Chapter 445: Heart Threatened
"I think Zagan just saved me," August muttered to herself, rubbing her wrists as she watched the two vampires fighting near the stone ruins outside the castle.
"He said he vowed to send you home safe," Penelope replied, her whole body tense, hands up over her mouth in a silent prayer as she watched her vulnerable, mortal male fighting one who could not die. How could he possibly win this?
August thought back to when she was in the infirmary here and Zagan introduced himself as Cian Vesper, the owner of the island who would be hosting her while she recovered—the Eliade student who had supposedly lost herself in suicide forest without a memory. That was back when they were all still pretending. It seemed so long ago now.
Now all false pretenses were gone and there was so much truth exposed about all of them. This was the last place she imagined ending up—in the midst of the crumbling portal world with Penelope Winter, the vampire’s mate, a bundle of nerves concerned for their captor’s safety.
August was concerned, too. Nedra was unconscious, the island seemed to be falling apart, and now there was an additional vampire they had to worry about. Zagan seemed to be a passing threat—he had let the alyko go, and now he had a mate and a heartbeat. He was living. She would have no more apparent reason to be here if it weren’t for this new threat showing up, but now they were back to square one: figuring out how to kill an immortal vampire.
"I have to help him, August," Penelope choked out, her heart fluttering like mad in her throat. She couldn’t stand this. How was Zagan even fighting this long without dying? He should be so fragile compared to the other vampire—he was living!
What had she done by giving him that heartbeat? All that needed to happen was for someone to reach in and snatch that precious new heart of his out of his chest, and then he would be gone forever. The light would be gone from his eyes. She would no longer have the chance to know him. She would have had a mate and lost him within such a short time.
How could she even help him at this point? She could not even do one of the most selfless and beautiful things another living soul could do for someone—sacrifice themselves to save the other. Even if she was willing to do something like that it would make no difference, because her sacrifice would not end the immortal threat of the vampire he was fighting. It would only weaken Zagan further and eventually end with his soul following hers into the stars.
It was too early for that. They needed to live. He needed to live. There was so much more for him to do—so many things that he needed to experience that she could show him before he was finally done with this existence. She needed to show him the difference between merely existing and truly living.
"What happened to Nedra?" She asked in a tremulous voice. Nedra was being cradled in a male’s arms who was huddled under a large tree, watching the fight unfold.
"I don’t know, but it is why the island feels like it is about to be sucked back into the earth," August replied. "She was helping me make a cage for the new guy, and it was too much for her."
"But she has made this whole island—the containment facility, the sun in the sky, the cuffs, the cage in our room... everything. Why would one more cage be too much for her?" Penelope’s eyebrows furrowed. They needed Nedra’s help.
"I don’t know what happened. It was like she suddenly became exhausted from the effort of it. We almost had him," August clenched her teeth as she watched Zagan get thrown through the air and then caught and pummeled against the ground by the intruder’s fists. The hits thrown were so fast, the vampire’s arms were a blur of movement.
Penelope whined next to August, watching the same scene unfold but feeling it from deep within as well where her connection with Zagan pooled in her chest. Her mate spit out bright red blood that covered his lips, the blows from his fellow vampire taking their effect.
"Penelope, listen to me," August called, reaching out to grab the Winter by the arm so that she would focus rather than allowing herself to be drown with worry. She was likely weakening him with her own terror if he could feel it. August didn’t know if a vampire and alyko would share strong emotions like her and Graeme, but it seemed likely.
"Do you know how to make a cage like Nedra did to my room?" August asked.
"No, I have never done it," she answered.
"Okay, listen. We can do it together, and then we just have to find a way to lure him over to it," August told her, extending her hands in concentration as she began building the four corners of the cage from the ground up, its pillars growing slowly within the Veiled.
"Tell me how," Penelope said, snapping to attention at the suggestion of any kind of plan in which she could help. "If you tell me how, I can help you."
They both ducked out of the way of a large falling bough. "Nedra said that anything created must be done on the wave of a positive intention."
"Right, I know that much. I do that with my memory enchantment as well," she replied.
August wanted to scoff at the mention of that enchantment. It had caused her family and friends from the past to forget her and also separated her from the precious connection with Graeme when she first got to the island. What kind of positive intention had Penelope used for those times?
"Tell me!" Penelope insisted, feeling when another blow landed to Zagan’s chest that had him sputtering more blood.
