body contorted, jerked in Dayan's arms. He couldn't believe the force of the rush, a fireball consuming her. She cried out, the sound torn from her throat, loud in the hushed stillness of the chamber, so that it echoed up the vent into the night sky.
Oh, God, she cannot survive this. I do not want her last moments to be such pain.
The words broke from him as tiny beads of blood oozed across his forehead. He could not take the pain away. He had dulled it, but it was something none of them could fully prevent.
She must survive.
Darius was implacable in his resolve.
Dayan breathed deeply, allowed the pain to wash over and through him before he turned his complete attention inward to that fragile spirit huddling so weakly within the walls he'd constructed. Corinne astonished him. She was unafraid. She was as accepting of the conversion as she had been of her labor. She was weak, though, and unable to aid him in gathering strength for the coming battle.
The next wave of fire burned through her internal organs with a jolt so severe, she was nearly wrenched out of Dayan's arms. There was no gradual buildup. The healers were forcing the conversion to accommodate her disintegrating heart. It would have failed long before if the two healers had ceased their work.
Dayan held Corinne's head as she was violently sick, again and again. She was too weak to move or help herself. He took great care that she did not inhale, seeing that she expelled every damaging toxin from her body. He found himself clenching his teeth against the waves of terrible pain racing through her body. Deep within his mind he felt her spirit falter, the light flickering.
No!
He clung to her, turned every ounce of his will to prevent that light from being extinguished. They had come so far. Death must not take her now.
The chant was a continual murmur in his mind, and he knew it was aiding the process, but he needed something else, something to draw her to him. The baby was quiet, fighting her own battle for life with Shea's help. It came to him then. The one thing he could give her that he knew she loved. His music. He began to sing. Softly at first, a melody of dark, dangerous love. A ballad of need. Of a man's desperate fight for the one woman he loved above all else.
Desari joined in on the chorus, her beautiful, magical voice a gift from the heavens. She sang with him, helping him use his voice to draw Corinne from the jaws of death. The notes leapt into the air, silver and gold, dancing like glinting sunlight in the darkened chamber.
He felt Corinne's response then. Weak, but there. She clung to the sound of their voices, allowed the melody to take her away from the terrible burning in her body, the humiliation of her system ridding itself of human toxins. The loss of control, the helpless feeling of lying unable to move, while her body contorted and writhed with pain. She chained herself to those notes, his gift to her, and floated above the fire, holding to life, clinging to Dayan, her solid anchor.
He was humbled by her complete trust and faith in him. He had no idea if he would have given his life so completely into another's hands. He was awed and humble and grateful. Blood-red tears dripped onto the back of his hand, but his voice never wavered as he sang to her.
The ordeal seemed an eternity to him, and his newfound emotions were raw. But he sang with his heart and soul. His voice surrounded her, lifted her above the terrible pain and kept her anchored firmly to him.
Now, Dayan.
There was relief in Darius's voice.
Send her to sleep and we can complete the healing.
It took a few moments for Dayan to realize what Darius meant. The healers had managed to utilize his blood and the precious blood of the Prince's lineage to convert Corinne's failing human heart into a strong Carpathian heart. The danger was over. He could barely comprehend that it could be so. He felt as if he had fought ten thousand battles, as if he had been fighting for all time.
He issued the command to sleep, strong, compelling, instant. Corinne had no choice but to obey, and in her weakened state, it was easy for him to send her into the Carpathian method of sleeping. Dayan breathed a sigh of relief.