A Slave to Love

Chapter 73: Forever

I wasn't really sure where Blade was bringing us, but when we arrived at our destination I was surprisingly elated. His parent's house. Though Dante was not friendly, Talia and Lexi certainly were. And maybe they could heal us since I still had blood dripping from my throat and Blade's infection was getting worse by the minute.

He parked the car and we got out, both of us stumbling alone beside each other, but not touching, all the way to the door. Blade had more strength than me, so he pounded his fist on the large wooden door. Raoul opened the door, his familiar frame a silhouette against the bright light shining behind him. I just barely made out his cheerful expression falling fast from his face when he saw us standing on the doorstep, looking like absolute hell.

"Oh goodness!" He waved us in hurriedly and shut the door, ushering us down the hall. "Miss Talia!"

At the end of the long hall, I saw Talia appear in a long, flowing, satin white night gown. She must have been in bed.

She broke into a large smile when she saw us, then her smile fell as she rushed down the carpeted hall so fast she blurred. It made me even more nauseous than I already was.

"What happened?" her eyes turned the oddest shade of red when she looked me over. She shook herself off and they returned to their usual red as she took my face in her cold hands. "Kiana where have you been?"

For some reason, having Talia standing front of me seemed to make my brain register that I was safe. That Aros was gone. That it was all over.

I fell against her, and I felt her sudden surprise before she gave me a fierce hug. I was crying into her dress, a part of me feeling bad for crying into such a beautiful dress, but she didn't seem to mind at all. And I wasn't even crying because of the extreme pain I suddenly felt all over, or because of the fact that I wasn't sure what was going to happen now. I was crying because I was just so happy it was over.

"Come on, we should get you two to the doctor," she said gently, leading me down the hall while Blade followed behind us. We were all walking slowly and my legs were threatening to give out. On the way to their own personal doctor, someone like Jordan I'd imagine, Lexi and Alek appeared. They were completely stunned to see us, and Lexi started asking a million and one questions that no one bothered to answer.

"Why is it you always end up getting injured so often?" the woman sighed, letting us into a large white room with different separations. I had to wonder how often people came here. I assumed this woman who was here all alone was the doctor, and she looked greatly disgruntled.

"My name is Joan," she said, her human eyes looking both Blade and I over, assessing all the damage that was done. "Blade over there," she pointed to a bed on the far side of the room. "Wait for me there. Her first."

I was the 'her' she meant I guessed. "But Blade has an infection...he was staked in the side and they ripped out his fangs and—"

"Yes and he can wait," she said sternly, herding me to a curtained room. "Right now, I want you to change out of that dress and put this on. I'll check on him while you do that, okay?"

I nodded and caught the plain skirt and shirt she had handed me; they were both a simple brown and had no real shape. I pulled them on once I had tossed my dress away, glad to be rid of it.

Joan came back as soon as I was dressed and I could hear Talia speaking quietly on the other side of the room with Lexi and Alek. Where was Dante?

She poked and prodded at me, taking my heart rate and a blood sample, as if I had the blood to give after all that I'd lost.

"Who bit you?" she asked, looking at my arm as she twisted it this way and that.

"Blade did. He was dying so I let him bite me," I mumbled, wanting to go to sleep. I was far too tired, and the bright lights of this white room where hurting my eyes and head. "We needed him to help us escape."