Chapter 170
I looked at Candido who kneeled beside them with a grim expression.
Gilgamesh was Candido’s cousin?
“Just hold on,” Vanessa said and screamed again. “What are you all standing there for? Get a fucking medic!”
“It’s too close to his heart,” Candido said softly.
She shook her head and looked at Ian and Cillian. “Please. You have magic. You can do something.”
“It brings me no joy to tell you that I can do nothing,” Ian said grimly. “My magic is not of the healing variety.”
“You’re lying!” She screamed. “You’re the one who came up with this plan!”
“I merely gave you the opportunity. Extended a suggestion,” Ian said. “It may not register to you, Vanessa, but this is war. Lives will be lost, as tragic as that is.”
“It’s all your fault!” She screamed. “You vampires… My son…”
I didn’t know what to say or do. I considered going to Candido, but I couldn’t speak and that was irritating, so what good would it do. I turned away, stepping back. Yggdrasil glared at me, pushing past me with a bullet wound in his shoulder.
“Mom…” Gilgamesh said softly. “I’m… so sorry.”
“No, no, no. You don’t get to leave me, Van. You can’t…”
“You’ll… never get those grandkids you wanted…”
She gasped. “Van, please, save your strength.”
“I wonder if… If she’ll be happy…. Or maybe she’s already died?” Van whispered. “I wonder… what she would have been like. God… Can’ you’re lucky… meeting your mate already…”
I set my jaw, listening to Van. He was right. We were lucky. I couldn’t understand why Candido didn’t see that. Everyone else knew that mates were destined to meet, but that didn’t guarantee a lifetime together, even before the war. Why couldn’t he just let us be together?
“Save your strength,” Vanessa said. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Tell him the truth,” Yggdrasil said, stiffly.
“Not now, Wren,” Vanessa said.
“Tell him the fucking truth, Vanessa! He fucking deserves to hear it!”
I turned, looking back at them, wondering what he was talking about.
“I don’t understand,” Van said. “We’re supposed to have met… but… I don’t the marks… Do you think she died peacefully? Do you think… she hasn’t been born yet?”
Van choked. “God, that would be way worse than Can’s situation…”
He chuckled darkly, choking on blood. No one spoke. No one even moved. Cillian turned slowly and narrowed his eyes. I didn’t know what he was seeing, but the stone wall seemed to develop a hole and a group of people came rushing out.
“Maybe… I don’t—”
“No, Van. No, that’s not true,” Vanessa said. “You… You do. You do, Van’.”
“Then… what am I supposed to think?” Van asked. “I haven’t… I’m dying…”
“You’re not dying,” Vanessa said. “You’re going to be just fine. There’s… There has to be something we can do.”
“Tell him, Vanessa!” Yggdrasil said. “Don’t send him to the Goddess like this…”
Vanessa sniffled, tears streaming down his face. “It’s going to be okay, Van. You’ll be just fine.”
Van let out a gurgling sound.
“Out of the way!” A woman yelled, shoving towards them. She ran past me with a bag slung over her chest.
“Who are you?” Candido asked as she skidded to a stop beside Vanessa.
“Starlight,” she said shortly, opening her bag. “Lay him down. How long since he’s been shot? Is he cold?”
“Cold…” Van said absently.
“I-I don’t know,” Vanessa said, shaking her head. “I don’t—”
“Get me some blankets. Lay him down, quickly.” She dug out a knife.
Vanessa reared back. The woman shoved her aside. Van groaned as he fell to the ground.
“Stop it!”
“Is there a golden wolf here?” She asked not looking up. “Family? Someone who can give blood.”
“I’m his mother,” Vanessa said.
“Male relatives are better. Golden wolves are better.” She pulled out a vial and cut Van’s shirt open. She opened it with her teeth and poured the contents over his chest. He hissed and arched up.
“You’re hurting him!”
“He’s alive,” Starlight hissed and yelled over her shoulder. “Blankets!”
“Me,” Candido said. “I’m both. We’re related maternally.”
“Doesn’t matter. Hand.”
