Chapter 18 Sebastian
Sebastian
My nose twitched. Blood. A fucking shit-ton of it. Panic seized me and adrenaline roared through my body until I could only hear a rushing sound in my ears.
Kayla. Her name beat inside my head in time with my heart. Faster and faster. Her blood.
I could smell her fucking blood.
It called to me, but I watched the other vampires in the club as they each turned and faced my office almost as one.
“Get them out of here,” I called to Kyle. “Get everyone out.” I blurred through the crowd, jostling anyone who even got close to being in my way as I made a beeline for the stairs. I’d never moved faster, and it still wasn’t fast enough.
I took the steps two at a time, and all the time the scent of Kayla’s blood grew stronger.
It permeated the air and confused my mind.
There was too much of it, but it just smelled so…
good. I burst into my office, blowing right through the door that should have been locked but that opened way too easily.
Then I froze. Kayla lay on the floor, a pool of blood rapidly spreading around her.
“Kayla.” I dropped to my knees in front of her, and one of her eyes cracked open.
“Sebastian?” Her voice was thin and weak.
“Yes.” I reached for her, trying to cradle her head, smearing my hands through so much blood.
I was covered in it, and the sticky consistency and sweet aroma kicked my instincts into gear, and my fangs descended. Fuck. This was my mate dying in my arms… The last thing I wanted was a meal of her blood.
But there was just so fucking much of it.
I blew out a breath and sucked one back in. I could do this. I could fix it.
“Kayla,” I said again. “Let me heal you. I can make this better.” I could seal her wound with my saliva the same way I would any vampire bite. I sucked in another breath through my mouth. I had enough willpower for that.
“Okay.” Her eyes threatened to close again. She barely even nodded.
“Kayla.” I didn’t know where to touch her. I didn’t want to jostle her or move her too much.
I rested a hand on her left shoulder and bent down, hovering my mouth over her neck. “This shouldn’t hurt.” I swallowed before sticking my tongue out and taking the first lap of her blood, seeking the wound so I could seal it.
But the first taste sent a buzz right to my brain and I floated. Kayla tasted amazing.
I had never tasted blood this amazing, maybe that was to do with the mate bond.
I lapped again then again, taking big swipes with my tongue as I cleaned a patch on her neck, but the more blood I licked away, the more seemed to pump out of the gash I was revealing.
I pressed my mouth to the wound and began to suck.
Kayla moaned.
I jerked backward at the sound. What the hell was I doing? I’d nearly lost control. I was fucking sucking at my mate like she was a feeding station.
“Kayla? Kayla?” I called her name until she opened her eyes again.
“Is it done?” Her voice was little more than breath now.
“No… No, it isn’t.” I looked at her neck and the carpet surrounding her.
The bleeding was getting worse.
“I can’t stop it.” Emotion swelled within me. I was going to lose my mate before we’d even truly found each other, before she’d accepted me as hers.
I licked the wound clear of blood again. There was no reason it shouldn’t be healing.
“Maybe it was a poisoned blade.” I blurted the words out as I searched for a reason—any reason. There wasn’t much that made the human body immune to vampire saliva, but there were specific poisons that would do it.
I only had one option left. I looked at Kayla, gazing at her in what had been another stunning gown, and thought of everything she’d already been through tonight.
My heart twisted. This was all wrong, and not at all how I wanted to start my life with my mate—not with hers ending in front of me like this.
“Kayla.”
Her eyes barely flickered this time, and her breathing was shallow and slow.
“Kayla.” My voice came out urgent now, and it was all I could do not to shake her and make her respond. Desperation clawed at my insides. Losing someone had never felt like this.
I swallowed against a sudden bout of nausea when she didn’t reply.
“Kayla.” I kept using her name, hoping it would rouse her enough to make some sort of response to me. “Kayla, please. It’s me, Sebastian. I can save you, but I need to turn you. I have to make you a vampire, like me.”
She hadn’t even wanted to be bitten. She’d said to me that she’d worried about her witch nature, her powers…
and I couldn’t make her any promises on that, because I didn’t know.
She’d also needed time to process forever, and now I needed her to accept it, so she’d live.
If she lost any more blood, there might not even be enough in her to make the exchange. This needed to happen fast.
“Please. Kayla. Can you hear me?” I cupped my hand against her cheek.
Her eyes flickered again.
“Can you hear me? I need to turn you. It’s the only way you’ll survive.” And I needed her to survive. I already couldn’t imagine a life without her. Especially not one as long as mine. “Kayla.” I opened one of her eyes. I needed her consent for this. “Can you hear me?”
My vision blurred as she didn’t even try to focus.
I tried again. “Can you hear me? I need to turn you so you’ll live. Will you let me?”
She sighed and her lips parted slightly. Her pupils changed size, and I blew out a sigh.
Her nod was so small I barely saw it. The tiniest movement of her head, but it was enough.
“Okay,” I said then blew out a small sigh of relief. “Okay.”
