CHAPTER 29
Gauge held Lena against him as their bodies were put back together. He’d had the captain transport them straight into the living room of the home Raif had provided for them, knowing Samantha and Seraphym would likely be there.
“What happened?” Samantha yelled, running over to them. “Oh! Oh shit. Oh my God, Lena.” She covered her mouth with her hand as she shifted her gaze to Gauge.
Gauge studied Samantha’s shocked expression, suspecting she knew exactly what was happening.
“What did you do to my niece?” Seraphym growled, smoke curling from each nostril as he reached out to take Lena from him.
“Don’t!” Gauge said. “Don’t touch her.” He turned to Samantha. “Tell me, young one, do you know what is happening here?”
“Maybe,” Samantha said, taking hold of Seraphym’s arm and pulling him back. “When Seraphym and the Catalan alpha bit me, they injected me with venom. Somehow that venom is what changed me from human to serpent. I can’t tell you what I looked like during the process, but I know how I felt.”
“Which was?”
“Scales formed beneath my old skin. When my skin started to peel away, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt before.
Gaius, the Catalan alpha, had to peel it off me in places.
I can’t say for certain, but I think this is what’s happening with Lena.
She’s already a serpent though. She already has scales, so I’m not sure what that means.
Did you look to see if she’s sprouting wings?
That was another little detail that really hurt.
” She reached up to touch the dainty horns curving out from her temples. “The wings and these things.”
“There is something happening to her back.” Gauge turned Lena, flinching when she groaned, then lifted the torn pieces of her shirt away to expose the inflamed skin of her back. There were thick bulges forming along both shoulder blades, but no sign of the wings breaking through yet.
“May I?” Samantha said, reaching out for Lena’s back.
Gauge nodded.
Samantha ran her clawed fingertips lightly over one bulge, tapping at the scales. “I didn’t have scales. I think my skin split easier than it’ll be with Lena. I have a feeling Lena is going to need help to get rid of the old scales. We should probably take her outside. This is going to get messy.”
“N-n-no,” Lena gasped. “I d-don’t w-want this.” She grabbed Gauge’s sleeve, her bright yellow eyes wild.
Suspecting Lena wanted to say more but couldn’t through the pain, he opened a telepathic channel. “What is it, child? If what happened to Samantha is happening to you, why wouldn’t you want this? You’ll be able to fly and possibly shift to a battle form.”
“I’m not a child!” she snapped. “Stop calling me that! I don’t want this, Gauge. You won’t want me if I’m not a vampire like you. I’ll be a serpent. Please, it hurts. Find a way to make it stop.”
“It doesn’t matter to me if you are serpent or vampire. All I want right now is to free you of your pain.”
“I’m thirsty, Gauge. Please, I think I need more blood.”
He frowned, not certain if he should give her blood or water. Perhaps he should try water first. “Could you bring me a glass of water, Sam?”
“Um, sure.” She walked into the kitchen, her expression worried, and retrieved a glass of water. “Here you go.” Since Gauge was using both hands to hold Lena against him, Samantha lifted the glass to her mouth.
Lena took one swallow and choked it out, gagging. “N-no! C-can’t!”
Then she needed blood. Gauge wrapped his arm carefully around Lena’s waist, holding her back against his front, then raised his hand out to Samantha. “Could you roll up my sleeve?”
She nodded, worry shining through in her cat-like serpent eyes.
Gauge brought his wrist to his mouth to open a vein, then pressed it to Lena’s mouth. She immediately latched on, holding his wrist with both hands.
“Easy,” he murmured when she choked. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Your word?” she sent telepathically. “Promise you won’t leave me again, Gauge.”
“I promise.” Not until you are fully healed, he thought, though he kept that part to himself.
Some of Lena’s shaking eased a bit once she’d taken his blood and he felt her mind grow quieter.
“Can you heal the wound?” he asked when he felt she’d taken enough.
Gauge was in new territory here. He didn’t know how much of his vampire side Lena would pick up.
He felt her brush her tongue over the wound, then she released him on her own, his wrist healed.
“I’m gonna grab some blankets,” Samantha said. “Then we should probably go outside. I’m serious when I said it made a mess when this happened to me. It’s kinda gross. Hey, I can see the beginnings of Lena’s horns pressing through.”
When Gauge looked, he could see the sharp tips of horns starting to break through the lighter scales at her temples.
While Samantha was gone, Seraphym grabbed Gauge’s arm, squeezing hard. “If anything happens to my niece, I will hold you personally responsible.”
The serpent didn’t raise his voice, though Gauge could see Seraphym meant every word. “We will get her through this. I can take more of her pain once we get her laid down. You and Sam will have to try to peel off her old scales, if that is indeed what is happening.” And free her wings.
A loud knock had them all turning toward the front door. A second later, the alpha and Haven entered, both their eyes growing wide at the scene before them.
After giving a brief explanation of what they thought was happening, Haven said, “You will not take her outside for this. I don’t care about a mess.
