Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
I’d guess they had no idea Torin was suffering alone in the cell.
“Dare disobey me and you’ll spend your next days in here,” I said with a clenched jaw.
One man left running out of the cell, and the other guard stayed by my side.
My suspicion of Torin being poisoned with silver grew bigger as I lifted his shirt and watched more veins turn blue on his chest. His blue veins stood out on his skin and traced the path to his heart, like a network of streams that flowed into an ocean.
He didn’t have much longer to live. The poisoning seemed to spread faster for him than it had for Jason.
But Jason was injected forcefully, held against his will. Torin was much stronger, and he would have put up a fight before anyone dared touch him.
I looked at his face and the rest of his body for any bruising or traces of a fight, but there wasn’t even a scratch on him.
Had he eaten or drunk anything that could have been poisoned? I shook my head. How could the mighty Alpha not scent it? He’d lived a long life, and I was sure he was good at protecting himself to stay alive all this time.
But just in case, I looked around the dimmed cell for any plates or glasses. My gaze fell on a bottle of water—the only other item in this space.
It was a small bottle I could buy from the store. I dashed to it and picked it up. The liquid filled half of it, and when I lifted it to my face, I could see shiny specs floating inside. If I could see them, then why hadn’t Torin?
Another disturbing thought struck then. What if Torin knew there was silver in the water and yet he drank half its contents anyway? He had asked Dad to kill him when he found him abused and naked in the vampire Queen’s bedchamber.
I shook my head. No. Torin wanted to live because of me. He wanted to be by my side.
I couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation and just stared at Torin’s struggling body. I could have the doctor test the water for silver, but I was almost sure that was how Torin was poisoned.
A stabbing pain cut through my chest and back. I held the bottle and knelt next to Torin.
“Torin, you can’t die. Stay strong. Please,” I pleaded. “Don’t you dare abandon me again. You don’t have to mark me. We don’t have to have kids. I just want you to be healthy and happy. Please.”
With my free hand, I grasped his. The touch of a mate was said to bring awareness and will to get better to the injured ones. But Torin’s body was so cold that my stomach knotted painfully.
After a moment, the royal doctor marched inside.
“Princess?” the elderly man asked with raised eyebrows.
“No, it’s not me. It’s Torin. Please help him,” I said, my voice shaky. “I think he’s been poisoned.”
I handed the doctor the plastic bottle, and he inspected it just like I had by bringing it to his face.
He gave it back to me. “I have test strips for silver,” he said, rummaging through his large leather bag.
“Let’s hope it’s not silver. For other poisons, there are antidotes, especially if they’re plant based.
” He lifted his gaze to me, his eyes radiating sadness.
“But for silver, there is nothing we can cure the Alpha with, Princess. Do you understand?”
I nodded. I was afraid I would choke if I talked.
The doctor glanced at Torin occasionally while he tested the water with the tools he’d brought.
“What is it, Doctor?” I asked, not masking the impatience in my voice.
Torin was still lying on the cold floor, dying.
The man sighed. “It’s silver. I’m so sorry.”
“No,” I muttered.
I couldn’t watch Torin die. Tears dripped onto my cheeks.
“I’ll go alert the King. Perhaps the best we can do for the Alpha’s last moments is to move him to a bed,” he said, leaving the cell.
One of the guards outside the door had his back toward me, likely giving me space to say my goodbyes to my mate.
“No, that’s not how we’ll end up,” I said and slapped Torin as hard as I could. “Wake up, Torin.”
I winced at the loud sound of flesh hitting flesh.
“So sorry,” I said. “Now open your eyes.”
Torin’s eyes moved behind his eyelids, and gradually, he opened them. The amber in his eyes was almost brown and dull, the spark of life slowly burning down.
“Torin, listen to me carefully,” I said when his gaze focused on me.
He seemed too tired to speak or move.
“I need you to shift into your vampire,” I ordered.
But he didn’t even move. He displayed no sign of shifting at all.
Only his vampire could save him now, just as his vampire had before, when Torin plunged into a fatal pit in Salem.
His vampire side was much stronger than his wolf and helped Torin during fights. I hoped his vampire could save him one more time.
But Torin wasn’t shifting.
“Torin, push through and let your vampire emerge,” I said.
He opened his mouth to say something, but only a hot breath escaped his throat as if he were too parched to speak.
I looked around desperately. Where were the King and the doctor?
Torin’s eyes rolled for a moment, and suddenly, his body convulsed. I could only watch without being able to help, and my heart ached.
How could I help Torin? I wasn’t ready to give up on him.
An idea struck me, and I immediately called for the guard.
He walked inside. “Princess?”
“I need your dagger.”
He watched me, suspicion passing behind his eyes.
“Now. I need it now. Torin is dying,” I said in a low voice, all energy leaving my body. “Please.”
The guard unsheathed his silver dagger and handed it to me. I held the hilt with a shaky hand and pointed the blade at my left palm.
I drew in a deep breath. I only needed a small cut, enough for the scent of my blood to carry to Torin.
I dug the sharp blade into my skin and sliced my flesh. Groaning, I clenched my mouth so the scream wouldn’t escape. My eyes watered with more tears.
The burning left behind was too much to bear, and the scream I had held so far escaped. My blood dripped onto the ground, and as I bowed my head, I dropped the dagger next to me.
“Anna.” Torin’s voice sounded so low, almost inaudible.
I immediately looked at him. His eyes flashed crimson. His nostrils flared.
My blood had awakened his vampire.
He was transforming, although slower than usual. I watched in awe as his hair color changed like an ocean wave from black to silver. His ears and nose became longer. His facial features turned sharper and deadlier, but I wasn’t afraid of him now. I smiled.
I’d never been happier to greet his vampire.
