Page 107 of Dark Embers

It seemed to take hours to carry him across the road and down the stairs to the secret janitorial door. The task would’ve been impossible if we’d been any farther from the subway. It was onlyafter we got onto the secret platform that I was able to breathe a little easier.

We set Tobias onto the ground while we waited for the train to return, and I sent an emergency text to Celeste requesting a gurney and medical assistance because I sincerely doubted my ability to carry the massive teenager any further.

*?*?*

We made it back to the Dome without incident, but the subway ride seemed to take forever, and Tobias was unresponsive the entire way.

My back and arms flared with exhaustion from carrying him—we didn’t have anywhere appropriate to set him during the train ride, and I didn’t want to risk the strain of lifting him again, both for Tobias’s sake and my own. So Niko and I held him across our laps.

I had no words of comfort to offer my grieving assistant. I had lost many friends in battle against the vampires over the years. I knew that no words could make the loss any better. And though Tobias still breathed, I was not about to reassure Niko that his friend would be fine because I had no idea if it was true.

The bullets in Tobias’s body were poisoning him from the inside out. Dragons were—for lack of a better word—allergic to lead. It burned them on contact. I could only imagine the searing pain he was in. Maya was an excellent healer, but she couldn’t work her magic until every last pellet was removed, and I doubted the boy would live long enough for that.

Finally, the train stopped at the other end of the tunnel. I gritted my teeth and kept my fists clenched as we made our way to the school’s entrance.

Thankfully, Celeste was waiting for us with a wheeled bed from the hospital wing with Arya, Ashlyn, and Shea impatiently hovering by her side. The worry on Celeste’s face turned to shock as we came into view.

“Is that the Dracul boy?” she gasped. “What happened to him?”

“We’ll find out the details soon enough,” I replied quickly. “Hurry, Niko. Up and onto the gurney on three.”

I counted off again, and we gently raised Tobias onto the bed.

“Celeste, please keep wandering eyes away,” I said. “We’ll take him from here.”

Celeste nodded, disappearing down the hall to do as I requested. I knew that the assignment I gave her was a tough one, but I wanted to limit Tobias’s visibility to the other students. We needed to find out exactly what happened before the rumor mill took over.

Taking hold of the rail, I pushed the gurney in the direction of the infirmary, making sure that the other students followed. Shea trailed us, and rules be damned, I couldn’t ask her to leave. Her presence here now had nothing to do with her and me, and everything to do with her best friend needing her support. If anyone had a problem with that, they’d answer to me.

As we approached the infirmary door, my watch buzzed as an emergency message blasted from it.

“Attention students: Tonight’s curfew requires everyone to go back to their respective common rooms and dorms for the remainder of the evening. Any students caught outside of theirassigned wings will undergo daily sim room detention for the rest of the year.”

“Thank you, Celeste,” I whispered.

A mao student was walking out, holding an ice pack against her head. It fell from her hand and she gasped as she saw Tobias’s gruesome form.

“Out of the way, child!” I barked. My urgency and anxiety removed any filter I’d kept on as director of the school, but I didn’t have time to regret my exclamation.

Fortunately, the girl did move away, but she rubber-necked until we burst into the infirmary.

“Good gracious, what happened?!” Maya asked, her mouth agape in horror.

“Another vampire attack,” I informed, panting from the exertion. “Tobias needs your aid thirty minutes ago.”

“Right,” Maya replied, pushing her ever-falling glasses higher on her nose. “Put him right here.”

I pushed the gurney to an open part of the infirmary where curtains had been parted across from the still slumbering Letti—the exact spot where Shea and I had been earlier. That was the bed Celeste had chosen. I didn’t have time to consider the irony of that, or to dwell on the sinful memories of what Shea and I had done in my room after.

“Multiple lead pellets are embedded in his body,” I said, getting out of Maya’s way so she could see to Tobias. “Worst of all, he’s lost a lot of blood.”

Maya shook her head, feeling at Tobias’s neck. “We’ve got to get both under control. His pulse is weak. His chest is barely rising.”Maya tapped the display screen attached to the bed and began to work.

I heard sobbing coming from behind me, and I turned to look at my four charges. Arya, Ashlyn and especially Niko from the looks of it, needed medical attention as well.

“Do you have any well-trained students who can assist with the others who were present during the attack?” I asked Maya, not wanting to disturb her but also not wanting to neglect the needs of my other students.

“Yes, get on my phone and send an S.O.S. to my mentorship group,” she instructed over her shoulder without looking up as she dropped one of the pellets onto a metal dish beside her. “They will know to come right away.”

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