We’ll take her to the bedroom and put her on a bed.
We can always buy a new mattress. Raif, see if there’s a tarp in the shed outside.
Sam, once Raif gets the tarp thrown over the bed, you can cover it with those blankets.
I’ll go rip everything else off the mattress. ”
Gauge nodded at Haven, grateful for her cool head.
He hadn’t wanted to take Lena outside either.
For one, the sun was still out, and though it wouldn’t kill him, it did tend to weaken his kind.
He would need his strength if he wanted to take Lena’s pain.
At this point, Gauge had no idea how direct sunlight would affect Lena either.
What he wanted to do was pick her up, but he feared he might damage the new wings forming along her shoulder blades.
“Can you walk?” he murmured, leaning close to her ear.
“I t-think s-so,” she replied.
It was so hard to think through the pain. It felt like it took forever before they had the bed ready.
“We’re going to have to get these clothes off you, Lena,” Samantha said softly.
“I can’t say I remember a lot about what happened when I grew my new skin and scales.
All I could think about was the pain. Gaius, the Catalan alpha, is the one who knew what to do.
I’m afraid pulling at your skin before it’s ready to separate will just make it worse.
I think it’s best if I just cut the pants off with scissors. ”
“I agree,” Gauge said.
Lena fought not to scream as Samantha began to cut down the back of her pants. It felt as though the leather was glued to her scales.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I think we should have taken them off sooner. You’re not bleeding, but there is some type of thick pinkish fluid that’s making the leather stick. I think it’s blood.”
“Perhaps we should just leave it for now,” Gauge said. “If the scales are going to come loose on their own, there is no reason to cause Lena more pain now. Just cut down the back so it’ll be easier to get them off.”
“Okay,” Samantha murmured. “I’m so sorry, Lena. I wish I remembered more. It hurt like a bitch, but I don’t think it lasted long.”
“I regret the day I ever let you try to help my niece,” Seraphym growled.
“I should never have listened to Abby.” He was pacing on the other side of the room, his gaze locked on Gauge’s face.
“Lena would have been better off dealing with what Ngozi did on her own. We wouldn’t be going through this now, whatever this is. ”
“Stop it, Seraphym,” Samantha said gently. “This isn’t Gauge’s or my sister’s fault. Are you telling me you’re sorry this happened to me? Would you be happier if I’d stayed human?”
“Sam, don’t,” Seraphym said. “You know I don’t regret anything.”
“Then stop bitching at Gauge. He didn’t know this would happen either, but I’m not convinced it won’t turn out to be a good thing.
You dragon men, males, whatever the hell you want to call yourselves, have tried your best to breed out wings and the ability to shift in your women.
You’ve crippled them. Even though this isn’t what he had planned, Gauge is freeing Lena, really freeing her.
” Samantha placed her hand on Lena’s shoulder, leaning in close to whisper.
“I know this is hard to go through, Lena, but I swear it’ll be worth it.
No one, and I mean no one, will ever be able to control you again.
You’ll know real freedom, maybe for the first time in your life. ”
Lena nodded, but Gauge could sense her uncertainty.
“I can’t watch this,” Seraphym said. “I’ll be out in the other room if you need me.”
Samantha sighed. “Yeah, maybe that would be best, sweetie. It’s hard to see family in pain. I’ll come out in a few minutes.”
Gauge didn’t try to stop the worried serpent, even though Seraphym was wrong.
If Abby hadn’t asked him to help, Lena would have killed herself long before she started to recover.
He’d been inside her mind and knew how determined she’d been to escape her memories.
Even now, years later, she still struggled, reliving the abuse through her nightmares.
Though they weren’t nearly as bad now as they had been.
Once Raif and Haven prepared the bed, Gauge helped Lena sit, though he stiffened when she struggled to hold back a scream. “My back,” she gasped. “Something ripped.” Eyes closed, she rested her forehead against Gauge’s chest, almost panting.
“Let me help you stretch out on the bed, Lena,” Gauge said softly. “Then I’ll take more of your pain.” He ignored Lena’s groans as best he could as she stretched out on her stomach. She’d been right. Her skin had split along both shoulder blades, the tips of her new wings pressing through.
Gauge turned his attention to Samantha. “I’m going to take as much of Lena’s pain as I can handle, but I won’t be able to help you. Can you handle getting her old scales off by yourself?”
“Raif and I can help her, Gauge,” Haven said. “You do what you need to do to help your mate deal with this. I would give her painkillers, but they don’t tend to work well on us shifters.”
Gauge nodded, then stretched out on his back beside Lena.
Closing off everything but her, he opened his mind, dropping the shield he’d set between himself and Lena.
It was all Gauge could do to stop himself from backing out, shocked at how bad it was.
Every inch of her skin was on fire, and it felt like electric shocks were ripping down her body.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly pulled her pain into himself, then set a block in her mind against it. At the same time, he worked to lull Lena to sleep. Once his mate was resting peacefully, he stiffened his spine and prepared to deal with this agony for however long it took.