He offered it, and she drew a cut across his palm. He didn’t even flinch. She put a clear crystal in his hand and he shuddered. Then, she pulled another long metal object out of her bag. Electricity sparked and hummed around one end. I could hear it vibrating.
“Clever,” Ian said. “She has quite the control to do that.”
“She is,” Cillian said. “She does.”
“You know her?”
“Starlight as she likes to be called is my battalion’s best healer,” Cillian said.
I looked up at him, amazed. Had he called her?
“I wasn’t sure she would make it in time, but there are more injured than just him.”
“She’s… not a vampire,” Ian said.
“She wears her werewolf nature lightly,” he said. “Ambitious. Driven. Innovative. She tumbled into the edge of Lunae years ago through a cave. The only thing she wanted was the protection for her family.”
I heard the metal clink together as the silver was pulled out of his chest. Then, there were waves of light. The rock in Candido’s hand flashed and blood swirled through the air, diving into Van’s wounds as his body rippled and grew. His clothes ripped apart as he transformed into his wolf form, covered in golden fur, and breathing softly.
When the stream of blood ended, she pulled out thread and another potion. His body shuddered and flinched, but he kept breathing. Vanessa stared, hollow-eyed and silent as the woman worked, sewing the wound closed and patching him up with big glowing bandages.
“Glad to see that someone has use for those books,” Ian said softly.
She sat back before checking his eyes and casting another spell. Wren looked a little spooked even as he watched on. Finally, Starlight slumped forward, stroking Van’s head.
“It’s done.”
“What’s done?” Vanessa asked. “When will he wake up?”
“That I cannot answer,” she said. “I cannot even be sure that I have done more than stave off his death depending on how depleted he is, but there is hope that he will wake… he will at least not die today.”
She lifted her head and looked back at Cillian. “Captain, is this werewolf someone His Highness plans to keep alive?”
Vanessa flushed. “What the hell—"
Cillian chuckled. “He is at least not an empty.”
“You are asking if I would open the palace to him,” Ian said.
“I believe it would be his best chance of survival, given his injuries. There is still silver in his blood, after all.”
Ian nodded. “I will consider it.”
“Consider it?” Vanessa cried. “Are you really that heartless?”
“Not wishing you grief is world’s different than opening the palace to a werewolf,” he glanced at Van. “Even one as young and as noble as this one.”
I looked over at Van. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I could only guess that Ian knew something about him.
“As I said, I will consider it, for now, if you wish, you may return to Lunae’s Circle.”
“You claim not to be on Damian’s side, but you would put us out after coming up with this half-brained scheme?”
Ian smiled. “All your frustrations should be placed at the feet of the two young women who gave your nephew a personal reason to risk all of your lives.”
His eyes widened. “I do not care about many werewolves, Vanessa. You are not among the count.”
He dropped his gaze to Van. “Your son however… may be.”
He turned. “Cillian, I will leave you here to oversee your medic and her team. I will take these… wayward vampires and see if anything can be done with them. The west gate to the Circle will be open to you.”
“As you wish, Your Highness,” Cillian said. “Starlight, treat as many as you can. Then, we head back.”
He looked at Candido. “You and your forces have been granted passage back to Lunae’s Circle, but the rules have not changed.”
Candido stiffened but he nodded. “I understand that.”
“Candido—”
“We have no place of refuge here,” Candido said softly. “Would you have me leave us unprotected?”
Vanessa looked like she wanted to argue.
“They have saved Van’s life,” Candido said. “At the least, they are not our direct enemy.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she nodded.
“By the moon, I’ve forgotten how hot it can be here…”
Starlight sighed and reached for her hood and face covering, revealing short, curly dark hair. Candido was frozen, staring at her as she fanned herself. I couldn’t see her face, but jewelry glinted in her ears.
“How does anyone stand it?”
“… Estella?”
Her head jerked up and met his gaze. Vanessa’s eyes bulged. Wren looked between the two of them and my gut clenched. Knowing her was one thing, but the tender, longing, hopeful, overjoyed look that was taking over his face was something else.
Who the hell was this woman?
