Chapter 40

In his poisoned state, it was near impossible to pull himself from the churning river. The most Adam could do was keep his head above water, and each time he reached for an overhanging branch to pull himself to safety, the current dragged him back under. He wanted to scream Willow’s name. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be all right. But daggers! This bloody river!

The poison finally dulled enough for him to reach for a branch and it took all his might to keep the river from reclaiming him. He gritted his teeth as he clung to the branch. He had to get to her. In the blood hunters’ hands, she would die. He had to get to her!

His sheer willpower allowed him to place one hand in front of the other, pulling himself closer to the bank. More than once, he nearly slipped, but his determination kept him going. Willow needed him.

He finally flopped onto the bank, but his triumph was short lived.

“Dracula!” he gasped, dripping with water. “Dracula!”

Not even a moment passed before a chill entered his body as Dracula materialized in front of him, pushing hypothermia to the brink of setting in. His teeth chattered, yet he forced himself to his feet. He didn’t care if he appeared weak in front of his father-in-law. Not anymore. Willow was in danger.

“Where is she?” Dracula snarled, gripping him by the front of his leather armor as if it was made of cotton. His legs left the ground as Dracula lifted him effortlessly.

“It was a trap,” he said, teeth chattering. “They were expecting her to come. I’ve never seen more blood hunters in one place outside of Sedhyl.”

Dracula’s face paled, which said a lot because his skin was already pale as it was. He threw him to the ground as if he were a limp doll. “Is she gone from me?”

“I don’t know,” he grimaced. Something was broken inside of him. He was sure of it. His shoulder, a finger, his entire rib cage. He couldn’t tell. “I was poisoned. I couldn’t see straight. She pushed me into the river. I don’t know how long I’ve been in there.” At least long enough for dawn to make its entrance.

Suddenly, Dracula turned on him, snarling and pointing a dangerously sharp fingernail at his chest. “She should never have chosen a human! I thought this was a horrible idea from the start.”

“You handed her off to me yourself!”

“Because it would have devastated her should I have refused!”

They stared back at each other, glaring. He swallowed hard and looked away, trying to remember exactly what had happened through his at-the-time foggy mind. Suddenly, he gasped, his hand flying to his blood gem. But it was no longer there. The blood hunters had taken it. Wyler took it. A deep despair washed over him.

The blood gem was powerful, especially if Wyler added more souls to it. Powerful enough to lead an army of crusaders right to Ichor Knell’s door.

“We need to find Willow. Before it’s too late. The crusader camp has to be upstream from here.”

Dracula gripped his shoulder hard enough that he might have cried out if he hadn’t burst into a hundred black flakes along with Dracula. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe as green and brown whooshed right past him, a blur of surroundings he couldn’t quite make sense of. They stopped suddenly, and he doubled over, gasping in air. He had to touch his face, his arms, his legs, just to make sure he was whole. He never wanted to materialize again for as long as he lived.

Only when he was sure he was alive did he glance up, his heart sinking. They’d landed directly inside the crusader camp, except it was empty, save for the remnants of several fire pits, a few pots, discarded weapons… There was no sign of the crusaders. No sign of Willow.

Worry overcame him. Willow… Was she hurt? Was she still…alive?

He wanted to crumple to the ground. To weep over the thought of losing her. But that wouldn’t help anyone. There was still a chance she was alive. He couldn’t give up.

“Can you not use your vampire sense of smell to find her?” he asked, thinking quickly.

“No,” Dracula answered, turning in a circle and scanning the camp. “There are too many scents. I can’t locate hers.”

He tried to ward off the chill inside his body as he searched the camp, looking for clues to their whereabouts. There were far too many footprints and packed earth to tell which way they had gone. They could just as easily have traveled north as they could have south. Did they retreat and take Willow prisoner? Did they advance with a massacre in mind?

He stooped to pick up a dull discarded dagger and inspected it. It was iron, not silver or steel. The camp had iron weapons. They weren’t done with vampires yet.

Dracula’s head snapped in the direction of Ichor Knell and Adam followed his gaze but saw nothing, heard nothing. What was going on that Dracula could hear but he could not?

