Chapter 487: Wake
Light wakes me. Trill's glasses catch a little of it, reflecting over her brown eyes as she says my name, but I don't hear her speak until long after her lips have stopped moving. Makes me giggle, her soundtrack is off.
Giggling hurts.
An old woman joins her, hair tight in a red kerchief though sprigs of steel gray peek out along the edges. She has a very large mole on the end of her chin and I can't stop staring at it.
More giggling. More pain.
Trill's lips move. Time passes. I hear her words: "Is she going to be okay, Nona?" Fear in her voice. Yes, in her face too, as she pulls away her glasses, her brown eyes clear to me.
Another face, this one with vibrant blue eyes, makes me smile. I open my mouth to say "Owen."
And pass out.
***
My body rocks back and forth, something soft under me, daylight streaming in a window over my head. Hand-made quilt, the smell of the outdoors and cooking. The rumble of an engine, wheels over pavement.
Darkness.
***
"-brought her as fast as we could." Nona's voice, Trill hovering. It's night now, a light bulb overhead casting strange shadows. But the familiar feeling of magic, family magic, pulls me close and whispers to me as hands touch my face, lips soft on my cheek, faded blue eyes full of tears meet mine.
"Oh, girl," Gram whispers.
Fade to shadow.
***
Whispering, lots of whispering, hands holding mine, magic threading through me as my demon stirs, Shaylee sighing, my body on fire, burning, the pain rising until I cry out from it.
Then it's gone and I'm out again.
***
Flicker
Gram hovers, holding my hand to her cheek
Flash
Mom glows with power, Meira too, flooding my body and lighting the room, casting their faces in an eerie glow
Snap
Liam's familiar scent, an arm around my shoulders, my head on his chest while a big, black face with glowing red eyes watches me from the foot of the bed
Spark
The rustle of fabric as Quaid rises from my side, black cloak with blue edges, strong hand releasing mine
Wake
Wake
***
Wake.
I opened my eyes. Found a pair of amber ones staring, a small, pink nose almost touching mine. Soft, silver ears perked, a single tail-thump striking my ribs.
"Syd," Sassafras whispered. "About time."
I lifted my arms, weighing ten times normal, and hugged him to me, sobbing into his fur while he murmured in my ear, amber magic pulling me close as he purred and purred away my fear.
"It's over," he said at last. "You're going to be okay."
I snuffled, letting him go, wiping my nose and eyes with the sheet, body coming alive and awake, no longer feeling like I had the house sitting on me.
Just my silver Persian. And he was always welcome.
My demon purred back at him, stretching and waking as Shaylee hugged me, my family magic bubbling. But my vampire, she who I'd lost, was gone, only a trace of her remaining.
I should have been happy to be alive. Home, in my own bed, and, if the feeling of the house beneath me was to be believed, surrounded and protected by the people I loved. The whole coven was here. Not in body, but in power, the thrum of their awareness all around me.
Why did I want to hide from them? Instinct pulled my power tight, lidded it and, despite my worry the other parts of me would protest, they didn't. They missed her as much as I did. Felt the guilt I felt.
Sassafras's eyes flared with power, but he didn't comment. Knew better. "I'll tell the others you're awake," he said, turning and leaping from the bed, running out the door to summon my family, to flood my life with people and their joy while my heart wept for my loss.
I crept out of bed and slunk down the stairs, slipping out the back door to perch on the bench alone, shivering in my pajamas, the sky over head full of pinpoint stars.
I suddenly hated the dark.
The screen door sang, padding steps approached. I didn't look up, didn't have to. Fluffy socks settled next to my bare feet, the sigh of her breath and the pressure of her on the bench disturbing my solitude. One wrinkled hand reached out and cupped mine as she sat back, our shared magic full of love, but holding its breath.
We sat there in silence for a long moment. Until I couldn't stand it any longer.
"How long?" My voice was still rough, my throat sore. More a croak than a voice.
"Three days." Gram's foot bobbed over her crossed knee. Pink and green this time. I loved her socks and never told her. Needed to. "Trill and Owen brought you back, them and their Nona." They found their grandmother and she was all right, no matter what the sorcerer Belaisle tried to make Trill believe. That made me feel a little better. And the memories I had of our journey, the rocking motion. Trill said they had an RV.
"They saved you." She sounded guilty. And I knew why. She would be feeling she should have saved me.
"Iepa." I said. "The maji." And one other, though I wouldn't speak her name. Would never acknowledge her help. I hadn't asked for it. Didn't want it.
Refused to believe Ameline had saved my life.
"How, Gram?" I met her eyes at last, tightness in my chest making it hard to draw air. "I should be dead."
Gram's eyes glistened in the light over the door, but her voice was steady when she spoke. "You should," she said.
"The vampire essence..." It hurt to think of her. "She said I was immortal, but not invincible. Was she wrong?"
Gram didn't say anything. I was glad. I needed to work this through on my own.
"She called me the Undying." My fingers flexed on Gram's. "Iepa. Trill did too." A massive shudder took me, the need to sob, broken and lost and alone. I felt the family now, crowded at the back door, wanting to come to me, holding back.
Giving me my space.
"Then it must be." Gram sighed, pulled on her grip, caught me against her, cheek on my hair.
Both of my hands rose, clutched at my chest without my consent, the empty hole inside me begging for what I'd lost. And though the maji power swelled and tried to fill it, there just wasn't enough.
Would never be enough now that I knew what it was like to be almost whole.
Gram had to have known where my mind was going. "You're safe," she said. "Home with us. Alive. And you have your marbles, yet." Unlike her experience. I wondered then if she resented my ability to survive, even when I'd lost my demon. But no, not Gram.
Not ever.
"You could leave things here." She sounded like she didn't believe what she was saying either. "Let Batsheva keep what she's stolen. Neither blood clan has said anything, though they both know you live."
Sebastian? Or spies. Whatever.
"I can't." Breathing was easier again when I spoke those two words, the tightness loosening, my body feeling lighter already.
"Is that the best choice?" Gram paused. "For your coven?"
No hesitation on my part. "Yes," I said. "I've been here before. I needed my demon when she was taken from me," she hummed happily in answer, "and I need my vampire now." The jab of pain wasn't quite so bad. "If only because my coven needs me to fight the Brotherhood." I pulled free of her and faced her, found her nodding, sad but stern.
"All right then," she said. "Let's get you cleaned up and pay Batsheva a visit."
My heart sang in anticipation. Time to get my vampire back.
***
