"Then the big, bad wolf would have bitten off my head," I said in a slurred voice. "I'm rather attached to it."
"You believe us now about how dangerous she is?" he asked, his mouth tight as he felt along my neck for my pulse. It struck me as odd. We had one; it was just significantly slower than a human's. Hm. I raised my head and looked at my thigh. Perhaps I'd already be dead if my pulse was stronger. Didn't the pulse have something to do with how fast you bled out?
Maybe. It was hard to think right now.
"She said she didn't do it." Why was it so hard to think? My eyes fluttered shut.
Liam shook me. Hard. I couldn't bring myself to care.
Fire across my cheek. "Ow. What was that for?" I asked in a plaintive voice.
"You need to stay awake." His voice was urgent.
Something occurred to my foggy brain. "Why aren't I healing?" I raised my head. "Why aren't you healing me?"
"I've already tried. It's why you're not dead. Caroline’s wolf's bite is more toxic than anything I've encountered. Brax may be able to help," Liam said. He looked up, his expression darkening. "Where is he?"
"He went in after the pup," Nathan said, sounding as angry as Liam looked.
"If she dies, I will take it out of his arrogant hide," Liam snarled.
"Not his fault," I said, my teeth chattering. My breath rasped out. Why was it so bloody cold? "Caroline should be the priority."
"Bullshit," Liam snapped. Ah, there was the autocratic dick I was used to. It was a comfort to know he was there in all this, like a horsehair blanket designed to abrade and keep you on your toes. "He should have seen to you while he sent his pack after her."
My laugh was a disjointed, broken thing. "Su-such a know-it-all."
The tracks vibrated under me as footsteps approached. Sondra ran up, her eyes full of the wild and her hair an untamed mess around her face.
"Where is your alpha?" Liam demanded, power in his voice.
The colors floated in front of me twining around me like loving cats before darting after Sondra. "Such pretty colors," I said in a quiet voice.
"He's gone after her," Sondra said, strain showing in her voice. I turned my face toward her, surprised that the loving cats had turned feral as they twined and nipped at her.
Her wolf flexed and fought under her skin, power rising in green waves as they tried to force Liam's strands away.
"That won't work," I said to myself. "They'll just slip in the cracks."
Liam's gaze turned to me, and I smiled sleepily up at him.
"We need him here. She'll die if the toxin is left unchecked," Nathan shouted. The argument between them faded into the background as the color in Liam's eyes grew until it was all I could see. He was my sole focus, the rest of the world unimportant.
"What pretty colors, Aileen?" he asked in a soft voice.
I blinked slowly, knowing there was a reason not to tell him but unable to remember why. I turned my head to look back at where Sondra was fighting unsuccessfully against Liam's power as it tightened its grip around her. "Them," I said with a soft smile.
So pretty.
I turned my eyes back to Liam, smiling up at the shapes that surrounded him. They smiled back at me. "They're all so pretty."
"Brax can't help her anyways. Caroline's bite is beyond his control." Sondra's voice came from a distance.
"Thomas has more raw power. He's like the sun, look at his power too long and you'll go blind," I confided. "Yours is a finely hewn blade, beautiful and deadly. Wielded with a surgeon's precision."
The magic that stemmed from his core reached out and touched mine gently, brushing against my skin much like a cat would the object of its affection. My magic arched up, twining around it before his pushed it back inside me with a gentle nudge.
"You can see magic." His voice was hushed and full of awe.
I made a lazy sound of agreement. I no longer felt the cold or my body, just a spreading contentment.
"Aileen, stay with me." He sounded desperate. I wondered why. "Aileen, you can save yourself. You can see where the wolf's bite has spread."
I struggled to lift my head, glancing down at myself for the first time. Liam's hands were gentle as he helped me raise up until I was half-sitting, his weight at my back supporting me. Oh yeah, he was right.
"I'm covered in oil," I said, surprise in my voice. With my othersight, I could see black splotches spreading over my body, smothering the slight flicker of magic that resided in me. The taint had already traveled to cover my entire arm and leg and was now spreading through my core.
I lifted a hand to touch a spot and pulled it away, turning it this way and that in fascination. The black didn't transfer, which I found even more interesting. I touched another spot and another, until I was rubbing at them with a single-minded fascination.
"They won't come out." My head fell back to look Liam in the eyes. "None of the black will come out. I think it's killing me."
Pieces of the black flickered with a burnt umber, making it look like someone had painted me with the colors of Halloween.
"If you can force it out, I should be able to heal you," Liam said, one hand coming up, his thumb brushing against my cheek. It felt good, and I closed my eyes to savor the feeling, one of the only things I could feel at the moment.
"Don't know how," I confessed.
"I'll teach you." His lips touched my forehead as he smoothed back my hair. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
My laugh was raw. "Yeah, you threw me into a kitchen island. Broke several of my ribs."
"And then I showed you how to heal yourself, right?"
That's right. It was the first time I'd realized that the healing could be focused.
"Have you been practicing?" he asked.
"Every now and then." More like every chance I could get. Mostly just small stuff like a cut on my hand, but I was a little better than I'd been when I first started.
"Do that now. Only this time instead of directing it inward, corral the taint and push it out."
I tried. I tried so hard, but the tendrils that rested at the core of my being refused to obey. "I can't. It's not working."
He rocked me back and forth. "No, no. You can. You can see what needs to be done. Just do it. I know you, you're more stubborn than this. Where's the woman who survived impossible odds to become a vampire? Where's the woman determined to make it on her own? Be that person. Beat this. Do it now."
Tears leaked out of my eyes as I turned my focus inward, my thoughts sluggish. My mental forest rose up around me, the one I'd first created to protect my thoughts from telepaths. It had begun sticking around even when I wasn't actively trying to guide against mental attacks. I was beginning to think it was the manifestation of my soul. A whimsical thought, I know, but it was comforting to think my soul was the shape of a forest. A place of peace and tranquility where nature could flourish.