Chaptet Forty-Nine

***REMI***

There’s so much blood leaking from Kallais’s chest that I’m worried he’s going to choke.

I’m barely helping Rhodes carry his brother back to the castle before he growls, pushes me off Kallias, and tells me to go and find Vienna.
Find Vienna?

I never know where she is, let alone, if she’s in the castle.

Regardless, I tear through the back entrance of the corridor and begin shouting for the pirate. My heart is pounding against my ears and my hands won’t stop shaking.
There was so much blood.

Kallias could…oh gods.

Before I can stop myself, I lean over into a plant and throw up.

How much blood can a half-vampire lose before dying? Is it even possible for a vampire to die?

When I stop throwing up, I scream for Vienna. And unlike when I was chained to the bed and Keiran’s sacrifice, she comes.

“What the fuck is going on?” she shouts, emerging around a corner that I didn’t even know existed.

“Kallias…the gardens,” I pant, and that’s all I need to say for Vienna to take off in a sprint.

Seconds later, I’m right behind her, catching up to where she ditched me in a heartbeat.

Rhodes has Kallias upright, half in his lap, and has torn his shirt to shreds. The wooden beam lodged in the warrior's chest has been splinted off, and the skin around the injury is rippling with veins.

Kallias’s blood on the snowy grass is like a sick painting, smearing the pure white.

He’s dying.

And there’s nothing I can do to save him.

“Hurry, Vienna,” Rhodes commands, his voice wavering.

I’ve never seen the Hunter so terrified before.

Vienna races to her brother’s side and crashes to the floor. She nearly slips in the blood and snow, but rights herself just in time.

“What happened?” she asks, tearing the bottom of her shirt quickly and pressing it into Kallias’s chest. “And why the fuck aren’t Keiran and Xaden answering me?”
Kallias weeps at the contact.

“A pearl,” Rhodes says, his grip tightening on Kallias hand. “It’s blocking our communication. I don’t know what to fucking do. I don’t know how to help him.”
Vienna is already white skin. “I’ll go and find them,” she says, then stands and disappears in a crack.

I’m standing still at the edge of the garden maze.

“Can’t you heal him?” I ask, and Rhodes shakes his head.

“I don’t have that magic,” he says, and Kallias’s eyes roll to the back of his head.

“I’ll go and search for them too–”

“Don’t,” Rhodes commands, and I raise a brow. “You wouldn’t be able to find them in time, and besides, your presence comforts my brother.”
I swallow back. If I comfort Kallias…maybe I can do more than just that.

Wait.

“Rhodes.”

He looks at me but is barely seeing me.

“Remember in the woods, when I parted the river?”

Rhodes licks his lips. Kallias’s blood is covering his chest. “Are you suggesting that you attempt magic?”

I look around the woods. I can almost feel the hope slipping away from Rhodes into the atmosphere.

“My blood was used in the sacrifice to keep Keiran alive and well for centuries,” I say.

“What are you getting at?”

“There must be something in my blood that’s healing–” Without waiting for permission, I grab one of Rhode’s blades. He’s too full of heartbreak and despair to notice, or even care.

When I cut the palm of my hand, and blood begins to leak, Kallias jerks up and makes a strangled moan.

Rhodes looks to his brother, then back to me, his purple eyes wide.

“Do it now,” he commands, and every inch of my body tenses. Rhodes will fight me to the death if I don’t comply.

But I want to.

“Kallias,” I say gently, raising my cut to the half-vampire’s mouth. Eyes still closed, Kallias’s head moves, and Rhodes angles his brother's head.
Kallias’s lips meet my blood, but he is too weak to move.

“Drink,” Rhodes commands him, and even I can feel every lick of Rhodes’ dark power using compulsion to force Kallias.

Kallias jolts again, then I feel his tongue against the skin of my hand.

Faster than lightning can strike, his fangs are bared, and he’s drinking in as much of my blood as he can get.

“Now, Rhodes,” I command, and with a sick, twisting motion, Rhodes yanks the wooden beam out of Kallias’s chest.

Kallias doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, his gulps deepen, and I begin to feel faint from the blood loss.

I would have stopped him sooner if it weren’t for the glowing magic healing his chest.

Rhodes and I watch in awe as his flesh heals at a rapid rate, sealing over the injury within seconds.

Still, Kallias drinks.

“Easy there,” Rhodes says, taking my hand from Kallias’s grip.

Kallias growls at his brother, pushing him off, and I use it as a chance to rip my hand away.

Rhodes is between us in a second, calming Kallias down as I retreat into a tree trunk. Kallias is fully healed, and shaking all over, his usual violet eyes, a dark, demonic red.

I stare at him for a moment. At the twin who is the kindest of the four males. And Kallias, or another version of him, stares back.

“Calm down, now.”

I’m not sure if Rhodes is still using compulsion on his brother, but when Kallias tears his gaze away from me, it sure looks forced.

He steps away for a few minutes, taking heavy breaths. And to my relief, when he turns around fully to me, his eyes are no longer red.

“Well that was horrible,” he says, and slaps Rhodes on the back.

“A terrifying adventure,” Rhodes laughs, throwing his arm around Kallias.

I’m speechless on the floor.

“Let’s get a drink in the city,” Kallias announces, already returning to the prick he is.

“Let’s.”

These boys make my head spin. Just moments ago, Kallias had been bleeding out into the snow, Rhodes freaking out about losing his brother, and now they want to go out for drinks?

“Where’s Keiran?” Kallias asks.

The two twins have taken off, forcing me to follow. And I’m walking like I’m still in a daze.

“He went after his Pearl, and isn’t back yet,” Rhode answers, utterly casual. But there’s a slight tremor in his arm, a small tell, that he isn’t as composed and put together as he lets on.

We enter the castle, and then Kallais pulls a bottle of rum out from the back of a painting.

I raise my hands and find them smeared in blood. My own and Kallias.

“Here, sweetheart,” Kallias says, extending the bottle to me. The glass is coated in blood from his hands.

When I take it, I almost drop it.

Kallias catches it easily, and we both stand close together. His hand comes up to touch my face, maybe brush away my hair, but then the energy in the room shifts.

Three sets of heavy footsteps sound, and we both turn to see Vienna, Keiran, and Xaden entering the foyer.