Immortals And Melodies (Blood And Guitars #2) (29 page)

“You were right to call me.” Mark met my eyes, and I was counting on the pain I saw there. It meant that he still cared enough for Aurora to do whatever it might take to save her. He looked at me and at the angle I was holding Aurora to avoid bumping the spindle that stuck out of her back six inches. “I sent for supplies, but I had no idea it was this bad.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly typed a message to someone. “When did she last feed?” he asked as he pulled a penlight from his jacket and forced Aurora’s eyelids open one at a time to check the state of her pupils.

“She had a drink at the club.”

“No, I said
feed
– as in fresh blood – straight from the source.”

“Before she changed me.”
I sensed how bad this was only as I spoke the words aloud. “She’s been pretty focused on teaching me everything. We have blood in the fridge, but she hasn’t gone out to feed since she made me.” I heard something like a growl emitting low in Mark’s throat, but he was too busy assessing Aurora’s condition to respond otherwise. “What are we going to do?”

“I need to get this wood out of her. It’s poisoning her, draining her life as we speak. I didn’t come prepared for surgery, but my supplies should be here soon. I need towels.”

I nodded in the direction of the nearest bathroom, and Mark raced there and back, carrying several clean bath towels. He bent low and gently lifted my drenched T-shirt from around the wooden spindle. Dark blood slowly oozed from around the wound as he took a second to inspect it before rolling a towel to cover it again.

“You said Malena did this,” he stated. “What happened exactly?”

“There was a fight at Club Sanguin. In the middle of the fight Aurora fell from the second floor,” I said in an attempt to clarify. But
fell
wasn’t the right word. “I mean, Malena kicked her in the chest and sent her flying backward. She crashed into the banister that had already broken and that’s when the spindle … well, you know….”

Mark shook his head and then seemed to pull his focus back. “Do you think you can move her?”

I nodded and checked Aurora’s position in my arms before I slowly got to my feet. Mark followed me down the hall to the bedroom Aurora and I had been sharing. The same room I had become a vampire in just the night before. With Mark’s help, I gently laid Aurora on her side on the bed. We propped her up with pillows to keep her from rolling onto the spindle. I stepped back, noticing for the first time how much blood now covered my entire chest and had soaked through the top half of my jeans.

“They’re here,” Mark stated. Now that he mentioned it, I could hear two more sets of footsteps approaching the front door. I went with him to help carry everything. Beck and a petite blonde vampire that Mark introduced as Hana were at the door, their arms full of medical supplies. I realized at once that Hana must be Mark’s new girlfriend. I was fairly certain Aurora had mentioned she was a nurse. That was reassuring. The more help we had, the better. I followed Mark to the trunk and retrieved the rest of the equipment, carrying it inside to the master suite. Hana was opening sterile packets of gauze, and Beck stood back, staring in horror at the scene before us.

“I’m going to have to surgically remove the piece of wood,” Mark said to me.

I nodded. “Just tell me what to do.”

“Leave us.” Mark’s words were a command, not a request, but that just made me angry.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said stubbornly, stepping closer to the bed again. I heard a low growl and realized that it was coming from my throat this time. Pain and anger flashed in Mark’s eyes as I stared at him, but the anger wasn’t directed at me.

“Go on, honey” Hana said sweetly to me. “You’re hurt, too, you know. You could use a drink.”

“I’m fine,” I protested. Did they really expect me to leave her?

“Someone sank their teeth into you,” Mark said matter-of-factly. My fingers instinctively moved to the torn flesh of my throat. It was still bleeding, but I hadn’t felt the pain since Malena had bitten me. “You’ve also sustained an injury that resulted in some damage to one of your lungs. I can hear it when you breathe. It’s probably a broken rib or two.” I stopped breathing then, silently cursing my inability to break the habit that had given me away, although, talking was impossible without it. “You need blood, and since your maker cannot provide it, you’ll have to use what’s in the kitchen, but that won’t heal your wounds as quickly as Aurora’s blood would have. Listen to reason. One unconscious person is enough.” He seemed to know that wasn’t enough to persuade me as he talked, but I realized that he was right. I’d been blocking out the pain, because Aurora was more important, but I could definitely feel it now that he’d called my attention to it again. We stood there in silence for a moment, and when Mark spoke again his voice was filled with agony. “Aurora’s wounds are severe. I’m not confident I can heal them, but it’s going to take all of my concentration if I’m going to try.”

I had no argument for that, and he knew it.

Beck picked up my duffel bag of clothes and gestured to the door with a jerk of his head. “Come on, man. Let’s give the doc some space.” I forced my feet to carry me toward the door, pausing briefly to turn to Mark again.

“I can’t do this whole vampire thing without her.”

Mark met my eyes and seemed to understand. Beck walked with me to the living room where he stopped, studying me for a moment.

“We don’t want Aurora seeing you all covered in blood when she wakes up. She’ll think it’s yours.”

