Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-two

Izabella gasped, the act of him slamming the dagger down sent her emotions spiraling out of control. The blade didn’t touch Bram, slicing through the bedding instead. Tom’s brows were drawn, the muscle in the side of his jaw twitching. One hand held the dagger, the other grabbed the staff where the two points had met near his cut. The moment his hand grasped the staff, Bram’s body started to seizure. Tom pressed down but he wasn’t strong enough to hold him down.

Izabella ran to the other side of the bed, grabbing a belt from the floor, she pressed it into his mouth. She didn’t think he could hurt himself, but she also knew that he could bite himself and bleed. She didn’t know how far he could destroy his body, and wasn’t about to take the chance. Holding the belt there, she pressed down. “Bram, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m here, baby. Please. Please, come back to me.” His eyes started blinking quickly, irises rolled into the back of his head.

“Pray with me.” He started to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Izabella jumped in right away, but worry creased her brow, as Bram’s body shook harder.

“Is this supposed to be happening?” She looked up at Tom, but he didn’t stop his prayers, too in tune with whatever he was doing. Jumping back into the prayer, she continued, holding the belt in his mouth. She watched as Tom’s hand reached out, touching Bram for the first time. His hand covered the cut. The wound was shrinking, slowly the black at the frays of his skin receded. Black oozed from his side, pouring over the edge of the bed. Izabella was frightened as she watched, she didn’t like the way he was moving or that black stuff, but there was improvement at least.

Tom quickly snatched the staff off Bram, pulling the dagger and tossing it aside, onto the chair he’d been sitting in earlier. He slammed the end of the staff back onto the board he was standing on. Izabella’s watched as his other arm lifted up, and he started saying something completely different. Something she couldn’t follow along with. None of the words coming from his mouth made sense to her. The more he spoke, the calmer Bram became until we was calm on the bed. The gentle rise and fall of his chest sent Izabella’s dam of emotions crashing down around her as she started to cry. Pulling the belt from his mouth, she pushed back his hair, kissing his face. Touching him all over. Tom staggered a bit when he was done. Turning, he lifted the dagger from the chair, falling into it.

Izabella went around the bed, inspecting where the cut had been. It wasn’t perfectly healed. It was still open and looked like it could be infected, or whatever equivalent of that was for vampires, but he was alive. His heart was beating, and he was breathing again. Izabella fussed over him for a while before relaxing back, at ease now that the danger of death had passed. At least for the time being.

“Tom, I can’t… I can’t thank you enough for what you just did. How can I repay you?”

Tom opened his eyes, those deep blue orbs burying into hers. “I need to know what Matt knew. I need to know what is really going on. Maybe the church wouldn’t listen to your dad, and maybe he wasn’t crazy. If what you told me today is true, I think you’re right. We should work together. A few respectful demons that are willing to help us against all the others? I mean… that could change everything. If someone else, from the same church tells them the same thing…”

“They still may not listen. But I do believe this is the outcome my father wanted all along. We could tie it all together. The church won’t get what they want, but neither will the vampires. Bram and I can be the liaison between those two worlds. And, if we can do that, humanity will be all the better for it. Two different sides of the coin co-habiting on the same level.” Izabella smiled, wiping at her cheeks. “Excuse me, I need to call the children up.” She raised a finger, stepping out the door to call to them. At the same time, she heard a stampede coming from upstairs. Tyler felt it. He knew Bram was okay now.

“Izabella? Bram’s okay? What happened?” He barreled over his own feet, nearly tripping. Gavin was there to grab him, shaking his head.

“Fool he is, we were moments away from getting the book, and he almost blew it!” Gavin grumbled, smacking Tyler as he helped him right himself.

Izabella threw her arms around Tyler first, waiving for Gavin to join. “He’s stabilizing. We’re not out of the woods yet, but we owe this victory to Tom. So, be nice. I’m going to bring the children up and then send them to bed. Well, any who are still awake anyway.”

