Everlasting

Chapter 10

Wulfric

Glenna's voice led a chant in a language I couldn't follow, and for a good minute and a half, nothing happened. I was starting to feel foolish, standing in a circle of sand while a woman spoke in tongues next to me and bracing myself for a danger that didn't seem to be coming when a tingling started in my fingertips. It was faint at first, but soon it felt like my recollection of what it was like to be burningly cold.

Once the sensation grew stronger, it was quick to travel up my arms and into my chest, where it spread quickly throughout my body. Every part of me was the stinging kind of burning, and all of my joints ached. My legs trembled so much, I no longer trusted them to hold me up. Even the feel of eyes watching me wouldn't have kept me upright; the only thing that made me hold firm rather than dropping to my knees was the fear of what would happen if I accidentally disturbed the salt circle surrounding myself and Glenna.

In this state, it was hard to focus on anything else. Glenna's voice faded into a murmur in my mind, easily dismissed. I don't know how long my eyes were shut before I realized I'd shut them. My fingers tried to clench against the pain, but felt too weak to accomplish even that much.

Just as a pain started ratcheting up in my head, badly enough I had to clench my teeth against a scream, it all...

Stopped.

Or, the pain did. The weakness remained, and intensified until I truly couldn't prevent myself from falling to my hands and knees. I had no idea if I was even inside the circle anymore, and I couldn't bring myself to care.

"Wulf!"

There was a chorus of voices in the background, all speaking indistinctly except for the one shouting my name. I was eased onto my side with surprising strength, or maybe Edmund's arms only felt stronger because I was so very weak in that moment.

"What did you do to him?" he demanded with a fire I had scarcely heard in his voice before.

"He'll be fine," Glenna answered in her usual soothing tones. For once, her voice did nothing to comfort me.

Freezing hands pressed against my forehead, then my cheek. "He's burning up!" Edmund said, sounding more hysterical than angry now.

"Don't worry-"

"No!" Edmund cut her off. "You don't understand. He's a vampire. He doesn't get warm."

"We don't have time for this," someone said. It was a man's voice. Roderick?

"Let me see that." Safiya. That had to be her, because it wasn't Glenna and Safiya was the only other woman present.

Paper rustled, and I realized my eyes had shut again. Opening them took massive effort and I almost gave up until my addled mind somehow recalled what we were trying to achieve here.

I opened my eyes and found that I was leaning heavily against Edmund's side. "Let me see that," I said, holding out my arm for the map.

Safiya passed it over, and the paper left deep red smears on her fingertips. Blood? I reached out with the faint tendrils of my sapped power and confirmed that it was. Not only that, but the blood on her fingers was my own, though I was certain I had suffered no wounds during the spell.

And when I got a look at the map, I couldn't hold in a gasp. It was a map of the world, a rather large one. It was bespeckled with more of my blood. In some places, the paper was saturated with great splotches of it. Others were tiny flecks that would be hardly noticeable if I didn't have a particular affinity for blood. My throat ached with a hunger I shouldn't have felt for another day or two at the loss.