“Fighting,” he growled. “It seems the crusaders made the first move. If they have my Willow, I assure you there will be no survivors.” Before Adam could protest, Dracula gripped his shoulder and they dispersed into the air, a complete whirlwind of motion surrounding him until his feet slammed hard on the ground. He glanced up to see what they had smacked into. A shimmering red barrier had blocked Dracula’s path. Inside the barrier were at least a dozen blood hunters taking prisoners and killing them right before his eyes. And outside the barrier were the crusaders fighting what looked to be an entire army of vampires.

Dracula slammed against the barrier, but it was no use. He couldn’t enter. He looked at the barrier, and then toward the crusaders, his eyes hard. Without another word, he whisked off toward the crusader army and rained down his vengeance.

Adam got jostled against other vampires trying to get through the barrier, pushing him backward until he couldn’t see what was going on. Fearful screeches rose above the chaos. Tearful vampires tried to get to their loved ones. But one thing he couldn’t see was Willow. He refused to believe she was dead. Refused. But he couldn’t think about it right now. He had to fight.

Again and again, the vampires threw themselves against the barrier and he watched with a heavy heart. The blood hunters had thought this through. As long as Wyler carried the blood gem, the barrier would stay erect.

He felt something he thought he would never feel—true remorse. He used to be one of these…monsters. But now he could feel the terror, the pain, the sadness of the vampires surrounding him. Vampires that didn’t attack him. He was one of them now. And now he had a duty to them as he did to Willow. He had to stop this. He had to kill Wyler.

But he continued to get jostled backward, away from the barrier, and couldn’t stop to reach for his sword—his only weapon on him.

The air pulsed strongly with magic, and he had to squint against the sheer power behind the wall that held the vampires back. He heard the wails. The screams. He smelled the desperation. The urgency. The blood hunters slaughtered vampires while their loved ones stood by helplessly, unable to enter the magical barrier.

A single cry ascended into the sky and his eyes shot open. He would recognize the cry anywhere, for it pulled urgently on his heart like nothing else in the world ever could. Willow.

He got jostled backward further by vampires trying to break through the shimmering magical barrier using a fallen tree as a battering ram. The loud, booming sound the tree made as it struck the barrier could have deafened him. Yet, the barrier held firm. He’d been a blood hunter for a long time, long enough to know the only way to collapse the barrier was to kill its caster. And from the way a bright red glow emanated from within the barrier, he knew exactly who it was—Wyler.

Willow’s cry echoed in his ears once more and he couldn’t hold back his panic. Through the gaps in between vampires, he saw the blood hunters drag her toward a stake and tie her tightly with a vodryx chain, one that appeared stronger and thicker than the one he had used earlier. Despair filled every inch of him as a flicker of flames headed in her direction.

“Willow!” he gasped, and he shouldn’t have been surprised when her head snapped in his direction. Red tears trailed down her cheeks as she gazed back at him. Her lips moved but he was a human. He couldn’t hear the sound.

His eyes widened.

He was a human.

This magical barrier was created to ward off vampires and non-humans alike.

“I can do it,” he whispered, his jaw set in determination as he eyed the rippling barrier with trepidation rising in his heart. He no longer had a blood gem. He no longer had magic to draw upon. But he was the only human amongst vampires. He didn’t have long. He had to do this now. “Move!” he cried, pushing vampires out of the way. “I can get through!”

He drew his silver sword and vampires moved out of the way, watching him run past with their tearful eyes. The vampires created a path for him, but he didn’t slow his pace. He ran straight at the barrier, muscles tense, jaw set. He yelled with determination as the barrier got closer and closer, his sword raised and ready to strike.

The barrier rippled once more, and he almost expected to impact hard against it, but he passed right through, much to the blood hunters’ surprise. He caught the first one, Michael, by unaware, ramming his sword straight through his heart, and Rune leaped into action, his onyx gem pulsing black as he struck with his dagger. Adam’s sheer determination allowed him to dodge and guide his sword to slice Rune’s thigh. He spun and used his momentum to shear his head clean off his shoulders. The advantage of surprise only lasted that long before the other blood hunters began getting their act together and came after him. He searched for Willow with desperate eyes, but between parrying attacks and trying to keep himself from getting killed, he couldn’t find her.

