Chapter 25: Ironing out the Wrinkles

WILLOW

I let myself float through an open window of the hospital, hugging the floor as I slip under a crack in a door. I know this door leads to Lira’s office. I take form in front of her and Demitri, who are surrounded by open books and scattered papers covered in writing.

“Willow!” Lira exclaims, startled. “You always catch me off guard when you do that!” she chides.

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to raise any eyebrows. I need to talk to both of you.”

Demitri rises from his seat and gives me a slight bow. “Princess, I’m glad to see you made it back in one piece,” he says with a smirk.

“There was never any doubt that I wouldn’t,” I assure him.

Lira gestures to the books and papers scattered around them. “As you can see, we’ve been digging into everything we can find. We’ve written some spells, but they haven’t been effective. I’m sorry, Willow. We’ll keep trying though,” she says, her voice heavy with disappointment.

“I have a new gift,” I tell her, taking her hands in mine. “I discovered it while I was fighting a vampire. It’s…well, let me show you.”

I glance around her office and spot an apple in a basket of fruit. I hold out my hand and call for the apple. In an instant, it is in my hand. It hasn’t floated across the room, it has simply vanished from the basket and appeared in my hand.

Lira gasps. “Willow!” Her eyes are wide. “How?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I was in the middle of a fight, then the vampire…he made me angry. I reached out my hand and said I wanted his heart…and then it was there, in my hand, and he was turning to dust.

“I was shocked. There was no blood, no gore. Just his heart in my hand. So, when they attacked the next day, I tried it again with a vampire named Gustav. I called for his heart too and…boom! It was in my hand. Do you think I could call for the splinter in Andrei’s chest and remove it?”

Lira and Demitri exchange a look of utter shock, then turn their gaze back to me.

“Maybe,” Demitri begins, “but I think we should experiment a bit more to see what this new gift of yours can do.”

Lira nods in agreement. “Yes. Let’s see… I’ll take this pen and hide it, then you call for it.”

She picks up a pen from the table. I close my eyes as she hides it.

“Okay. Call for it.”

I visualize the pen in my mind and call for it. It appears in my hand. We all burst into laughter.

“See? I think I can remove the splinter without having to cut into his heart!” I tell them, excitement bubbling in my voice.

Demitri falls silent, deep in thought. Then he looks up at me.

“Let me try something,” he says, his voice gruff. “Close your eyes. I’ll hide something, then once it’s hidden, I’ll tell you what it is, and you call for it.”

I nod, listening to him move around the room. Then I hear him close to me.

“Open your eyes. I hid a stone. It has a special meaning to me. I showed Lira this stone, then hid it. You call for my stone.”

I stare at him. “A stone?” I give him a puzzled look. “Okay.” I stretch out my hand. “Demitri’s stone,” I call. Nothing happens. I try again. Still, no stone appears in my hand.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper.

“It’s because you need to visualize what it is in your mind first. If your mind can see it, it can focus on it,” he explains. He pulls his hand out of his pocket, revealing a stone.

“So, I’ll need to see the splinter first in order for my mind to call for it.” Tears well up in my eyes. “How can I do that? I don’t want to cut into him!”

“I think we could try an X-ray,” Lira suggests. “If we can get an image of the splinter, perhaps then…”

I look at them hopefully. “Yes! Let’s get him into an X-ray and see what we can find.”

“We’ll need to bring him back to the hospital again,” Lira says. “It will have to be done at night, when there aren’t as many people around.”

“Besides the royal family, no one knows Andrei is still alive,” Demitri reminds us.

“I’ll talk to Boris and my parents. Let’s plan this for tonight. The sooner we can revive Andrei and restore his strength, the sooner we can go on the offensive and get the vampires on the run.”

We agree to meet after everyone has settled for the night. I head to the pack house to speak to my parents and Boris.

Explaining our plan surprises them, but they understand that this is the Goddess’s way of tipping the scales. Giving me the ability to save my mate without destroying him is truly her gift.

My father insists that we include Roman and Uncle Gunnar in this as well. Waking a vampire could be dangerous, and he wants me safe. Mate or not!

We spend the evening with our guests, and I am able to speak to my team, and the other two teams as well. It is quiet and peaceful for the time being, but they are on high alert. They haven’t spotted any vampires and promise to inform us immediately if they do. Especially if Mihai is spotted.

Roman and Gunnar are shocked to hear that Andrei is still very much alive. They are a bit upset that we had kept them out of the loop. I have to explain that Andrei is my mate, and the decisions are mine and mine alone. That shuts them up.

We all eat dinner together, then chat until all the mates decide to go to bed. Then we can move Andrei from the cemetery to the hospital under the cover of darkness.

I go to the crypt first to tell Andrei what we are planning to do. I need his permission, and I need him to continue keeping his aura low. Once he is awake again, he can unleash his power and let the vampire kingdom know he is alive and well and coming for them.

