Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,79

behind my vampire nurse. They had been the shadowy figures I'd seen beside my angry looking Fidget. He chirped in my ear to let me know he agreed with all three of them.

Turning my head, I smiled at the little shadowy fluff beside me on the unfamiliar pillow. "You, too?"

Another angry chirp, but he quickly favored me with a wispy cuddle shortly thereafter.

"How is she not dead?" June asked from the doorway. I guessed we were still in Ashville.

Yuki turned and looked at her mother, eyes narrowing in distrust. "Do you really think a couple of daggers can kill a god?"

"God?" Quickly she strode across the bedroom floor and hovered over me as she stared at me. Gingerly, she held out her hand and lightly ran the tips of her fingers over my still damp skin. Power flared between us. She gasped and knelt at my bedside. The bedside, not mine, as I didn't have a fucking clue where I was.

"My old room," Yuki answered with a sad smile. "She needs blood," she said over her shoulder to Dar and Shea.

"We have some in the vault?" June answered questioningly.

"Not human," Yuki answered.

Dar stepped forward, but without hesitation, June offered her wrist. "She doesn't smell like a vampire," she said thoughtfully as my fangs grew again and pierced her flesh. I fed without gripping her, letting the blood fill me, and the holes her brother-in-law had left in me before he died. She gasped and braced herself against the bed as I fed.

"You're grounded," Yuki said to me, uncharacteristically motherly.

I let it go for a few moments while I fed. Finally feeling a little better than shit, I let go of June's wrist with a nod of thanks. "Because I didn't kill him?"

"Because you tried to do things your way without us." She motioned toward Dar and Shea.

"Where's Ellis?"

Shea frowned. "When the blade pierced your heart, he felt it. Worse than any of us."

I started to sit up, worried about him, but Yuki pressed me firmly down against the overly hard mattress. "He's alive. We were all about to shadow walk here when he collapsed. He begged us to leave him and save you."

"How did you know where I went?"

June blushed and looked away.

"You told them?"

She nodded. "I didn't doubt you would beat him, not after you destroyed Philipe, but I know what a devious, sneaky bastard Jules can be."

"He surprised me with those knives… I thought it was over and I was calling my shadow off the vampires before he killed all of them. Fucking sneak-attacks get you every time."

She nodded, looking like she had witnessed more than a few of them herself.

The sounds of explosions outside shook the walls. "What the hell is that?" Even Yuki's hand couldn't keep me from sitting up, but I stayed still as pain lanced through my chest and Dar ran to the window. He pulled the curtain, stared for a moment, and began chuckling softly.

"What is it?" I debated ignoring the pain in my chest and looking for myself.

"Your mother," he answered with a bark of raucous laughter.

"Great." I groaned and leaned back against the bed. "The pain in my chest moved to my ass."

"One of us should go down there and let her know the fight is over. Little vampires are flying through the air and landing rather abruptly."

Yuki giggled and was gone in the blink of an eye and a whoosh of air. I desperately tried to rest for a few moments and heal before my mother made an appearance. With the hole Yuki had made with her vacancy, Shea took the opportunity to fill it, gently caressing my arm as he sat beside me.

"Are you all right?" He looked down at me sheepishly.

"I'll live."

A single tear rolled down his cheek. "You had better. I do not know what I would do without you."

"What any of us would do without you," Dar added as he came back to the bedside.

"I was never in any real danger."

They both scoffed.

"Seriously. I knew you would be here in an instant if I needed you." I winked. "Look at you. You both ran out of the house in the middle of winter without even putting on a shirt." I rawred and ran my finger down Shea's chest, watching in rapt fascination as his tattoos lit wherever our skin touched.

"Well, your safety outweighs our modesty," Shea answered with a smile as June backed away, not wanting to be a part of our tender moment.

"I'll make some