Warrior (Relentless Book 4)

Solmi, my Mori wailed.

For one terrifying moment, I thought I’d lost her. It wasn’t until I sank to my knees beside her and pulled her into my arms that I realized the bond was still there.

“Sara?” I called to her as I checked her pulse and breathing. Thank you, I prayed silently when I felt her warm breath against my face.

I patted her cheek. “Sara, can you hear me?”

Nothing, not even an eyelid flicker.

I rose to my feet with her cradled in my arms. “I need to get her to the healers.”

Tristan didn’t respond.

I looked at him and found him staring at the vampire sprawled on the floor. The shock on Tristan’s face had me following his gaze to the vampire looking up at us with a confused expression that made him look almost human again. It took me several seconds to realize he was on the floor instead of chained to the wall and that his shackles were gone.

“It can’t be,” Tristan breathed. “It’s not possible.”

“What?” I asked harshly.

“Look at him, Nikolas. Look at his eyes.”

I stared down at the vampire, who turned his head until his green eyes, so much like Sara’s, met mine. I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Nikolas?” he said weakly, struggling to sit up. “What happened?”

“Nate?”

He sat leaning against the wall and breathing hard from the effort. “I feel like I have the hangover from hell.”

Tristan and I exchanged a look.

“Nate, you don’t look well,” Tristan said slowly. “I’ll get you some blood.”

“Blood?” A look of revulsion crossed Nate’s face, followed soon after by shock. He ran a hand over his mouth, feeling for the fangs he no longer had.

“I-I’m not…that thing is gone… Please, tell me this is real.”

“It’s real.” Tristan looked like he was still in shock. “What can you remember?”

Nate rubbed his temples. “Bits and pieces. It’s coming back slowly. I remember talking to Sara. I think I was chained to the wall and…”

He looked up at the girl in my arms and fear filled his eyes. “Sara! Oh, God. What did I do to her?”

“I think whatever she did to you caused this.” I looked down at her unconscious form. “I’m going to take her to the healers. Tristan, are you okay here?”

“Yes, although I’m not sure exactly what to do now.”

I left him trying to figure out what to do about Nate and rushed to the medical ward. The healers on duty had me lay Sara on a table, and then they got to work examining her. I left the room just long enough for them to remove her clothing and dress her in a hospital gown.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked when I returned.

“We’re not sure,” one of the healers replied. “All her vitals look good, and she doesn’t appear to have any physical injuries. Can you tell us how she came to be like this?”

I shut the door. “Sara is half Fae.”

The healers looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

“It’s true.” I gave them a quick overview of her history. “Her magic affects demons as any Fae’s magic would. You heard about her uncle showing up yesterday as a vampire?”

They nodded, looking incapable of speech.

“Sara used her power on him, and it looks like he’s human again. And she ended up like this.”

One of the healers crossed her arms and fixed me with a hard stare. “Is this some kind of prank?”

“Do I look like I’m joking around?” I ground out. “You know as much as I do about what happened. Now help her.”

“Her uncle really is human again?” the other healer asked.

“We think so. Tristan’s with him now.”

She shook her head in disbelief and waved a hand at Sara. “I don’t know much about Fae physiology, but if she used that much magic and she’s only half Fae, she could be in shock. She does have a Mori, yes?”

“Yes. We’re bonded.”

“Ah.” Her eyes lit with understanding. “It’s possible then that her magic was too much for her Mori and she passed out because of it. We’ll observe her and hope she wakes up soon.”

“That’s it? That’s all you can do for her?”

“Nikolas, we’ve never had a patient like Sara before, and quite frankly, neither of us knows what to do beyond this point. Let’s give it a little time and see what happens.”

We moved Sara to a bed so she’d be more comfortable. The healers left and I sat by the bed, holding her hand and watching for any sign she was coming around.

Twenty minutes later, Tristan and Ben walked past the door, supporting Nate between them. They put him in one of the rooms, and soon I heard the healers’ exclamations as they saw what could be the world’s first ex-vampire. I still wasn’t sure I believed it myself, and I’d been there.

I squeezed Sara’s hand. “You have some explaining to do when you wake up.”

“How is she?” Tristan asked from the doorway.

“She’s still out. They think she might be in some kind of shock.”

