Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Samantha
Igasp for air and blink against the light. My eyes feel sore. Everything feels sore. What the hell happened?
A hand squeezes mine and I turn to look.
Thea! How is she here? Shock swirls in my mind, but I find it easier to focus when I look into her eyes. They are swirling purple and they suck me in. I’ve seen her with purple eyes only once before and she made me swear I’d never tell anyone.
“Oh, Sammie, you got yourself beaten up good, didn’t you?” She smiles, but it’s strained.
“You—” I choke and try again. “You should see the other bitch.”
“Ha! I do.” Now her smile has teeth in it, but then it vanishes and her gaze turns blank.
“Thea?” I fight to squeeze her hand, it’s harder than it should be. If she weren’t holding my hand so tightly, it would slip.
“Well, fuck. Fuck.” Thea’s eyes clear and she curses again. “Sammie, I don’t have time to explain it all… I don’t even know it all—fuck—but I need you to help Patricia.”
“What—”
“Heal her. You can’t let her die!”
“The hell I can’t!” My voice gains strength and I feel the men focus on us. Their attention feels like pinpricks on my skin. Thea glances at them quickly but then ignores them and focuses on me.
“Sammie, do you trust me?”
I do. What the hell kind of question is that from my best friend?
“Sammie.” Thea waits until I focus on her. “Letting Patricia die now would be worse than calling Mike when you are drunk. Much, much, much worse.”
I gasp. We have a code for each other to gauge how stupid a plan of action will be. Calling my ex is top-tier dumbassery on my list. And now she’s claiming that letting the arch bitch die would be worse.
No. Way.
Thea shakes her head like she’s trying to clear it. “I can’t see… Why can’t I see?” she mutters and glares at Patricia.
Patricia is not moving. She’s so close to the final death that I’m surprised she hasn’t crossed the line yet. When I focus on her, I feel a twinge. Our bond vibrates and strains. It’s breaking, and now I sense the cracks and tears in it. Soon her body will give out and I will be free of her.
We all will be free of her.
No matter what Rafael and Santiago claim, draining her blood won’t kill me. I refuse to let it. I might get a hell of a migraine, though. Gritting my teeth, I glare at her. Patricia doesn’t respond.
“Samantha!” Thea’s roar shakes me out of my musing.
Jim pushes to my side at her raised tone and growls.
Zack is not far behind. “For fuck’s sake!
Did you have to hoard these fleabags too?
I thought… well, that’s irrelevant now. Shoo!
” She waves her hand at Jim and Zack. They ignore her.
“Time is running out, Sammie. You need to heal her. Now.”
“The bond breaking will not kill me,” I mutter.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about any bond! You need to save her—wait, what? You are bonded with Patricia? How? When? Why? What the hell, Sammie?” Thea blurts out and then stops. “Never mind. All of that is irrelevant. You can’t let Patricia die. Trust me on that, please?”
Well, shit.
When my badass witchy best friend says it’s important, I guess I have to listen. I don’t want to, but I’ve trusted her with everything until now. Why should I stop, just because I’m a vampire? She doesn’t seem to mind the change… or the blood all over and around me.
For a moment, my brain short-circuits when I try to process how the hell I can save Patricia, but the answer is too obvious. Blood. She needs my blood to counteract my venom.
And that will bind us even tighter if what I gleaned from Rafael is correct. At least I’m the top bitch of the two of us. When I tell her to jump, she’ll ask how high. And if she ever tries to hurt my man again, I’ll kill her. No matter what Thea or anyone else says.
“I don’t have to like it, though, and you owe me ice cream,” I huff, trying to lift my arm.
It refuses to move. “A little help then,” I snap, more like whimper, and Thea immediately moves my arm.
I gnaw at my wrist enough to break skin and spit out the blood flooding my mouth.
She tugs my hand and places my wrist over Patricia’s mouth.
Rafael is by my side in an instant with his bleeding wrist. “Drink,” he snaps and this time I instinctively obey. The moment his blood hits my system, I want to moan. It soothes the rawness in my throat and eases the roiling in my stomach. I slump against him but hold out my hand to Patricia.
She’s not drinking. Some of my blood drips into her open mouth, but it has no effect.
I don’t know what else to do but gulp down Rafael’s blood.
The thirst for him burns in my veins, like I’m starved.
The pain releases some of its hold on me and my wrist heals over. Patricia is still not even blinking.
“You need to save her,” Thea frets and starts to move my wrist. I refuse to let go of Rafael and he’s growling at her too.
I only notice Santiago when he gently takes hold of my hand and moves it to his mouth.
His bite is gentle but deep. Blood pours out as he places my bleeding wrist over Patricia’s torn throat.
“My blood is older—” he begins to say, but Thea cuts him off.
“No! It has to be Sammie who saves her. That’s the only thing I can see clearly in this goddamn mess.”
I shiver and Rafael wraps his other arm tighter against me. Cold, it’s so damn cold. Santiago moves closer to Rafael and offers him his throat. Rafael bites savagely into him and soon I taste the hint of citrus in the blood. The power punch from it sends my head spinning and I’m lost to it all.