Chapter 27 #2
“I’m not doing it,” Vanessa protested.
“You just have to start small,” he reasoned.
“No! Tasha is my friend. I mean, Natalia. Ugh. That one right there.” She pointed at Natalia who tried to repress a chuckle. A defeated sigh let Vanessa. “She’s the sister I always wanted… You can’t expect me to want to hurt her.” Fear shone in her eyes when she glanced at us.
I half expected Natalia’s sarcasm to return, but appreciation and understanding surfaced in her instead. She walked toward Vanessa, pulling her into her arms for a caring hug.
Vanessa clung to her, missing the gesture.
“You are also the sister I never had, that’s why I need you to help me, Vane.”
“I saw what my voice did to you the first time. I want to help but—”
“Just give me a taste of it at first,” Natalia offered. “Just a little birdy tweet.”
Vane chuckled at that.
“Then start to increase the intensity each time I am able to take it. The hope is that my fire will recognize the attack and create some sort of a barrier. Maybe?” She glanced at us for confirmation.
We nodded, that was our guess too.
“Do you remember what happened last time?” Vanessa asked as a last resort.
“I do. All too well.”
“It took days for you to heal.”
“I know, Vane. I will prepare. I promise.” Reaching for Vanessa’s hands, she squeezed them. “So, what do you say? Can we start with a tweet?”
“Okay.”
Once again, I expected Natalia’s sarcasm or smug smile to return, but she took a steeling breath, grounding herself.
“Natalia… are you sure we should do this?” Starlight’s hesitation made my chest tighten once more.
“Yes, it’s part of being stronger,” Natalia assured her. “We need to face our fears.”
“It took so much from me last time… I don’t know if I can do it again.”
“You are not the only one here for Natasha anymore. You have me now, Starlight. I will protect you too… I swear.”
“Okay. We do it together?”
“Together.”
Walking several paces back, our mate faced André’s sister while everyone else moved out of the way, standing around me.
Dante whispered a spell into both André’s and Alyce’s ears to shield them. His own shadows swirling over his ears. Given my nature, there was no need to guard me.
“Here it goes,” Vanessa announced, more for her own sake than for anyone else. She was short of freaking out.
Cracking her neck, Natalia, braced for it, seeming laser-focused. A minute later her fire flared to life in her hands.
We all exchanged another glance.
My entire body tensed when Vanessa’s mouth opened, and I wasn’t the only one.
“Eek!”
Natalia glared at her, not amused. “That was the shortest bat shriek in history.”
“You said to start small.”
“You took it too literally… again.”
Sighing, Vanessa rolled her shoulders and nodded. “Eeek!”
Admittedly, that hadn’t been too powerful, but waves expelled through the air, sweeping over our mate.
My hands fisted and the guys shifted on their feet beside me. This was torture for us.
Natalia leaned back a bit when the waves made contact, and she blinked. “That wasn’t bad at all. Give me double the intensity.”
“Eeeeek!” Soundwaves rushed out of Vanessa’s mouth, passing over all of us on their way to their target.
They made contact with Natalia the next second, forcing her to take a step back. She shook her head as though to clear her mind, silently admitting she had felt it this time, but it didn’t seem to have affected her.
She glanced at us. “Isn’t this supposed to hurt?”
“It didn’t?” André asked, knowing that although small, his sister’s shriek should have disturbed her.
“I mean, I felt woozy, but it didn’t hurt.”
“More?” Vanessa frowned.
“Go for it,” our mate assured.
“Eeeeeeek!”
Shutting her eyes, Natalia’s body tensed, and she leaned forward like she was fighting the force with her body. The fire receded from her hands, but a glint of blue movement called my gaze to her ears.
“Are you okay?” Dante asked after she didn’t move for several seconds, our mate’s eyes were still closed.
“Natalia,” André called, and we all stepped toward her. The silence was killing us.
“I’m fine,” she assured.
Chest constricting, Dante, André, and I began walking toward her, but she lifted her hand to stop us, focusing dazed eyes on us.
“I said I was fine.” The bite in her voice told us she didn’t want to be protected, so we stopped mid-way. “Stronger.”
“Eeeeek. Eeeek!”
That attack would have scrambled anyone else’s brain, but Natalia stood strong.
“I got this. I’m just dizzy.” Her words seemed confident, but she lost her balance, sidestepping not to fall.
“Fight through it,” André guided. “Find a way to come out of it.”
“If the worst it can do is affect your vertigo, use the fire to protect yourself from surrounding threats while you can regain control,” I advised. “It’s the best defense you have.”
“When in doubt, burn everything to the ground.”
Chuckles escaped Alyce at Dante’s antics.
