Chapter 22
Elias
The silver fire consumed me from the inside out.
This was worse. This was burning in reverse, feeling every century of immortality being stripped away, layer by excruciating layer.
Marcus's binding thread scalded my palms, but my vampire strength kept my hands locked around it even as my flesh blistered, even as the void pressed closer, trying to swallow me whole.
I watched Talin escaping with Alex, and relief flooded me despite the agony. She'd made it. She'd live. That was all that mattered.
The binding thread pulsed again in my grip, and with a roar of agony, I channeled what remained of my supernatural power into it and pulled.
The thread shredded in my hands.
Then backlash slammed into me like a freight train. Marcus's scream echoed across dimensions as he dissolved into fragments that spun away into the collapsing void. His pocket dimension began tearing itself apart, this reality folding in on itself in ways that shouldn't be possible.
I should have felt triumphant. Instead, I just felt hollow as the last of my vampire essence burned away.
My vision dimmed. My supernatural senses—the ones that had defined me for over a century—flickered and died. No more heightened hearing. No more preternatural awareness of every heartbeat within a hundred yards. The shadows I'd always been able to see through became opaque walls of darkness.
I was dying. Or maybe I was already dead, and this was just the final moment stretching out before oblivion claimed me.
Then I felt it.
Through our bond—that silver thread connecting me to Talin—something poured into me. Not vampire strength. Not djinn magic. Something else entirely. Pure, radiant power that tasted like wildfire moss after a storm and…
Her.
Threadwalker magic flooded through me, weaving itself around what remained of my essence. Not replacing what I'd lost, but transforming it. I felt my body shifting, changing, becoming something else. Something not vampire or human, but entirely different.
The pain intensified. Every cell in my body screamed as mortality and magic warred inside me. My heart suddenly thundered in my chest with a panicked, human rhythm. My lungs expanded, desperate for air I hadn't truly needed in decades.
But underneath it all, I felt her. Talin's magic wrapped around me like armor, refusing to let the void take me.
Something in my chest clenched tight. Not my heart, though that was hammering hard enough to crack ribs. It was deeper than that. The bond between us, transformed but unbroken, pulsing with renewed strength.
The dimension continued collapsing around me. Chunks of Marcus's cavern broke apart and spun away into nothing. The void rushed closer, eager to fill the space where the djinn's magic had been.
I needed to move. To escape. But my body felt foreign, wrong. My muscles responded differently now, weak and sluggish without vampire speed backing them up. When I tried to stand, my legs nearly buckled.
Then, through the chaos, I spotted it. A shimmer in the air where the dimensional barrier had been. Talin had torn through it to escape with Alex, and the wound hadn't fully closed yet. But it was shrinking fast.
I staggered toward it, each step an exercise in relearning how to exist. The ground beneath my feet crumbled away with every step I took. Behind me, the void roared, consuming everything in its path.
Twenty feet. Fifteen. Ten.
The barrier's edges began sealing, reality knitting itself back together. If I didn't make it through in the next few seconds, I'd be trapped here as the dimension finished tearing itself apart.
Five feet.
My legs gave out and I collapsed, hands scraping against stone that immediately disintegrated beneath my palms as I dragged myself away from the hole it created. The void's pull strengthened, trying to drag me backward into oblivion.
Elias!
Talin's voice rang through our bond, sharp with anguish. I felt her on the other side of the barrier, felt her power reaching back into this dying dimension, searching for me even as she mourned my loss.
Our silver thread blazed between us, brighter than anything else in this collapsing hell. I grabbed it with hands that didn't move the way I was used to. I grabbed it with whatever I'd become, this strange hybrid of mortal flesh and magical bond.
Talin pulled, and I hung on.
The force yanked me forward. I flew toward the barrier, my body tumbling through the air as the void's claws scraped uselessly at my heels. The dimensional wound was barely wider than my shoulders now, closing fast.
I hit it at full speed.
The world shattered around me. I was squeezed through a space that shouldn't have been able to accommodate a human body, every bone compressing, every muscle screaming.
For one terrible moment, I existed in both dimensions simultaneously.
Trapped between worlds, between life and death, between what I'd been and what I'd become.
Then I was through.
Solid ground brought me to a sudden stop, the impact driving the air from my lungs. Judy's protective circle glowed beneath me, the ritual markings pulsing with residual magic. Somewhere nearby, I heard Kenya sobbing, heard Alex's weak voice trying to comfort her.
