Duke
It’d been an hour since Dane replaced her blood with Felix’s. She was still cold and lifeless.
Her warmth, her love, her life, everything that made this body, Elora, was gone. I didn’t want to admit it at first, I still didn’t. But she was gone. I didn’t know what to do. For the first time in my life, I was lost.
How could I live without seeing her smile? How was I supposed to go on without hearing her adorable giggle? I would never hear her voice again or touch her warm skin. I couldn’t live without her.
I would not live without her.
I cared for my friends too much to ask any of them to kill me. They’d try to talk me out of it. I’d never been more sure about anything; I couldn’t be here without her.
More tears fell down my face and onto her arm as I stared at her. We’d all lost hope by now; it’d been too long. The chances of the blood transfusion working were slim, if any. None of us could make the call, though.
Her death was sudden and painful; she didn’t even have time to say anything but Lucifer’s name. Even on her deathbed, she only cared about the people she loved.
Her ability to care for people was always a trait that I admired about her. She loved so deeply–she once told me her ‘love language’ was all of them. Elora cared about others in a way that I would never understand. She was the sweetest soul I’d ever met. Even when someone wronged her, she never had a bad thing to say about them. She was my baby… and now she was gone.
“Duke,” Eugene touched my hand that cradled her head. Her upper body was in my lap; her blood stained my skin and hands red.
Looking up at Eugene, I saw fresh tears on his cheeks. His eyes held a dullness that I’d never seen before and never wanted to see again. In our thousands of years, none of us had known true sadness until now.
He gently pulled my hand away from her. “It’s time to let go,” he whispered.
The IV was still in her arm. I followed the tube up to Felix. He looked pale, and his face was completely void. No sadness, no emotion at all as he looked at her.
It could still work.
My arm wrapped back around her ribs, pulling her closer to me. “It’ll work. She just needs a few more minutes.” I quickly nodded, trying to convince myself. She’d wake up any minute now, and Dane would rush her to the hospital. He’d fix and bring her back home like nothing had ever happened.
A few minutes passed by as we waited in silence. It quieted as the clans and Jason’s pack worked together to kill the rogues. I didn’t bother to look up, but I knew the clans were a few yards away, watching the tragedy. Jason and his pack left after the last rogue was slaughtered.
Dane removed the IV from hers and Felix’s arms. I pushed my eyebrows together, confused by his actions. What was he doing?
He looked up, making eye contact with each of us. “I’m sorry, I can’t save her,” he admitted, his voice cracking with emotion.
Quin let out an annoyed breath, finally regaining his strength from the paralysis the poison in her blood put him in. “Bullshit, she’s not dead,” he denied. He started using his hands to push the blood off her chest. “Get this shit off her, she doesn’t like blood. And get her off the ground, she can’t be in the dirt–”
“Quin, please stop,” Theo’s lip wobbled. He quickly covered his eyes with his hands, his shoulders shaking as he finally lost it.
“He’s right; we should take her home,” Eugene said, glancing over his shoulder at the clans.
“Dane, her neck,” Felix blurted suddenly.
My gaze fell to the deep gash in her neck, the same one I’d been staring at for the past hour and a half. My eyes widened in hope, watching the corners of the wound slowly start to close, mending itself. “Dane?!” I questioned.
He said the blood would get her heart beating long enough so he could stitch her up. What was this? She was healing, like we did when we got injured, only much slower.
“I–I don’t know…” Dane breathed, leaning over her and touching her face. “Elora?” He said hopefully.
Please…
“I still can’t hear anything,” Lucifer whispered, dropping to his knees by her head.
“Her neck is healing itself,” Eugene mumbled. “Felix, your blood is working–”
“We don’t know that. Her body could heal, but she might not wake up, don’t get your hopes up,” Dane said quickly.
His blood could be forcing her body to mend itself, but there was no guarantee that it would bring her back to us. My hopes were already up. If we had any chance of getting her back, this was it. If this didn’t work–there was no second option.
Theo was sat by her legs, his knees to his chest and his chin resting on them. He watched her with wide eyes, tears still streaming down his face.
“I knew you weren’t dead,” Quin said as he stared down at her, “I knew she wasn’t dead.”
Come on, Baby. Wake up. Blue eyes or red eyes, I don’t care, just open them.
