A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(4)

“Oh, just give me a break,” I half-sobbed to the empty chamber. I was so desperate, so panicked. A hot flush was starting to run down my back, the kind of uncomfortable prickly heat that made me want to scream.

We finally made it over to the edge of the basin. The waters remained, still and silent, the dancing white light shimmering beneath the surface. Even though we’d taken gallons with us when the warlocks and witches came to infuse the weapons, the water level seemed completely unchanged, as if we’d never been here at all.

I left Ash lying at the edge of the pool, and I jumped in. The water was cool. Instantly the heat of my body died down, every aching muscle soothed, my racing heart slowing to a steady beat.

This is going to work.

I could feel it. I waded back over to Ash, pulling him in alongside me. I removed his robe, shoving it back over the side, and laid him on his back, submerging his entire body in the water except his mouth and eyes.

Within moments, the water blushed red with Ash’s blood. My earlier certainty was suddenly replaced with doubt. If the water encouraged more blood to leave his body, would I have made matters worse?

“Ash! Ash, please wake up,” I begged, shaking him as his body floated just below the surface. Not knowing what to do, I rested my head on his shoulder, the water now ice-cold and making my teeth rattle.

“Please. I’m begging you, Ash,” I whispered hoarsely. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not. But can you please just wake up—can you please just be okay—because I can’t, I really can’t do this without you. I know I’m selfish. I want you to live for me. I need you to do that, so I don’t completely fall apart. I’m scared how I’ll feel if you don’t get through this…I’m scared of the pain, Ash. Please.”

I could feel his heartbeat, barely there, but just about discernible. Looking down at the wound I saw no change, the blood still curling off into the waters. I was about to move out—taking Ash back to my parents was probably my only other option now—but as I waded us both to the side of the basin, the pool shuddered beneath me.

For a moment, I thought it was another earthquake about to erupt, but the movement was only slight, and seemed to be coming from the depths of the pool. The waters started to ripple from the center outwards. I looked down at the light at the bottom. It was pulsing, as if it had its own heartbeat, growing brighter by the second.

I held onto Ash with a shaking hand.

The water started to change color. Ash’s blood started to draw together, removing the red stain from the water and concentrating it in a whirlpool in the center. It started to move toward Ash. Where the water was lapping over his wound, the whirlpool broke, sending his blood to be diluted again, until it was drawn back into the center of the pool.

It’s trying to heal him, I realized.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed Ash’s body down, drowning him in the immortal waters.

Now the whirlpool could latch onto his wound. Staggering back, I watched in amazement as the stream of blood poured itself back into the wound, any taint of red leaving the water completely. His skin started to close itself, the violent gashes caused by the shadow becoming smaller and smaller.

I moved to raise him up from beneath the water, worried he couldn’t breathe. The second my fingers touched him, a bright, brilliant light flared up from his body, blinding me. I fell back, shielding my face. Losing my balance, I dropped into the water. My eyes opened for the briefest moment, and I saw an eternity of white light. It didn’t feel like I was in the pool anymore, but in a pure void of nothingness—almost the opposite of what the entity had created when it had ripped open the sky.

I pushed up to the surface, gasping for breath. I looked around wildly, reassured to see I was back in the pool, but Ash was still fully submerged in the water. I waded over to him as quickly as I could. The light had vanished completely, and Ash was just floating beneath the surface, eyes still closed, no bubbles coming from his nose or mouth.

“ASH!” I cried, dragging him up by his shoulders.

I held him upright in the water, clutching his body to mine, praying that he would wake up. I thumped him, hard, on the back.

He coughed, a stream of water falling from his mouth. A second later his eyes opened. His brown irises looked lighter than I’d ever seen them, but they were still the warm, almost gold, earthen hue that always made me think Ash was so solid and dependable.

“Ruby?” he whispered, his voice tentative.

His eyes came to rest on mine, the confusion vanishing. He hacked again, but this time he squeezed my shoulders as he did so.

“Hey, you.” I smiled. I was fighting back tears, and the effort of doing so made my chest heave. I kept my hand resting on him, unable to not touch him, still barely able to believe that he was alive, that what I had seen was real.