Contingency (19 page)

“You won’t get away, Sage. I have given orders to have you killed instantly if you try to leave this arena.”

I focused my eyes on the woman I had hoped to become close friends with and saw nothing in her to leave me any hope of avoidance.

I shook my head and ignored the human sized weight that had squatted on top of my chest. I didn’t want to kill her, but I would do what I had to in order to survive. I centered myself and tightened my grip on the sgian dubh in my hand. A ripple went through the crowd surrounding us, but I didn’t have time to care about our morbid audience. Elaine lunged toward me with her dirk raised in a forward thrust motion aimed directly for my chest.

She wasn’t pissing around. I leapt out of her way and barely avoided being skewered through with the tip of her knife. I cried out when the blade sliced across my left arm. A hiss echoed through out the room. Great, I was bleeding in a room filled with blood suckers. Now wasn’t that just the icing on my crap cake.

Elaine and I circled one another, sizing each other up for our next move. This time she swung her knife towards my neck just as I swung my dirk low. I bent backwards far enough to allow her blade to pass over my head. I straightened up and spun around ready for her next move. Elaine stood in front of me wide eyed with blood just starting to soak through the side of her chemise. I smiled and saluted her with the edge of my dirk.

Her eyes glazed over and she threw herself in my direction. I met her half way and our dirks rang throughout the arena as they glanced off of each other. She grabbed my arm with more strength than I would have credited her. I kicked her as hard as I could when my dirk began slipping, knocking her to the ground. Elaine jumped to her feet so quickly I wondered for a split second if she had some kind of preternatural ability. The thought was wiped from my mind as she swiped my legs out from underneath me. I landed flat on my back and all the air whooshed out of my lungs.

From somewhere in the arena I heard what sounded like a sonic boom followed by howls of fury. The sounds were the least of my worries though, Elaine was on me before I could gulp in a breath. She leaned all her body weight onto the dirk poised above my heart. My own dirk lay just a few inches away, but if I let go of her hands she would have had no trouble thrusting hers through my heart. My arms started to wobble and the dirk slipped down another inch, puncturing the skin above my left breast.

Time seemed to suspend around me and even though I could tell that there was some kind of battle raging around me, it all felt very far away and inconsequential. I raised my eyes and looked into Elaine's crazed face and knew that if I’d die right that moment, I would die without ever having fully lived and without ever having allowed anyone to know the real me. I couldn’t let Elaine steal that away from me.

I found a burst of strength hidden deep inside myself that had nothing to with my Warper powers and everything to do with my need to survive. I bucked my hips up one time hard enough to dislodge Elaine’s body from mine. Just enough to reroute her dirk away from my chest. I reached with my right hand and grasped the hilt of my sgian dubh just as Elaine’s dirk came back down again and tore through my chest a mere inch above my heart. I screamed in anguish as blackness veiled my vision.

I turned my head just in time to see a body fall close to me, his eyes open but not seeing. I looked up into Elaine’s wild eyes and was sure she, too, was oblivious to the war going on around us, she only had my death on her mind.

My fingers involuntarily flinched around the dirk still in my hand and something inside me snapped. Running on adrenaline, I swiped my dirk across the front of her chest and she stumbled back off of me in shock. She was bleeding from shoulder to shoulder. I gathered every ounce of strength that I possessed and heaved myself up off the floor. I reached up with my left hand and jerked out the knife that was protruding from my chest. The bloody knife clanged to the ground and the searing pain nearly buckled my knees.

Elaine looked up at me from the ground, seething with hatred. I shook my head, pleading with her to just stop, but she charged me anyway.  Everything happened so quickly, but it seemed at the time to play out in black and white movie stills. She charged and I lifted my dirk just at the right moment for her to run directly into my blade. I couldn’t have stopped it if I wanted to. I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice myself. I wasn’t that noble of a person.