Melvin, who had a weak moonstone gem, got in a lucky cut to his calf before slamming his hands against his ribs and pushing with his magic. He cried out as he flew several yards before crashing to the earth, his sword clattering against stone. He wheezed when it hurt to draw a breath, but to rest meant to die. He blindly scrambled for his weapon and hissed in pain as he forced himself to his feet in time to block the next blow that nearly tipped him off-balance. Putting weight on his injured leg was excruciatingly painful, but he pressed on. These vampires needed him.

And where was Willow? Where was she!

He blocked Leon’s attack and used his good foot to smash into the blood hunter’s knee, hearing a loud crack as it broke. Leon howled in pain and dropped to the ground, but he didn’t have time to assess the damage dealt. He continued fighting. He gave it every ounce of energy he had, every breath in his lungs, every thrust and parry of his sword. His silver weapon sliced into Tobias’s arm, spattering blood across his face.

The blood blinded him for a moment, and he felt severe pain in his side. He stumbled backward, wiping the blood from his face to find a dagger protruding from his abdomen. But he was still on his feet. He could keep fighting.

Dizziness caught up to him, but he forced it away. The blood hunters seemed surprised that the last attack hadn’t dropped him, which gave him another brief moment he fully used to his advantage. He thrust with his sword and dispatched another blood hunter named Samuel, but he hadn’t been able to block the attack from behind too. An immense pressure struck his left shoulder, knocking him onto his knees. It was a bolt. From a crossbow. He shuddered at the horrendous pain, a pain much worse than that of the dagger.

But he was still alive.

He could keep on fighting.

His left arm no longer obeyed him. Pushing himself upright was an accomplishment he never thought possible. But somehow, he still staggered to his feet. The remaining blood hunters watched him warily, as they should. He was a man with no gem, bleeding out from three horrible wounds, yet he was still alive after having killed or seriously injured a good lot of them.

Smoke filled the air as Anders lit a torch, and a screech of terror quickly followed. He frantically searched for the sound despite the agony of his wounds, and he was horrified to find Willow tied to the stake, struggling against her bonds as the torch came closer and closer. Anders lowered the torch.

If the kindling caught fire, it would consume her in seconds. He had no choice but to forfeit the one thing keeping him alive.

He took aim with his sword and with all his might, he threw it toward Anders who held the torch. The weapon hit its mark, going in one side of the man’s neck and out the other. He dropped to the ground and lay dying, the torch extinguished at his feet. He had time to take a single breath before someone gripped his neck from behind and slammed their sword straight through his chest.

He grunted in pain but managed nothing more as he stared at the bloodied sword that shouldn’t have been sticking straight out of him. It was unnatural. It was deadly.

Willow’s screams echoed in his ears, but they became muffled as the blood hunter pulled his sword from his chest. The ground came at him quickly and his body wouldn’t obey him as he slumped into a heap. He found himself staring at the sky. A dark, blood red sky. No, it wasn’t the sky. It was a blood gem. A brilliant, glowing blood gem dangling from Wyler’s neck. Willow’s screams and struggling became more distant. His body became number.

Numb.

Cold.

Nothing.

****

“Adam, no!” Willow roared, and like the time her bloodlust once lent her strength, her heartache provided her with the means to fight her vodryx bonds. She squeezed her eyes shut and yelled at the pain the chains inflicted on her wrists as she tried to pull her hands apart with everything she had. Her bonds at last snapped against her sheer willpower. She was free.

She swooped down from the stake and Wyler didn’t even stand a chance through her rage. He cried in surprise and stumbled backward, but her hand already grasped his neck before she slashed her sharp fingernails across the blood hunter’s throat. It was fast, and she wished it could have been more painful for him.

The barrier dropped, and vampires swarmed in both to kill the remaining blood hunters and reunite with their loved ones. But she didn’t watch. She spun around, eyes searching, and found Adam on the ground. He was still breathing. But barely. His eyes were still open. He was alive.

“Adam!” she cried and rushed to his side. He was lying in a pool of his own blood. She would recognize the scent anywhere.

Grasping onto his hand, she cradled his fingers to her cheek. “Please!” she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. “Please don’t leave me. I beg you!”