He came over to stand at the foot of the bed. “I’m not surprised after what she did. Jesus, what did she do?”

“So Nate is human again?” The words sounded surreal to my ears.

“As far as I can tell. Silver doesn’t burn him, and he looked ill when we offered him blood. The healers are checking him now.”

I gazed down at Sara’s still face. She looked so peaceful she could have been sleeping.

“Is it safe to have him so close to Sara?”

Tristan nodded. “We have a restraint on him as a precaution, and I’m leaving someone outside his door.”

“How’s he dealing with all this?” I asked.

Tristan exhaled loudly. “He’s in shock too. He keeps asking if this is real and if Sara is okay.”

“She will be. She has to be,” I said roughly.

“Didn’t she say healings made her tired? And you said she passed out after healing her werewolf friend. This could be her body’s way of recharging after using so much power.”

Hope surged in me. “Then she should wake up in a few hours.”

There was a commotion outside and a frantic voice said, “Where’s Sara?”

Roland and Peter burst into the room followed by Jordan. Roland went around to the other side of the bed to look down at Sara. “What happened to her?”

“She used a lot of power for a healing, and it knocked her out,” I said.

Roland frowned. “What the hell did she heal, an elephant?”

“Nate.”

“Huh?” His eyes narrowed.

“But Nate’s a vampire,” Peter cut in.

“Not anymore,” Tristan said. “At least we don’t think he is.”

“What?” Roland croaked. “That…that’s impossible.”

“I don’t think Sara knows that word.” I caressed the back of her hand with my thumb as I told them what had happened downstairs. “He’s next door. Go see for yourselves.”

I stayed with Sara while the rest of them went to see Nate, but I could hear murmurs, followed by the boys’ voices raised in excitement. Then there was a shuffling sound, and a healer shouted something. Tristan called out that everything was under control.

What the hell was going on over there?

Jordan came in and flopped down onto a chair near the door. “Well, you don’t see something like that every day.”

“What happened?”

“Sara’s friends stripped down like they were at a spring break party and changed to wolf form. Then they started sniffing her uncle all over. Apparently, they can always smell a vampire when they are in their fur. They said he’s definitely human again. Although, he might need therapy after this. I never realized how big a werewolf is in person. Pictures don’t do them justice.”

“Nothing ever matches the real thing.”

“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “And they must work out a lot. Nice butts. I mean before they went all furry. But don’t tell them I said that.”

A laugh slipped out. I could see why Sara liked her. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Jordan grew quiet for a long moment. “Is she going to be all right?”

“Yes.” I wouldn’t accept anything else.

Sara didn’t wake up that night or the next day. The healers had no answers, and I tried not to be angry because I knew this was a unique situation. But with each passing hour, I grew more afraid she might not come back.

Tristan and I began to talk about what to do if she didn’t wake up soon. He knew a few powerful healers who were not Mohiri, and he was already trying to track them down. I wished there was a way to contact Sara’s sylph friend. If her condition was the result of her Fae power, the faerie should know what to do.

Nate had been given the apartment next to Tristan’s, but he stayed in the medical ward to be close to Sara. He’d started eating food again and continued to ask about Sara. Roland and Peter spent a lot of time with him, and Tristan paid him regular visits. I went to visit him twice, and it warmed me to see the old Nate again.

Tristan and I asked him a lot of questions about his short time as a vampire. He remembered meeting a female vampire, but not her name or face. He couldn’t recall much from the change except the pain. He’d been compelled to forget anything that might lead us to the Master.

“I remember talking to Sara on the phone a few days before Thanksgiving. I was already…changing then. I remember the trip here and talking to you outside with Sara…”

His voice broke, and it was a few minutes before he could talk again. “The things I said to her… I told her Daniel’s death was her fault, and that I never wanted her. I-I didn’t mean it. I love her like she’s my own daughter.”

“It was the vampire talking,” I told him. “Sara knows that, and she’ll be too happy to have you back to care about anything else.”

If only she would wake up.

Sara had a steady stream of visitors as well. Roland and Peter were in and out all day along with Jordan. Tristan and Chris came by regularly to check on her, as did Seamus, Niall, and Sahir.

