Page 48 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

Maeve

I rolled onto my side and snuggled into Vermillion, resting my head on his chest. We were on the cliff in the woods near my house, the same one I’d taken him to all those weeks ago.

The sun had set on the horizon, painting the sky in beautiful peaches and tangerines.

The heat of summer coated our skin in a thick blanket of warmth and security.

We were safe here together. Nothing could harm us.

“It’s a beautiful day,” I said, wrapping an arm over his stomach while he lazily ran his fingers up and down my spine.

We’d taken each other four times already, but ever the insatiable slut, I wanted more. I’d always want more. My heart kicked as he laughed and kissed the top of my head.

“We could go swimming,” he said. “Would you like that?”

I hummed a noncommittal noise and glanced up at him, resting my chin on his sternum. “I feel like there’s something more important we’re supposed to do.”

“There’s nothing more important than this,” he murmured, leaning down to take my mouth. I sighed into the contact, relishing how soft his lips always were.

“Stay with me, Maeve,” came the sound of a familiar woman on the wind. It sounded like Guin, but that couldn’t be. What the hell was she doing here? She didn’t know about this place. It was mine. Mine and his.

“Goddamn it, Mill,” said a deep baritone. “Don’t do this to me again. You don’t fucking do this to me.”

Fenris?

I furrowed my brow and glanced down at Mill, who shared my look of confusion.

“What is that?” I asked. “Do you hear that?”

He nodded.

Flashes of a bright room and a woman with curly brown hair blurred through my mind, almost like memories trying to yank me out of paradise.

“It sounded like Fenris,” Mill said. He sat up and glanced around.

More memories burst through my mind’s eye—the stink of vampires, the stab of sharp fangs in my neck, the taste of rotten blood in my mouth.

And then…Mill. Blood-soaked and limping.

The sensation of strength suddenly filled my bones, lifting me off the cold cement floor, forcing away the darkness in my soul.

It had been so cold, so desolate. I was sure I was dying.

But there he was, burning it clean with his vitality.

It had ripped through me like an inferno, and whatever had been done to me was suddenly un done.

“Mill…I think we died,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes and chuckled. “Again?”

I laughed and glanced around. Even though this was a perfect replica of my cliff, something was off. The sun had been setting for hours…days. The wind hadn’t blown, not once. And the birds were chirping gleefully, not a predator in sight save for us.

“Where are we?” I asked. “Is this a memory?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care one way or the other.”

“Vermillion, keep her here,” Morwyn said. “You both stay here, understand me? I’m not losing you again. I’m not ? —”

“We have to go back,” I said.

He shrugged. “It’s nice here, isn’t it? We could stay.”

“We agreed that life was worth living,” I said. “Me and you. You and me. Together.”

The sound of Mill’s chuckle filled me with joy, and his amazing smile lit up his face. “I guess you’re right.”

I remembered most of what happened, the tumult of images assaulting me.

I should have panicked. I’d been drained and fed vampire blood.

I’d been beaten and abused. But I’d also had my revenge.

I tore Marx’s heart from his chest and ripped his head off his body, and he wouldn’t be able to hurt my family any longer.

Up until Mill found me, I’d been so weak, sure that I would die, sure that Marx would turn me into one of them.

Could a shifter even turn into a vampire?

I didn’t know. But that sudden surge of strength… that wave of fire…

“Did you save me?” I asked.

“You saved me, baby girl,” he said. “We saved each other.”

“Maeve, Goddamn it!” Guin’s anxious voice filled my senses, lighting a sense of urgency in my soul. Something powerful overtook me, like pack magic but stronger, more furious, and overbearing. It demanded I respond. Kodiak.

Mill lay back down, and I rested my head on his chest again, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

“So we agree, then?” I said. “We’ll go back?”

He tangled his hands in my hair and sighed. “Whatever you say, sweetheart. I’ll go anywhere with you.”

“On the count of three.” I held him tight, refusing to let him go. “One… Two… Three…” I closed my eyes, and our Eden drifted away.

* * *

I’d never given much thought to dying.

My mother passed when I was eleven, and though I understood all things must come to an end, I didn’t fully comprehend the precarious tightrope upon which we mortals walked until the Grim Reaper gave mine a good shake.

But I’d looked that fucker in the eyes twice now and told him to beat feet.

When I opened my eyes again, a wave of pain and nausea hit me so fiercely, I immediately rolled to the side and heaved up whatever was in my gut.

