Bella Vita (50 page)

Mike's hands were next to mine as soon as I
started to push the van back over. I watch as Acacia and the others
followed suit. The crunch sounds of the van as we rocked it back
over caused me a temporary moment of relapse as I was lost to the
memory of my death and accident on the bridge.

Mia
bella
...
Dom's
voice was there but faint.

Dom?!
I couldn't feel any of the emotions behind the words, my
world was in chaos.

We are under attack. Find
Derrick, something is wrong.
He pushed his
concern for his friend forward.

I found him, are you
okay?
I didn't want to think that I had
led my people into ambush.

We'll be fine until you get
here, I called for help.
He let the link
go.

“
We need to get them out,
now.” I shouted as I ripped the back door off its
hinges.

Blood was splashed everywhere. Derrick was
stabbed through with some random metal from the wreck. The other
vampires looked like they suffered minor injuries in
comparison.

“
Will it run?” I needed to
get these people to a safe location, and now.

Acacia got in the front seat, and the engine
turned over.

“
Thank God.” I heard Mike
say as he climbed up next to me, “You two I need you to run ahead
and make sure our path is clear. These people need help
now.”

“
Thank you, Mike.” The
thought that something else might be there waiting for us hadn't
even crossed my mind.

I directed us to a nearby safe house, one
with an underground safe room. Mike helped me carry Derrick and the
other vampires down into the room.

“
I need to get this wound
cleaned and healed. Let me check them for major injuries.” I
stepped over to the other two vampires- one had a broken arm, which
I set, and the other only had a concussion.

“
Emma, let me help you.”
Acacia inched closer to me.

“
Do you know anything about
medical stuff?” I didn't sneer, I was only thankful.

“
I've been trained as a
medic.” She knelt down next to Derrick and instructed Mike and the
other wolves to hold Derrick down, “We can remove the metal now.
Can you guide me?”

“
Yes.” We spent the next
hour removing various pieces of metal from him.

“
Let me give him some
blood, he'll heal faster.” Mike stood.

“
Acacia, are you okay with
this?” I didn't need any more fights.

“
Yes, please go ahead. He
needs to be healed in case they are discovered.” That was all I
needed.

I bit Mike's forearm until his blood was
flowing freely- it was terribly hard to pull free to do the task at
hand- I pried open Derrick's mouth and helped the blood down his
throat until he was able to swallow by himself. I could feel the
blood begin to heal his wounds.

“
Let me heal you.” I said
to Mike as I took his arm and closed my eyes.

The wound shut and I had a hard time looking
at Acacia.

“
You're a very strong
woman, Emma Hutchinson DeDominico.” She smiled at me as she wiped
some of Mike's blood from the side of my mouth.

“
Thank you. I've sent for
my people to come and get Derrick and the others. We need to aid
the others now.” I walked out of the room and back into the chaotic
weather.

No one knew what we were walking into. I
could feel the distress coming from Dominic. I couldn't reach him
through our connection, or anyone else directly in the battle zone.
There was an invisible barrier that could be felt and crossed, but
influenced how our abilities acted inside it. I watched the wolves
around me raise their hackles whenever we inched closer to the
shield.

I have to help my people. I
will not force you to help or have any hard feelings should you
choose not get involved here. But I can't sit outside and not know
what's going on.
I shifted back into a
human and pulled on the shirt and pants I had carried with me in my
mouth- I was going into a war zone barefoot.

“
You never have to face a
monster alone. You know that.” Michael's eyes gleamed bright as he
grasped my hand and kissed the knuckles.

“
As much as our little
foursome bothers me, it's times like this that remind me that I
could never walk away from it either, you have the support of the
wolves to our fullest abilities- although we don't know what this
field will do to us.” Acacia stepped forward and took my other
hand.

“
Thank you.” A tear
streaked down my dirty face, leaving its path etched in my
skin.

We walked through the wall that seemed to
block out the world itself. We stood on the other side and the
chaos settled. There was static in the air, but sounds seemed
muted. I knew that we were stuck inside this bubble until this was
over.

“
We need to find them.” I
tried to reach Dom or Leland- all I got was more static.

“
It won't work, not in
here, Em.” Mike's voice was so certain that I had to look at
him.

“
Do you know what's
happening?” I didn't know if I was truly shocked or not.

“
Yes. I know this. This is
a warlock's doing, a bad warlock- like evil. You were right.” His
face fell as he said it.

“
This isn't the time or
place for rights and wrongs. I can't shift in here. Do you know a
way to counterbalance this?” Part of me prayed that there was an
easy fix for this part at the very least.

“
Yes, but it takes a lot of
energy. We won't be able to shift or track inside. This is meant to
keep us separated. It'll cause hallucinations to play on our
weaknesses, or fears. The people doing this, there has to be more
than one, but they don't all need to be inside. One that would
believe that they're sacrificing themselves for the greater good.”
His brows furrowed together.

“
Where do you need to be,
Mike? If we stop this bubble then whatever is happening to Dom,
Leland and the rest will have a chance to level out.” I needed to
believe that there was still hope.

“
If we get right next to
the shield I can drain its power, but I'll need a place to put it.”
Mike's beautiful face was full of stress as the answer seemed to
bounce around in front of me.

“
Can't you just ground it?”
I gulped for air.

