Of Dragons & Vampires

Chapter Twenty Nine

Abel knelt by Colette's bedside, his eyes rimmed with tears as he watched her pale chest rise and fall shakily, each breath laboured. Her wing had been dislocated, with a Fae healer pushing it back into place and fashioning a splint to ensure no further damage could be done. It would heal, he had told them, she will fly again. Her wing wasn't what had made tears spring into his dark blue eyes, it had been the bloodied gauze pressed in her now empty eye socket, more bandages wrapped tightly around his sister's head.

She'd lost her eye.

Amber sniffed across from him, wiping her nose and planting a kiss on Colette's hand as she stirred. The doctor had given her a heavy dose of anti-anxiety medication, once Colette had woken and realised she had lost her right eye she had screamed so hard flames that had licked from the back of her throat and burned the roof of the tent. The pills had knocked her right out.

"Where's Evander?" Wyatt sighed from his place behind Amber, his hands protectively on her shoulders. Wyatt hadn't escaped unharmed, his face wore a mask of bruises and his eyebrow had been split, as has had plump lips.

"Mourning," Abel's voice cracked, "Jack flew here to tell me Brae died saving him...I...I wish I'd been there, instead I left him."

"He told you to go," Amber looked up mournfully, "and he's okay...for God's sake, he beheaded the strongest vampire in our world. Evander is tougher than you give him credit for."

Abel smiled softly at that. Yes he was. His Evander was as strong as anybody he knew, just as much as Colette, perhaps even more so. Evander had been raised as though he were a commodity, something to be bought or sold. He'd fled a life of comfort and riches to avoid an arranged marriage with a sociopath, joined a rebellion that viewed his kind with boundless hostility, aided them, overcame being raped, overcome the death of his own brother, and now fought and defeated the men who had taken so much from him.

Evander Aetos was as strong as anyone and anything he knew.

"Cyrena," Abel called over the earth Fae. She was wrapping Elysande and Phoenix in a blanket, whispering words of comfort to them as they wiped their tears away and huddled closer. Their mother was dead, Ailsa was gone, and Abel felt a white-hot spear of rage pierce his chest at the thought that her murderer had gotten away.

He would hunt Mordecai down to the ends of the earth.

"Yes, Abel," Cyrena made her way over.

"Can you please send someone to get Evander up here, I know he's mourning but...I need him."

Cyrena nodded solemnly and left the tent.

Abel caught the icy blue eyes of Elysande as she stared at him, her little bottom lip trembling as she rested her head on her brother's shoulder. Without a word, Abel made his way over to them, kneeling in front of them and taking their little hands in his own. Swallowing the hard lump in his throat, he planted a soft kiss on their palms, a Fae symbol meaning love be with you.

"We're going to look after you," he promised, watching as Phoenix raised his shaggy head of brown hair.

"We?"

"Me and Evander, and everyone on this island. We love you so much, we're all family here. And we're going to make sure your mommy is remembered as one of the greatest heroes of this rebellion," he spoke softly as the twins' eyes shone.

"Really?" Elysande looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Really. Your Mommy fought so hard, and she made sure everyone on this island will live a safe life. No one is ever going to forget her."

Elysande sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand before hugging onto Phoenix's arm and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Mommy was the best," she murmured.