Chapter 452: Defining a Miracle
"You... mated?" Nedra found herself asking aloud in total shock.
Penelope had accomplished what Nedra had spent years and years trying to figure out how to do. She had given Zagan a heartbeat. It was almost impossible to comprehend that it had actually happened and that she was staring at the evidence of it in front of her.
"Can you help him?" Penelope asked, her lips quivering as she did.
Nedra’s eyebrows pinched together. "What?" She scoffed. "Help him? This is what he has wanted all along. The vampire is dying, Penelope. Don’t you see what a miracle that is?"
Seth stepped forward from where he had been standing back behind Nedra, sensing the explosion that was about to take place. Nedra was right. It was a miracle that the vampire was alive and had a beating heart after all of this time spent trying to discover how to make it happen, but now she was overlooking the tragedy of the situation in front of her. How could she be that insensitive?
"Nedra, please," tears slid down Penelope’s face as she cradled the male’s head in her arms. "Please help us."
"Absolutely not," she shook her head. "Why would you even want to try saving him? We should be celebrating. We are finally free!"
"Nedra..." Seth started from beside her.
"Celebrating?" Penelope shot up from the ground, blood covering her hands and clothes. "Are you serious? You think that he was allowed a chance to finally live just so he could die so quickly? That he was given to me as my mate just to be immediately snatched away?"
Nedra was about to confirm that yes, the plan was alway for Zagan to gain life so that he could immediately lose it, but when Penelope followed it up with the next question, Nedra’s voice died in her throat.
"I love him!" Penelope roared, the fury and sincerity of her words erupting around her in such a way that the Veiled scattered and fluttered up like flower petals into the air.
That glittering energy of declared love remained suspended as the one who spoke panted in the midst of them, glaring at Nedra for not understanding—for not seeing the true miracle here. The miracle was more than life.
"I love him," Penelope said more softly, her forehead cleaving in sorrow. And then she sank back down next to the male who destiny had chosen to bind her to and who was now determined to leave her so soon.
Nedra sighed as her gaze alighted on August. When the soft light began below them with Penelope attempting to once again heal her stubborn mate, Nedra let her heart feel the tenderness of it.
It was hard not to be affected by such a genuine feeling, and as much as Nedra had tried to close herself off to those emotions over the years in order to protect herself and all of those she loved, she was tired. She was tired of keeping it all out. Perhaps the determination to remain alone was what was really wearing her down.
"I see you," she whispered to the mate pair below her.
August watched as Nedra lifted her hands to the suspended energy of declared love that remained surrounding Penelope in the Veiled and pushed all of that love into Penelope’s healing light, concentrating it all back into its source. The soft light around the mates burned brighter, warming their surroundings as Penelope murmured words to Zagan that were for his ears alone.
And then August’s bottom lip dropped open in awe as she saw Nedra appear to open herself up and bloom into a brilliant flower of that light as well, bringing forth more of that healing energy to pass through her own being like a conductor. It passed through her into the growing healing aura around Penelope and Zagan, excesses of it spiraling out into the air as Nedra released all of the love that she had for her children and for Seth—at last allowing it to come forth and be birthed into the open where it was vulnerable and raw and pure.
Zagan groaned softly below them as he felt the effects of being penetrated with so much light. His eyes squeezed tightly against it, trying to resist its advances. He had been falling into a comfortable abyss, allowing himself to disconnect from his body and fade into the dark expanse that was awaiting him, but Penelope’s soft murmurs seemed to take shape, giving form to the overwhelming light that was rushing to catch up with him.
August smiled, tears running down her cheeks as she realized what was happening. The generous, unending well of love that each of them held inside was more than enough to overcome whatever obstacle Zagan had erected to try avoiding being saved.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to become one with the healing orb around Penelope and Zagan that was growing in density with Nedra’s help, adding her own energy to it now as well—everything she felt for Graeme that was so much more than herself and everything she felt for their pack.
That love belonged to more than her alone. What felt so intense and overwhelming to her was like a mere flourish in the totality of all that existed in the universe, and August reached out, tapping into that infinite expanse—allowing herself to transmit it without reservation.
Zagan’s eyes shot open like he had been zapped with electrical panels to bring his heart back into rhythm. He panted beneath Penelope who was still bathing him with her sweet words, her forehead leaned against his and hands cupping his face. She didn’t realize he was awake. She was so desperately trying to heal him, to bring him back, that she didn’t realize it had been done.
"Penelope," he breathed, bringing his hands up to cover hers and then entangling them in her hair, pulling her into his mouth where he kissed her like he may never have another chance.
"Oh," she whimpered, softening against him. "Oh Goddess. Zagan... you’re okay. You’re okay," she chuckled, tears escaping as her hands caressed his face. His black eyes drank her in, swimming now with an overwhelming love that she had not seen in him before... even under the lotus.
"Let me see," she pulled back the cloth that was pressed against his neck to find that the gaping wound was gone. It was as if it had never even been there to begin with.
"I told you that you did not have to heal me," he whispered against her, sighing with the thought of what that kind of sacrifice to her strength may have entailed.
"If you did not want to be healed then you shouldn’t have made me love you, you stubborn vampire."
