Hands joined them, bodies pushing between her and Vex, and the ceiling was lifted completely off her beloved. She dropped next to him, her shaking hands feeling along his throat for his pulse. There was so much blood, from cuts on his face and arms, and he appeared to be laying in a pool of blood that was getting bigger. She tilted her head and listened for his heartbeat, hearing a faint, off-kilter thump.
She knew without having any serious medical training that he was dying. He’d been crushed, and his internal organs had been injured.
“We can...” The words caught in her throat. “Get help.”
“Cella,” Brone knelt next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “There’s only one thing you can do.”
She sniffled and looked at him. “What?”
“Change him.”
She gulped in a deep breath, her mind swimming as she thought about joining as beloveds. Sex was a part of it, which meant becoming beloveds was out of the question for them.
“I can’t make him my beloved. He’s unconscious.”
“Not becoming beloveds,” Brone said. “Change. Him.”
Clarity washed through her. “You mean turn him? Can I even do that? I thought shifters couldn’t be turned.”
“He’s lost so much blood,” Rage said, looking down at Cyrus. “Brone’s right. You may be able to turn him into a vampire by overwhelming his system with the blood of our kind. We’ll need donors. Lots of them.”
“He’ll hate me forever,” she said, picking up his cold hand.
“But he’ll be alive,” Brone said. “I’m not wrong. It’s this or death. And he may die anyway. Nothing is certain in transitions.”
Resolve filled her. He could hate her for eternity, but at least he’d be alive.
Technically, anyway.
“What do I do?”
Brone explained swiftly that she had to open his veins and drain his blood from him, until his heartbeat was so slow it neared stopping entirely. Then she would seal his wounds and feed him her blood. She’d give him as much as possible without harming herself, then others would step in and feed him.
Someone handed her a sharp knife and she took in a deep breath and focused on her beloved. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me, Cyrus. It’s the only way to save you.”
She cut into his wrists, slicing upward to free his blood from his veins. She listened intently to his heartbeat, the irregular thumping slowing as the seconds ticked by and his blood drained.
She’d never turned anyone. Her memories of her own turning by Mishka were fuzzy, and the circumstances hadn’t been dire like this. Mishka cut her wrists while she lay on a pallet with thick blankets underneath to catch the blood. His eyes had been such a bright gold while she’d bled out that she’d been mesmerized.
Cyrus’s heartbeat slowed even further. Without needing to be prompted by anyone, she licked the wounds on his wrists to seal them, and then slashed her wrist with her fangs, deeply so that the blood would flow. Cyrus’s jaw was locked, and it took some effort for her to pry it open in order to set her wrist between his teeth.
Her blood filled his mouth and welled out of the corners, but he wasn’t swallowing.
Stroking his throat, she leaned over and spoke into his ear.
“Please, Cyrus, please don’t leave me. I can’t bear to be alone in this life without you. Please, please.”
His throat flexed and she heard him swallow. Then his whole body jerked, and he began to drink from her, taking great pulls on her flesh. His teeth grew sharp and sank into her flesh, tearing the wound further. She winced but ignored the pain.
“It’s working, I think,” she said, looking at the members of her family behind her.
She noticed Mishka was there, standing between Brone and Rage.
“There’s a line of males ready to donate,” Mishka said. “Cyrus is a good male and they want to help. But I’ll feed him next; my blood is the most powerful in the coven.”
“Thank you.”
“He’s your beloved. When things have settled for him in a few days, we’ll welcome him into the family directly.”
She sat up, leaving her arm in Cyrus’s mouth as he continued to feed. She realized what Mishka meant; he wasn’t going to add Cyrus to the family as a beloved mate as he’d done with Arissa, Harmony, and Angie, but instead as an actual family member. “You haven’t added anyone to the family in ages. I didn’t expect that.”
“I believe he’ll survive this. And when he does, he’ll be a male with the blood of the master of the coven in his veins, which makes him special.”
Her vision blurred a little, and Temple was suddenly as her side. “That’s enough, you’re going to give too much.”
She wanted to protest, to explain that she’d give every last drop of her blood to Cyrus, even if it meant dying so he could live. But the point of this was so that they could live on together forever, not just one of them. She let Temple help free her wrist, and then she moved to the other side of her beloved’s body while Mishka fed him. She closed her own wound, running on autopilot.
People were milling around, talking in low voices. Although Brone had said the structure wasn’t safe, it appeared to be fine for the moment. Even if it hadn’t been safe, she wouldn’t have moved an inch. She felt frozen in place, watching the male who turned her help to turn the most important male in the universe to her.
When Mishka was finished, Temple took his place, and then two males from the construction crew waited their turn – one named Merrix, who’d been with Cyrus when the blast hit but had been tossed in the other direction, and one named Rytel, who’d been saved from the worst of the blast by a hard push from Cyrus.
Ven handed Cella a mug of real blood. She took several long drinks, feeling the blood move down her throat like a caress and round into her stomach. It moved outward from her belly, nourishing her cells and returning her strength. When she could think clearly, she looked at Merrix as he knelt next to Cyrus and fed him.
“Do you know what happened?” she asked.
He nodded. “Cyrus said he smelled an unfamiliar tiger. He sniffed around and noticed a ladder out of place, which led him to look at the ceiling. He climbed the ladder and found a bomb stashed in one of the light fixtures. He shouted for everyone to get out. We were racing out of here when it went off. I woke up under the ceiling on the other side of the room. He saved us. No one died in the blast. It could have been so much worse.”
She heard Cyrus’s heart slow again, the rapid beating that had signaled his body pumping the vampire blood throughout his system now causing the change from mortal to immortal. Merrix removed his wrist from Cyrus’s mouth and sealed his wound.
“Thank you,” she said.
“He’s my friend, and he saved my life. I’m glad I could help.”
She looked at Mishka, who was watching over her and Cyrus. “He’s strong. He’ll survive,” Mishka said.
Nodding, feeling hopeful for the first time since she ran out of her office, she picked up Cyrus’s hand and kissed it. “Come back to me, Cyrus. I need you.”