Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DB Chapter 29 - Losing Control

VIVIENNE'S EYES OPENED slowly, and her vision gradually cleared. She had a skull-splitting headache. It didn't happen the last time she blacked out in Remin. She felt a warm wetness on the side of her face. Was it Black Waters? Was she back in Satan's Hollow? Was Manna City all a bad dream?

Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, Vivienne struggled to see clearly. No, she wasn't in a hole in the forest. This was a building with grey marble floors. The puddle she was lying in wasn't Black Waters. It was blood.

Human blood.

Red blood.

Still warm.

Vivienne's hand knocked over a metallic object that fell onto the floor with a loud, rude sound. She sat up and felt a sharp pain in her index finger as she fumbled around. It was a knife. A sharp knife. Vivienne's eyes focused on the ornate handle of the dagger. Julian had given her that dagger yesterday. What was it doing here, in her hand?

And where was all this blood from? She had nicked her finger on the blade, but that didn't account for all the blood.

Vivienne's vision cleared more. She felt a body under her. For a second, her mind went back to Remin. Was it Janun? Zissa? No, neither of them.

"Blake?" Vivienne whispered as she caught sight of his sleeping face. Her lips trembled, and her throat closed up. She couldn't speak. Her words emerged from her lips as sobs. "Wake up."

Vivienne shook him by the shoulder, but she barely budged him. She felt so weak, as though all the energy had been sucked out of her body.

"It's me. Wake up," Vivienne whispered again. Her eyes followed the trail of blood up from his lap to the wound in the center of his chest. The dagger! What happened? "Please, wake up."

Vivienne reached for Blake with her mind. She hadn't tried doing that since Remin, but this time, nothing greeted her but silence.

"You're a vampire!" Vivienne yelled, but her voice barely rose above a squeak. "You can't die!"

Even as she shook him, crimson blood pooled between her fingers. It was warm and thick. Even so, she pressed down on the wound in his chest in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. There was too much blood pooled around them. He had been lying like this for more than just a few seconds.

She tried to crane her neck up to see if there was anyone else within hearing distance. She was so very tired, as though every cell in her body just wanted to shut down.

Was this because of her fire? No, she hadn't felt this way in Remin, and her flames had been far stronger. She had filled an entire cavern with flames and barely felt out of breath afterward. This was different. She felt as though she had come down with the flu, and she could scarcely draw in enough air to speak.

"Help!" Vivienne begged. "Someone help me."

Julian appeared beside her. Her desperate mental plea had been answered, but it was by the wrong vampire. Julian placed his hands over hers to compress Blake's chest wound.

"What the hell happened?" Julian demanded. "Vivienne! What happened?"

"I-I-I don't know," Vivienne sobbed. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn't keep them still. Her entire body started to tremble with sobs. "I blacked out again. He must have tried to stop me. Oh gods, d-did I do this?"

"Oh, Vivienne," Julian gave up on Blake's wound and firmly wrapped both arms around her. He tried to stroke her hair, but Vivienne shoved him away. "Don't cry. It wasn't your fault. He knew the danger in bringing you back here."

Vivienne escaped from his embrace and threw herself onto Blake's body. She grabbed him by the shoulders and tried her best to shake him. She barely managed to unsettle a single hair from blocking his sleeping eyes.

"Blake!" She begged. "Wake up! I command you; I command you."

Vivienne felt sobs well up in her throat. So much so, she felt like she needed to throw up. She bent over and retched. Nothing came out; her stomach was empty. Julian produced her necklace from his pocket and handed it to her. The chain was tarnished now, as Calbert's had been after he died. It had turned black as though the life had been burned out of it.

"I found it by Maglania's bed," Julian said sadly. "I thought you would want it returned to you."

Vivienne closed her fist around the necklace and breathed deeply. If she had blacked out from the flames, why did she feel as though she had the flu? Why did she feel weak all over, as though the life had been sucked out of her? Was it simply because the bond had been broken? Or had Blake been draining her life force to stay alive?

"He's not dead!" Vivienne screamed. "Get help."

Allison appeared by her side. She was crying too. "Stop, Vivienne. It's useless. Please, can't you see he's dead?"

"He's alive."

"Look at your chain. It's tarnished. If you knew anything at all, you would know that the bond breaks upon death." Allison pointed at the cameo necklace as though it weren't obvious enough to Vivienne that the necklace was no longer gold. "Face the truth, Vivienne! He's dead."

Vivienne shoved Allison aside. She moved closer to Blake and struggled to focus on his closed eyes. She kissed him. Was she imagining things? His lips were warm. Or was she cold because her life force had been nearly emptied from her body?

"Blake, wake up," Vivienne begged. "I need you."

"Okay, Little Raven," Julian said, grabbed Vivienne by the waist, and dragged her back. "We're heading out of here."

"We can't just leave him."

"His people are coming. They'll retrieve his body better than I can."

Julian picked Vivienne up as easily as that mannequin back in Satan's Hollow. Her strength was gone. Vivienne collapsed in a heap in Julian's arms. She wanted to burn a hole in his chest for the secrets the three of them kept from her. However, she had no energy left. In the blink of an eye, Julian carried her out of the stairwell.

"I'll never forgive you," Vivienne hissed. Harsh words were the only weapons left in her arsenal. The fatigue consumed her, making her limbs feel like lead weights. "You should have kept me away. You should never have driven me to the Palace. You knew I could black out again."

"No one could have known that." Julian sighed. "If you want to blame anyone, blame him. He brought you back to Manna City. You would have been safe back in Remin."