ANDREI

I’VE BEEN LYING HERE FROZEN FOR… I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY DAYS OR WEEKS. I HAVE NO SENSE OF TIME. I KNOW WILLOW HAS BEEN NEAR, THEN SHE WAS GONE.

I’M NOT EVEN SURE IF MY CONVERSATIONS WITH HER ARE REAL OR JUST DREAMS! I DO KNOW SHE MOVES ME. I FEEL A CONNECTION SO DEEP WITH HER.

I CAN SAY I HUNGER FOR HER. IT’S CARNAL IN ORIGIN. A FEELING DEEP IN MY LOINS TO CLAIM HER FOR ETERNITY.

I also know Lira has been here. But I get no image of conversation with her. Just Willow has stepped into my mind.

Only her voice calls to me. She tells me it’s the mate bond that allows her to tap into my thoughts. I don’t really care about the how.

All I know is that it’s pure magic to hear her voice in my head. The last time she spoke, she informed me they are taking me back to the infirmary for a chest X-ray. She needs to visualize the size and shape of the shard lodged in my heart to summon it.

I don’t fully grasp what she means, but I’d agree to anything to escape this stasis. I yearn to hold her, to feel her warmth, to taste her lips. I need to know that these feelings I’ve been nurturing for her are genuine.

She’s feisty and blunt. But she’s also the bravest, most captivating woman I’ve ever met. If my heart could beat, it would beat solely for her.

I’m convinced she’s my soulmate. My heart’s desire. I want nothing more than to survive and build a future with her.

There was a suggestion to cut open my heart and have her extract the shard, but she declined. Even if her blood could heal the wound and restart my heart, it would revert me back to being human.

After living for so many years, how would a human body react? Would I age from that day forward, or all at once? Willow deemed it too risky to attempt. So, I wait for their decision on the next steps.

The gurney I’m lying on starts to move. It’s not entirely uncomfortable. There’s a mattress on the gurney.

I can feel the night air and I inhale the scents around me. Wolves. I can smell the wolves. Boris, Kaiser, Lyric, Willow, and two others.

Their scents are familiar, but I can’t quite place them…

“Okay. We’re taking you into the examination room. We’ll run the X-ray and try to get a clear image of the shard. I need these visuals to visualize the shard when I summon it. Once I have the shard in my hand, I don’t know how long it’ll be before you can move. We’re in uncharted territory. Just remember to keep your energy low. I don’t want any nearby vampires sensing your power and alerting Mihai before we’re ready. Can you do that?”

“I can.”

I hear a buzzing sound, then more movement as they adjust my position on the gurney. Then more buzzing. This repeats twice more.

Then the gurney is wheeled down a hallway and I’m covered with a blanket and left alone. I’m keeping my power so low that I can’t hear or smell anything.

I have no idea how long I’ve been left here. My memories blur together. My first transformation. The pain and hunger.

The primal urge to mate as I feed. It is excruciating, but I resist. I didn’t choose this life. My father chose it for me.

I am turned in my twenty-sixth year. My parents have succumbed to the fever. I had just buried them a few days prior. My mourning had barely begun when I was attacked.

The monster who ended my life and then awakened me to this one is a cruel and hideous beast. He fed me his blood from his vein for weeks, effectively binding me to him.

He had many names, but he insisted I call him Father. He was no father. Just a killing machine, but he was lonely.

All the others from his village had been dying off. They had offended the gods that granted them immortality, and they were denied sunlight.

Forced to live in darkness, unable to bear children, and slowly going mad. My father and the three elders that I had fallen to were all that remained.

He wasn’t close to them. He created me, his first turned son, to walk beside him. I could never follow his lead. I was too strong-willed.

So, after enduring a few hundred years of his brutality toward me and humans, I walked away. I vowed never to live in his shadow again.

So, he created a new son. Mihai shared his personality. They were both twisted and depraved. For centuries, they roamed the world, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Whenever they entered my territory, I would fend off my father. I was younger and always remained stronger than him, despite his status as a master vampire.

I was the one who finally ended him. He was far gone into madness. There was nothing left of his mind. Convincing him he was godlike was easy.

He walked calmly into the sun and disintegrated into the wind. But that left me as the oldest living son of the last master vampire.

The three elders were nearing their end too, so I became the vampire king. As soon as it is physically possible, I plan to reclaim my throne and banish all the vampires to hell.

What my brother has done has turned the vampire world into an abomination. They must be eradicated. I know in my heart that there are those of us who have abstained from living as my brother has commanded, and I will not destroy them.

But new laws will be enforced. A new life will be created. We will live in peace again, and I will have a queen by my side.

“Come on, my love! Free me from this hell! Let me taste you!” I scream in my mind.