It tasted awful, and I kept going until it was all purged.

My body ached, and my head pounded between my eyes.

Every muscle protested my movements, but a cool hand greeted my forehead, and a calming energy floated through my nerves, soothing the anguish back into dormancy.

“There she is,” said a familiar voice. Guin.

“Decided to rejoin us among the living?” Sol asked, squeezing my hand.

“Where’s Mill?” I croaked. Someone had taken a sandblaster to my throat, but none of that was as urgent as locating my mate…my Mill.

“He’s right here,” Morwyn said, touching my neck to check my pulse. “We couldn’t get you two apart. You’ve been clinging to him since we brought you in.”

I blinked to my left and found Mill squinting at me through bleary, tired eyes. He looked like shit. His cheeks were sunken, and his skin had turned a deathly pallor that made me want to cry. I imagined I looked worse.

“What happened?” I tried to say.

“Shh.” Morwyn held a straw to my lips, and I sucked back the most delicious water I’d ever tasted.

“You ripped a vampire’s heart out,” Sol said with a laugh. “And then tore off his head.”

“You’re a regular badass,” Fenris added.

I started to smile, but then the thought of who had been abducted with me hit me like a freight train. I started to struggle, trying to sit up. “Ginny!”

“She’s okay,” Guin said, holding me down, forcing me against the hospital bed. “She’s just fine. Kodiak found her before anything serious happened.”

“You’re the one with the injuries,” Morwyn said. “You need to rest.”

I relaxed at hearing she had survived and held up my hand to wipe my face. I had bite marks up and down my forearm in deep red circles. A sob poured out of my chest before I could stop it, and I glanced down at my body, where even more wounds marred my skin.

“You’ll heal,” Morwyn said. “I promise. They’ll fade.”

“Am I a vampire now?” I asked through broken cries. The last thing I remembered was those sick fuckers casting some spell and Marx forcing his blood down my throat.

“No,” Morwyn said. “No, Maeve. We got there in time.”

“Mill saved you,” Kodiak said, suddenly appearing in the doorway to the room. “Whatever was being done to you, he pushed it out.”

“I think it was the…blood sharing…that made your connection so strong,” Morwyn explained. “But, we’ll talk about that later, okay?” She turned to my family. “Everyone out. They need to rest.”

I let my eyes close, and I drifted back into unconsciousness.

Days passed like centuries after that. It was a long road to healing, and not just because I’d been drained of blood and forced into some vampiric ritual.

Mill had given me so much of his strength that we’d yet to find an equilibrium between us again.

The connection between us had been ripped open, turning a rope into a tunnel, making each of our bodies weaker.

He would get better and try to send it to me.

I would feel better and send it back to him.

There was a particular kind of intimacy in that, I supposed.

No other set of mates so strongly shared magic, but Morwyn warned us that it could be detrimental.

She wouldn’t leave us alone until we were back to a more typical homeostasis.

We were released from the infirmary once we both could walk, but it could be weeks or months until we returned to normal.

I spent my days sketching and sleeping…sleeping and sketching.

I did portraits of anyone I could, trying to heal the neural pathways between my fingers and brain.

My hands didn’t work like before, but Morwyn assured me they would get there.

I just had to keep trying. My favorite was when Mill was relaxed in his post-climax glow with a slight smile on his lips, his hair tussled, and that sated look in his eyes.

“That’s creepy, you know,” he said, looking down at my drawing of him. “You sketching me all the time.”

I raised an eyebrow. “This coming from the guy who tracked my phone and hijacked my computer?”

He’d told me how he found us, that he’d been running surveillance on my electronics and eventually hacked into Ginny’s computer to track her smartwatch.

I probably should have been upset about the invasion of privacy, but after everything, I didn’t mind so much.

Secretly, I kind of liked the idea of him watching me, especially during those more intimate moments.

That conversation had led to this most recent round of lovemaking, and there was no greater pleasure than being in his bed… our bed.

Mill chuckled and kissed my temple.

“You’re my favorite muse, big bad wolf.”

We tried to move on. But the nightmares came almost every night. Vampires ripped me to pieces. Fangs pierced my skin. I screamed and sobbed and tried to get away, only to wake up crying in Vermillion’s arms.

“It’s okay,” he said, kissing the tears from my cheeks, pulling me tighter to his body. “You’re here. It was just a dream.”