Next Generation Dhampirs

Shadowkissed

I was running. My lungs burned from the exertion. I had to get to her. Surely it couldn't be true. I pushed my way through a crowd of angry moroi, all the way to the ICU.

"Where is she?" I demanded to the first nurse I passed. "Where is she?!" I repeated more fervently this time.

The nurse, who was so small and fragile looking, pointed a shaking hand behind her to a single sign hanging in the doorway: "Morgue."

"No no no no no, this can't be happening!" I muttered to myself, but I followed the signs that led there.

When I reached the only door at the end of the hall, I shoved the doors open, but wasn't quite prepared for what I would find.

Dimitri stood in the corner, his eyes fixated on something in front of him, but Rose was nowhere to be seen. Then I saw what he was looking at. Jess.

Her mangled body lay on the table in the center of the room. Bones bent at unnatural angles, dried blood caked the skin around cuts on her arms and legs. Her hair was a mess of blood, dirt and sweat. But the worst part of it all was her throat. Ripped open by what I guessed were strigoi fangs, it still dripped blood, but there was no movement. Her body lay still on the table and a dead silence blanketed the room.

I felt tears prick at my eyes as I approached her. "No," I muttered, "This can't happen!"

"She's gone, Declan," Dimitri said coldly, "I finally got her back. After all these years. And now she's... she's gone." The last words were barely a whisper, as he choked back a sob.

I had never seen Dimitri Belikov cry, but he looked pretty close right now. Actually, he looked like he had already cried. His eyes were ringed with red and his cheeks were puffy, showing faint lines that tears had drawn.

"She can't be gone," I said, not taking my eyes off her. I stroked her hair and willed her to open her eyes. If you couldn't see the rest of her, it was almost as if she were sleeping.

The only other person in the world like me, and she was gone. Just like that. Why couldn't it have been me? Why did they call her to go out instead of me? I had no more right than her to stay out of this battle, but they still let me but not her. And this was the result.

Desperate, I placed my hands on her arm and pushed as much spirit as I could into her body.

"It won't work," Dimitri said sadly, "Lissa tried, Sonya tried, even Adrian tried. Nothing worked."

"But I'm stronger," I replied, determined to save her, "I can do this."

He didn't try to stop me. I guess he still had some hope of bringing her back. I went for it. I felt her wounds and willed them to close. The skin on her arms and legs pulled itself shut, closing up the gashes that lined them. Her bones snapped back into place with sickening cracks, but I wasn't deterred. The hardest part was her throat. Pushing against reluctant rigamortis, I sealed the skin on her throat and pushed everything back where it belonged. Once that was done, all I had to do was get her heart pumping again. Moving the muscles around, I was able to make her heart beat on its own.

Instantly, color returned to her skin and she started breathing again, but it was in slow, shallow gasps. I pushed her lungs to open and close, making her inhale more air and speed up the healing process.

I wasn't losing her.