The air became deathly still as vampires watched, mourning with her. They truly mourned, for Adam had not only saved her, he had saved them all too. At that moment, he was one of them. He was a human. And he was one of them.

He blinked once, but his gaze was unfocused as he looked at her. His body shivered, his lips quaking as he tried to speak.

Her chin quivered as she lay down beside him, holding onto his hand and stroking his hair. His body shivered, his breathing came rapidly. He was dying. And the worst part was knowing she could save him. But he didn't want it. He didn't want her to bite him. He didn’t want to be a vampire.

Dracula materialized right then, but he kept his distance. She looked at her father to see the mournful look in his eyes. Truly mournful. He had suffered a similar fate when blood hunters had killed her mother, and the pain that reflected back in his eyes was real. Her father knew exactly how she felt.

And then he was gone again.

“D-d-don't leave,” Adam finally stuttered, trying to speak through his pain.

“I won't go anywhere,” she whispered as red-tinted tears rolled down her cheeks. “I promise.”

His teeth chattered—he was losing a lot of blood. “I-I-I love you.”

A stifled sob managed to escape past her resolve. It was a pained sob. It was the first time he had spoken those words. She never knew her heart could feel like this. Losing Adam… This was tearing her to pieces. She desperately wished she was dying too, because she didn’t know how she could live without him. She couldn’t live without him. The thought hurt too much.

She wept into his shoulder, continuing to stroke his hair as if that would give him the comfort he needed as he lay dying. She kissed his fingers, his cheek, his lips. “I love you so much.”

Her heart ached so heavily that she could no longer bear the pain. Her fangs sprouted from her mouth and she lifted his arm—

“N-n-no,” he said, his eyes drifting closed as unconsciousness dragged him under.

She retracted her fangs and wept harder into his shoulder. He didn’t want to be a vampire. He would rather die. If she turned him, he would never forgive her.

“Don’t leave me!” she sobbed, emitting a vampire wail as her heartache intensified. She could hear his heart beat slow.

Thump…Thump…Thump…

His breathing became shallower and weaker. His heartbeat irregular and slow. She could not live with this pain. She couldn’t live with the agony of losing him. If he died, she would too. The Throat of Druxix. She knew where it was.

A wail escaped her throat as she cuddled up to his side, uncaring that his blood soaked her. She thought she could protect him. She thought she could save him from death. But she had been wrong. He was the one who saved her. He saved a lot of vampires. He fearlessly killed his own kind to save them. He was their hero.

The thought of losing him made her anguish wash over her once more and she wailed into his side. Another mournful whine came from a few feet away. Although she didn’t have the strength to look, she knew it was Zachariah. He would never understand why she wouldn’t turn him. But it didn’t matter what she wanted. It didn’t matter that she would do anything to keep Adam here with her. He didn’t want it. He didn’t want to be a vampire. As his mate, she would respect his choices.

Wisps of black materialized before her and she still couldn’t bring herself to lift her head. Her father had returned. In the moments Adam would finally die.

Thump…

Thump…

Thump…

“Willow,” her father said softly but urgently. “Take this.”

At long last, she lifted her head, but her eyes immediately widened when she saw what her father held in his hands. It was an ornate glass bottle that held a swirling, ethereal substance. The blue wisps moved gracefully, beautifully. It was a small portion of her mother’s soul her father had trapped the day her mother had died.

She shook her head. “Papa, I can’t take it. It’s all you have left of her.”

“My Elisabeta is gone now and Adam is still here. If you won’t turn him, you will at least try to save him.”

Thump…

Thump…

Her mother’s soul could save Adam, or at least that was the idea. It had never been attempted on a human before. The longer the soul was trapped, the more powerful it would become. The soul had been trapped for approximately two hundred years, an old soul. As a blood hunter, Adam would know how to take the soul, how to use it for himself, even while unconscious. She doubted this would work for any normal human, but for Adam…

“Are you sure, Papa?” she asked even as she stood with hope burning in her chest.

“Hurry, cel mic. He is almost gone from us.”