But all I could focus on was Talin.
She was there instantly, her hands on my chest, her face hovering above mine. Those green eyes—so striking, so terrified—searched my face.
"Elias?" Her voice cracked.
I tried to answer, but blood bubbled up from my lips instead. Human blood. The taste of it was wrong, coppery and mortal on my tongue. My chest heaved with the effort of breathing, lungs working overtime to pull in oxygen my body suddenly needed again.
Everything hurt. Not the clean, distant pain I'd felt as a vampire that did little more than turn me on, something I could observe and compartmentalize. This was immediate and overwhelming, radiating from everywhere at once.
"You absolute fucking idiot," Talin sobbed, cradling my head in her lap. "You beautiful, reckless, impossible idiot. What did you do?"
I managed to form words despite the blood. "Saved... you." Each syllable felt like swallowing glass. "Lost everything else... but saved you."
"Not everything." She pressed her forehead to mine, and I felt our bond humming between us. Changed, transformed, but unbroken. Still there. Still us. "Stay with me," she whispered. "Please. Don't you dare leave me now."
"Trying..." My hand found hers, warm and trembling. Or maybe I was the one trembling. Hard to tell when my entire body felt like it was coming apart at the seams. "But turns out... being human again... really fucking hurts."
I might have passed out for a bit then, and when I came to, there was movement at the edge of my vision. I blinked, trying to bring it into focus.
Killian, his face pale even for a vampire, stared down at me, his expression not giving anything away, but his eyes way too bright. Behind him, the others gathered around us. Judy, wringing her hands, Angel and Lizzy clutching each other, Jamal staring with open horror.
"Get him on the table," Judy commanded, her voice cutting through the silence. "Now."
Strong arms lifted me. Killian's, I thought, though my senses were too scrambled to be sure. The world spun. My stomach lurched. Breathing took conscious effort, my lungs hitching with each inhale.
They laid me on the hard wood and someone flipped on the kitchen light. It was too fucking bright, and I couldn't see. I moaned as they arranged my limbs.
Talin's hand never left mine.
"What happened to him?" Killian demanded.
"He came into the djinn dimension." Talin's voice was thick with tears.
"How the fuck did he do that?" Jamal this time.
"I don't know how. He grabbed the binding thread. The one connecting me to Marcus's dimension. He..." She paused and I wanted to comfort her, to give her my support, but I could barely move without pain wracking my body.
More silence.
"That's impossible," someone whispered. Angel, maybe? "Vampires can't just... threadwalk. It doesn't work that way."
"Apparently it does." Killian's voice was filled with awe. "But they don't come back the same… do they, now?"
"She brought me back," I managed to rasp, squinting against the bright light shining down into my eyes. "Felt Talin's magic... when I was burning. She wouldn't... let me go."
Judy's eyes widened. "The mate bond saved you.
.. " She trailed off, her expression shifting from shock to fascination.
She shared a look with Killian before her stunned eyes came back to me.
"Elias, I think you're something new. Neither fully mortal nor vampire.
Sustained by the connection to your Threadwalker mate. "
"Will he live?" Talin's question was barely audible.
"I don't know." Judy laid her hands on my chest, and warmth seeped into my skin through my shirt. "I've never seen anything like this. His heart is beating, his lungs are working, but his body is still in shock."
"I could turn you again," Killian offered quietly.
"No." I tried to shake my head, and the pain made me want to vomit, so I stopped. "No," I repeated.
Killian moved closer, his dark gold eyes studying me with an expression I couldn't read. "You stubborn bastard. After everything I taught you about survival, you throw it away for—"
"For her." I cut him off, my voice gaining strength. "And I would fucking do it again."
Killian's jaw clenched. For a moment, I thought he might argue. Then he nodded once, sharp and final, and took a breath. "I know."
The pain was beginning to ebb, or maybe I was just getting used to it. Either way, I was beginning to think more clearly now.
My vampire strength and healing was gone, replaced by ordinary human limitations. My enhanced senses had dulled to mortal levels. The bloodlust that had driven me for over a century had nearly vanished completely.
But my bond with Talin remained. I could still feel her heartbeat as clearly as my own. Feel her magic humming just beneath her skin. Feel every surge of emotion that crashed through her.
I would do it again. I sent the thought through our connection, bypassing speech entirely.
Her eyes widened and I knew she could hear me.
Whatever I am now. Whatever happens… it doesn't matter. I'm yours.