Chapter 7 #2
Con and I stopped near the entrance where the security podium sat. The bouncer, a wide-shouldered man with a shaved head and a warm smile for the patrons, gave us a nod and then went back to checking IDs.
The music wrapped around us, too bright for the conversation I needed to have.
I stepped closer to Con and tilted my head toward him. “Come here,” I murmured.
He leaned down until I could speak against his ear without anyone else hearing. His scent of leather, soap, and the copper tang of blood, was grounding.
“I can feel Raven weakening through the bond,” I whispered. “It’s fading around the edges. That means Rene is getting worse.”
Con’s gaze sharpened. He glanced toward the bar, where Raven now stood with both hands on Jana’s shoulders, talking low and serious.
“You’re sure?” he asked.
“I wish I wasn’t.”
I could sense it clearly. Where Raven’s presence usually felt like steady warmth pressed against the back of my mind, now it flickered. Not gone, not yet, but thinning, like fabric stretched too far.
“Her connection to him used to feel like iron,” I murmured. “Tonight it feels… frayed. If it breaks—”
I didn’t finish. I didn’t have to.
Con’s hand brushed the small of my back, a brief touch meant to anchor. “He’s strong,” he said. “He’s fought worse odds.”
“Not like this.” I swallowed, my throat dry. “Valerian’s mark is still draining him.”
Con studied me, eyes narrowed in thought. He recognized the restlessness simmering under my skin. “What are you thinking?”
“That I can do something,” I answered.
His jaw flexed. “Cass…”
“No, listen,” I insisted, keeping my voice low. “Raven’s magic and mine are still tangled. When she tethered us, it made a path. I’ve used it to track the fragments. I can use it to push strength back along the bond. If I send power toward Rene, it’ll buy him time.”
Con considered that for a moment, then shook his head. “Or it’ll burn you out early. You don’t know where that energy really goes.”
“I know enough.” Frustration spilled into my voice. “Sitting here while he fades is not an option.”
On the other side of the room, Raven tucked a strand of hair behind Jana’s ear. Jana nodded, then pulled her mother into a tight hug that nearly lifted Raven off her feet. The sight was a knife in my ribs.
“I’m doing it,” I said.
I didn’t wait for his approval.
Closing my eyes, I focused inward, reaching for that familiar spark where Raven’s magic twined with mine.
It hovered just behind my sternum, a bright knot of power that hummed like a living thing.
When I touched it, heat rushed up my spine, spreading through my veins with a fierce, shimmering intensity.
I pictured Rene.
Not as he was now, pale, drained, barely clinging to consciousness, but as he had always been in my mind—tall, elegant, unshakeable, power radiating from him like a storm held in check. The overseer. Our king. The vampire who had taken in broken warriors and turned them into something more.
I reached for the thread connecting Raven to him. It pulsed at the edge of my awareness, fragile but present. I grabbed onto it, gently, and pushed.
Power flowed.
It surged out of me in a rush, leaving me gasping, then leveled into a steady stream. I guided it along the bond, not aiming at Raven herself, but through her—toward the distant anchor that was Rene. Toward the fading presence that had always felt like carved stone in my mind.
For a moment, I felt nothing but the drain. Heat, pressure, a dizzy lightness at the edges of my thoughts.
Then something caught.
A spark on the other end responded. Faint, but real. The sense of Rene’s essence flared for a second, like someone striking flint in the dark. There was still life there. Still power. It accepted what I sent, drinking it down with quiet desperation.
I held the flow as long as I dared, then slowly eased back, cutting the connection down to a trickle before severing it entirely.
The club snapped into focus again.
The music was too loud.
The lights were too bright.
My knees felt unsteady for a heartbeat, but I locked them, refusing to show how much energy I’d just given away.
Con’s hand caught my elbow. “Easy,” he murmured.
“I’m fine,” I said, straightening.
He studied my face. “You’re pale.”
“I’m a vampire,” I reminded him. “Comes with the territory.”
He didn’t smile.
Through the bond, I checked Raven.
Nothing.
No flare of awareness. No jolt of surprise.
Normally, when I leaned heavily on our shared power, she felt something, a tug, a rush, a sense of my presence brushing against hers.
This time, she remained fixed on Jana, her emotions a messy swirl of fear, love, and worry, but no recognition of what I’d just done.
A cold twist formed in my gut.
“She didn’t notice,” I whispered.
Con’s brows knit. “What?”
