Taste a Thousand Deaths (Marionettes of Myth #3)

Chapter Eleven

She awoke Sunday night. The air in the caverns of her lungs shifted and Toivo watches as her heavy eyelids struggled before finally lifting. Yuuhi stole to her side first to greet her, causing Toivo to sizzle.

The doctor came in to check her stats. Zia had already left to take Raven and Rosette home, since it was a school night, but the doctor recommended even fewer of their group crowd her for a while, because her anxiety and stress levels would be high—and the doctor knew the rest of them were dealing with their own high levels of anxiety and stress.

Leon volunteered to visit Cain. Nekane offered to go with him. Elliot agreed to accompany them, though he didn't escape without a rib-crushing hug from Ave. Tian agreed to go as well, even if he didn't know Cain aside from how he was the equivalent of a vampire mafia lord. He still wanted to get Cain tulips. Pink tulips, specifically.

That left Toivo, Carmi, Yuuhi, Jason and Ave.

But Kali wasn't really with them, not quite present. The doctor said it was normal. Venom from older vampires not only overwhelmed a demon's ability to fight the intoxicating euphoria, but it brewed up worse aftereffects.

Kali couldn't talk yet. Her vocal chords were numb. She had trouble processing oxygen and needed the tube blowing air into her nose. At times, she looked confused, like her surroundings weren't what she expected them to be. She couldn't move much either, and her neck was especially difficult, but when the doctor offered her a brace, she looked like she would vomit. Toivo thanked the doctor and finally sent him away.

The paleness of her face was the worst part. The healthy bronze had turned ashy, the flush of life in her cheeks gone. Toivo couldn't help seeing her and thinking, 'Was this what she could have looked like if she had turned?'

But with the bed propped up, she could at least listen to the tense, sparse conversation. And everyone tried to do at least that. Toivo and Ave and Carmi did their best to talk about the party, specifically how Rosette had conquered the most brilliant minds at the table.

It didn't take long for conversation to fizzle, however.

Ave, with her hand on Toivo's arm, watched everyone with heavy, glassy eyes. She chewed on her thumbnail, and then she said, "Maybe Kali needs some rest now."

The anxiety started up, and although Kali's face didn't broadcast it as clearly as it normally revealed all of her emotions, she smelled of it. The heady aroma of fear. Yuuhi touched her wrist and moved an inch closer. "Do you want us to stay?"

Her eyes begged him, her lips parted like she wanted to speak the words, but she couldn't.

Carmi's knuckles whitened as his fists throttled the empty air. He stood at her bedside and Toivo was right there with him, watching his sister's face and the staggering fear in her watery eyes.

Yuuhi made to speak, but her fingers twitched beside her and her vocal chords grinded. "I...want..."

Yuuhi's hand cupped her face and Toivo swelled with anger. Kali was his sister before Yuuhi's lover, and yet the bastard had moved himself right in like she belonged to him.

Yuuhi breathed, "Kali, you don't have to—"

"No, I...to tell..." She stopped to shut her eyes and silently curse herself, but she didn't have to try much harder when Toivo sensed something.