Not Him #2
Cova retrieved Dommik’s blade and when she stood, pointed the tip at Vaspar. “Him!” she shouted.
Vaspar released me as three shades attacked him at her command. His curses pierced the stars as the shades tore into his flesh, leaving little mess to be tended to later. A dark piece of me relished in his suffering, his helplessness. Good. He deserved the death dealt to him.
Once finished, the shades moved onto another target. Bits of clothing were mixed with unidentifiable bits of flesh. And amongst the wreckage, a gray ring of keys.
I lunged for them, wrapped my shaking fingers around the iron bow that held them together, and immediately moved for Dommik.
He was five feet away.
A Northern Hive guard begged for his life beneath the ravenous blanket of a shade.
Three feet.
Oddo screamed for me to duck as an arrow flew overhead. I hit the pavement as the bolt pierced the sky and landed in a hedge to my left.
Dommik was there. One foot away.
I pressed against the earth, my grip tightening around the keys as I lunged for him. My body fell into his. He was cold beneath my touch.
“Hello—lovely—” he rasped as he looked down at me. His stormy eyes were unable to focus on just one of my features.
“Hello, deviant,” I whispered up to him. My fingers pushed his tousled dark hair to the side and he pressed his cheek into my hand. “I’m getting you out of here.”
Cova motioned for me to give her the keys and she set to work on the shackles. The lock clicked and all of his weight fell onto me.
“Whoa—” I lowered him to the ground and looked over his extensive injuries.
I cradled his head as my own vision blurred. “Look who needed saving this time.”
A ghost of a smile feathered beneath his stubble before his eyes fell shut and my panic multiplied.
“No. No, no, no. Dommik. Stay with me.”
He groaned, straining to look at me again, but his attention was drawn behind me. I twisted and found hungry red eyes and misty claws ready to reach for us.
“Not him!” I shouted.
The shade slowed but didn’t stop. “He bears the mark.” Its dragging hiss drew the attention of others.
The token. Of course.
“He isn’t one of them. Leave him!” I cried, shielding him with my body.
“Theeee toookkkeeennn.” The shade’s claws were inches from his flesh. Dommik’s eyes fell shut in silent acceptance of his end. At that, something broke in me, shattering into a million little pieces. The thought of losing him when I was this close to saving him wasn’t a memory I could live with.
That untamed, feral thing that had been coiling inside of me finally loosed itself and I screamed to the threatening orange hues of morning, “NOT HIM!”
My shout conjured a blast of light, pushing away not just the shade that had approached us, but any others that were too near. The unrelenting wind toppled bystanders, snuffed out torches, and bent the mature hedges of the Moon Garden.
When it subsided, I panted over Dommik’s body as he lay still in my arms.
“Reyva…” he groaned, the sounds of chaos starting to subside around us.
“Do not give up. You hear me? I won’t let them get to you.” I assured him as I began to weep.
“Lady Reyva.” Oddo crouched down to us. Gorvin stood tall at his side, his lips downturned in concern rather than disappointment. “They’ve poisoned him with bloodbane. It’s very likely his body won’t be able to recover.”
“No!” It was a truth I couldn’t accept. It wasn’t fair. To come so close, to go through so much, and lose him anyway. Not like this. I thought before I wept, “Not like this.”
Dommik coughed again, breathing slowly as he attempted to speak, “Reyva. It’s okay. You can let me go.”
He was fading.
Cova crouched next to me, placing one hand on my shoulder and gripping Dommik’s sword in the other.
“No. I can’t. I won’t!” I frantically stroked his face as tears streamed down mine. Dommik winced as he reached up to wipe away the evidence of my distress. I looked at Oddo. “I can save him. I’ve done it before.”
The Master of Archives leveled me with a serious glare. “No. It would take too much blood to revive him.
“How much?” I cried.
“A fatal amount.”
Quicker than anyone could react, I lifted Cova’s arm, placed my wrist under the blade and ran its teeth over my flesh. The small band of remaining Southern Hive vampires jumped back, hissing as the red liquid fountained and spilled to the ground.
Cova scolded me with colorful curses but I was too busy placing the open wound to Dommik’s mouth and encouraging him to drink to hear what she said.
At first, the liquid fell down his cheeks. The wasted, dripping liquid stained my already ruined gown. It was like reliving the memory from when we first met, and the scene repeated as Dommik gripped me, holding my wrist in place, and began to drink.
I exhaled in relief and smiled to myself. This was going to work.
Oddo nervously spoke from his place a few feet away. “Uh, Lady Cova. Something urgent requires your attention.”
My sister and I turned our heads in unison. The small battalion of shades were grouped and hovering some distance away. Their eyes fixed on my wrist and the life force Dommik drew from it.
“I’ll be right back,” Cova assured me. “Be careful.”
“I will,” I breathed. But I already knew in my heart that I would let this go too far if it meant saving him.
This wasn’t like when Eryx drank from me. Dommik had my full permission. If it meant he could live and carry on Rhazien’s work, he could drain me. Death could finally claim me and end its months-long hunt. At least now, my death would mean something.
Dommik’s cuts began to close and bruises started to fade. His color returned as his body healed and spots blinked into the corner of my vision.
Good. This was a good thing.
I didn’t pull away, scold him, or tell him to stop when he lifted his second hand to my wrist. His stormy eyes were open now and fixed up at me. They were conflicted. Hungry but apologetic.
I smiled down at him and stroked his hair as I whispered, “It’s okay.”
He breathed through his nose as the blood rushed faster from my veins into him. Panic lacing the storm in his eyes.
“He needs to stop!” Gorvin’s concerned words were garbled and distant.
“It’s okay,” I said again as stars blotted my vision. My heartbeat faded to a slow, laboring thud. Without Dommik, my heart would be useless anyway. He was my heart.
My body swayed and before I lost consciousness, I whispered, “I love you, Dommik.”