Her neck fully healed, not even leaving a scar. It looked perfectly normal like nothing had ever happened. I picked up her hand, studying her palm. The scar from when she’d cut her hand on the knife was also gone. Felix’s blood was healing her.
Her veins showed through her skin, contrasting blue against her pale undertones. I could see Felix’s blood moving through her body, different areas of her face and arms showing more or fewer veins every few minutes.
“Elora?” Eugene called.
“Still nothing,” Lucifer reported.
It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop as we waited for something to happen. Minutes passed by before I heard it. The sound I had grown to love, and from this day on, would always be my favorite sound.
A single beat of her heart. It was weak and quiet but filled my whole body with warmth and joy.
Theo shot up quickly, standing over us all. “Yes!” He shouted, his laughter mixed with tears. He ran his hands through his hair, relief washing over him.
Then her heart beat again.
Dane and I made eye contact, and I couldn’t help but smile. She was going to be okay…
“I–it worked?” Felix scoffed in disbelief, placing his hand over his mouth. It was the first time I’d heard the king stutter.
“Hell yeah it did!” Theo yelled again, too excited for his own good.
“I don’t know what it is yet. I could have just Frankensteined her,” Dane shrugged, still studying her closely.
Elora opened her eyes, sucking in a huge breath. Her eyes had small blue veins around them, and her irises shined a beautiful silver. Not red or her baby blue eyes. Silver.
Relief and pure joy took over my every emotion as I immediately pulled her into my chest, hugging her tightly. “Elora, I’m so sorry, Baby,” I cried tears of happiness into her shoulder. I’d never let anyone hurt her again.
She took shaky breaths, her arms tightly wrapping around my neck. “I told them you’d come,” she whispered.
“We’ll always come for you,” Quin said softly, pulling her away from me and into his arms.
Theo snorted a laugh and shot him a glare. Not the time…
Elora pulled away from Quin, looking down at herself. She widened her eyes and cringed in disgust. “Ick. Ick ick ick–”
“I know, Baby,” Felix dismissed, pulling her into his lap, and kissed her lips. “You scared the hell out of me,” he said between kisses.
She pushed her eyebrows together. “Why?” She asked. “Who’s blood is this?” She cringed again, remembering the blood on her chest.
I pushed my eyebrows together in thought. I’d never died before–not permanently. Maybe she didn’t remember dying? If she didn’t, I was beyond relieved. Her death was gruesome and painful… her lack of remembering saved me from having to compel her to forget. Nothing could have stopped me from erasing that memory from her mind–I wished I could forget it myself.
“Do we tell her?” Eugene asked through the mind-link.
Elora gave him a sharp look. “Tell me what?” She asked, shocking us
all.
How did she hear that? It wasn’t possible for her to be in our mind-link; only vampires in the same clan could access it.
Elora’s gaze landed on Lucifer, and she practically jumped into his arms. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have–”
“Let me back into your mind, Baby,” he stopped her, caressing her face.
She knitted her eyebrows. “How come you got kicked out? What happened?” She looked around at everyone again. “Who’s blood is this?” She repeated.
“When you died, I lost access to your mind,” Lucifer started. “Allow me back in. Your mind is… much nicer than mine,” he whispered.
Elora seemed confused, but she smiled at him, and I could tell from the relaxed look he gave her that she’d allowed him back in. “I couldn’t have died, though. I must have just passed out?”
“Elora, you’ve been dead for an hour and a half.” Dane deadpanned.
She pushed her eyebrows together, looking around at the clans and dead rogues surrounding the area. “No…? I was hugging Duke, then…” she blinked. “Then…”
Dane grabbed her hand. “Come here, let me look at you,” he pulled her close to him, looking at her silver eyes. “Do you feel any different?” He asked.
She shrugged. “I’m confused. Did I really die?” She asked.
He nodded. “I didn’t think I’d be able to save you,” he admitted. “How did you?” She asked.
“He replaced your blood with mine,” Felix answered.
She instantly started itching her arm. “That sounds really unsanitary.”
A chuckle rumbled through my chest, and my clan mates were quick to join. That was my Elora.
Elora was silent for several minutes as the rest of my clan hugged her, with looks of relief on all their faces.