Even Desmund left his rooms to come spend time with her. He brought an ancient stereo, which he set up in a corner of the room, and a stack of classical albums. He informed me that Sara liked Tchaikovsky and hearing the soothing music might help her.

I was willing to try anything at that point.

The second day dawned with me pleading with Sara to open her eyes.

“Please, come back to me,” I implored as I rubbed her hand between mine. “I almost lost you once. Don’t do this to me again.”

I knew the more time that passed, the lower her chances were of coming out of her coma. The healers had stopped saying it could happen any minute now, and they looked more worried each time they came to check on her.

Roland arrived at noon. He walked up to the bed then made a face. “Dude, you’re a mess. You need a shower.”

“I’ll shower after she wakes up,” I said without looking at him.

“She might not want to if her nose is as good as mine.”

I looked down at the clothes I’d been wearing for two days. He was right. I didn’t want Sara to see me like this when she woke up.

I let go of her hand and stood. “Stay with her. I won’t be long.”

When I got back to Sara’s hospital room twenty minutes later, I found Roland and Peter plugging in an iPod and a pair of speakers.

Roland pointed at Desmund’s stereo. “Sara might like that stuff, but it’s not her favorite music. She needs some good old classic rock. That’s her thing.”

Tristan walked in an hour later with one of the healers. I stalked toward them, determined to either get some answers or to find someone else to help Sara.

“It’s been two damn days. Why hasn’t she woken up?”

“Physically, there is nothing wrong with her,” the healer said. “All I can guess is that her mind needs to heal from the trauma she suffered, and she will wake when she is ready.”

“You guess?” I needed more than a guess. I needed someone to tell me what the hell was wrong with my mate.

Tristan raised a hand. “Nikolas, calm down. There is nothing to be gained from yelling at the healers. None of us has seen anything like this before.”

Roland snorted. “Dude, I wouldn’t want to wake up either with you shouting like that.”

Peter pointed at Sara. “I think I just saw her eyes move!”

Roland leaned down over Sara. “Sara, it’s Roland. Can you hear me?”

He let out a whoop. “There! Her lips moved. See, Pete, I told you the music was a good idea.”

I pushed the two of them out of the way and took her hand in mine. “Sara? It’s time to wake up, moy malen’kiy voin.”

“Ah, is our beauty still sleeping?” Desmund said from behind me. “Perhaps a kiss from her prince is all she needs.”

I gritted my teeth. “This is no time for your humor, Desmund.”

Desmund scoffed. “On the contrary, laughter is just what she needs. It is far too gloomy in here…and what is that awful noise?”

“Hey, she likes this music,” Roland said defensively.

Roland, Peter, and Desmund began to argue, and I was about to order them all from the room when…

“Stop it.”

My breath caught, and I looked down as Sara’s eyelids flickered.

And then her beautiful green eyes were gazing into mine.

“Hi,” she rasped, that one word melting the icy knot that had been lodged in my stomach for two days.

“Hi, yourself.”

Her eyes narrowed in confusion. “What’s going on? Why is everyone in my room?”

She coughed, and I picked up a glass of water from the table by the bed. Lifting her head, I held the glass to her lips so she could drink.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Roland asked. “You scared the crap out of us.”

“Roland? What are you doing here?”

He glanced at me. “You don’t remember?”

“No, I…” She made a choked sound and buried her face in her hands.

“Oh God, I killed Nate.”

“No, Sara, he’s okay,” I told her, but she was too distraught to hear me.

She began to gasp for air, and I pulled her into my arms to calm her. She pressed her face into the crook of my shoulder, and her heartbreaking cries filled the room.

“Shhh. It’s okay, Sara. Nate’s alive,” I said to her over and over.

Her sobs stopped suddenly, and she pulled back to stare at me. “What did you say?”

“Nate is alive,” I repeated.

She shook her head. “That’s not possible. I killed him. I felt him die.”

Tristan came over to stand beside me. “You killed the vampire. We have no idea what you did in that room, but Nate is alive.”

“You’re not making any sense,” she cried. “How can the vampire be alive if I killed him?”

“Sara, the vampire is not alive. Nate is,” I said. “Nate is human again.”

“What?” Her stunned gaze went to everyone in the room. “Human? He’s human…and alive?”

“He smells human to us,” Peter said.

Sara reached for Roland who stood on her other side. “You’ve seen him?” she asked, her voice rising.