Nodding, Natalia took a couple of settling breaths until she was able to open her eyes and straighten once more.
“Is it the fact that she’s also a Vampire that helps her stand it?” Dante asked André and me.
“It shouldn’t.” André paused. “Both Vampiri and Wolf Shifter ears are extra sensitive because of their enhanced hearing sense. It should have affected her…”
“Then it has to be the fire protecting her…” Dante reasoned, and we nodded.
When our mate refocused on Vanessa, a look that said she was about to cause trouble captured her face. “Give me everything you have. Like you did when the Hunters attacked us.”
Vanessa glanced toward us, but we nodded—hesitantly, because it went against everything inside us, but we did. It was best we learned what her fire could do here, in a controlled place rather than out in the middle of a battle.
Squaring out to her target, Vanessa filled her lungs, letting the ability fly free. “Eeeeek. Eeeeek. Eeeeek. Eeeeek!!”
The cut-up bat shriek extended from Vanessa’s mouth in powerful, visible waves, the forest trembling in response as it rushed over us on its way to our mate.
André, Dante, and Alyce were forced to cover their ears as they dropped into a crouch, the potency of the shriek overpowering Dante’s protective spell and André’s venom shield.
Natalia’s feet anchored her to the ground fiercely, her body leaning forward a second before the soundwaves crashed against her being, and straining against their might. This time, the fire rose in her ears as it danced, creating a block for her.
She took a forced step forward, trying to hold her position against the attack, but it seemed stronger than she could handle this time.
Slowly, Natalia let herself fall to her knees, still trying to fight it.
“Are you okay?” Dante asked, receiving no answer.
“Natalia!” André called.
Nothing.
My heart jumped to my throat, and we rushed forward, but the unexpected sight stopped us all in our tracks.
A thin ripple of snow-white fur suddenly rushed along her arms, slithering up her neck where it disappeared. Visible strength captured our mate, her gaze sharpening before she tenaciously rose to her feet. Blazing blue wings extended from her back, and she smirked, squaring up to Vanessa.
“Together…” Starlight’s voice carried a smile as it gently drifted away.
“Absolutely fucking extraordinary,” I sent to Natalia and her gaze connected with mine, pride in herself glistening in her bi-colored eyes.
“Are her ears bleeding?” Dante asked, relief taking over all of us when we realized she was fine.
“It’s not perfect, but I’ll take it.” Natalia walked toward us.
“It’s brilliant.” André pulled her to him, kissing her.
“You, okay?” Vanessa asked reaching us, and our mate nodded.
“Thanks for helping me.”
“You are welcome. But if you ever make me do that again, I’ll kill you for real.”
Chuckles escaped us as they hugged, but my heart stopped when our mate suddenly grabbed her head. Her breaths quickened and she stepped back, face contorting as though she was in pain.
“No!” Vanessa gasped, horrified. “I did hurt her.”
“You didn’t,” Alyce countered, rushing to her side. “She didn’t, right?”
“No,” I murmured because the flames and wings were gone from Natalia. The fire wouldn’t leave her unless there was no need to protect her anymore.
And then it was over.
Panting, Natalia opened her eyes, lowering trembling hands while she glanced at us, but her attention became unfocused as though she couldn’t see us.
“Natalia, what is happening?” I reached for her but when my hand neared her, she jerked away from me.
“Did your claws scare her?” Dante gripped my hand to check, finding none, I was a full man right now.
When her head moved as though she was glancing at people beyond us, people who weren’t there, dread sliced through me.
Blinking, Natalia took a deep breath, steadying herself against something, trying to process it. Her eyes began to move quickly, seeming to witness many things at once.
“Behind you!” she gasped, terror carving her features.
André glanced at me, captured by the same dread I felt. “Is she having a vision? Like Anastasia?”
“I don’t know.” I swallowed.
“Cuore mio, please let me back inside your head,” Dante begged, cradling her face to help her focus.
Her teary eyes shifted to him, briefly seeing him, and she nodded.
Dante’s body went rigid the second he entered her consciousness. “It’s a buried memory…” His voice sounded grave.
“A memory?” I asked André.
“What could be worse than the attack she just—?”
“Hold on!” Dante ground out like it took all his effort, grabbing onto us.
His warning barely reached us before André, and I were pulled into Natalia’s mind—in a way we never had.
The ground moved under me, and then I was surrounded by drifting darkness. We were inside Dante’s Twilight. A completely different forest began to appear beyond the wandering shadows, and the desperate cry of a baby echoed in my ears. Perturbed, I glanced all around me, finding Dante, and André.
Unfortunately for us, we were only spectators.