Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
The doors leading into the ICU click open and I turn, sensing my vampire husband before I see him. I shove the letter into the center pocket of my hoodie and slowly inhale. Theo hangs back by the door and Xavier strides in.
“Wren,” he starts, and hearing his deep voice say my name sends a shiver through me. “We spoke with the doctor.”
“I…I know,” I whisper, not needing Xavier to tell me that Devon’s injuries are grave. “You’re going to turn him?”
“Yes. He was raised and prepared for this. It was always the plan. Though the original plan changed,” he goes on and shifts his gaze from me to Devon and back again.
“Right, because the original plan was for him to knock up a random Order member of his choosing.”
Xavier closes the distance between us. “Yes,” he agrees. “That was the plan. But you are not a random Order member anymore. You are my wife. No one else will ever touch you again.”
His words carry a threat but also a promise. “I don’t want anyone else to touch me,” I breathe, voice quiet. I try to blink back tears and bring my hand up, fingers landing over Xavier’s heart. A renegade tear escapes my eye and Xavier gently wipes it away with his thumb.
“You don’t need to be sad, Wren. He’s not dying in the traditional sense.”
I stare at him for a second and then start laughing. “This is all so weird, and my life is full of weird. So weird for a hunter is really fucking weird.”
His lips pull into a smirk. “Weirdness is relative. We’re all weird, it’s just a matter of what you’re willing to show.”
“You’re right. Turning people isn’t weird for you. It’s normal. Day-to-day life.”
“I don’t turn someone every day,” he chides, his smirk growing. “I don’t like people enough to keep them around forever.”
“You like Devon?” My eyes narrow a bit. “Do you even know him?”
“Wren,” he says gently and brushes my hair back. “I do, and I have. He’s smart and has a good head on his shoulders.”
“Right,” I say and nod, trying not to think about how weird it is that Xavier—my husband—watched his offspring from the start, finding potential in them when they were only children. Now that is fucking weird no matter how you spin it.
I can’t deny the feelings I have for Xavier. Not to myself and not to him. But the fact that there is so much about him that I don’t know is a mind fuck. He has lived for hundreds of years. He has seen so much. Lived so much. Done so much.
Maybe that’s why I felt so drawn to Devon. He and I both had baggage and a past, but it was of more equal time. Neither of us lived through the Black Plague, for one.
"How do you do it?” I ask, tearing my eyes away from Xavier’s gorgeous face and looking at Devon. He’s so helpless and defenseless right now. “How do you turn someone into a vampire?”
“The sire drains all the blood from their progeny. Then, right before their heart takes its final beat, the sire feeds them their blood. What actually happens after that…” He shrugs.
“The black magic takes over. Everything inside is frozen. Not functional but not rotting. Blood still circulates our systems, but it’s powered by magic, not by a beating muscle inside our chests. ”
“It sounds like you’ve looked into this.”
“I have. I’ve always been fascinated by it, much to my maker’s chagrin.”
“She didn’t want you to look into it?”
“No,” he tells me and takes my hand. “Some things can’t be understood. Some things shouldn’t be understood. Just accepted.”
“Easier said than done.”
“You’re telling me.”
I look up at him again. I don’t know much about his past, but I do know enough about him now. “Okay. Do it. Turn him.”
“We’re going to take him home. Waking up after the transformation can be confusing for some, especially after a traumatic injury,” Xavier explains.
“Theo said something about Mabel,” I start and then shake my head. “Is he…um…going to be like her, too?”
“You mean slightly insane and out of touch with reality?” he says so bluntly I laugh.
“If that’s how you put it, then yes. But those are your words and not mine.” My smile grows. “I think it’s part of Mabel’s charm.”
“Mabel tried to take her own life,” Xavier says, and his words cut through me. “After she found out that one of her children was killed by a hunter. She was never meant to be turned or part of our family in that way. Ezekiel attempted to turn her himself.”
“Attempted?”
“He didn’t completely drain her blood. He was worried about killing her.”
My mouth falls open but I don’t know what to say. “You turned her.”
“I did, but before I could, she had to regain enough human strength to get Ezekiel’s blood out of her system so she could accept mine.”
“Wait,” I say, shaking my head and actually leaning back. “If I drank your blood and then Theo tried to turn me, it wouldn’t work?”
“It wouldn’t. You would die.”
Blinking, I just shake my head again. I had no idea.
I don’t think many humans had any idea. That must be why some vampires force their human lovers to drink their blood.
We Order members laughed about it as if it was some sort of kink, but really, it was a way of staking even more of a claim to the humans involved with vampire affairs.
“That is why Mabel is the way she is,” Xavier continues. “She was quite whimsical in her human life, though.”
The ICU doors open and a nurse comes in, pushing a gurney. By the glazed over look on her face, I’m sure she’s been held spellbound.
“Is he going to be the same when he wakes up?”
“He’ll be who he truly is,” Xavier tells me. “Most vampires I’ve turned resembled exactly who they were in their human life. But becoming undead awakens the part of you that you were told to bury. You can live without the same consequences, and that is what changes people.”
All I can do is blink and nod again. The nurse comes into the room and I step back, hugging my arms around my torso. It makes the letter poke against my stomach, reminding me that the Order is here and that they’re watching.
“Can I meet you at home later?” I ask Xavier, and he turns, studying me with quiet surprise. “I don’t want to be there when it happens.”
“Where are you going to go?”
“There’s a Starbucks across from the hospital.
” I look at the clock on the wall above the door.
“It opens soon.” I inhale and find my composure.
“And it’s not like you won’t know where I am.
” I hold up my wrist, reminding him of the stupid tracker.
“You can watch me like you would watch an outdoor cat, seeing where I go and what I do in a day.”
“Wren,” he starts, playful annoyance on his face. “That’s for your own safety.”
“Really?” I shake my head. “I can handle myself, and this did no good last night.”
Xavier pauses, and if he needed air, now would be the time for a slow inhale. “You’re right.”
I’m a little taken aback by his agreeing with me. In the blink of an eye, he has my wrist in his hand and he breaks the bracelet open and takes it off.
“You are my wife,” he says softly, and suddenly, I’m all emotional again, but in a good way. “Be home by nine am so I don’t worry.” His lips move into a small smile. “Is that better?”
“Yes, thank you.” I put my hand on his chest and he kisses me.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Theo grunts, coming into the room. “The sun will be rising soon. Stop wasting time.”
Partly to annoy his brother and party because he wants to, Xavier pulls me in, kissing me deeper. His tongue pushes into my mouth and even though I’m well aware that I’m in a room with other people—including my dying brother-in-law—I can’t help the rush that goes through me.
We break apart and I stand back as the nurse starts disconnecting the tubes and wires connected to Devon. I stand there, feet heavy as rocks, just watching. A voice in the back of my head is telling me to leave, to close my eyes and walk out of there because watching this is horrible.
But there’s another part that feels like I’m betraying Devon if I just walk out of here. He didn’t want to be turned. That was his dying wish. But what can I do? He’s not going to recover. The only way to escape becoming a vampire is to die…and never come back.
Vomit bubbles up in my throat when I realize the only way to honor Devon’s dying wish is to kill him myself.