Chapter 122

Tessa’s POV

The watering can fell to the ground and water oozed out into the soil around me. I heard the screams get fainter, but it alarmed the birds that lurked in the trees, and I watched as they flew off in the direction of the wind.

My heart sank deep into my stomach as panic consumed me.

The screams grew fainter, and they turned into a light sob. The world around me began to grow dreary.

I met the eyes of Anna who stood nearby, and she was also staring at the sky with sorrow written all over her face. Her brows were creased, and her lips formed a thin line. The others were also mimicking her face just before looking at one another with disheartened looks.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I walked toward them.

“A bond was broken…” Anna said in a tone so quiet I had to strain to hear her.

“What?” I gasped. “Like a blood slave bond?”

She nodded her head once.

“Yes,” she answered. “I need to go to her. She shouldn’t be alone.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said quickly. I was trying hard not to cry. That scream sounded awful. I had no idea it would be like that. “Was it painful for her?” I asked as we left the gardens.

Anna didn’t say anything for a moment, but then she nodded.

“The pain alone will make you want to die,” she answered.

For a moment, I forgot that Anna had gone through this very thing. I shuddered at the thought of this poor girl being alone and in that much pain.

“Why would someone break the bond?” I asked, peering over at Anna’s solemn face.

“Many different reasons,” she answered. “I won’t know until I see her.”

I nodded and we continued to walk toward the forest. I couldn’t hear anything anymore, but I knew because Anna was a vampire, she had super hearing and could probably still hear the girl sobbing.

I noticed that we were the only ones walking in this direction. Everyone else seemed to have gone about their night.

“Why are we the only ones going towards her? We can’t be the only ones who heard her,” I said, furrowing my brows together.

“No, we aren’t,” Anna confirmed. “But they know that there is nothing they can do. I’m going to try my best to make her comfortable and hope for the best.”

“Hope for the best?” I asked, unsure I wanted to hear the explanation for that.

She was quiet again, for a second, I wondered if it was because she worried about my reaction, or because it was hard for her to say it out loud.

“You mean she’s going to die?” I asked in only a whisper.

She sighed.

“I don’t know yet… it depends on her age when she turned into a blood slave and her condition. It also depends on the strength of her body. Breaking the bond is shocking and traumatizing to the body even if they are young and healthy. If they aren’t strong enough to overcome the shock, it could stop their heart and kill them,” Anna explained, though, it sounded like it pained her to speak.

I sucked in a sharp breath, somehow, I knew we were almost at the location. We walked through the woods that lead toward the North neighborhood and then Anna froze. I nearly bumped into her when she stopped walking.

I stared at her with confusion and then my eyes followed hers over to what she was staring at. Lying on the ground in the center of the woods, was a trembling young girl. Her clothes and skin appeared to be covered in dirt and I thought I saw some blood pooling from underneath her.

When we got closer, my heart fell straight into my stomach.

“Oh, my god,” I croaked, covering my mouth and nose with both my hands. “It’s Fae!”

Before Anna could tell me not to, I was running toward her. Tears were already falling from my eyes before I reached her. I fell to my knees by her side and with trembling hands, I moved her onto her back so I could see her face.

She was so pale, and blood was oozing from her chest as if she was stabbed in her art. She looked older too, not like she aged hundreds of years, but a few years at least. Her eyes had dark bags under them, and she had slight wrinkles around her mouth and nose.

I watched as her chest rose slightly and then fell back down. Her eyes were squeezed shut tightly, so I knew she was still alive, thankfully.

“Fae…” I whispered to her hoarsely.

Anna was kneeling as well, and I saw the remorse in her tear-filled eyes.

“Oh… goddess…” she breathed, lowering her gaze to see the blood on Fae’s chest. “Her heart is failing her…”

“There has to be something we can do…” I cried. “We can’t let her die, Anna…”

“It might be too late,” Anna said sadly. “We should bring her somewhere comfortable—”

“No!” I surprised myself by saying firmly. “We have to help her, Anna. She’s too kind and genuine… we have to help her… please…”

“But Tessa, we—”

“Fae can’t die like this,” I said to her, a sob escaped my lips. “I can’t let her die.”

