Page 120 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“He won’t make it otherwise. You know this.” The vampire sounded calm, but sure.

“He won’t…” Violet dug her fingernails into my arm. “No. He can’t die…”

“Teague?” Xander prodded. “We need to do something. He’s lost too much blood. I…”

Violet was sobbing now. I just felt numb. I wasn’t crying. I felt like I was looking at the world through a distorted chunk of broken glass. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

I’d never truly believed the oracle’s vision showed Morgan’s death. Until now.

Teague’s gaze caught on mine. I don’t know what he saw on my face, but in the next moment he was moving.

“Fuck!” he shouted as he rocked away from Morgan’s prone body. The magic pouring from his fingers was mere wisps now. Barely there. He’d obviously expended everything he had. He stomped toward the vampire. “This better be a fucking gift.”

“I wouldn’t have offered it otherwise,” Keenan said. His fangs had dropped, giving a lisp-like quality to what he was saying.Then he tore into his own wrist. Blood sprayed out from the wound, hitting the interior roof of the vehicle. He quickly placed a red plastic cup under his wound.

“A disposable party cup? Not your usual style,” Teague said.

“It was all the shop on the edge of town had on its shelves.” The vampire grinned then. “But I love that you remember me so well.”

The mage just grunted. When the blood stopped flowing, the vampire offered the cup to Teague, careful to keep his hand out of the sunlight. He trudged back to Morgan with the vampire’s bloody offering. Without another word, the window came up again, blocking the vampire from view. Then the SUV drove away.

“Will this make him a vampire?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure it mattered, not if it saved Morgan. But would he even want a life in the shadows? I might thrive there, but rainbows needed light. They couldn’t exist without it.

“No,” Teague muttered. “Not with me to guide the process.”

“Are you sure this is safe?” Xander asked, glancing over his shoulder at the vampire’s departing vehicle. “The ambulance is coming… I can hear them now. If we can get him shifted… If he can make it to the hospital…”

If… That’s all I heard.

If, if, if…

“Do it,” I said.

I was too selfish to dismiss anything that could help. Consequences be damned.

Teague thought it would work, and I trusted him. The death mage dropped to his knees beside Morgan and poured the dark red blood onto Morgan’s chest wounds.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t look away.

If this didn’t work…

44

SHADING MY RAINBOW

MORGAN

I was tumbling through a kaleidoscope. Brilliant yellow, shocking orange, vibrant red, rich purple, soothing blue, and verdant green swirled around me. It was pure and bright and…almostgorgeous. It could have been perfect, except it was missing that little touch of shadow I’d come to adore.

A white glowing presence emerged from the rainbows.

“Mother,” I whispered.

“My child, why are you here? It isn’t your time.”

I glanced down at my body, but it wasn’t there. I was merely one of the many prisms of light. They were all too bright. Too vivid. Where was my shadow? Where was my mate?