“All of you. No one needs to be in here but the nurse and me. Head out. Go help at the shield. There are many things to be done there.”
Roran cleared his throat. “I can help with the pain, Doctor.”
“Not as well as I can.”
We all turned to find Dorian standing in the doorway. He took long strides into the room to stand by me. “Doctor, I’ll stay. I can help Mistress Kimber block the pain.”
“Can you?” Doctor Symi seemed intrigued.
“All strong wielders can,” Roran nodded.
“I need more of you around since our painkillers are gone. Honestly. If you can spare anyone who is strong enough and has the skill, I have people who need the relief.”
Roran nodded. “I’ll spread the word. Strong magic and stronger stomachs.”
“Thank you,” he said.
Taking Jallina’s seat and my hand, Dorian whispered in my ear. “I will do what I can to stop the pain for you, but this is going to hurt like hell.”
“Just take it out and make sure I can heal well.”
Doctor Symi smiled and headed to the bathroom to scrub his hands. “My dear, this is a simple fix. You’ll be fine in a few days. I’ll be right back.”
Dorian looked worried, nervous even. I squeezed his hand. “Are you going to be okay with this?”
“I’m going to teach you how to use magic to block the pain. It’s a very strange, uncomfortable feeling to detach from who we are to deal with it, and that’s why we don’t use it as much as we could.”
“That wasn’t my question.” I stared at him.
“I’m not okay with this, ilati.” He stroked a thumb over the skin of my hand. “I am pissed beyond belief that you fulfilled your destiny and were rewarded with a grievous injury from vampires. I guess they…”
I waited for him to finish, but it was clear he wasn’t going to. “I will be okay alone if you want to leave, Dorian.”
“No.”
For reasons I didn’t understand, he needed to take a moment to himself. I didn’t intrude. I just kept breathing through the pain I had been enduring the entire time.
Dorian’s eyes snapped to mine. “You’re already in pain. Let me teach you.” He smoothed the messy mass of sandy brown waves with a careful hand. “Close your eyes. Breathe slowly.”
I was already trying to breathe slowly, but with his hand there, it seemed easier. He spoke softly. “Find a thread of magic, yellow or orange, and follow it slowly. Bring it down to the pain and weave a small pouch with it. You should be able to see the pain there, tiny little threads of blue and red.”
I could see them. They weren’t tiny, though. They were huge, angry, glowing, and trying to pull the skin open and keep it open. “Oh…”
Ba-boom. Flash.
I flinched but started weaving a little pouch of orange and yellow.
Ba-boom. Crash!
The pouch grew strong.
Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba—
“Kimber?”
“I can see it. It’s contained. I feel your heart…”
Ba-boom. Ba-boom.
“You’re so deep in the magic…” I could hear his amazement in his voice. “Careful, don’t go too much further.”
I brought my hand up to look at it.
There was a flicker on my wrist, a mark that faded in and out. It wanted to stay but couldn’t.
Missing.
“Is she relaxed?” That was the doctor.
“She’s… flickering… in the magic…”
Ba-boom.
But no echo this time.
I wanted the heartbeats together, but the more frantically I pulled them toward each other, the more they were out of sync. I couldn’t stop them. I could get them—
“This is…. as far as… pain will go.”
The chamber was dark. Warm bodies all around me.
Ba-boom!
Hearts but not together. No. I must have them together.
I felt warm breath on my cheek.
“Kimber…” Dorian was there again.
The words hissed out of me. “Soul mates.”
“Kimber Raven, you’re in the throes of a vision.”
Not a vision. No, definitely a vision.
The room was warm. Comfortable. I was wrapped in male bodies. It felt so much like our bed. Like they had left me in a cloud of sexual bliss.
“Soul mates,” I breathed again.
“No, Kimber. It’s prophecy.”
“I’m not a seer…”
I’m not a seer. I am a seer.
Cold, ice-cold fangs. Buried in my neck. Uncareful. Uncaring. Sucking hard, tearing, ripping.
Hot blood. Bile.
Fear.
Alone.
I am an instrument of magic. I am alone despite the warmth of men. I am not whole.
I am incomplete.
My heart beats alone.
Alone.
Neves stood on the druid side of the Chasm, her hand painting the air, back and forth restlessly.
“Why do we always need dramatic names for such things?” Roran sighed. “Why couldn’t we just call it a passage or bridge? We have to call it the Chasm like some dramatist’s play heavy on foreboding.”
Rilen turned his head slowly toward his brother. “Roran?”
“Yes, brother?”
“Shut up.” Rilen turned back to the scene before us.
I leaned on the crutch and shook my head. “What is she doing?”
“Maintaining the shield,” Dorian answered. “We’ve all been taking turns keeping the vampires on their side. There have been skirmishes all up and down the Scar since the mountains fell.”
“This was not the way I envisioned this happening.” I sighed.
I certainly hadn’t envisioned being shot by the vampires within seconds of finishing a part of my destiny. Nor was standing here, holding a shield in place while the vampires occasionally took a random shot at it. And there was no way I wanted to be limping around on my leg.
Doctor Symi had taken nearly two hours to remove the bullet, clean the wound, and stitch my thigh. I had only been allowed out of bed the day before with a crutch, and mostly because I was complaining about being in bed for five days after losing eighteen before that.
“Why is this happening?” Jallina asked.
Dorian almost said something. For the fifth day in a row, when someone had asked the question, Dorian almost opened his mouth. I was pretty sure that no one else noticed it, but I did.
It was strange how in tune I was with Dorian now. Rilen and Roran had been my friends before my bedmates, so being in tune with them didn’t surprise me.
Dorian did.
I didn’t know if he felt comfortable with me yet. He had avoided the bed for so long, and then to crash into it like we did was… well, it was.
And it was also good. Really good.
I felt a heat climbing my cheeks remembering the sexcapade in the training room.
I wanted to do that again. This time, with Rilen and Roran there.
Sweet Savior, I was turning into a sex fiend.
I liked it.
More sex, more power, more ability to use my magic, to keep people safe, to help the city of S’Kir survive…this.
Whatever this was.
I straightened on the crutch. “I should take my rightful turn at the shield.”