Page 21 of Grave Devil
Jesus. What the fuck? “Mia?” My voice cracks as the air in my lungs whooshes. My heart skips a beat, and my stomach knots.
She’s sat in my favorite leather recliner, naked, her eyes pitch-black and focused ahead. I wave my hand in front of her face, but she doesn’t blink.
“Mia?” I whisper.
The rise and fall of her chest is subtle. So gentle, it takes me a few moments to confirm she’s still breathing. Upon first glance, she looks frozen. As if Medusa herself challenged her to a staring contest.
Black ink prints in the shape of fingertips dot the flesh around her neck and chest. Farther down, larger streaks adorn her hips and thighs. Fucking hell. The scent of rot is pungent. It makes me gag.
“What the actual fuck is happening?” I ask. Her lips quiver.Barely. Another subtle movement that anyone else would’ve missed. But I don’t. Nothing gets by me. Not a damn fucking thing. Not since the night I lost my baby brother. I vowed to never slip up again. So now I’m an expert in observation.
I dial the landline at Harker Mansion, my hands shaking. But I don’t dare take my eyes off her. My love… she looks like a beautiful black swan, petrified like wood, immovable stone and rock.
“What’s happened?” Nox asks, his voice dark and commanding. His timbre suggests he senses something is wrong.
I swallow hard, my mouth dry. “I-I don’t know. I just found her like this…”
“Like how. Answer me. Now.” His tail cracks the air like a whip. It smashes the silence between us.
I wiggle my fingers in the space she’s staring at again. “Her eyes are black. It’s like she’s in a trance or something. There’s ink all over her body. What do I do?” A question I haven’t asked in a long fucking time.
“That’s not ink. You need to wake her up. But carefully. Draw a bath, lukewarm water only, not cold, not hot. Fill it only halfway so that it’s waist-deep… And add as much salt to it as you can find.”
Panic fills me as I watch her chest fall even slower. “Can’t you come here and help me, bro? What if I fuck this up? Nox, please…”
He clicks his tongue. “No. I’ve been unable to leave. I don’t know why. The house won’t let me. Don’t tell the others. Not yet. You have to wake her up, Bones. She’s in anewnightmare. This one could kill her.”
Fucking hell. What? “You can’t leave Harker Mansion? Why haven’t you told us? This isn’t good. This is so fucking bad.”
“Bones, focus.” His voice is sharp and rough like gravel. Monstrous. It fills the void of this entire room without him even physically being here.
“Fuck. All right. Give me a second.” I run to the bathroom and turn on the hot and cold faucets in my brass tub, careful to mix them accordingly. I quickly dump an entire bag of salt in. Luckily, I’m no stranger to soaking in the stuff after a fight, so it was already in the cabinet under the sink. “The bath is coming. What else?”
He sighs into the phone. “You need bloodroot. A few petals is all. Put them in her mouth to shock her body back to this plane.”
Sweat pours down my neck. I shut off the water once it’s halfway filled the tub. I search frantically around the room for nothing. As if this mysterious flower is going to take root and bloom before my very eyes in this apartment.
“And where the fuck am I supposed to find that, Nox? Can’t I just shake her or dunk her head underwater?”
“No! Don’t do that. That could stop her heart. The poison provides a blanket, a shield between worlds. It will jolt her back without completely destroying whatever sanity she might haveleft.” The sound of Nox pacing back and forth echoes through the line. “Call Aries. He must have some.”
“Aries is busy, Nox. He won’t answer his phone until after he’s done offing one of his father’s clients. It’s like this new thing he’s into. It doesn’t matter. Fuck… I’ll search the apothecary. He labels everything.” I fly back into the living room to see Mia arching her back. She writhes against the chair, her body contorting.
“Mia? You’re scaring me,” I call out.
“She can’t hear you. Get the poison fast before she slips even farther away. Put her in the tub. Use something to secure her to it. Call me back when it’s done.” He hangs up without another word.
What in the actual fuck?I guess he figures he’s only distracting me at this point. I run back over to Mia and scoop her up into my arms. A raspy moan unfurls from her throat. A wounded kind of sound, not a pleasurable one.
“Shhh, I got you. It’s gonna be okay. I’m going to take care of you, mi amor.” I place her gently in the bath.
The second her skin hits the saltwater, she revolts. I hold her steady. “Calm down, baby girl. I’m trying to help you.”
Her chest heaves a few more times before slowing down again. She stills, and her blackened gaze hardens, laser-focused on nothing but the space in front of her. I fetch restraints from my BDSM toy box, long corded ropes with leather clasps. I fasten them around her ankles and wrists before tying each end to the various clawed feet of the tub.
I give it enough slack for her to sit comfortably, but tight enough to keep her from slipping under. Even if the water is only waist-deep, she’s unhinged, and the last thing I need to fucking worry about is her drowning before I can save her from losing her mind.
“I’ll be back soon, mi amor. Don’t you dare fucking die on me.” I haven’t been this scared since the night we all waited up for her to return from the Wishing Tree.
