CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A woman stood before me. Beautiful. Nude. Long dark hair.
She struck a familiar chord within me.
But who was she?
My thoughts were slow, disjointed, refusing to give up information. Like thinking through oatmeal.
“Hello, Zurie.” Her voice was as beautiful as she was. Strong, melodic, feminine. “You’ve done so well. Especially for a human.”
For a human? What does that mean? What the hell else would I be?
Flashes, memories, horrible images played behind my eyes. The Blood King, the hole he kept me in, ripping out his heart, the hold exploding....
Lillith.
I looked to my surroundings but couldn’t discern anything but thick, dense fog. “Am I dead?” Was this purgatory? Hell?
“A part of you is, yes.”
“A part?”
“Yes. The demon part. It was never yours to keep. But that doesn’t matter now. Are you ready to go back?”
“Go back?”
The demon nodded.
I turned and walked away, into the fog.
She appeared before me once more, blocking my path.
“You must go back, Zurie. You cannot stay in this place.”
I turned and again Lillith blocked me.
“Don’t you want to return to your friends, your family?”
“The only family I had was Emma and the realm leaders.” I stepped into Lillith’s space. She did not back away. “I gave that hold everything I had, everything, fully expecting not to survive. Expecting that my life would be the price for healing the realms. I’d accepted that. I’d made peace with it. Now you’re telling me I have to go back, broken, less than I was and without magic? Without magic connecting me to the leaders? Screw that. I’ll stay here and be your problem for the rest of eternity.”
Lillith gave me a mischievous smile. “You’re not going back, then?”
“Not without magic. You can’t expect me to live the rest of my life without it. Not when it’s connected me to four others. No. I won’t do it. It’s cruel. It’s akin to taking away an appendage or a sense. Send me back with magic or not at all.”
She smiled once more, a devilish grin that made me second-guess my decision. “It connects you to five, not four.”
Lillith and the fog drifted away, leaving me in darkness.
“She’s not breathing!”
Callum’s voice seemed so distant.
“Call for the healers!”
Sorin’s did too. Where was I? I couldn’t see anything. But I could feel that. Who was shaking me?
“Zurie. Zurie, sweetie, can you hear me?”
Emma! Oh, Emma, I’m so glad you’re okay.
“Her heart’s stopped.”
Callum’s voice again.
What? No it hasn’t. I’m still here.
“Take Emma to the Earth realm. Come back with doctors, now!”
Crying. Sobbing. Oh, don’t. Don’t cry. I’m still here. I’m right here. I just... I can’t seem to....
Ripping sounds, warm hands on my chest, my ribs. Words I didn’t understand.
“My spells aren’t working. There’s nothing more I can do. I’m sorry.”
A feminine voice I didn’t recognize.
“Everyone stand back.”
A masculine one I didn’t know, either.
Warm fingers pressing on my, no, pressing something onto my chest. Sticking something on me.
Ew. Cold, wet pressure.
“Clear!”
Lillith, you fucking bitch!
I screamed as the voltage coursed through me.
“Charging to 360.”
You’d better fucking not!
“Clear!”
I gasped, and the room exploded in sobs and shouts.
“Zurie!” Emma threw herself around my neck. “I’m so sorry I got myself kidnapped. I should have listened to you,” she sobbed into my shoulder.
I pulled away, gazing at her pretty, tear-streaked face. “No part of this was your fault, Emma. Do you understand me?”
She nodded, then wrapped me in another neck hug.
“But you can tell Dr. Kevorkian over there to quit electrocuting people. That shit hurts.”
Emma gave me a quizzical glance, her brown eyes squinting the smallest bit. “Zurie, you had no heartbeat. I saw it on the monitors myself.”
I glanced at the portable EKG which registered my steady heartbeat and ripped off the sticky electrodes dotting my chest.
A part of you died. The rest of you had to as well so you could be remade in my image.
Lillith’s voice rebounded through my head, an echo, a memory, a promise.
So, she brought me back, huh?
I smiled, wondering how much more trouble I could rustle up as a demon.
The doctor set about checking my vitals but I brushed him off. “I’m healthier than I’ve ever been,” I said as he tried to take my pulse for the twenty-third time. With a glance, I asked Raksha to take him back to the Earth realm.
“Where’s Chicken?”
Verrill answered, star-lit eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Your companion kept constant vigil. She never left your side. But the moment the human doctor appeared she shimmered away.”
Raksha laughed. “Shimmering is one thing but she didn’t think he could handle a talking cat.”
I sent a thought toward her, hoping she’d retained her ability to speak once magic had reorganized.
You saved my life, sweet cat. Thank you.
You did the hard work, girl. Enjoy your time with the others.
I gazed at the faces of my leaders, all of them tear-streaked.
“You smell different,” Sorin said as I rose from the bed.
“That’s an awful thing to say to someone who’s been bedridden for weeks,” I said with mock embarrassment.
“That’s not what I meant.”
I smiled, patting his cheek. “I know what you meant, Sorin. And you smell different too. A bit, reptilian if I’m not mistaken.”
“You can smell that?”
I nodded. “I can.” I tapped my nose. “Demon senses.”
Everyone in the room stared at me, uncomprehending. “Lillith wanted to send me back human but I told her I wasn’t coming back less than what I was. So, she sent me back a demon.”
The room went silent.
Verrill broke the tension. “Finally. No more holding back in the bedroom.”
The room exploded in laughter.
“Oh, God! Over-share much?” Emma left as fast as her legs allowed.
Sorin recovered first. “Magic won’t burn through your energy any longer. This is good.”
“Actually, that was the Blood King’s doing. But I’ll save that story for another time. Right now, I could really use a bath.”
The leaders, my leaders followed me to the bathing room as I turned on the water. When the tub filled, I sank into the hot water, daydreaming of spending hours with each of them individually. Reconnecting, catching up, hearing their side of events and comparing them to mine.
But I didn’t have time for that.
I needed them.
All.
Now.
But first, I had to clear the air.
“Sorin,” I said as the leaders milled about the tub. “I assume it was your idea to go to the Blood Realm without me, yes?”
The Shifter King’s eyes narrowed. “It was. I won’t apologize for—”
“I have no need for an apology. If it weren’t for you, I would have been captured with the rest of you. But I wasn’t and seeing you caged served as motivation when things in my head got dark. So, thank you for being a stubborn ass.”
The Shifter King nodded, a small smile playing on his lips.
Callum, who’d been silent to this point, knelt next to the tub. “I was so worried you wouldn’t come back to us.” He placed a kiss on the top of my head, and then set about lathering my hair.
Jadzeera followed suit, sponging my back and limbs. “I can’t wait to show you what your effort has done to the realm.”
I smiled and kissed her. “I can’t wait to see.”