Chapter 19
Zaos
The long hours of waiting to see if Hugo’s transformation was successful were the worst of my life.
In normal circumstances, a fledgling would be in a room—or a cave or hole in the ground or whatever—with only their sire. But this wasn’t a normal circumstance, and there was no way in hell anyone was separating me from my viramore.
So I was with Uncle Toby and Hugo in my uncles’ basement dungeon or whatever the hell this place was. It was a small bedroom with an attached full bathroom in their basement with zero windows and a light-tight door, so there was absolutely no chance the sun could harm Hugo if—no, when—he woke up.
Because it was going to be a when.
Luckily, there was a faint blue nightlight plugged into the wall. Uncle Toby had assured me it was totally fine to have that light in here, and I was grateful for it because it allowed me to see my sweet and beautiful Hugo’s face whenever I needed to.
Which was basically always.
Except when I was pacing the room.
For his part, my uncle was pretty quiet, only offering me food and drinks once in a while, but he mostly left me alone.
I was grateful since I didn’t think I could be civil at the moment, and the last thing I wanted to do was be cruel to the man trying to save my viramore’s life.
Just letting me be and yet being there for me and offering comfort when and where he could was exactly what I needed.
He was following my lead, even though I didn’t even know what I needed to do right now.
I began pacing the room for the hundredth time, running my hands through my hair, massaging my neck, and doing anything I could to distract myself. Not that it worked. The only thing that’d work was Hugo waking up and me holding him in my arms forever.
When Uncle Toby spoke, I actually startled because he’d been so quiet this whole time. “I think he’s going to wake soon.”
I rushed to the side of the bed and climbed in, lying next to Hugo and gently holding his hand.
Uncle Toby was on Hugo’s other side, sitting up.
As Hugo’s new sire, he had to remain close by, and he was holding Hugo’s other hand.
I didn’t like it, not really, not when I felt so vulnerable, but he was only doing it to keep Hugo safe.
My viramore was going to need to be close to his sire for the next few weeks or months, at least.
Hugo let out a tiny whimper, and I leaned in close with my head on his pillow so my forehead was pressed against his temple. “I’m right here, isa mezelie. You’re safe. You’re gonna be okay.” I felt tears fall from my eyes as I realized what I said was true.
If he was making noises and waking up right now, he really was going to be alright. He was safe.
My viramore was safe.
But he was also hurting.
Hugo leaned into me a little, groaning louder. Which was good that he was waking up, but horrible that he was in pain.
To Uncle Toby, I quietly asked, “Can I use my magic to help him heal?”
Uncle Toby grimaced. “Give him another minute before you add anything else in. Let’s… make sure the vampirism sticks first.”
I grimaced back. I didn’t like it, but it made sense. Adding in incubus magic could have unforeseen consequences. “So he just has to suffer?”
“I’m sorry, Zay. I… I’ve never turned anyone before, so I’m only going off of my limited knowledge. I don’t like him suffering, but I don’t want to risk him either.”
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right. Sorry I keep snapping at you.”
He sent me a soft smile and reached over the top of Hugo to give my biceps a squeeze. “You have nothing to apologize for, okay? This is a stressful situation, and I know it’s scary. You’re doing fine, okay?”
I sent him a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
He gave me another squeeze, then released me when Hugo made another pathetic sound.
I did my best to curl up even closer against him without hurting him. “I’m right here, Hugo. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
He moaned. “Hurts.”
“I know, sweetheart, but it’ll pass quickly.”
Uncle Toby added, “He’s right. It’ll only be another few minutes, and then you can feed, and everything will settle down.”
“F-feed?”
I exchanged a look with my uncle before answering. “Yes. You… um, you were turned into a vampire, mezelie. Do you remember?”
He groaned and gripped my hand tightly. “R-right. Vampire. Feed. Blood.”
He made a disgusted face, and I winced, praying he didn’t regret his decision to let us change him.
As if hearing my thoughts, he murmured, “No… regrets.”
Since the last thing he needed to worry about right now was making me feel better, I shushed him. “Shh. Don’t worry about me. Just concentrate on yourself.”
He groaned again and started panting, I assumed from the pain. It took everything inside of me to hold my incubus magic back. It wanted to reach out and touch him. It wanted to take away his pain. It would be so damn easy to take it away.
