Chapter 38
Someone was calling his name. She was distant, and while he was almost certain it wasn’t Aislyn’s voice, he thought for a moment, what if it was? What if he was dead, and Aislyn had come to greet him on the other side? Wouldn’t that be lovely?
His eyes felt heavy, but his head no longer ached. He was quite certain it had before, though he didn’t know when, and he didn’t know why. He managed a blink, and then with some effort, he willed his eyes to come open. The room seemed bright, sideways, and was spinning. He decided to close his eyes again.
“Aaron?” another voice called. “Open your eyes.”
He knew he recognized that voice, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Jamie’s familiar face, though he wasn’t sure why he had two of them. He shook his head in an attempt to focus, but that sent a radiating pain through his skull.
“Stay still,” the woman’s voice said quietly, and he realized he was resting on someone’s lap, though his head was turned to the side so he couldn’t see who it was. The crimson dress looked familiar.
“He’s all right,” Jamie was saying to the woman. “I’m sure he has a concussion, but he’ll recover.”
“A conc—what?” she asked.
“A concussion. It just means his brain moved around a bit inside of his skull.”
“Oh,” woman voice replied, “well, I guess that’s one way to verify he has one.”
“Ha ha,” Jamie laughed. “Good one.”
“Stop making jokes at my expense woman voice,” Aaron mumbled, not even sure if he could hear him.
“Aaron, it’s me, Catherine,” she called. “Are you all right? Do you want to try and sit up?”
With a little effort, Aaron found himself sitting up in what appeared to be the main entryway of a castle. The only thing he really remembered was the stone wall behind him. They had had an intimate connection.
“How are you feeling?” Jamie asked. Aaron noticed he was wearing gloves.
“Okay,” Aaron muttered.
“I didn’t do anything to heal you, just assessed the damage. Do you think I need to do anything else?”
“No,” Aaron replied. Let him save his powers for people who might really need it.
“All right then. I’m off,” he said. “Let me know if he needs anything,” he added to Catherine as he hurried off.
As Aaron watched a number of individuals bustling about, glimpses of what had happened the night before came back to him, and he not only remembered being tossed into the wall by Dracula, he also recalled the battle in the basement. “How’s Margot?” he asked.
“She’ll live,” the Hunter assured him. “Once Morris was able to get the bleeding to stop, we got the blonde Vampire, and then Christian ran to get help. The battle with Dracula was still going on up here, and it took him a while to find assistance. Eventually, another Healer made it down, and they got it under control.”
Aaron wanted to nod, but his head still hurt, so he only blinked. “Did we get him?”
“Hell, yes,” Catherine replied. “Thanks to you.”
“To me?” Aaron repeated, turning his head quickly, and then wishing he hadn’t. “I didn’t do anything. I functioned as a plaything, a ball, which the Vampire tossed across the room with no problem.”
She laughed and it was a melodic tinkle. “That’s not what Van said. I mean, she did say he tossed you across the room, but she said that you slammed the door in his face and slowed him down long enough for her team to get there. If it hadn’t been for you, he would’ve escaped.”
Aaron couldn’t imagine he had done much of anything to help the famed Vampire Hunter end her prey, but it was no sense in saying any more about it now, since Catherine wasn’t there when it had happened and had already heard both sides of the story. “Do you know where Ward is?”
Catherine’s expression changed, and Aaron would’ve been worried if he thought there was any chance the Guardian might’ve actually been harmed in the fray, which was highly unlikely. “He’s meeting with Jordan. He asked all of the leaders to come down. The rest of the team is making sure we didn’t miss anything and basically burning anything Dracula may have touched, just to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again.”
“Seems odd,” Aaron muttered.
“Yes, but that’s what Van directed them to do, so they are doing it. We should get you back down the mountain.”
“Is Ward okay?” he asked, going back to the face she’d made when he’d mentioned his name.
“He is physically, but I think he’s upset at himself for what happened last night.”
Aaron remembered. His leader had let the Vampire get to him. Aaron had ended up taking control of most of the battle. “Well, it’s understandable,” he muttered, though he wasn’t sure it was.
“He doesn’t think so, I guess,” she shrugged. “Come on. There are a lot of people waiting to see you.”
That thought did not make him feel good about making the long trip back down the mountain at all. Though he’d wanted a leadership position, he didn’t want fame or accolades. He only wanted the opportunity to use his skills to help the most people. The fact that some of the others thought he was some sort of a hero now was certainly not part of what he had bargained for. Neither was becoming the London leader because Ward had lost confidence in himself or felt that he needed to step aside, and he was hopeful that neither of those things would happen, but perhaps Jordan would hear of his leadership skills from the night before and give him an opportunity in another area to show what he could do.
He owed so much to Ward. He’d taken him in, trained him, stuck with him even when he was depressed and discouraged over Aislyn’s death. He hoped that his friend would be able to let what had happened last night go and forget about it. They needed him. Aaron needed him.