“Heal,” I muttered and touched his forearm.
The temperature of his body was returning to normal. His veins had turned almost black but returned to their usual blue color.
I let out a sigh of relief. His healing had started even if it would be slow. His unique nature would help him stay alive. I was grateful he was a hybrid. Where the wolf lacked, the vampire filled in.
“You’re going to be okay,” I said.
Abruptly, Torin moved and grasped my cut hand. He held it in the air, and his crimson eyes turned hungry. He pulled my hand, and with it, my entire body fell onto Torin’s chest.
He took a whiff of my hand and licked his dry lips, desire etched on his face. He was going to taste me.
“Anna.” Dad’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Pull her away.”
Before I knew it, I was ripped out of Torin’s grasp. Hayden wrapped his arms around my waist, my back glued to his hard chest.
“Hayden, release me.”
“I don’t want him to bite you, sweetheart,” Hayden whispered.
Torin fidgeted and sat up on his elbows, grunting and wobbly.
“I won’t hurt her,” Torin said, his voice rough and dry.
“Well, that’s not what it looked like to me,” Dad said in a steady voice.
The King didn’t sound angry, which surprised me.
“The deal was for you to spend a night in the dungeon. I thought you would be safe here, but I was wrong. It seems to me we have a traitor in the kingdom.”
“Hayden,” I warned, and my bodyguard released me.
I moved closer to the vampire.
“I’ll find out who did it, Dad, but now you need to help me get him to his bed. Torin needs to rest,” I said.
Dad nodded. “The doctor told me.”
Dad and Hayden supported the vampire with their shoulders. With their help, Torin could put one foot in front of the other.
Outside, the sky had darkened like an omen of something even worse coming. An unsettling feeling formed in my gut. Torin would pull through the night, but why was I waiting for the other shoe to drop?
The first cold droplets hit my face, and I groaned. Not now. Then the floodgates opened, and the rain fell straight down, extra hard and wet.
We walked so slowly that the rain had soaked us by the time we made it inside the manor.
Dad and Hayden deposited Torin’s body on one side of the bed.
“We can’t leave him with wet clothes in his bed,” I said, rushed to his closet, and chose some random sweatpants and a shirt.
Stepping back into his bedroom, I said, “I can change him into this.”
Hayden frowned and shook his head while Torin smirked, and Dad pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What?” I asked. “Oh.”
“Sweetheart, you’re not undressing the Alpha. I’ll do it,” Hayden said.
Flushed, I sighed. “Fine. But you need to change, too.”
Hayden stepped closer and brushed a wet strand of hair stuck to my cheek away. “I like it when you’re concerned about me. I’ll be back.”
Hayden left the room to change, followed by Dad, and left me alone with Torin.
“You drank from the water, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Yes, but it looked and smelled fine, Anna. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have missed the silver mixed in there.”
But how could reality be changed again? That incident reminded me of the kiss that Torin claimed never happened between him and Layla.
How could Torin be tricked?
“I don’t understand,” I muttered.
“Neither do I, Princess.”
“Who do you think it was? One of ours or the vampire Queen’s men?”
He seemed thoughtful. “Poisoning with silver is her way, but she couldn’t have deceived or tricked me into drinking it. Her only way of getting silver into my body is to inject me, and that didn’t happen…”
“I’m getting to the bottom of this, Torin. You have to be safe, at least on our territory.”
His eyes softened at the edges.
“One more thing before I interrogate the guards about what happened.”
Torin pulled me by my hand, and I fell on top of him. He placed a kiss on my forehead. I didn’t protest. I was just happy his energy was coming back to him.
“What is it, Anna?” He let me stand next to his bed.
“You’ve got to be thankful to your vampire side for many things, Torin.
First, you wouldn’t have met me if you didn’t have your vampire because you would have been long dead as a werewolf before I was born.
And second, your vampire keeps saving your life on many occasions. You better show him some gratitude.”
His eyes widened, and he gave me a strained smile. “You are right.”
“Get some rest,” I said, looking at him over my shoulder. “Hayden is coming back to help you put on dry clothes.”
I couldn’t help but smile after Torin’s heavy, annoyed sigh.
I didn’t bother changing out of my wet clothes, since I headed back to the dungeon to question the guards about the water bottle. Torin wouldn’t have accepted water from anyone, so it had to be one of the guards.
But once Torin saw the water, why didn’t he detect it was poisoned with silver? It was one of the easiest things to do for a supernatural with hyper-sensitive eyesight, smell, and taste.
My boots sloshed in the puddles that rippled beneath me. The rain fell in sheets, making it hard for me to see. Shivering, I made my legs move faster. As I approached the main door to the dungeon, two cloaked figures stood in the rain, blocking my entry.
I peered from behind the corner of the building, trying to glimpse their faces, but they had drawn their hoods. I crept closer and listened. The only thing I could tell based on their broad shoulders, height, and voices was that they were men.
“How could you be so careless?” an angry male voice said. “Now we have to go to plan B.”
“I’ll take care of the Alpha. You don’t have to worry,” said the second man.
“The faster you assassinate him, the better for all of us. Understood?”
“Yes.”
My hand flew to my mouth to stifle the gasp trying to escape my throat. The only Alpha in danger on our territory was Torin.
My senses alerted me that these men were supernaturals, and because they stood out in the open, I’d guess they were werewolves. I would think the vampire spies were stealthier.
But what confirmed my suspicion that the men were werewolves was their words and intention to assassinate Torin. If these men were vampires, they would have wanted to capture Torin alive to bring him to his sire.
I would question the guards, but running into these traitors was even better.
The werewolves stepped inside the dungeon, and I followed them, keeping my distance.
I had to find out who they were to expose them and bring justice for Torin’s suffering.