“
Not this kind of energy.
It is meant to be released but not taken back in. If I were to
force it into the dirt then there will be natural problems. But if
it's transferred to living matter, it'll be used... the problem is
that if I try to put it in more than one person the whole spell
could come undone- knocking the people unconscious and setting us
back to square one.” He looked away from me.

“
Dammit, dammit, dammit!
I'll do it, but I'm soooo kicking some crazy warlock's ass after
this.” I growled.

“
Em, you don't have to...
the amount of power I have to drain from this to make a
difference... it could kill you.” Mike's eyes were bright as he
tried to get me to understand.

“
Yes, yes. I get it. Now
let's do it.” I sat on the ground as I had no idea how this would
affect me.

“
Ok. Acacia, you and our
men are to guard both of us. I doubt either of us will be
functional enough to stop any attack.” He looked at her, I felt
jealous of how he allowed her to be such a powerful female- not
something to be hidden and protected.

“
Michael,
is tú mo shonuachar
, you
better not die.” A tear clung to her bottom left lashes, she didn't
bother to push it back as she told Mike that he was her
soulmate.

“
Ná bíodh imní
ort
, there's nothing to fret about, love. We have a
long life ahead of us to try and sort everything out.” He
smiled.

I felt a pang as I knew that this wouldn't be
the scene I would have with Dominic if we were in this situation
together.

“
Em, you ready?” His words brought me
back to the current task at hand.

“
As I'll ever be.” My body
relaxed.

“
Good, relax as much as you can. I can
only guess as to how much this is going to hurt us both.” He
shrugged and sat down next to me and took my hand.

“
Catch ya on the flip side.” I laughed
at him and closed my eyes.

The spell warmed the air around us. I
knew that the area must've been lit up like the Fourth of July, but
I kept my eyes shut against the light.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I
concentrated on my breathing. The air started to crackle with
energy and I knew it was going to happen soon. Mike's hand tensed
on mine momentarily and then the rush happened. I heard a scream, I
didn't know where it came from- whether it was from Mike or me. Our
pain mingled and danced across our bond. The energy being
transferred into me was blinding hot and cold at the same time. My
body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside. The scream
came again just as a strong wave raked my body. This happened three
more times before I was huddled in a ball weeping on the ground. I
could smell burnt hair and charred flesh. I retched a few times and
my mind was slipping in and out of consciousness.

Emma?
Mike's voice touched my thoughts and my entire body
flinched.

Em, it's okay. It's
done.
My thoughts held his words to me but
it took me a while to understand.

Is it?
I tensed with the thought that it wasn't over.

Yes. You can reach for Dom
now.
Mike held the concern that I should
for my mate and my people.

Dominic...
I tried my best to project the thoughts out into
the world.

Mia
bella
? My Little Emma Bird, you're
alright!
Dom's joy was like a soothing
balm on my wounds.

Where are you? What
happened?
I knew I needed to send help to
him.

We are fine now. I can only
assume that you're behind that. We captured one. Could you send
Michael to us?
He sent me a visual
location.

Mike, Dom would like you to
go to them. They captured the insider.
I
sent him the visual location.

Mia
bella
, what's wrong?
Dom's cool voice sounded wrapped in tension.

We spelled the energy into
me. I'm sure I'll be fine as soon as it leaves me...
My eyes fluttered, I wasn't sure I could hold out
much longer.

You spelled it into you!
You could've died!
His voice boomed in my
mind.

Dominic, yell at me later.
I think I need to rest now.
I let the
words slide away from me as did the link.

“
Emma, I think we need to
get you back to your home.” Acacia looked like she might try to
lift me.

Acacia, this war isn't
over. You must make sure that this battle has been won. I'm not
going anywhere until I know my people are safe.
I wasn't sure how well I could reach her in my current
state.

“
As you wish. I'll have the
area run. We'll know if anyone is still here that holds a threat to
either of our people.” I heard her heels click away from
me.

I closed my eyes and felt the weight of the
task I had agreed to weigh on me worse than anything before. I just
couldn't hold on any longer. When the darkness came I welcomed it
as a sweet relief.

When the bright day shone in my eyes and I
felt the softness of my mattress below me, I knew that things had
to be alright. It was mid-afternoon and I knew that I had to get
out of bed. It was time for the vampires to have their queen.

“
Ah, Mistress Emma. You're
awake. We have about three hours to get you patched back together
enough to have the ceremony and then conference.” Yasmin had
clearly been sitting at my bedside.

“
Yas-min.” My voice was
harsh and it hurt to speak.

“
Oh, first things first.
This is for you. It is some of your, eh, special blood.” I watched
as she held out a glass to me with a certain amount of
distaste.

“
Um, thank you.” I sipped
on the glass and I instantly knew that it was werewolf blood- my
body reacted with a hunger I didn't know I possessed- I guzzled it
down. “Excuse me.”

“
Yes, well, let's not worry
about that right now. I need to know what I can do to help your
healing process.” She gestured toward my highly bruised body- even
my hair seemed to be in a state of brokenness.

“
Not to worry. I can handle
it all now. Please thank Michael and Acacia for the donation.” It
clearly surprised her that I knew that it was a mix of both their
blood.

“
I will,
tout de suite
.” She
smiled at me.

“
How is everyone? Derrick,
my grandfather, Dom, Mike, the wolves?” I couldn't pretend that I
didn't want to know.