“Ow!” He pulled out of her grasp and rubbed his arm. “Demon strength, remember. We’ve seen him a few times. And you should know that he –”

“Where is he? I want to see him.” She sat up quickly and almost fell out of bed.

I caught her and gently pushed her back against the pillow. “Hold on. You’re too weak to go anywhere.”

I looked at Roland to tell him to get Nate, but Sara began to struggle against me.

“Let me go! I have to see Nate,” she shouted frantically. “Let go of me, Nikolas, or I swear I’ll never speak to you again.”

“You never did like to be told what to do,” Nate said from the doorway.

Sara went still. Then she strained to see past the people standing around the bed. “Nate?” she said hoarsely.

Nate approached the bed, and I moved back to let him get close to Sara.

“Hey, kiddo,” Nate said.

She broke down, and he pulled her into his arms. I could see that he was shaking too as he held her close and spoke to her.

Sara pulled back from him with a loud gasp. “Nate, you’re walking!”

He laughed like a man with a new lease on life. In truth, that’s exactly what he’d received, though he’d had to go through hell to earn it.

“Tristan says my spine was healed when the vampire demon possessed me. And then you killed the demon.”

Sara sank back to the bed. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“What do you remember?” Tristan asked.

“Sara has been unconscious for two days, and this is obviously overtaxing her,” the healer cut in. “Perhaps we should let her rest before –”

“No. I’ve been asleep long enough.” Sara sat up again and pulled Nate down to sit beside her. She looked around the room, and her mouth parted in surprise. “Desmund? I thought you hated coming downstairs.”

I smiled. Something told me the disdainful English warrior would do almost anything for Sara.

He walked over to her. “Well, they would not accommodate me by moving you upstairs, so I was forced to spend time in this depressing ward.”

He lifted her hand to his lips, and I felt foolish for being jealous of a gay man. “Welcome back, little one. And if you worry us like that again, I will lock you up myself for the next fifty years.”

“Get in line.” For once, Desmund and I were in total agreement.

“I will go and let you catch up with your family and friends,” he told her. “Come see me when you are feeling better.”

After Desmund left, Tristan said, “Sara, do you feel up to telling us what happened? What you did has never been done before, at least it’s never been recorded in our history. I don’t know where to begin to try to understand it.”

She lifted her hands and let them fall back to the blanket. “I didn’t know I could do that. I knew I could kill demons, but I never dreamed it was possible to make a vampire human again.”

Biting her lip, she looked up at Nate with tormented eyes. “I was so upset and angry about what happened to you. I went down there to kill you, not to save you.”

“I know,” he replied kindly. “I remember everything, especially the horrible things I…the vampire said to you. I know you did what you had to do.”

Roland raised a hand to get her attention. “What exactly did you do?”

She took a deep breath. “Like I said, I planned to kill the vampire. The first time I hit him with my power it was enough to knock him out. While I was connected to him, I could see the vamhir demon attached to Nate’s heart. I was going to hit it again, but then I heard its thoughts. Actually, I think they were its memories.”

My eyes met Tristan’s, and I was sure the shock I saw in his was mirrored in mine. She’d seen a live vamhir demon inside a human host, and heard its thoughts?

Tristan cut in. “You understood what it was saying?”

She nodded. “Bits and pieces.”

“Only our oldest scholars can understand demon tongue, and they spend centuries learning it,” he told her.

“But we can understand our Mori demons,” she argued.

“The Mori demon was chosen to create our race because it is compatible with humans,” he explained. “Our demons are born inside us, and we learn to communicate with them as we grow.”

She looked at me. “You mean my Mori talks in a whole other language and I didn’t even know it?”

I nodded.

“What happened after you heard the demon?” Peter asked.

“Then I saw –” She looked at Nate. “I saw your memories of me. Then I saw you being changed and the pain you went through. I couldn’t let you suffer anymore. I held your heart, and I felt it stop. I thought you died.”

Her voice broke. I wanted to hold her and soothe away her pain, but it was Nate she needed in that moment.

“I think I did die, but then I felt something pulling at me. It was so bright and warm that I honestly thought I must be looking at an angel. Then heat spread through me and it got so hot I thought I was going to burn from the inside out. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor of the cell with Tristan standing over me, looking like he was going to finish the job.”

