Evermore, an Arotas Novella (The Arotas Series) by Amy Miles

been
called one of those before,” she says to the empty room.

ELEVEN

    Even
before Roseline winds her way back to the dance floor, she knows
something is wrong. She can smell it on the air: fear. It filters
down the hall with a nearly visible fog of despair.
    She
breaks out into a sprint. Just before Roseline reaches the kitchen,
strong arms lasso around her waist and pull her back. “Let me
go!”
    “Rose,
calm down,” Gabriel whispers in her ear, and all the fight goes
out of her. She should have known it was him. No one else could have
restrained her so easily. She turns to look at him and feels the
blood rush from her face.
    Gabriel’s
eyelids are drooped low, his gaze unfocused. He is ashen and sickly,
as if he is about to be ill all over the floor.
    “Who
is it?” she croaks, clinging to him for support.
    He
looks away and swallows hard. “Nicolae.”
    A
low moan rises from her throat as she shoves out of his arms and
dashes into the nightclub. There is blood and mangled body parts
everywhere. She can’t help but think of Vladimir and Lucien
when she stares across the vast, nearly empty room of carnage.
    Then
she spots Sadie, her shoulders hunched over a still figure. Roseline
is at her side in two great bounds. She kneels beside her friend,
resting her arm over her shoulders as Sadie sobs.
    Nicolae’s
chest is a wash of crimson. His leather vest has been shredded nearly
completely from his body. His broad chest has been torn into ribbons
of flesh and muscle, the claw marks deep enough to see bone.
    Roseline
fights to still the trembling in her hands as she stares down into
his lifeless eyes. “How long has he been gone?”
    Sadie
wipes her nose with the back of her hand. Her voice comes out in a
pained whisper. “Only a few seconds. He just… he tried
to say something, but his vocal cords are… are…”
She collapses into a fit of sobs. She doesn’t need to state the
obvious. There is little left of Nicolae’s throat.
    “I
couldn’t…” She wheezes. “I couldn’t
save him.”
    Roseline
looks up to find Gabriel lingering a few feet back. “Get her
out of here.”
    “No!”
Sadie’s head whips up and Roseline can see what leaving
Nicolae’s side would cost her.
    Roseline
doesn’t have time to argue. She shoves Sadie toward Gabriel and
tries to focus as her friend’s shrieks of protest begin to
fade. William
will be able to console her, she tries to tell herself as she leans over Nicolae.
    “I’m
not going to let you die that easily.” With the tips of her
hair brushing against his wounds, Roseline reaches across him and
closes her hand around his dagger. It feels cold, foreign in her hand
as she runs the blade deep across her palm.
    The
skin peels back and blood flows freely. Roseline thrusts her hand
deep into Nicolae’s stomach, letting her blood seep directly
into his body. Only
a few seconds, she
repeats over and over to herself as she squeezes her arm to push as
much blood out as she can, praying it’s not too late to bring
him back.
    When
a lightheaded haze wafts over her, she pulls back and lifts her arm
to help slow the flow. A long-forgotten language spills from her
lips, a mixture of Latin, Gaelic, and Egyptian rolls off her tongue.
The words rise and fall in intensity as she places her hand over
Nicolae’s heart and begins compressions to get the blood
flowing.
    Unlike
her own death, Nicolae didn’t have the chance to taste blood
before his heart stopped. Even Gabriel was turned mere seconds before
his heart stopped beating. She has no idea if this will work, only
that she has to try.
    “Come
on.” She grunts, massaging a bloody trail down his arms and
legs, trying to manually force the blood to spread.
    Her
song ends and she begins again. The shadows seem to crawl forth from
the walls, surrounding her in near darkness. Roseline has always been
terrified of using such dark magic. Now, knowing that Lucien is the
one who created it, she is even more leery of using it, but