Davina (Davy Harwood #3)(18)

He laid a hand on my arm and said, “You’ve been out for three days. Rest.”

“Wha-a-at happened?”

“You.”

Me? I frowned at him, trying to remember. The Immortal was with me, she told me to sleep, and I was watching from above. “Lucan was going to catch us.”

“You teleported Tracey and yourself. We only just found you guys yesterday. Tracey was exhausted by the time we did. She’d been standing guard over you.”

“Teleported?”

He nodded, grim. “You sent the both of you to the highest mountain. We’re twenty miles from the Mori camp. Wren’s the one that kept us going to find you. She said she could feel Tracey and used her scent. She tracked you guys.”

He thought I did this. I didn’t. The Immortal did it, and I tried to sense her right now, but I couldn’t. It was like she wasn’t even inside of me. All I felt was nothing. Exhaustion. Pain. That was it.

Gavin added, “It must’ve taken it out of you.”

“Yeah.” I looked away. “It must’ve.”

He gestured around, but I could only see above. It was a dark wall of rock. Gavin said, “We brought you into this cave. We used a tarp we found by a riverbed not far from here. It’s used to block out the cold for you.”

For you. Those two words—they were all vampires. The cold didn’t matter to them, but I was human. I was The Immortal, or I thought I still was.

“Is she awake?”

I tensed, hearing Wren outside. She was angry. I could feel it coming off her in waves.

Gavin studied me. “Are you up for her?”

No. I said, “I need answers.”

He nodded, then left my side. The tarp was lifted and he spoke to them, “She’s in pain. I don’t think she can take too much.”

“She’s The Immortal. She can take more than any of us.” She shoved at the tarp, coming inside. I didn’t move my head over. My neck would’ve seized up again, but her anger became stronger. As she stood over me, glaring down, it was blanketing on top of me, and I struggled to push through it all.

This wasn’t normal. This was my empathic side. This was how it had been when I still struggled to control my senses. Since becoming The Immortal, I hadn’t had this problem. Everything was easily controlled, even kept at bay so I could pull it forth as I pleased. This . . . something was wrong.

“What happened back there?”

“Wren.” Tracey came inside. “Don’t berate her. She needs rest, not to be interrogated.”

“I don’t care.” She twisted back to look at her. “She brought you both here. Why? How? Was it The Immortal power in her? Is Lucan coming for us? Does he know our location? Do we even know our location? We need answers.”

“And we’ll get them.” Tracey touched her lover’s arm. Her voice gentled. “But not now. I was carrying her body. Her body, Wren. Not her, but a body. Her heart stopped.”

My eyes snapped to her, and I jerked upright.

Oh.

Shit.

I held my breath, knowing what was coming—and yep, there it was. A crest of new pain crashed onto me, and I stifled a scream. I bit down on my lip, but I was wailing on the inside.

“Davy?”

I shook my head, holding a hand up to Gavin. I’d be fine. Answers. Answers. I focused on that. Wren wanted answers, well, so did I. I waited out the pain, then lifted my gaze to Tracey’s, and I asked one word. “Stopped?”

She nodded. “I thought you died. I was carrying you when you suddenly stopped breathing.”

“And you continued to hold her?”

Tracey shot Wren a dark look. “I wasn’t going to let him have her body. She wasn’t slowing me down.”

“But you said they were going to catch you,” Wren spoke.

Tracey nodded. “They would’ve, but then,” her hand lifted toward me, “we were on this mountain.”

“I was dead?”

“You weren’t alive.”

I couldn’t—I’d been dead. Had The Immortal left me? Was I only an empath now? A cold shiver of panic wound down my spine, but I shook it off. I wouldn’t start thinking about that, not until I knew for certain. “How long?”

“A day.”

“A day?” I was gutted. I was dead for an entire day?

“She’s The Immortal. How is that possible?”

Tracey looked at Wren. “I don’t know. I didn’t think it was, but she had no heartbeat. But she’s alive again, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

But she didn’t sound so certain. Neither was I. I always had a heartbeat. Always. Not having one—I didn’t want to not be a human. I’d completely become The Immortal then and I knew that wasn’t right. I needed to hold onto my humanity as long as I could. A heartbeat was part of that.