I might be imagining it. But they were definitely fading. Pulling back from his heart, retreating toward the wound itself.
Light began to emanate from Dimitri’s chest. Soft at first, like the glow of a candle. Then brighter, stronger, until it was almost blinding. It spread through his body like liquid gold. Healing. Purifying. Destroying the wolfsbane poison.
I watched in awe as the gray color faded from his skin. As the blue left his lips. As his breathing deepened, steadied, grew strong again.
And then his eyes opened.
“Isabella?” His voice was hoarse but stronger than it had been for someone who’d been dying moments ago.
“You’re okay.” I collapsed against him, sobs wracking my body with such force I could barely breathe. “Oh God, you’re okay.”
His arms came around me despite the wound in his chest, holding me close, one hand cradling the back of my head.
He murmured against my hair, wonder in his voice. “How did you—”
“My mother. She told me a story once. About true Mates. About how their blood could cure any poison.” I pulled back just enough to look at him, hardly believing he was really here, really alive, really holding me. “I didn’t know if it would work. I just had to try.”
“It worked.” His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb brushing away my tears. “You brought me back.”
“I thought I’d lost you,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “I thought—
“Never.” He smiled weakly. “I told you, Isabella. I’m going to make you my wife. And we haven’t even had our wedding yet. Did you really think I was going to go without making due on that promise?”
I laughed, tears falling freely from my eyes.
The sound of a helicopter filled the air, signaling the arrival of Edmund.
“Come on,” Dimitri said, struggling to sit up with my help. “Let’s go home. Our daughter is probably worried sick.”