Chapter Sixty-Four
Angel heard something crackling. It sounded like a Tessla coil generating its own electricity. It was distant at first, not quite as loud as the thrumming of her heartbeat in her ears and her inner screaming. But it grew in volume, gradually becoming strong enough to drown out the inner sounds of her fear.
And then she felt something crackling. At first, it didn’t hurt as much as Michael’s teeth in her throat. That was excruciating. It was as if her blood was fighting him, pulling back from his attempts at drinking her in because he was not the one it wanted to be with. He was not the one it wanted to claim it.
You’re not the one, she thought, echoing her blood’s resolution. But this only made things more painful for her, because Michael only sucked that much harder on her in order to get to what he wanted. Little by little, long drawn-out second by second, he took more of her into himself and swallowed it down.
She was horribly bruised by now, not only her abused neck but her waist, where Michael had grabbed ahold of her and squeezed tight in anger. And her chin, where he’d done the same. And her hip bones, where his body had collided with hers in mounting rage as if he felt the need to use his strength to remind her body of his dominance.
She would have continued to scream at each of these injustices, but she’d already screamed to the point of being hoarse, and her mouth and lungs didn’t seem to want to scream anymore. In fact, her body didn’t seem to want to move at all anymore.
So when the unmistakable sound of lightning sizzled to life in the room, and grew to the point that it was licking along her body, she only managed a tiny, surprised gasp.
Until Michael stilled against her, and she knew he was going to take his teeth from her throat. She just bloody knew it. And it was going to be the most painful thing ever.
She wasn’t wrong. Something was happening in the room. Something was changing. Angel tried to force her eyes open to see what the hell it was, but they wouldn’t obey. Then everything went quiet; Michael stopped in his merciless draw against her wayward veins, and the only sound was that of Angel’s labored breathing.
A tremendous cracking sound erupted, as if the very universe were breaking open. And just as she’d known he would do, Michael began to withdraw from her throat. His hands gripped her hips harder than ever, imprinting his fingers into her hipbones as he pulled his teeth out slowly, probably wanting to keep from too badly damaging his “property.” But he only succeeding in lengthening her torture.
Now she did manage to make a sound. It was a long, low moan of unbelievable anguish that made Angel realize she had a lot more nerve endings in her neck than she’d previously believed.
In the next second, Michael was suddenly completely gone from her – his teeth from her neck, his hands from her waist, his very presence ripped away so that it no longer crushed her body into the wall behind her.
Angel, open your eyes, she told herself.
Someone was shouting. She felt cool, soft hands moving over her. “It’s some kind of strong immobilizing spell,” said a female. “I can’t get it off her. It’s been laced inwardly.”
In the background, further away, she recognized someone else shouting. It was Jake. His voice was raised in anger. “What the fuck?!” he bellowed.
Jake, she called. But no sound came out.
“Where the fuck did he go?!” the voice demanded, ripe with rage.
Another voice answered him. This one was laced with an English accent. She thought she recognized it. “It was an auto-recall spell, Crow. There’s no telling where it took him.”
I think I know that voice, she thought. But now the voices in the background were growing more distant. And she was caring less and less.
“Angel, open your eyes and look at me,” commanded the female again. This voice probably belongs to the soft, cool hands on my face, Angel thought.
Angel tried with all her might to obey the command, but she just couldn’t. What was wrong with her? She was so weak. If not for the magic holding her up against that wall, Angel was sure she’d not only fall to the floor, but through it.
I can’t, she said. Or rather, she tried to say it, anyway. Her mouth wouldn’t move. It was starting to piss her off.
The female turned and called to someone else. “Roman,” she said. She sounded so serious now. That’s not good, Angel thought.
Her fingers and toes were tingling uncomfortably suddenly. All at once, nausea rolled through her hard and fast. Then it passed, and her body flushed hot. Then hotter.
“She’s past the half way mark. It isn’t how much blood he took, but his magic…. It’s too strong. We can take solace in the fact that he never had a chance to give her his blood in return, so she won’t be bound to him. But she’ll change now one way or another. And someone needs to make that choice for her right now.”
I’m burning up, thought Angel. No… there’s something wrong.
The heat was stifling. She was going to burst into flames. It was shifting, rolling through her like the promise of something very bad. And then, just as she was positive she was spontaneously combusting, the heat faded – and she was cold.
So fucking cold. Freezing.
