Running for My Undead Life

Chapter 20: Three Days' Time

After things were more under control, Lena was loaded into one of the choppers and flown back to a private airport in Oak Hills where she was then rushed back to my parent's house. My mother said she had been able to flush out the traces of magic in Lena's bloodstream and that her heart had stopped. She was keeping a close eye on her vitals, but the transition appeared to be in effect. I refused to leave her bed side knowing the pain she was going through. We moved her into my old room, in hopes that she would feel more comfortable when she finally woke up. My family crowded into the room with me, all of us too scared to leave each other after what we had just been through.

I was sitting there whispering words into Lena's ear, we had only been back at the house for a few hours, when Logan dropped out of his seat onto the floor. My mother rushed to his side, calling out to him, and checking his pulse, there was none. "What's wrong with him?" I darted to his side, ready to help. She didn't answer as she continued checking various things. The longer she took, the more panicked I became. "Come on!" I screamed. "You're not helping!" I pushed her out of the way and ripped his shirt off his body. Obviously, we were missing something. He wouldn't just collapse for no reason. "Here," Spencer said, having dropped next to me to search Logan's body. There was a cut on his arm, with black blood oozing from it. The veins leading to the wound were black and they were starting to wind up his arm towards his chest and head.

"What do we do?!" I faced my mother again. She ran from the room and came back within seconds with a medical bag. She pulled out various needles and began injecting him. I watched and waited, cradling one of his hands in mine. Five minutes felt like five years. The black veins continued to spread until they covered his body. At some point, my mother dropped her face into her hands and no noises left her body, but her shoulders heaved up and down as she cried. My father held her in his arms, his face buried in her hair. Cassie left the room, her face wet with tears. Spencer and I waited longer. Waited for his eyes to open, for his hands to squeeze ours, for his heart to beat again. But it never did.

Our father moved him to a different room of the house. Spencer went to find Cassie, and they didn't come back to my room until the next day. My mother and father were gone longer. It took her a day and a half to work up the nerve to complete an autopsy on Logan to figure out what happened, why he died so suddenly. He didn't tell anyone he had been grazed by a bullet. Mother said that he would've been fine for days, most likely showing signs of distress before anything else happened. Almost like he had the flu, vomiting, fever, things like that. But, when he bit Lena, to save her life, he drank some of her blood indirectly. Enough that the magic from the sword that had stabbed her, found its way into his bloodstream. It took time to settle, but after a few hours, he had an infection strong enough to kill him. There was nothing anyone could have done at that point. If treated immediately, he probably would've lived, like me. Like Spencer and Cassie. I cried, for a while. Anguish filled me at the time I had wasted hating him. At the time I was losing to make things right. At the fact that he had risked his life for the woman I love. He gave me the one thing that had been ripped away from him with Nikki's death. I would forever think of him when looking at Lena and I would never forget him and what he did for me. For us. The most I could hope for was that there was some type of afterlife, and he was reunited with Nikki.

The next day, I asked about Aunt Tara, who I hadn't seen since I left. I longed for the comfort of my surrogate mother. They told me she had passed a few years ago. It was a freak accident. She was working in her shop and the car jack failed while she was under the car. She died instantly from blunt force trauma as the weight of the car crushed her. My mother had found her a couple days later when she hadn't heard from her. Apparently, they had reconciled their differences before her death. Once again, I mourned the death of someone with whom I had lost so much time with. I should have never left without saying goodbye. I should have thanked her for all that she gave me and for showing me love when my family fell short. If not for Lena, I think I would have run away from this town again, without looking back.