Gavin immediately looked down at his watch, “It’s after three in the morning. Maybe you should just let them be?”

“I’m not waking anyone up. But if they’re awake they deserve to know he’s okay.” She gave them each a look. Peeking back through the door, she looked at Tom, “Hey, I’m going to see if any of the children are still awake. Tyler and Gavin will be coming in to see Bram. Feel free to leave or stay. If you want to go home, I can make that happen in a moment. If you want to stay here, there’s a spare room at the end of the hall you can make yourself comfortable in. I didn’t want Gavin and Tyler to make you nervous.” Her head dipped out of the room as she went running downstairs.

Devon and Sara were the only ones still awake, talking about how worried they were about their dad. “Hey, guys?” Izabella whispered into the living room. Both their heads popped up. “Dad’s taken a turn for the better. He’s not awake yet, but you’re welcome to come up and say goodnight if you want.”

Devon was off and half way up the stairs before Sara was fully standing. “Is his side better? He was so still earlier, we couldn’t even see him breathing.” She looked up at Izabella with worry.

“He’s doing much better. Breathing and all. If you want to wait until he wakes up, you’re more than welcome to. I knew Devon would want to see him right away. You don’t have to though, sweety.” Izabella smiled at her, as she left the other children behind, the poor nanny was sleeping in a reclining chair in the same room.

Sara shook her head, “I’ll go up. I just, he didn’t look alive before. I was afraid to see him like that again.”

Izabella smiled down at the girl. “I mean, it’s not a huge improvement. But at least it’s something.”

“What about Rosie? I miss her.” Izabella nodded, she understood that sentiment. She missed Rosie too.

“I’m afraid she was Devon’s real sister. When Bram got hurt, she disappeared with an ominous comment from Gavin that he would explain later. I don’t think she’s gone for good, but I do think that Bram getting hurt might have set things back for her arrival.”

“Is that because you guys didn’t have sex when you were supposed to?” Sara asked, looking up at her.

Izabella blushed furiously, guiding the girl up the stairs. “I mean… I mean… maybe? I’m not sure. Eudom works in strange ways.”

“Eudom is just strange.” She giggled. Izabella frowned at her for the rude comment but couldn’t give her too much grief. After all, the girl wasn’t wrong.

“Oh!” Izabella suddenly realized she’d forgotten that Eudom had been attacked by the same weapon. “Sara, I need to go see how Eudom is doing!” Sara wasn’t going to just let her go though. She ran up behind Izabella, right up into the dark attic.

“Eudom?” Izabella froze in the middle of the attic, looking around the shadows. When he came out, his eyes were their happy bright red.

“My Izzy!” He smiled, opening their arms to her. She ran into them, hugging Eudom close. “You did it! You saved our Bram!”

“Eudom, how many times have you replayed this outcome?” She asked, not able to pull herself away from their squishy goodness.

Their arms tightened around her, “Many. Many times.” He whispered. Pulling away, she pet his head.

“Then, this is not my victory. It’s yours Eudom. *You* saved Bram.” She touched the side of their face, planting a kiss on their cheek. “If there was anyone who didn’t give up on him, I know it was you.”

“I promised to protect my Izzy. Protecting Bram came with that promis. We can all be happy if we can all make it.” His smile faltered though, “Except…”

“Except what, Eudom?” She asked. Unsure where the fear shaking his voice came from.

“The monster.” He said slowly, sinking into his corner chair. “He won’t ever stop. Bram cannot change anyone else. That was not a lie Scarlet told. We tried to warn you. We tried to warn him.”

“You mean Gabe?” She asked, unsure. As he nodded, her chest restricted again, and she had to try to force herself not to overthink this. “Can we still help him?”

Eudom shrugged, “I’ve been stuck on this so long, I don’t know. There was no help for him without Bram.” Izabella needed a journal. She suddenly understood why her father always carried one around and why he had left them to her.