Page 68 of Rose and Shadows
I saw him tense, the one sign he was letting show in the midst of battle that I’d affected him, that he’d registered me. After being in combat with him before, I knew how big a deal that was for him.
Red magic swept over me, then I startled as I found myself clothed and also no longer sticky. I looked down as I fought to push myself toward the foot of the bed to see that I was in my black tactical pants and my tank, even my motorcycle jacket over the top, my boots on.
I smiled.Sylas.
He’d covered me all the way. He got it. He always fucking got it—got me.
I couldn’t see him anywhere, though.
But then I felt a mammoth surge of power—his that I most definitely could clock by now—throughout the entire building. Screams and roars sounded in its wake.
A gasp escaped me as I heard a wolf roar in the distance.
Mom!
She was here too!
I couldn’t… I couldn’t believe it.
My gaze darted to the open door and then I even saw her bounding by with a vampire clamped in her jaw, in full wolfform, that auburn fur and her massive form similar to mine when I wolfed out unmistakable to me.
I managed to get to the foot of the bed, then I pushed off, my boots touching the floor. I had to slap my hand down to the bed itself to steady myself, though.
Victor caught my eye as he pushed through the partially destroyed wall, then snarled at my dad, before lunging at him in a burst of speed I could barely register in my current state.
But my dad did.
He slammed his hand forward and Victor went crashing through the wall—and another.
And another.
And even another after that.
“Contain him, Cas!” Sylas’ voice thundered in the distance. “No one leaves here alive!”
“Least of all him!” I heard Cassius reply, the sound sending a thrill through me.
I jolted as my dad suddenly burst in front of me.
In another whirr of speed, he was holding a bottle out to me full of what looked like blood, but was also glowing with a translucent film.
“Sustenance fused with the antidote to the holy water coursing through your veins.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, as I took it after he sweetly screwed off the top for me.
I started gulping it down the moment the first drop of blood touched my tongue.
Fresh blood. Not from a blood bag.
He’d had a feeder fill this up very recently, so it was as close to feeding from the vein without being able to take the time to do so right now.
He stroked my hair as I drank, feeling that chill permeating my veins easing off, a warmth taking its place as it killed the holy water, and the blood itself also rejuvenated me.
“I’m so very sorry, Lazriel.”
I came up for air. “Not your fault, Dad. Thanks… for coming for me.”
As I smiled, then gulped down the rest, he told me, “I’d do nothing less for you.”
