“What’re ya yelling about?” I heard Donovan’s far away voice.
“Donovan?”
“Tessa?”
The same memory kept playing, but I could hear Donovan’s voice over it. Barely. “How?”
“Through the bond I have with my mate, but it’s a weak bond and can’t maintain this type of pack link for long. What are you doing in her memories? And why is she knocked out? Who drugged her?” Donovan’s voice was getting growly at the end.
I took a deep breath. Getting across the right bits of information was key. “She’s been sedated. Her wolf is awake and Meredith’s been cursed not to change, so her body’s fighting itself. We’re trying to find a way to break the curse, but I don’t know what to do. I need to know what happened, but she won’t show me.”
“That’s why she said she was broken. Shite. I woke her damned wolf up by poking at her. Why did no one tell me this? How could I not know?” He muttered the questions.
I grabbed more power and channeled it into the bond between Meredith and Donovan. “What do I do? Tell me what I can do to help.”
“I’m on my way back.”
“Where are you?”
“In the Andes.”
Middle-of-nowhere, Peru. It was going to take days for him to get back. “You’re too far. She won’t last. Can you make her show me what I need to see?”
“I wish I could, but I can’t. If she’s sleeping hard enough to not wake from what you’re pushing through her, then she’s been put in a stasis and I won’t bring her out of it. It’s what’s keeping her alive.” He was quiet for a moment.
Anxiety built in me. I pushed more power, hoping I wasn’t draining Dastien too much.
“Ach. I see. Thank God you’re there. I can’t fix this, but you can. It’s all you. And I might not get there in time to help you either. I’m running now, but it’ll take me a day to get to the city. I’ll be on the first flight out, but…Christ. I shouldn’t have left her.”
Donovan was taking too much time. I shoved more power at him. “Donovan! I don’t know what to do! How do I fix this?”
“You need to help her wolf,” his voice was softer. I could barely hear him. “You’re going to have to merge witchcraft—”
I slammed back into my own mind. Dastien’s panic and worry flowed through my soul, making my head swim. “What happened?” My voice slurred. It slowly registered that I was flat on my back. The cold floor burned against me. What happened to the chair?
A line a sweat ran from my hairline. I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. The lights were too bright. I flung my hand over my eyes as I moaned. “Way too bright. It’s killing my head.”
There was some whispering and rustling around the room. The shrill sound of flimsy metal rang out as the blinds to the small window were drawn.
Someone was coughing and moaning.
“Give me a blanket or a pillow or something,” Dastien said.
The sound of cabinets opening and closing felt like gunshots to my head. Dastien’s scent enveloped me as he eased my head onto a pillow. “How are you feeling, cherie?”
I took a quiet assessment of myself. “Honestly, I feel like shit. Why do I feel so terrible?”
“You’re nearly completely energy-drained. You started out by putting all your power into whatever you were doing, and then I fed you my power, and you took that. But then you took from the whole pack. I don’t know what you were doing there, but you were draining us all. We were fine with it, but when Meredith’s heart beat started slowing, we realized you were pulling from her too.”
Oh God. “Is she okay?”
“No. She’s coughing up blood in her sleep,” Shannon answered.
Fear coursed through me. “Fuck. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“We figured,” Adrian said. “It didn’t matter what you were seeing, we had to stop it. She can’t take much more.”
I wanted to scream and cry, but couldn’t muster the energy. “I was talking to Donovan—”
“That’s impossible,” Shannon said.
I didn’t have the patience to deal with her. “It’s completely possible if they’re true mates, which they are.” My words were clipped.
The reaction was much what I thought it’d be. Silence. And then everyone was talking all at once.
I moaned. “Can everyone please shut the hell up? My head is killing me. Worst migraine ever.”