But we couldn’t. Just in case it fucked something up.
He writhed in pain for what felt like an eternity but was only a minute tops, and then he lay there, panting, pale, and looking like he could sleep for another twenty-four hours straight.
“Hugo?” Uncle Toby said quietly, catching my viramore’s attention. “I’m going to bite into my wrist this first time to make it easier for you to drink, okay? After you feed, you can rest, and next time I’ll teach you how to use your fangs, alright?”
I watched Hugo carefully, looking for any sign of distress at the thought of drinking vampire blood, but all he did was nod and whisper, “Okay.”
“Don’t worry. You’re not going to hurt me.”
Hugo sucked in a deep breath. “I hope not.”
Uncle Toby smiled down at him, patted his shoulder, then bit into his own wrist. Without fanfare, he held his bloody limb out to Hugo. Again, I expected hesitancy or distress, but Hugo gently took hold of Uncle Toby’s arm, pulled it down to his mouth, and started to drink.
I held in the growl that wanted to come out at seeing his mouth on someone else, and as if feeling my unease with the situation, Hugo released one hand and grabbed onto me, pulling me closer to him.
Carefully, I wrapped an arm around his belly, heedful of his chest since that was likely still healing from the gaping wound, and I leaned in so I was resting on his pillow again.
A few drops of blood landed on my cheek, and as gross as that was, I wasn’t worried about it at the moment. Vampire blood didn’t have diseases or anything that could harm me. If anything, it was healing, so I was good. And I didn’t want to make Hugo self-conscious about it either.
He drank long and deep, even making little growly noises of delight. He very clearly liked the taste of vampire blood.
Thank the Mother of All.
I mean, we already knew that, but I was glad that hadn’t changed with his transformation.
“Alright, little one,” Uncle Toby said. “That’s enough.”
Hugo growled in protest, and my eyebrows shot up.
Uncle Toby chuckled and said to me, “Don’t worry. That’s normal.” To Hugo, he calmly said, “Release my wrist, fledgling.”
Wow, hearing him call my viramore that was… odd.
Hugo paused, then blinked a few times before slowly moving his mouth away from Uncle Toby’s wrist. “S-sorry.”
“No, none of that. Don’t be sorry. Now, I’ll heal up quickly myself, but it’s good practice to use your tongue to close the wounds. Go on.”
I had to bite my cheek to stop the protest that wanted to fall from my lips.
Hugo made a face, then tentatively did a quick, small lick over his new sire’s wound.
“Good. That’s how you seal a wound after you feed.” He paused. “Technically, you can use it for any wound, but it won’t heal something gigantic on a human in time before they bleed out. But for small cuts and scrapes, you can use your saliva.”
Hugo hummed while I sat there picturing him walking around licking people. It made me want to growl some more.
Hugo let out a small chuckle and murmured, “I’m not gonna go around licking random people, Zay.”
That made my uncle smirk, and I huffed and kissed Hugo’s cheek, asking, “Do you feel better now?”
“So much better. My chest still hurts.”
Uncle Toby said, “Yeah, that was a… really bad wound. You had a hole in your heart, so it’s going to take a while to fully heal. Now that your transition’s complete, you should be fully healed in a couple of hours.”
“Mm. Good. I’m really tired. I… I think I need to sleep now.”
I looked at Uncle Toby, and he gave an encouraging nod, so I said, “Go to sleep. We’ll keep you safe.”
Hugo hummed again and turned into me, snuggling into my chest. I gathered him in my arms carefully, buried my nose in his hair, breathed him in, and closed my eyes.
Now that he was back, now that I knew he was truly okay, holding him was the only thing that mattered. And maybe… maybe I could get a little sleep too.
“I’ll protect you both,” Uncle Toby said. “We’re safe here.”
And I knew it was true. Not only was he my family and someone I trusted with my and my viramore’s life, we were also on coven land. It smelled like safety here. It smelled like home.
And I knew I had about a billion family members guarding us all over the grounds too, including some of the most powerful supernaturals in the entire world.
We really, truly were safe.
I cuddled Hugo closer, and for the first time since Hugo had been hurt—since Phia had died, really—I let myself relax.