Her eyes widened in shock as the smaller knife she had hidden fell to the ground. She landed on her knees and I went down with her in an unwilling embrace. I jerked my dirk free from her chest and she slid to the ground in front me. Her eyes swung around wildly, taking in the massacre going on around us and a trickle of blood escaped her mouth. Her eyes slowly dimmed in defeat and then finally closed in death. I felt tears streaming down my face but there was nothing I could do to stop them. No matter what the reason, I had taken a human life.

I looked down at my blood soaked shift and staggered to my feet even though my legs felt like they wouldn’t hold me for long. The battle around me had died down and dozens of bodies littered the arena. I looked across the room and saw Aldwin shouting across the room at someone I barely recognized. Soren stood there covered in blood and looked like a dark avenging angel. He glanced over in my direction, his eyes widened, and then looked back at Aldwin. I smiled at my guys and gave a little wave with my finger.

Aldwin was running in my direction and saying something I couldn’t make out when I toppled forward into oblivion, feeling

Chapter Thirty-One

Someone carried me, either that or I floated out to the carriage. Whatever the case, I was sprawled across the lap of one angry vampire. The carriage swayed back and forth and I hoped I wouldn’t throw up all over anyone. Aldwin was kneeling on the floor and hovering near me to argue with Soren. I absently wondered what they were angry about, must be something important. I felt light as a feather and wondered how I could feel so wonderful after I’d lost so much blood, maybe the hole in my chest wasn’t as bad as I had thought. I tried to lift my hand to smooth out the worry lines creasing Aldwin’s face, to tell him it would all be okay, but my arms were as heavy as lead. Maybe I was having an out of body experience or something.

Someone slapped my face. Really? After the day I’d had, they had to go and slap me? My eye lids were so heavy. Was it so bad to just sleep? Another slap and my eyes cracked open to see who I’d have to kill as soon as I was up to the task. Aldwin was saying something, his lips were moving but his words were echoing around somewhere in a far off tunnel. His expression was urgent. Soren shook me and my head lolled back.

Words I couldn’t piece together came from Soren or Aldwin...or both, I couldn’t be sure.

“Blood...dying...consequences...” Aldwin grabbed Soren by the throat and with a wild look in his eyes screamed at him...I wished I could figure out what was going on, maybe they’d tell me later. My eyes fluttered and everything blurred again, I felt so peaceful and serene, I could have stayed like that forever surrounded by the two people who meant the world to me.

Someone grasped my jaw and the scent of wet pennies assaulted my nose. Funny, I didn’t remember licking any pennies. I swallowed to get the taste out of my mouth, but instead I choked on something sliding down my throat. I tried to close my mouth, but my jaw was once again pried open and more of the warm metallic liquid invaded my mouth. I squirmed trying to get free as the substance slid down my dry throat. The hand that had forced my mouth open, let go to hold my arms down.

From somewhere far away a familiar voice spoke.

“Her heart is beating faintly.”

And another voice “She will be ok now, I’m sure of it... Thank You. “

A pause. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know, but I am still thankful you did, no matter what your reasons.”

I tried to open my eyes but the sea that I was floating on swept me further out toward total abandon and merciful peace. Who was I to fight the tide?

The first thing I saw when I woke up was the face of Dr. Aldwin Blake asleep next to me. I closed my eyes and counted to ten before opening them again. He was still there. How did I go from a bloody fight to being in bed with a man who could possibly be the love of my life? I hoped I hadn’t missed any action. I reached over to push his hair away from his face as a content sigh escaped me, I could get used to waking up to this sight.

Aldwin nearly catapulted off the bed when I touched him. Wow, he was a light sleeper. I jerked my arm back and felt a pain in my chest. Oh yeah, Elaine had run me through with a dirk. I grasped my chest at the fresh wave of pain her memory invoked.

Aldwin took my hand and kissed the back of it almost reverently. “You nearly sent me to an early grave worrying about you. It took us almost eight hours to find where Elaine had taken you, I’m not sure we ever would have if we hadn’t had help from a coven of witches.”