She took the glass bottle carrying her mother’s soul, her fingers fumbling hastily for the stopper, and she poured the ethereal, wispy substance over his face and to his bloodied chest. The tendrils of soul behaved as mist would, though it swirled like clouds, dancing across him. She held her breath. This truly was her last hope. But as the wispy soul became still, her heartache grew. Something was supposed to happen. Nothing happened.

Thump…

An agonizing whine escaped her throat and her hand flew to her mouth, tears leaking from her eyes. Nothing happened. He was still dying.

Although she had known great pain in her past, nothing ever felt as intense as this. Her beloved… Her mate… Her Adam…

She reached for Zachariah and held him, and he held her, both mourning over Adam. The embrace did nothing to ease her heartache, but perhaps Zachariah would find comfort. Adam’s heart beat one last time and then she heard nothing. She sobbed into Zachariah’s shoulder, her legs wobbly with her agony and she could hardly keep herself standing. Her heart ached.

Suddenly, Adam took a huge breath through his nose and her head snapped up to see him breathing in the blue, wispy soul. The soul entered his body in the same way she had seen him do it before with the blood gem, and although it disappeared from sight, his heart started beating again. Slowly at first, and then the rate increased.

“Papa!” she cried, scrambling to Adam’s side. He was still unconscious. But he was breathing. And his heart was alive.

“We need to get him to the infirmary,” her father said in a deep, serious tone.

“Papa, I can’t materialize with him!” She was still too young of a vampire to figure out how to transport anyone other than herself.

“I will.”

Her father lifted Adam’s limp body in his arms, blood dripping as it left the ground. In a blink of an eye, they turned into black, wispy flakes and disappeared from view. Seconds later, she followed, her body breaking into red embers, moving quickly, and she hardly knew where she was until she materialized outside the infirmary doors inside the Ichor Knell castle. She threw the doors open and found her father laying Adam onto a cot, red blood soaking through white linens. Physicians immediately leaped into action.

The physicians cleaned Adam’s serious wounds, and her eyes widened at what she saw. Regeneration. A vampire trait. His body was healing itself at a fast rate, yet not quite as fast as a vampire could do it. What did this mean?

Her heart battled between hope and horror.

Had they turned him?

Yet, he still smelled human. He didn’t cry out, even in unconsciousness, as one would do during the painful transition into a vampire.

“Willow,” her father said after minutes had passed, clearly staring at the large gaping wound in Adam’s chest.

“I see it, Papa,” she replied. The wound was starting to heal. By itself. It would have been closed by now if he was a vampire, but it wasn’t closed. Not yet. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.”

That was disconcerting. Her father knew everything. He had seen everything. If he didn’t know…

With a careful snap, one of the physicians broke the crossbow bolt and extracted it from Adam’s shoulder. He still didn’t wake. Not even when the same physician pulled the dagger carefully from his abdomen. Blood started to spurt from the wound at first, but the bleeding miraculously stopped. It was starting to heal.

She clamped her hand around her mouth with joy. She didn’t know what this meant. But she would do anything to have her love back. Her mate. The man she loved with all her heart.

When his wounds healed enough to cease bleeding, the physicians changed the linens and Adam’s clothing, and she watched with hopeful anticipation.

“How is he?” she asked, unable to stop the words from escaping.

The physicians shared a glance before turning back to her. “The rate at which he is healing is strange for a human.”

A human…

“There is nothing more we can do,” he continued. “Anything intrusive will be useless with his rapid healing. The only thing left to do is watch and wait.”

She released a breath and wrapped her arms around her father, holding him for a long minute. She didn’t know yet if Adam would survive, but this couldn’t have been possible without her father’s sacrifice. “Thank you, Papa.”

“Anything for you, cel mic,” he answered, stroking her hair with his fingers. “I don’t wish you to suffer as I do. It’s unbearable.” He paused, thoughtful. “I kept watching for a trick. Why would a blood hunter become my daughter’s mate? He truly loves you. I have never seen anyone fight as hard as he did for you. And without his blood gem. He is certainly something special. I am proud to call him my kin.”

She lifted her head to look her father in the eyes, seeing the truth of his words therein. Never in her life did she think she would hear him utter those words.

A happy tear escaped her eye as she gazed at her sleeping darling. “I am proud too.”