He had a point. He held my bag out, and I took it from him and headed for the guest bathroom. I was listening to the sounds coming from the master suite, but so far it was pretty quiet. Nothing seemed to be happening yet. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news. Then I realized that they were probably communicating silently, and it probably wasn’t either. I heard the other vampire heartbeats in the house, strong and vibrant compared to Aurora’s faltering one. When I turned on the shower, the sound of the hot water falling helped to drown out even that. I scrubbed Aurora’s blood from my skin, watching as it swirled in pink ribbons and circled the drain at my feet. I thought about O’Shea and the other guys and wondered how long I could hold them at bay with excuses about needing a break before we went on tour. Eventually, they’d realize something was wrong. They’d come looking for me.

My neck began to throb as I washed, or maybe I was just more aware of the pain now. I scrubbed myself until the water ran clear; wishing I could wash the memories of Aurora’s broken body down the drain along with her blood. I toweled off and pulled on a pair of boxers and some jeans from my bag. My attempt at pulling on a T-shirt was foiled by the pain that raced across my side as I tried to get my arm in the sleeve. As if I needed a reminder that I had broken ribs to deal with. I dropped the shirt and took a deep breath out of habit, regretting it instantly as the pain resurfaced with a vengeance.

As I turned for the bathroom door, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. My throat was chewed up pretty bad. No wonder it hurt. I wasn’t worried, though. I knew it would heal. It was still shocking to see this new version of myself staring back at me. Most of the changes had been subtle ones, but to me it was like looking at someone who you’d only known as a drunk, now clean and sober for the first time. My eyes were clear and piercing, and I thought about how much fun it would be to get on stage with my new physique and abilities. The excitement was cut short as I heard a nauseating crack from the room where Mark was working to save Aurora. I winced as I walked back into the living room and found Beck sitting on the sofa. He seemed to be trying to ignore the noises coming from the next room. I was doing exactly the opposite, wishing Mark would drop the wall around his mind so I could catch a glimpse of what was going on in there. I changed my mind when that thought was followed by a sickeningly wet sound. I closed my eyes in denial as I realized it was the spindle being pulled from Aurora’s abdomen.

I couldn’t take it. Waiting around to find out if your wife is going to survive being staked is more than any man can handle. I’d never felt so completely helpless in my entire life. I cursed and rushed to the back door, escaping out into the cool night air. The dark night was eerily calm, in complete contrast to the gale of raw emotions rushing through me. I walked along the beach a short ways, the coarse sand giving way under my bare feet as I moved. I didn’t make it far before my legs refused to carry me, and I sank to my knees at the water’s edge.

Chapter 38

Trey

I’M NOT SURE HOW long I’d been sitting by the ocean before Beck found me. He didn’t say anything at first, just sat down next to me and watched the sea foam swirl and gather.

“No news?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. If anything had changed, he’d have let me know immediately.

“Mark’s still working.”

I nodded, wrapping my fingers around a stick that was lying in the sand next to me. I stood and tossed it insanely far over the rolling waves. Pain raced across my chest and side, and I winced, looking down at the huge bruise that spread across my chest. It was a purple color almost dark enough to be black. I sighed and looked at Beck. He was watching me carefully.
I met his eyes and saw something in them that surprised me: respect. I knew Beck was a Catalyst fan, a loyal one, it seemed, but it wasn’t often that I spent this much one-on-one time with a fan.

“It must be hard,” he said, looking back at the ocean. “Having to keep all of this from the other guys. How much do they know?”

“They don’t know anything,” I said. “It has to be that way. It’s the only way to keep them safe … Even that wasn’t enough to keep Wes safe.”

He turned to me. “Wes? You mean-”

“Vampires killed him.”

Beck’s tone matched the confusion on his face when he spoke again. “What could vampires possibly want with Wes?”

“They didn’t. They wanted me,” I said, clenching my fists. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Is all of this because your relationship with Aurora went public?” he asked, slowly catching on.

“And that was only because of Malena,” I said, feeling the pressure in my chest build. “It’s all her fault,” I continued, raising my voice. “All of it. Wes is dead because of what she did, and tonight she staked Aurora.” Beck looked at me in concern, getting to his feet. He held his hands out and took a tentative step toward me.

“Trey, let’s talk about this.”

I hadn’t realized until then that my fangs had unsheathed themselves and my eyes had taken on their icy blue luminescence. “Someone has to stop Malena,” I said, grasping for the first ounce of clarity I’d felt since the night had fallen apart. One by one, Malena was taking the people I loved from me. “I’m not about to stand by and let her hurt someone else.” I moved to get past Beck, and he stepped in front of me, blocking the way. His own fangs were out now, his eyes glowing.

“Trey, listen to yourself. You’re not being reasonable.”

“Let me go, Beck,” I stated, trying to push him out of the way. Beck pushed back against me, digging his heels into the sand stubbornly.

“You’re not doing Aurora any favors by getting yourself killed while she’s hanging on by a thread.” I stared at him, my heart reverberating in my chest. “You’re right where you need to be,” he continued. “Mark has his hands full with your wife. You need to be here when she wakes up. Besides,” he gave me a knowing look. “This isn’t you. You’re not that guy.” I sighed, feeling like a balloon that was being slowly deflated. Beck watched me carefully, as if trying to discern my resolve. “Antonio will take care of Malena when he gets back,” he added. Antonio had mentioned at the full moon ritual that he was leaving for the West coast on business. He’d have left yesterday. I nodded, and Beck relaxed his stance, letting go of me.