“Then she started to cry.” Tyler shook his head. “It was awful. How am I supposed to defend myself with a little kid wrapped around my leg? Those witches could’ve killed me where I stood and I wouldn’t have done anything to stop them.”
“What did she say?” I urged. “It must have been big if you ran straight up here to find me.”
“She said if I didn’t find you and take you to New Orleans now, Dad would die.” His face was grim, all the playfulness gone. “At least that was her mother’s translation. The kid was sobbing a lot.”
I dropped into the only chair in the room that was not demolished. This was huge news and I needed to process it. I put my head in my hands. “How did she say it? I need her exact words. Tally said there were no timelines in the future, that things change depending on the choices we make. How would Maggie know Dad dies if I don’t go to New Orleans?” Something must have changed drastically from the time Rourke and I had been at the Coven until now. “Tell me what she said, in her own words.”
“She was hard to understand.” Tyler scratched his head. “She kept crying about something over and over. It sounded like ‘vamp bay,’ until I finally figured out she was talking about vampire Ray.”
I stood quickly, knocking the chair over. “What did she say about him?” Tyler had no idea Ray was here.
“She was crying, something like ‘can’t die, can’t die.’”
“Why can’t Ray die?”
“She only said one word after that. It was the clearest one she uttered.”
“What was it?”
“Salvation.”
I ran through the trees so fast everything flew by me in a blur. Branches and switches slapped me in the face, but I didn’t slow. I had no idea where this cave was, but I had no problem following the scent Rourke had laid last night. Everyone was right behind me.
But it didn’t matter how fast I ran.
If Rourke had accidentally killed Ray last night, or Ray couldn’t repair the damage to his head, I knew my father was lost. Once my brother had said the word “salvation,” I knew it was true. Something had triggered in my mind. I don’t know where it had come from, but I knew we needed Ray. Alive. He’s going to be okay … he has to be okay, I told my wolf. She barked, urging us on faster.
“Jessica,” Rourke called. “Veer to your left. The opening is against the mountainside. It’s covered with brush.”
I saw it. Ten more paces and I whipped the branches away with one hand and dove headfirst into the cave, somersaulting and landing crouched, senses alert.
“It’s about time, Hannon.” A surly voice hit my eardrum without missing a beat. “The sun set twenty minutes ago. What were you going to do, starve me to death? I’m hungry as hell and I need a f**king shower. There’s blood and gunk plastered all over me and my veins feel hollow.”
The relief he was still alive threatened to consume me. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to control my emotions as I stood, clapping the dirt off my hands.
His reaction to me hadn’t been what I expected, which made me wary. He should be much more pissed off.
Where was the savage fledgling vampire? “Ray, I thought you wanted to chop my head off and eat my insides for dinner? Did you manage to grow a whole new heart while you were fixing your head?”
“Why would I bother to grow a new heart when I don’t even need the one I have now? It hasn’t beat in days. But chopping your head off still sounds fairly appealing,” he grunted. “At least then I could get a drink.”
“Okay, what gives?” I asked. “Why are you so … normal—for lack of a better word.” He’d never been normal, but this was as close to his “normal self” as he got. It was a complete 180 from last night.
Rourke, Tyler, and Danny had gathered in the small opening behind me, making the cave overcrowded.
Ray leaned his blood-caked head against the cave wall. “I don’t have an answer for you, Hannon. I get confused a lot, and then I get angry. But when I woke up in the middle of healing from that painful-as-hell injury, I realized I’m never going to die. I had my face bashed in and my skull crushed and now I’m good as new. It doesn’t make any sense. But I’m not sure I hate it. But I don’t … like it either.”
“So … what you are saying is I might have made the right choice trying to keep you alive?” I hedged.
Everyone was quiet, waiting for his response.
Ray grumbled for a few seconds. “When I woke up with fangs and this dreadful thirst, I wanted to kill you every minute of the day. I won’t lie. I don’t think I slept, and I know I didn’t eat. But I feel different today and I don’t know why.” He peered up at me as he brought a chained hand to his head and pressed his temple like he had a headache. As he did, a flutter of his internal struggle tugged along my senses. “The madness may come back at any moment. Most of the time my mind feels like an amusement park ride from hell.”
I squatted in front of him, peering into his face, trying to figure out what all this meant when I heard light footsteps behind me.
“I believe the reason for his clarity is he is reacting to you, Ma Reine,” a small voice echoed in the cave. “You are able to calm him, as I could not. I have been puzzling over the pieces ever since I left, but I think I understand now.”
Tyler and Danny moved apart as Naomi stepped into the cave. “Naomi,” I said as I stood. “What are you doing here?”