Chapter 18
Zaos
Icouldn’t stop the bleeding. No matter what I did, no matter what my magic did, I couldn’t stop the bleeding. It was like blood was pouring from everywhere.
He had a hole as big as my fist in his chest, and I knew without looking that at least part of that hole went straight through his heart.
There were a lot of things I could heal with my magic, but not… not this. How could anyone, anything, heal this?
“Please don’t leave me, isa mezelie. Please don’t go.”
In my head, I heard Hugo’s quiet voice say, “I don’t want to go. I want to stay.”
“I want you to stay too, baby, but you… you’re dying.”
I wasn’t sure if I should’ve said that to him, but I didn’t think he’d fully grasped what was happening, and as much as I wanted to protect him from that, I just… I needed to make sure I had time to say my goodbyes. Because that was all there was left to do.
Say goodbye.
“No. No goodbyes.”
“Hugo,” I cried out loud.
“Too late to… to turn?”
I didn’t understand what he was asking for a brief second, but then I gasped, and my head shot up. “You want to be turned? Mezelie, answer me. Can we turn you?”
In my head, I heard a very faint, “Yes.”
That was all I needed. Maybe he would regret it later on, making such a big decision in a moment like this, but I’d do anything to keep him alive, to keep him with me.
I’d do anything to save him. And then I’d do everything in my power to make sure he had the best life possible for the rest of our time together. Forever.
“Uncle Toby!” I yelled. Thank the Mother he was one of my guards tonight.
“I’m here.”
I released enough of my magic to open up a small space in my incubus’s shield and met my uncle’s gaze. “Turn him. Please.”
He hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“He told me he wants it! Please! Please save him!”
Uncle Toby gave me a nod and knelt beside us. He glanced around at my magic, and I did my best to reel it in some. “I have to bite him, Zay. You can’t stop me or this won’t work.”
“I’ll be okay.” That definitely wasn’t true, but what choice did I have?
Uncle Thay came over and grabbed my shoulders, hauling me up to my feet.
I struggled to get back to Hugo, but my uncle was surprisingly strong—using his magic, no doubt.
“Stop, Zaos. Let Toby save him. As soon as he does, you can go back to him, okay? Right now, I need you to concentrate on me so Tob doesn’t have to worry about being attacked by you, yeah? ”
I took a deep breath and did my best to pull my eyes away from Hugo. I met Uncle Thay’s yellow-eyed gaze, and he sent me a sad smile.
“It’s gonna be okay. We’ve got you, Zay. It’s gonna be okay.”
I closed my eyes and let him hold my weight up while I tried not to listen to Uncle Toby’s slurping sounds as he drank the rest of Hugo’s blood from his veins. I jerked, trying to keep myself back before I grabbed him off my viramore and threw him across the room.
It only took a minute or two before Uncle Toby said, “It’s done. He drank some of my blood. Now we need to get him to a dark room before he starts the transition.”
Uncle Thay released me, and I dropped back down to Hugo’s side, grabbing his listless hand in mine. I kissed his palm and wiped my tears before asking, “Where should we take him?” I didn’t really have a basement in my house, and I wasn’t sure my blackout curtains would be sufficient.
“Our house. We have a blackout room in the basement. There’s a bed and everything, and being on coven land will only help boost the magic.”
I nodded, and then I stared at my viramore, praying I’d soon see his gigantic chest wound close up.
I knew he had other wounds. He’d fallen on something that’d stabbed the back of his head, plus the impact of the fall itself.
His lungs and ribs were messed up, perhaps crushed from that asshole falling on him.
And then the massive stab wound in his chest was just… horrific.
After what felt like a million years but was probably only three minutes, my uncles told me to pick Hugo up and carry him to the back exit.
They had a car pulled right up to the door and a shield from the doorway to the car so there was zero chance of exposing Hugo to more danger.
As soon as we were in the car with the door shut, the two of them climbed up front, and we were off, heading toward my house and the portal to coven land.
I held Hugo tight to my chest with my nose buried in his hair. He smelled so much like blood that most of his natural scent was gone.
I hated it.
I needed to get him cleaned up.
“Can I clean him up when we get there?”
Uncle Toby said, “Of course. We have an attached bathroom to the blackout room. You can bathe him in there when we get home. But then he needs to lie in the bed to allow the transition.”
“Okay. I… I can stay with him, right?”
“Trust me, kiddo,” Uncle Thay said. “The last thing anyone’s gonna do is take you away from your viramore.”
I blew out a relieved breath, closed my eyes, and prayed this would work. Prayed to the Mother of All that Hugo would come back to me.