“It…was my…honor…”
Beth grabbed V’s arm and jerked it over the parted lips. “Drink. I need you todrink—”
“…to serve him…” The female’s eyes rolled back. “The future…King…”
Bright red drops fell from the Brother’s wrist to Salima’s hollow cheek, and as they slid off to the side, they were like tears. Dearest Lassiter, how had they not realized she’d given so much? How could they have let this happen!
“Drink,” Beth ordered in a voice she didn’t recognize. “I want you to drink, right now—”
“Mahmen?”
At first, the voice didn’t register because she was too focused on the Chosen and the fact that they were losing the female. Except then it came again.
“Mahmen…?” It was a male’s voice, deep and low. “What’s…wrong?”
Beth’s eyes whipped up to the bed. Her son, the one who had been all but a child the mere evening before, was staring at her out of the face of a full-grown stranger.
Yet his fear was that of a young, his stare wide and clinging to her as if she could fix this.
“She’ll be fine,” Beth said roughly. “You just rest—”
Salima coughed, the blood that had dripped into her mouth dotting her chin. “The…future…King—”
Things started happening fast, Doc Jane jumping in with syringes, V pressing his wrist directly onto Salima’s lips, someone else coming into the room—Ehlena, the nurse, with more equipment. Beth didn’t know what to do as she was nudged out of the way. She did know that the sound she made was like that of a wounded animal.
“Pushing epinephrine,” Doc Jane barked as she inserted a needle into the inside of the Chosen’s arm and hit the plunger. “Get me some more—”
Ehlena was prepared, holding out another dose. “She’s still not swallowing—”
“I’m on it,” V tossed back as he started running his thumb and forefinger up and down the Chosen’s esophagus.
“Mahmen…?”
Shaking herself to attention, Beth crab-walked across to the bed through streaks of blood on the floorboards. Then she put herself between L.W. and what he could see of the female.
“It’s going to be fine…she’s going to be fine…”
As she just kept repeating the lie, she stroked the damp hair off his forehead—and dimly noticed, it had an entirely different texture than before.
“Salima just needs a little help.” She glanced over her shoulder. “She needs—”
The female’s head flopped in Beth’s direction, and those myopic eyes strained as if she were trying to focus. “The future King…it was…an honor—”
There was a horrible hitch as Salima drew in a breath, and then a convulsion that left her hands slapping on the floor.
As L.W. lunged forward, Beth caught him and held him back. “No—”
“She’s dying—”
Beth grunted as she had to use all her strength to keep him in place. Jesus, he was monstrously powerful even now, before he’d properly filled out. And while they struggled, she wrenched around and checked on the Chosen—
Salima spit up the blood that V was so desperately trying to get into her, and then there was a gurgle as the female tried to draw in a breath. The choking that came next led into a seizure similar to the one L.W.’s transition had started with—how the hell were they doing this again?
Ehlena immediately got an oxygen bag and held it at the ready, as Doc Jane pressed her fingers to the side of the Chosen’s throat.
“Start CPR, now.”
Ehlena clapped the clear mask over the blood-speckled lips and nose and depressed the bag twice. Then V straddled Salima and began pumping her sternum. With each down stroke, the body jerked a little, and then there was a pause for bagging. More with the pumping.