Tristan wore a serious expression. “I almost did. But then I saw his eyes, and I knew something was different, especially after what I’d witnessed.”

“What did you see?” she asked him.

He moved closer to the bed. “We unlocked the door, but before Nikolas and I could get to you, you sent out enough energy to throw us across the room. You and Nate were inside some kind of energy sphere that glowed so brightly it was impossible to look at directly. We couldn’t get within five feet of it without it pushing us back. I’ve seen many things in my life, but nothing like that.”

Her mouth dropped open, an indication she hadn’t been aware of everything she’d done in the cell.

“You didn’t actually see what I did to Nate?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “You were like that for a minute, and then the sphere disappeared and you both fell to the floor. Whatever it was, it melted the irons on Nate’s arms and legs without leaving a mark on him.”

“A minute?” she echoed in disbelief. “It felt like it was a lot longer than that.”

“Yes, it did,” I agreed gruffly, remembering how helpless I’d felt not being able to get to her.

Roland smiled. “You learned some new tricks since the last time we saw you.”

“This makes what she did to you look like nothing,” Peter quipped.

“No kidding.”

Sara laughed, and everyone in the room smiled. It felt like it had been forever since I’d heard that sound.

Roland thought so too. “It’s good to hear that again.”

“It feels good,” she said happily. She looked at Nate. “You’re staying here until they get the Master, right?”

Tristan had already offered Nate a home here, and it hadn’t taken much convincing to get him to stay after his ordeal. He wasn’t sure he could ever live in his old apartment again.

“I guess I can write as well here as I can anywhere else,” Nate told her. “Of course, I’ll need to get my computer and things from home.”

“And don’t forget Daisy and –” A look of horror entered her eyes. “Nate, where are Daisy and Oscar? You didn’t…?”

“No!” he exclaimed, aghast. “They ran away as soon as I went home after I was attacked.”

Peter jumped in. “They’re fine. Dad and Uncle Brendan went to check out your place and they saw Oscar outside. He wouldn’t come near them so Aunt Judith put out some food for him.”

“And Mom took Daisy to our place,” Roland reassured her.

“Thanks,” Sara said hoarsely.

“Why don’t we let Sara and Nate have some time alone together?” Tristan said. “I’m sure they have a lot to talk about.”

Sara held out a hand. “Wait. What about Ben? Is he okay?”

Tristan smiled. “Ben is fine, although he is a bit put out about being taken down so easily. He understands you were very distraught and not thinking straight.”

“I’ll apologize to him as soon as I see him,” she said.

“I think Ben would rather you not bring it up again,” I said lightly. The young warrior had taken plenty of ribbing the last two days for letting a new trainee get the better of him.

“Maybe I should be the one to apologize to him for helping you hone that particular skill in the first place.”

Tristan gave the two of us a mild scolding look. “Perhaps I should learn exactly what goes on in your training sessions. But right now, Sara needs to rest and talk to Nate. We’ll discuss her training in a few days.”

I didn’t respond. Sara’s training was my responsibility, and I’d remind Tristan of that when we talked.

Plus, I was proud of Sara. She shouldn’t have used her power against another Mohiri, but she’d also demonstrated how strong and controlled she’d become in such a short time. I could only imagine what she’d be able to do in six months or a year.

Sara leaned forward. “Can I go back to my room? We’d be a lot more comfortable there.”

“You should stay here, close to the healers, for a few more hours,” I said.

“Okay, but only for a few hours. Then I need to get out of this ward. I’ve spent way too much time here the last month.”

“I’ve given Nate the apartment next to mine,” Tristan said. “It has two large bedrooms, so you can move in with him if you want to.”

I knew she was going to decline his offer before she spoke. She’d objected to Tristan talking about her love life. There was no way she was going to live with Nate next door to Tristan.

And if I had my way, the next person she lived with would be me.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay with the other trainees,” she said to Nate. “We’ll see each other all the time anyway.”

Everyone left until it was just Sara, Nate, and me. I knew they needed time alone, but it wasn’t easy to leave her so soon after she’d finally awakened.

“I’ll be close if you need anything.” I leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Later, you and I are going to talk about what will happen if you ever pull something like that again.”