Help me, she thought miserably.
“By the gods,” someone said. “Get her down from there.” She knew that voice too.
Hands were on her again, moving her away from the wall. Then someone was lifting her. She felt the gentle bump of footsteps as someone carried her. She recognized the feel of these arms. Strong. Warm. Jake, she thought. Jake, she tried to say again.
Then she felt another surface at her back, this one softer. He was laying her down somewhere. A couch, probably.
“Angel,” said Jake. “Please open your eyes and see me, Angel.”
So she did. Except she didn’t. And she wanted to punch herself in the face.
It might just be very possible that I’m dying, she told herself quite sarcastically in retaliation, as if she were simply sharing the thought over tea.
“She needs to be turned right now,” said someone else. Darius, she said. He heard me call for help. He was the one who took me down from the wall. But something he just said stuck in Angel’s mind and brought her right back around again.
….She needs to be turned right now.
Oh hell, she thought numbly. They were talking about turning her… which meant she really was dying. She mentally put down her sarcastic tea cup and lowered her pinky finger before she muttered, Damn.
“Angel, I’m right here,” said Darius. “We all are. We know you can’t talk. Clemens cast an immobilization on you and it’s the strongest I’ve ever seen. But it will fade very shortly, and everything is going to be okay.”
No it’s not, she thought. I know I’m dying. Michael did something else to me too. She remembered his words, those horrible words that shook the foundations and walls and turned his eyes devil red from corner to corner. He’d changed her inside.
Cool fingertips brushed her hair from her face. It felt so good, she almost forgot her fear. They were Jake’s fingertips. She wanted him to keep touching her. Anything to keep him touching her.
“I can’t do this to her,” said Jake. Jake… don’t let me go. I want to be with you.
“Yes you can, and you will,” said a woman. It was the same woman who had commanded Angel to open her eyes. “Her sentinel cannot heal this damage. The spell is too tightly wound with her body. Removing it would rip her apart. The only thing that will negate it is changing the body itself.”
“Not without her consent,” Jake said.
“You have her consent Jake, believe me,” insisted Darius.
“He’s right, Crow.”
That voice belonged to Cain. Angel knew it immediately, even though she’d never heard it before. There was just no mistaking the power in that voice. “She’s already made the decision,” Cain continued.
“Cain’s right,” said Gabriel. “She has.”
Gabriel is here too? Angel pushed her eyes open. Almost. Damn it!
“She no longer wishes to be human,” said Gabe. “I sensed the change in her some time ago. She wants to be stronger than humanity allows.” I do, she thought. That’s true.
Jake. Please help me. She was suddenly furious with herself for leaving her mental wards up. She had no control over them under the immobilization, so there they stayed. And if not for the wards, Jake could have entered her mind. He would have known how she felt immediately. That was what she got for being duplicitous.
Jake replied to Gabe. “What makes you think she wouldn’t choose to be like you instead?”
Angel frowned, or tried to. What? What was Jake talking about?
Gabriel said, “It doesn’t matter. I can’t turn her like this. You know how my kind turn one another. It isn’t possible with Angel, not here and now.” Gabe, I have no idea what you’re talking about…. “And we’re running out of time,” he continued. “Her heart is becoming too weak.”
“Well, I don’t know about you,” said the British man, “But if someone were to turn back time and give me the choice, I would certainly choose vampire over Withered. You never have to worry about how you smell, now do you?”
Angel pushed her eyes open. This time, they obeyed. Finally.
The world came to her in blurred contrasts that quickly straightened themselves out. The people around her gasped in surprise or fell silent. Then Cain said, “Well I’ll be damned... You’ve got yourself a live wire, Crow.”
But Angel whispered, “Jake….” She lost it for a moment as a wave of oblivion rolled over her, temporarily paralyzing Angel in its power. But when it passed, she looked down into Jake’s green eyes where he knelt beside the couch, and she used them to ground her. With all the strength she could muster, she pushed her words through her teeth and very softly said, “Will you please… just do it already?”
And suddenly Jake’s arms were snaking around her, and she was lifted against his hard chest as he stood. “Why yes, I believe I will,” he said with finality.
She felt herself spinning back into motionlessness as he rapidly turned on his heel, and called up a portal.
“Stay with me, Angel,” he told her when he strode into the portal and she could feel him rush it along. “I promise I’m going to make everything right.”