Page 30 of To Crave Madly
“Does anyone know what happened?” the doctor asked.
The vampire shook his head, and I did the same. “Other than her reaching out to me with some garbled words about taking too much, I have no idea what is happening to her.”
The doctor pursed his lips in thought as he studied Lori. “I’m worried that her demon may have put her into some sort of stasis, or it could be some of her mage powers manifesting to protect her from whatever happened at the Witches’ Corner. I take it you cannot reach her through your bond, um… your majesty?”
I raised a brow. It did amuse me how he quivered in my presence. Was I being an overbearing asshat? I chuckled. Most likely. “No, I cannot reach her. It is like staring into a void of pure darkness.”
“Hmm,” he mused while peering into her eyes, looking for any sign of her essence. Even the fire in her eyes was no longer burning. Two pits of emptiness stared blankly behind her lids. What had happened to her? Where had my little dove flown off to?
The ache in my chest grew as despair took a firm grip on my heart. I couldn’t lose her.
The doctor turned to the vampire. “What of you, Jasper? Have you tried to connect to her mind?”
I looked at Jasper curiously. I knew vampires had great powers of the mind, but it was usually limited to compulsion and sensing emotions unless… Well, fuck.
“Is she your mate?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. I received no response from the vampire. “Answer me!”
Rage blared in his eyes at my command, the bright blue darkening into the black of his inner beast. “You might be my King, but you have no real power here.”
He was right. I was only here because Lori had the energy to keep me here. I could do no real damage and he knew it. I had no allies up here and while this vampire was infuriating, I knew Lori trusted him, even if she didn’t believe that herself yet.
“You are right,” I acknowledged and lowered my tone. I could do this. I could be conciliating. “Is she your mate?”
He nodded. “But she hasn’t chosen me yet. We are still trying to navigate our way through everything. I don’t know how I can help, Levi.”
So that was the doctor’s name. In all the drama I hadn’t even thought to ask his name. A weary sigh escaped my lips. I’d clearly spent too much time on my own if I had forgotten the basic requirements for civility.
“But I think that the mind link you share with Lori should be stronger than whatever barrier she is hidden behind,” Levi theorised while an almost manic glint shined in his eyes.
“But you don’t know that will happen. We could be causing more harm than good.” I didn’t want to put Lori in any more danger than she was already in.
Jasper’s brow furrowed. “Even if I could enter her mind, what’s to say I could find her? I don’t have a soul bond as Lucifer does.”
“But could you take Lucifer with you?” Levi asked.
Jasper paused, his mind turning over the question. Was it possible? If he could get me past this barrier, could I find her?
“I’d be willing to try.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realised I’d said them. Lori was too important, meant too much to me to sit here and do nothing.
Jasper inclined his head in agreement before turning to Levi. “Okay, we’ll give this a go but if you see anything unusual or you think it’s gone wrong you need to break the connection immediately. I don’t think we all want to be stuck in Lori’s mind.”
Levi set about getting some chairs and some technical contraptions to monitor us as we delved into Lori’s mind. I’d never done anything like this, and I had to admit, I was a little bit excited at the prospect of plunging into the unknown.
Jasper fixed his steady gaze on me. His outward appearance made him seem calm and collected, but I could see the tight lines around his eyes and mouth, and I knew he was just as concerned about this as I was. This could be a one-way ticket into the void. There was no guarantee we would find Lori or make it back.
We positioned ourselves on either side of the bed and Levi connected a wire to each of our temples. He was still a quivering mess when he was directly near me; I could taste his fear. Or was that my fear? Shit. I wasn’t looking forward to this at all.
Jasper took one of Lori’s hands and indicated that I should do the same. Her skin was cold and clammy against mine. I willed the mark on my chest to flutter, to just give me a sign that she was still there, but there was nothing.
Jasper held his other hand out to me over Lori’s legs and I eyed it warily. “This will work better if we are touching skin to skin. Trust me, I don’t want to hold your hand any more than you want to hold mine.”
“Fine,” I replied as I took his hand in mine. This was fucking weird. I was holding hands with a vampire about to enter the mind of a demon and search for a lost soul. I did not think this was how my day was going to go when I got up this morning.
There was a nervous cough off to my left and I turned to find Levi looking between us awkwardly.
“Whatever it is you need to say, spit it out, Levi,” I said drolly. I was eager to get started on this perilous expedition and I was concerned that Lori had been gone for too long already.
“If you do find her and she is still brimming with energy, you will need to get her to expel it.”