I swept her hair out of the way so I could access the other side of her neck. My fangs were already descended and aching, throbbing from when I’d tried to prevent myself from biting her so that I could heal her.
But now I had to bite. It was the only way.
I pressed my hand against the wound on the other side of her neck. I couldn’t let her bleed freely from both wounds, the one made by a poisoned knife and the one I was about to make with my fangs, or she wouldn’t survive, no matter what I did.
“’I’m sorry.” I whispered the soft apology.
“This isn’t the way it should happen. It should be magic and love and talk of forever.
I wanted to make this special for you. I wouldn’t have chosen this for us.
” There weren’t enough words to truly apologize, and I didn’t have enough time, but I needed to acknowledge that this was necessity, not choice, for me.
I wanted her vampire, I wanted her with me, but not like this.
Never like this.
She breathed out a sigh that sounded like a fucking last breath, and I sank my fangs into her neck over her pulse point, gasping as the sweet blood hit my tongue. I couldn’t take too much, though, and this wasn’t a normal turning. I had to preserve her life above all else.
I had to drink as little as possible, no matter how much I wanted more.
I moved to her shoulder and sank my fangs in there too. I wasn’t sure I’d taken enough from her neck to effect the change, but I couldn’t keep taking while blood pumped almost as fast out of the other side, no matter how much pressure I applied.
Her blood was a trickle on my tongue now.
She had no more left to give. It was a make it or break it situation for her turning, and I ripped a savage chunk out of my wrist as desperation flared through me at how little time Kayla had left.
I pressed the hole I’d made to her lips, mashing the inside of my wrist against her mouth, working it inside, touching her lips and gums and teeth to try to encourage her to suck, however weakly.
“Come on, Kayla,” I muttered. “Nearly there. Come on.” I pushed my free hand through my hair. I just needed her to take a little. Just enough that she’d turn.
I could fix everything else after.
Her tongue pressed against my arm as some of my blood worked into her mouth. Yes, she was taking it. But no…she was simply trying to push me away, trying to spit out the very thing she needed. My blood slid down her chin instead of down her throat and I let out a frustrated groan.
“We’re nearly there. Just take a little.” I pressed my wrist to her mouth again, trying to seat it in a secure position where she couldn’t reject my offering to her.
She swallowed. Just a little bit at first, then more until she was taking great gulps. Relief cascaded through me and made me lightheaded.
I stroked her hair. “Yes, that’s right.” I offered her as much encouragement as I could, even though I couldn’t be sure she could even hear or fully understand me. “You’re doing it, Kayla. We’re going to be all right.”
She’d live. She had a chance now, one she hadn’t had before.
Eventually, she fell away from my wrist, her body limp, but she was sated. Color had returned to her cheeks, and the flow of blood from the knife wound at her neck was slowing.
I blew out a slow sigh. We were nearly there.
I’d healed her from the inside, the only way I could have done it. And I didn’t know how to feel about it. Relief came first, then elation… Then guilt. But it had been the only way, and I’d have to hope she understood that.
Jason ran through the door and stopped as he looked at Kayla, still cradled in my arms. “Is she…?” He didn’t finish his sentence.
I shook my head. “No, but she’s not out of the woods yet. She has a long way to go. I’m turning her, Jason.”
His lips parted and his eyes widened. “Oh.” But it couldn’t have been an entirely unexpected development because his face smoothed back to neutral, and he took on Kyle’s usual at ease stance.
“We got all the vampires but one.” His voice was almost wooden as he made his report.
“That last fucker escaped.” He gritted his teeth and shook his head.
“Shit, man. I’m sorry. We let one get away. ”
I pressed my lips together as I listened to him.
Yeah, there was one in the wind. But we’d have another chance.
Another opportunity to round that rogue vamp up.
I was more interested in watching Kayla, where her neck was starting to heal, the smooth edges of the knife wound knitting together as if by magic.
Kayla was still limp, though, her breathing still shallow.
The most dangerous part would come next.
Not every human could accept being turned.
It was too much for some of their fragile bodies, and I hadn’t been able to discuss that with Kayla.
I’d taken the only chance I had left. The only chance we had left.
“We need to get her home.” I lifted her into my arms.
“I’ll get the car.” Before he even finished the sentence, Jason was leaving the room at a run.
“I’ll meet you downstairs.” I didn’t dare go too fast as I followed him from my office, my feet squishing in the blood-soaked carpet.
Kayla was precious cargo to move too quickly with because I didn’t want to jostle her in my arms or shake her. Her body had a lot of healing and changing to do, and I didn’t want to disrupt the process in any way. She needed the best chance of survival. I’d just given her a start.
The club was a mess as I walked through it. I hadn’t seen the worst of it before I’d run to Kayla. The guests Kyle hadn’t managed to evacuate littered the floor as corpses, and outside was even worse.
We needed clean-up here and quickly, but Kyle would need to organize that for me. I glanced at Kayla. I had something far more important to take care of. The only thing that mattered was getting Kayla home and helping with her recovery.