Anna looked at me for a short while, remorse still on her face. But then she squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes at me.

“Let’s take her to the infirmary,” she said, her voice hardening. “I’ll get a hold of Bernard.”

I helped Anna lift Fae and the first sign that she was alert was when she groaned in pain. I kept whispering that everything was going to be okay as we got her out of the woods. Soon, I heard shuffling feet from nearby and I looked up, through my tear-filled eyes to see Connor and Nate running toward us.

“Help us get her to the infirmary,” Anna ordered.

Nate and Connor looked at one another with frowns before jumping into action and taking her from us. Just as I blinked, they were gone.

I was amazed that they basically disappeared in front of us.

“They can teleport,” Anna answered my unspoken question.

“Can’t you?” I asked, raising my brows to her. From my understanding, all vampires can teleport.

She nodded her head once.

“I can, but my visions take so much out of me that it weakens my body. I can only teleport myself.”

I nodded in understanding, then, we turned and began to walk back toward the infirmary.

“Bernard is going to meet us there,” she told me.

I looked up at her confused.

“You contacted him?”

“He’s the overseer, we can communicate with him through our minds,” she explained.

Oh, right. That was explained before.

“Do you think he’ll be able to help her?” I asked, and I couldn’t hide the worry in my tone.

“It looked bad,” she admitted. “But so did I and he helped me.”

That did make me feel a little better, but I still worried about Fae’s fate. Even if she pulls through, what kind of life could she have now? Would she be able to stay here? Or would she be forced to fend for herself back in a human town?

Worry consumed me the closer we got to the infirmary.

Once we arrived, Bernard was already there, along with a doctor and a couple of nurses.

“There isn’t much we are going to be able to do for her, Elder,” the doctor said, bowing his head to Bernard.

“This human still had a lot of life left in her. She wasn’t old and she was healthy,” Bernard argued, his tone firm.

“Yes, but it seems her heart was more attached to her master than we thought. It’s unable to continue its function without him.”

Bernard had gone silent as he stared down at Fae’s pale and resting body.

I choked out a sob without meaning to and instantly covered my mouth. The sound caused Bernard and the others to turn and look at me.

Bernard’s eyes met Anna’s and for a moment, it seemed as if they were having a private conversation that none of us could hear. After a minute, Bernard sighed and glanced down at Fae.

“There is one way I can help her,” he sighed, and just like that the doctor took a step back, as did the nurses.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Nate asked. “Think about what it could do to her.”

“What’s he talking about?” I asked, looking at Anna with a questioning look.

Anna remained silent, her eyes fixed on her husband.

“It’s the only thing I could think that could save her,” Bernard said in a low tone. “There’s no other option.”

“You could let nature do its thing,” Nate argued.

“And let her die?” Bernard shot back.

“She might not die,” Nate said, shrugging.

“Look at her, Nathanial. She’s not going to make it the night. She’s suffering right now. If I don’t do something to help her, she will definitely die. I’d rather give her a fighting chance than watch her suffer.”

“Why does it matter? This kind of thing happens all the time and we never cared enough about the humans to save them before,” Nate muttered, shaking his head with disapproval.

Bernard fell silent again and then his eyes found mine, holding them in place, I sucked in a sharp breath. I didn’t release my breath until his eyes were unattached from mine and looked back at Nate with a hardened expression.

“Something is telling me I need to save her,” he said firmly. He turned back to Fae and sighed. “I need to at least try.”

He lifted his wrist to his mouth and to my utter shock and dismay, he bit into his wrist. I watched as blood trickled down his forearm. Everyone was watching so quietly that a pin dropping to the ground could be heard for miles with human ears.

He pressed the wound to Fae’s mouth and blood entered through her closed lips. She stirred slightly and started to suck the blood on her own.

My heart fell into my stomach upon watching them. Everyone was watching with pure fascination and yet they were all so tense.

That’s when I realized exactly what was happening.

I looked at Anna with large and alarmed eyes.

“He’s turning her into a vampire?”