Page 70 of Jagged Souls

He’s sitting up against the wall, his left arm completely gone, his right leg only attached by the smallest bit of flesh. He didn’t heal himself in the nick of time so he could join the fight.

He used the last of his energy to save our brother.

I run towards him despite the pull of my girl, trusting Mother and my brothers to bring her home, trusting her to be strong enough to survive until I get there. Leno has been with me nearly all my life. Only a year separates us. Most of my memories have him in them.

We built pillow forts in our rooms and waged battles on each other in the middle of the night, doing our best to sneak through ‘no man’s land’ (ie: the hall where Mother could catch us).

We taught Khalid how to scribble on the walls and shit in the corner of the house to distract her so we could sneak into the cookie jar.

We snuck out of the house as preteens, learned how to hot wire the family car together. Learned how to drive.

And when he lost his eyes, I found him a dog. A stray who needed him as much as he needed it.

He never backed a single coup to take my throne. He has never seen me as a threat, as an enemy, as anything other than his older brother. Not even when he found out I was a hybrid.

He stood against the fucking reaper to save my life.

I can’t lose him.

I won’t.

“Stay with me,” I say as I drop to my knees beside him, having already pulled out a potion on the way over.

But I only have three vials left, and even in my wrecked state, I know they won’t be enough to save him. His injuries are too severe, and he’s our secondary healer. Mother’s with my wife.

At least, I hope she’s with my wife, but what if she never made it? These halls are full of werewolves, the town having shrunk to just this school over four years, since the kid in our garage basement had been chased out.

For a second, I’m torn between the need to stay with my brother and the need to run towards my girl.

But Micha doesn’t needmeto save her. Doesn’t need me to carry her out of here like a white knight with a massive fucking ego.

She is my equal, and she is a fighter.

She will survive long enough for me to get a vampire to take Leno home, back to Louise so she can heal him.

So my heart hammering, I raise the potion to Leno’s lips. I can hear the beat of his heart splashing out on the ground around us. Can hear it struggling inside his chest.

“Aleric!” I shout. “Vlad!”

Footsteps race towards me from all directions.

“Leno!” Ezriel and Enoch shout.

Khalid reaches me first, pulling out more potions from inside his jacket. Enoch and Ezriel grab his arm and leg and hold them in place while we feed him one potion at a time.

But they’re not doing a damn thing. He’s too far gone.

“Stop…” he finally says, admitting what we cannot. “Tell Krypto…”

“You can tell him yourself when we get you home.” I turn to Vlad, who’s standing silently beside us. Only one other vampire has survived, a woman with dark-blue hair. “Take him back to Louise.”

He stares at me, then shakes his head. “He won’t survive the journey in this state.”

“It’s his best chance.”

“Varius…” My head turns back to him, tears burning my eyes.

“You’re going to be fine.”