Клаудия Грэй: Afterlife

Trust me. Drink.

He was paralyzed beyond the ability to bite down, so I pressed the soft skin against the sharpness of his teeth until they broke the skin. I felt the pain as sharply as I ever had any mortal injury, but I never flinched.

Blood flowed down his throat. What would have burned him before didn’t now, because I had mingled his blood and my own. Now the corrosive power of wraith’s blood couldn’t touch him any longer. He was free to drink it in. Free to take in life.

I felt myself growing dizzy as the link between us deepened. We were one system now, one being, each of us flowing into the other. As I gave in to it, I felt the outlines of his body as much as I did my own; the cuts on the forehead and chest burned, and the snow was cold underneath. And I knew his dawning wonder as he felt what it was like to be me — the angle of my limbs, the taste of his blood, the nearness of my spirit.

The blood I drank began to warm.

Is this what it means to die? Lucas thought. Because I’m not scared of it anymore. Not if it means I finally get this close to you.

I concentrated all my energy on him, directing myself into the very core of him, into the redness of his heart. This isn’t death. This is life.

Lucas gasped in a breath, and I sat up. His blood was sticky on my mouth, and he looked gorier than before, but his eyes were wide open. He took 234 another breath, and another.

“What did you do?” Balthazar said.

Raquel, leaning around Dana, said, “Yeah, was that vampire CPR or something?”

I never looked away from Lucas. The cuts on his face were knitting together, faster than vampire healing, part of his ultimate restoration. He stared up at me, obviously weak from his injuries, but with an incredulous smile spreading across his face. “It’s impossible.”

“It isn ‘t.” I started to laugh from pure joy. “It’s real.”

“You’re healing up, like, crazy fast, but you’re still bleeding, man.” Vic held out a scrap of cloth.

“Bleeding,” Balthazar said, his voice sharp and urgent. He’d seen it now, even if nobody else had. “Bianca, you did it.”

“Did what?” Dana said.

I hugged Lucas tightly. This time, when he embraced me in return. he was warm. “I’m alive,” Lucas whispered. “Bianca brought me back to life.”

Everyone around us started talking at once — in wonder or confusion or glee. Dana actually jumped into the air with her hands above her head, a victory leap.

I didn’t pay any attention. Time for explanations and celebrations later. All I wanted to do at tl1at moment was lie tilere in Lucas’s arms, my head against his chest, listening to the beating of his heart.

Within an hour, tile emergency vehicles began showing up — police cars, ambulances, and a couple of fire trucks, altilough there was nothing left of Mrs. Betilany’s carriage house but glowing cinders. My parents had found a landline inside that remained operational after the big freeze — and — thaw, and they made the 911 call.

“The school is dead now,” my mother had explained earlier, as Ranulf dragged a couple of vampire corpses into the fire to minimize tile awkwardness when tile law arrived. “Without Mrs. Bethany, there is no Evernight Academy. These students need to go home to their families.”

“What will this place become?” I said, looking at the massive stone towers silhouetted against tile snow — cloud sky.

“Some millionaire’s mansion, maybe. Or tile state might turn it into sometl1ing — a home for people in trouble. Another school.” Mom smiled 235 gently at Dad. “Good thing we never sold the Arrowwood place, huh?”

“We can’t go back there,” he corrected. “The people who remember us will know we look too young.”

“I know, dear. I’ve been doing this a while, too, remember?” She nudged him, fondly teasing. “But we can sell the house now, and use the money to go somewhere else.”

He put an arm around her shoulders. “Homesick for England?”

Mom brightened, and I suspected their new home would be somewhere near her beloved London. But she remained focused on me. “What about you, Bianca?”

“I’m staying with Lucas,” I said, “but it doesn’t matter now where I stay. I can be with you as quickly as blinking an eye. So we’ll visit as much as we want. There’s no such thing as being far away from you, not anymore.”

She drooped a little. “It’s so unfair. That you can give life to someone else, but you’re a wraith forever.”

“Mom, it’s okay.” I’d been turning this over in my mind for several days now, and after tonight’s astonishing events, I finally knew what I wanted to tell her. “Stop thinking that something terrible happened to me, okay? You guys, of all people, should realize that death’s not the end. Besides —! was meant to be a wraitil. I feel that now. These powers, these abilities — already I can ‘ t imagine not having them.This is my destiny. This is what I’m supposed to be.” After a moment’s pause, I added, “And it’s fun.”

My parents both started to laugh, and gatilered me into their arms for a ftong hug.

As the cops kept taking extremely confused statements from various students, and a very careful statement from Lucas, the red and blue lights from their vehicles beat raggedly, turning the snow crust on the ground different colors. Vic and Ranulf helped Skye down the front steps of Evernight; I could see that she continued to shake, and was clumsy as she tried to handle a duffle bag half as big as she was. When they walked past us, I heard her say, “Vampires and vampire hunters and ghosts — and they’ re all at war?”

“Present company excepted,” Vic said, with a grin over his shoulder. I could sense that Maxie hovered there, close by his side. “You know, if you 236 ask me, those shouldn’t be the sides. Instead, it should be the normal, awesome people versus the bug — nut crazy people. Plenty of people and vampires and ghosts on both sides of that equation, you know?”

“We are among the awesome,” Ranulf said gravely.

“Whatever you say.” Skye looked mostly like she wanted to get the hell away from anything supernatural and take a long nap. I couldn’t blame her, but I didn’t want to let her go without saying thanks.

“Skye, “I called as I walked up. She looked at me tiredly. “What you did up there — I’ll always be grateful. Me and Lucas both.”

“Lucas saved my life,” Skye said. “I wanted to help him, which meant helping you. And, like I said, I’d want somebody to do it for me.”

Her voice was so weary, and her eyes remained haunted. C hoosing my words with care, I said, “I possessed you for a pretty long time, and some intense supernatural things were happening. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Skye’s expression hardened. ““ll be okay the sooner I get away from here.” She took a deep breath. “Tell Lucas I’m happy for you guys. And. . tell him good — bye.” Then she marched through the snow to the police car without looking back.

In the distance, I saw Balthazar standing apart from everyone else. I walked through the snow to his side. My father’s coat hung so large on my shoulders that I felt as though I were wearing a cape. Balthazar didn’t turn as I approached, but when I reached him, he said, “Someone will have to take care of the stables.”

I followed his gaze to the school stables, where a few students had kept their prize horses for riding. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I’ll go down there tonight, make sure the horses are fed and warm,” he said quietly. “Their owners will come for them soon enough, probably, but I’ll keep checking. Oh, by the way, while we were looking for you today — I grabbed this.” From his pocket, Balthazar withdrew my silver and coral bracelet and dropped it into my hand. “It was under the beanbag chair. I guess Mrs. Bethany stashed it there when she replaced it with the trap.”