“Raven didn’t feel it,” I repeated, voice tight. “I pushed a lot of magic through our tether. Enough that she should at least flinch. She didn’t react at all.”
Con followed my gaze to the bar. Raven stood with both hands clasped around Jana’s, her face composed but strained. She looked drained in the way people do after too many nights without sleep. Her eyes were slightly glazed, her shoulders tense, posture held together by habit and willpower alone.
“That’s not good,” he said.
“No,” I agreed. “It’s not.”
“What did you do exactly?” he asked.
“Sent a boost to Rene.” I kept my tone matter-of-fact. “It worked. I felt him respond. But Raven didn’t notice. That means her side of the bond is even more frayed than I thought. She’s not feeling half of what he is anymore.”
Con’s gaze darkened. “Which means we’re closer to losing him than she realizes.”
“Yes.”
I exhaled slowly, fighting off a wave of dizziness that tried to drag my vision sideways. The spell had taken more out of me than I wanted to admit.
Con’s fingers tightened slightly on my arm. “You need to stop,” he said. “No more magic until the end.”
I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Save it for the auction and whatever comes after. We don’t know what we’re walking into. You burning yourself out now won’t help anyone.”
Anger flickered to life beneath my ribs. “I just bought him time.”
“You might have sacrificed yourself,” Con countered calmly. “If you collapse in the middle of a confrontation, that ‘boost’ won’t matter. We need you at full strength when we go after this piece. When we hunt the others. When we face Valerian.”
The logic grated. It was sound, rational, tactical—and I hated it.
“What you’re asking,” I said, keeping my voice low but terse, “is the same as asking a human not to breathe.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I—”
“It is,” I cut in. “Magic is part of me now. Part of how I fight. Part of how I protect the people I—” I broke off, unwilling to finish that sentence out loud in the middle of a crowded club.
His gaze softened slightly, but his jaw stayed clenched. “I know it’s part of you. I also know you push yourself until you break. That may work in patrol skirmishes. This is different.”
“This is the same,” I insisted. “It’s life and death. That’s what I’ve been trained for.”
He held my stare. I held his.
Down at the bar, Raven and Jana continued to talk.
“She needs him, Con,” I said quietly. “You saw Isra’s face. You felt what’s happening to the clan. If Rene dies, this entire world tears itself apart. I have power that can help. I am not going to sit on it because it might make me tired later.”
His voice dropped lower. “This isn’t about being tired.”
“No,” I admitted. “It’s about risk. Fine. I’ll manage it. I know my limits.”
He gave a humorless sort of grunt. “That’s debatable.”
“I won’t stop,” I said, more softly now, but with an iron edge beneath it. “If Rene slips further, I’m sending more. I won’t let him fade without a fight.”
Con looked like he wanted to argue more. Instead, he let out a slow breath and eased his grip on my arm. His palm slid down until his fingers just brushed my wrist, a small contact that carried more concern than any shouted lecture.
“At least let me know when you do it,” he said. “So I can catch you if you fall on your face.”
I snorted. “Romantic.”
“Efficient,” he replied.
Despite everything, a smile tugged at my mouth. “Fine. You’ll be my spotter.”
“Already am,” he muttered.
The truth in that settled over us quietly.
Across the room, Raven kissed Jana’s forehead, then stepped out from behind the bar. She wiped at her cheeks, disguising the motion as a casual swipe at an imaginary smudge of mascara. Her eyes found ours near the entrance.
Time to go.
“What’s the plan until Marcus calls?” Con asked as Raven threaded her way back across the floor.
“Wait,” I said. “And try not to break anything.”
He gave a short nod. “You’re terrible at that.”
“I know.”
Raven joined us, flanked by music and neon and the fading comfort of the club she once treated as a second home.
“Jana’s staying here tonight, Marcy is in the club with another pack member. They will stay with her,” she said, voice calm despite the fatigue etched into it. “She’s safer on pack territory tomorrow. Lucian will meet her at dawn.”
“Good,” Con replied.
Raven slipped an arm through mine. “Let’s go home,” she whispered. “Rene will want to see us when he wakes.”
I didn’t tell her he might already be awake because of the pulse of energy I had pushed toward him. I didn’t mention that she hadn’t felt it, that it meant things were worse than she knew.
That was a conversation for another time.
For now, we stepped out of Club Spice and into the cool night, carrying with us heartbreak, thin hope, and the quiet burn of power I refused to stop using, no matter how dangerous it became.