I smiled at him. “But you did, and just in time. Thank you.”

Aldwin helped me sit up and propped two pillows behind my back. “Tell me everything,” I said as soon as I was comfortable. He sat on the bed next to me and began to tell me all the things I’d pretty much figured out, but it helped to hear the truth spoken out loud. All the deaths Elaine had caused, all the chaos that had ensued, none of it made me feel better about having to take her life, but one day I hoped to be able to come to terms with it. Zachary had alerted Aldwin when I hadn’t shown up at the townhouse and an all out man hunt had begun. Evidently Aldwin, Soren, Travis, Dwennon and about two dozen other preternaturals joined in the search. At first it had been assumed that Elaine was missing too, but a witch told them that answers would be found in a trusted servant’s room. It wasn’t long before a diary was unearthed from under a loose board in Phoebe’s closet.

Phoebe had kept a meticulous accounting of Elaine’s treachery and also detailed how Elaine had blackmailed Phoebe into doing things against her will by threatening to harm Travis if she refused. Elaine had played on Phoebe's love. I shook my head in disgust. Phoebe named several places that Elaine used for meeting places and after finding two of them abandoned, they found the warehouse where I had been kept prisoner.

I held up my hand. I didn’t need to hear anymore, I knew the rest of the story. Aldwin looked pained and I reached out to touch his arm when he spoke in a whisper.

“There’s something else.” I grasped onto my blanket. His bleak tone sent chills up my spine and I wasn’t sure I could handle much more.

My mind raced with possibilities. I knew Soren had made it out alive, I had a vague recollection of him and Aldwin in the carriage...I wondered if Travis had made it out ok or not. I swallowed and asked him to tell me. He stood up and paced to the window and back to the bed again his eyes pleading with mine to understand. “Aldwin...please. I need to know what happened. Is Travis...ok?” I blinked back tears at the thought of losing someone else.

“No...I mean, yes. Yes, Travis is fine. This is something else.” My heart thumped irregularly and I put my hand over it. I looked up at Aldwin, ready for whatever he had to say.

“You were dying.” I blanched at the bald faced statement. “You were dying. Soren heard you heart slowing and I felt your soul leaving me.” He said it in such an anguished voice that I longed to hold him tight and make promises that it would never happen again.

“But I didn’t die, Aldwin, I’m right here in front of you. It all worked out.”

His pained expression chilled my heart. “You are here because I begged Soren to save you.” He swallowed and dropped to his knees beside the bed. “I couldn’t live with out you, Sage. You were seconds from being beyond even his help when I had him give you his blood.” The metallic taste. Vampire blood had healing properties, I knew that, but how much blood had I consumed to be brought back from the brink of death?" I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I cleared my throat and tried again.

“Will I become a vampire?” I didn’t feel like a vampire, I didn’t have any sudden urges to bite into his neck...that was good, right?

“No, you won’t become a vampire, the whole process is more complicated than that, it’s just with you being a Warper, we are not sure if there will be unforeseen consequences. Also... we are not positive, but you and Soren may form some sort of bond.” A bond? I shook my head, too many ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ for my taste.

Aldwin looked like he had told me my favorite pet had been hit by a car. “Aldwin, you saved my life. No matter what happens as a result, I would rather deal with those consequences than to be dead. I owe you my gratitude.” He searched my eyes hoping what I said was true and the next thing I knew I was at the receiving end of a toe curling kiss. I must have made a noise when he pulled me closer to him because he broke away and apologized for man handling the patient. I winked at him and told him I’d love to be man handled like that any day.

Aldwin left me to tell everyone I had come to after almost eighteen hours of rest and to have someone prepare me a bath. Even though Aldwin had suggested I stay in bed, I was itching to get up and brush my hair. I made my way as slow as a ninety year old woman over to my dresser. I sat down in front of the mirror and looked at my pale reflection.