The Secrets of Lore Seymour

98. The Warning

"Lore," I whimper, running past the debris into the yard. He must have been at his desk. The explosion sent him out the window, away from the flames and the rubble. An odd best case scenario, though that doesn't mean he's unharmed, quite the opposite.

There's too much blood. Vampires have unnatural healing abilities, dhampir a little less so. They are more easily overwhelmed. Lore is now, motionless in my arms. Injuries have long since stopped bothering me, but this is different. Seeing the bone of Lore's left arm pierce out of skin, the unnatural twist to his right leg, and a gash oozing blood from his temple leaves me gasping for breath. I need to focus now more than ever. Healing has never been my strong suit. I focused on offensive and defensive spells, leaving the healing to priests. We had a system that worked. Now I wish I had learned more, to be more than a sputtering mess over Lore's wheezing body.

Sometime during the chaos, Cyan and Draven have joined me. Cyan tends to a wound on Lore's side that I didn't even see, muttering his own spells with tears building in his eyes. Draven stands near the road, glancing continuously between us and the path. I can't imagine why until I hear the sirens. He has already called the authorities.

"Did you call for an ambulance?!" I shout, feeling a fool because why wouldn't he? But Draven takes no offense to my question and responds in the affirmative, also informing me that the children are alright. Arline has kept them in the schoolhouse alongside as many workers as she or Draven could find. Some are missing, hopefully having run from the explosion rather than getting caught in it. They found the animals too, luckily unharmed though understandably shaken.

Moments later, an ambulance comes peeling into the lot, followed by police cars. I don't want to hand Lore over. My hands shake grasping the gurney they use to lift him. He groans from the movement, somehow making me more of an anxious wreck. I should be glad that he's making noise, that he's alive, but knowing he's in pain has my stomach twisting into a knot. When I grab the handle to the doors to lift myself into the back with him, Draven grasps my shoulder.

"You should stay here," he says, somehow not flinching under my heated glare.

"What?" I hiss, grasping the door handle so tightly that it bends.

"You and Cyan can use magic to uncover the explosive and maybe whoever attacked far better than I or any of these officers can. I will go with His Grace. I won't leave his side."

He's right. I know that he's right. The officers have few mages with them, though none likely as trained as I am. The church always scoops up the powerful mages for their own ranks, leaving less powerful mages to work jobs like this, making the police even more reliant on the church. Making everyone more reliant on the church. Everyday I find another way for the church to piss me off. Cyan is a great mage, but not like me. We all know that. It's why even Cyan gives a slow nod behind Draven, but I don't want to stay. I want to be with Lore. I need to be with him if... if things don't--

"And if there's another attack, you will be here for the children," Draven adds, once again right. He gives my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. The medics insist we must make up our minds immediately. Lore needs emergency surgery. That's what forces me away when all I want to do is cling to him. Draven jumps into the vehicle and it flies as quickly out of the lot as when it arrived.

Once the ambulance is gone, Jaryl, the lead officer of the precinct that Lore and I worked with on the Ayden Marshalls case, approaches us. He gives a respectful nod while asking what transpired. I explain the situation more calmly than expected, though that may be because I'm not panicking anymore. I'm fucking furious. Someone attacked our home. Someone hurt Lore. Someone could have hurt the children. Whoever it was will pay dearly for their transgressions.