She pulled away from Theo and looked down at herself again. “Oh my God, I actually died…” she realized, her heart beginning to pound. “What the fuck!” She yelled, her eyes starting to glow brighter.
“You better get your girl,” Ramsey chuckled nervously. “Baby–” I started.
Her eyes landed on Gavin’s body, and she started stomping over to it, a rage like I’d never seen before in her eyes. “You! You little… ugh! What is wrong with you? You can’t just ambush someone like that!” She ranted.
“Should we stop her from yelling at a corpse?” Eugene asked in a hushed voice.
“No… this is probably better than therapy. She did just die after all,” Theo shrugged, watching her with his arms crossed.
Still, I didn’t like her being so upset. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to help her; she just needed to feel. If yelling at Gavin’s dead body helped, so be it.
“How are you going to be so ugly and mean?! Pick one!” She pointed a finger down at him. “Oh, I wish you were alive so I could yell at you!” She kicked him.
As her foot made contact with his body, a flash of silver ran through his body. Her eyes were insanely bright, almost white, which scared me a bit.
Gavin groaned in pain. I blinked once, very slowly. I’d been on this planet for longer than I cared to admit. My ears and eyes had never failed me… but I had to reassess what I thought I saw and heard. His body shifted as he started to stand. That… wasn’t possible. He was dead, wasn’t he?
Elora quickly rushed to stand by Quin. “I didn’t actually mean it…” she mumbled, clinging to his arm. Her eyes slowly started getting back to the silver color.
Every single one of us in the area stared at Gavin, wondering how it was possible that he was alive.
“Nope, because I already killed this motherfucker.” Theo pressed his lips together in denial and shook his head.
“What’s going on?” Gavin spun around quickly, looking at everyone. “And I ripped out his tongue…” Theo shook his head harder. “Nope, I
don’t like it. His head grew back!”
Felix turned to Elora. “Baby, come here.”
She slowly walked over to him, like she thought she was in trouble. She definitely wasn’t, but she just resurrected a vampire by accident.
Felix pointed to Gavin. “Do you realize what you just did?” He asked in disbelief.
She looked at Gavin. “Are you sure he was like dead dead, or just vampire dead?” She looked up at him.
“He was in hell, Princess,” Theo answered.
Felix grabbed her shoulders. “Elora… you have a gift,” he smiled at her. “You healed and brought him back from the dead.”
She raised her eyebrows in shock. “I didn’t mean to, I promise,” she defended. “I wouldn’t have saved him. I wish he was still dead,” she assured. As the words left her lips, that same silver light traveled from her body to the ground where she stood, straight to Gavin. The light traveled into his body, and he dropped dead.
Holy shit.
The clans all stepped back from her, mumbling their words of shock. Elora gasped, looking back up at Felix.
Theo nervously chuckled. “That’s terrifying. Have I mentioned that I love you? Please don’t accidentally kill me,” he joked.
“Lucifer, your gift sucks compared to this. She can kill people and bring them back at will,” Eugene teased through the mind-link.
Elora looked at Eugene, and I remembered she now had access to our mind-link. That was going to take some getting used to. I didn’t mind, though; I liked it.
Lucifer smirked proudly at Elora. “Way cooler than mine.”
“Princess.” A vampire walked up to Elora with his head down. “My friend was killed by one of the rogues,” he started. “I’d like my clan mates back if you can.” He pleaded.
I finally looked around at the piles of dead bodies. Our clans had taken tremendous losses today. “Baby, if you’re not comfortable doing this, you don’t have to,” I communicated through the mind-link. The power was new to her. She was dead ten minutes ago; she probably wanted to go home and shower.
“I can try,” she said nervously, twiddling her hands together.
The vampire led her and Felix to a dead body. She crouched down next to it, biting her lip. I leaned forward, watching her closely. She gently touched the vampire’s hand, and her eyes shone bright again. The silver light traveled from her hand to his, and he opened his eyes.
The clans all cheered for her, grateful for her gift and the lives she would save. They all started bringing over their dead clan mates, and she happily brought each of them back to life.
Felix couldn’t have been more right. She was the light we needed in every possible way.
Elora wasn’t going anywhere, and with her new gift, no one would ever dare try to hurt her again. She had the respect of our clans, and they’d
support her endlessly. This was the beginning of our reign with Elora as our Queen. The beginning of our forever together.
