A Meet of Tribes (A Shade of Vampire #45)(2)

There was no answer, and I felt the last ounces of patience seeping out of my body. Exhaustion seeped through my legs and arms, and my eyelids felt heavy. I blinked hard. I needed Phoenix up here with me. I needed my brother back.

“I don’t think we can do anything other than wait,” came Draven’s reply.

I shook my head, unwilling to accept that as an option.

“We have to figure something out. Don’t you have some Druid magic for this? You can travel between stars. Can’t you get my brother back?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Serena,” he replied. “I’m sorry. She’s keeping him there for a reason. On the bright side, he is still alive after jamming a knife into his chest. Maybe she’s healing him inside that shell. Maybe they’re best left alone until the Daughter wakes up.”

“And when will that be?” My voice trembled as I looked at Draven.

He lowered his head. He seemed to sense that I was on edge and didn’t want to push me further.

To be honest, any answer would have been a wrong answer—unless it involved pulling my brother out of the ground right then and there.

I took a deep breath and refocused on Phoenix. The moment of silence seemed to stretch forever as I watched him inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale…

The deep red veins snapped from their organic link to the magnolia tree’s roots. The egg started to move upward.

I froze.

The dark brown earth was pushing the egg to the surface.

I took a few steps back and shook my head, snapping out of my True Sight. “Something’s happening,” I said.

The earth rumbled beneath us.

The grass trembled. Chunks of dirt sprayed up as the Daughter’s egg rose out of the ground.

Aida and Vita gasped.

“What the hell?!” Jovi yelped.

The red veins were still connected to the ground, as if drawing the last remnants of energy from the dirt. They pulsed with a pinkish light. The shell shimmered in the sun and reflected the blue sky from its smooth surface.

My brother’s inside.

“What’s happening?” Draven asked.

“The egg. It rose up from the ground. It’s here,” Bijarki replied, his voice husky and low.

My instincts kicked in. My mind focused solely on getting Phoenix out of there.

“Nobody touch—”

I swung the shovel from my side with all my might and smashed the egg with one blow.

The shell popped open in large pieces, and the veins swiftly withered into thin black lines. The light inside faded. Phoenix and the Daughter faced one another with their eyes closed. Neither of them moved.

“What…what did you do?” Draven’s voice was a whisper.

My brother’s safety triggered the most primal of my senses. I ignored the Druid and fell to my knees.

“Phoenix!” I shouted.

I pulled the egg shells apart in order to reach him.

Field and Jovi ran up to us and helped pull him out. They laid him on the soft grass next to me.

I checked his pulse. He was alive.

“Phoenix, wake up,” I said. Tears welled in my eyes.

I had very little energy left but I wanted to use it to syphon off any pain he was feeling. I closed my eyes and reached out to the small mass of scarlet red that swirled inside his chest. My palms rested on his pectorals as I drew his pain into me.

“What’s going on?” Draven’s voice boomed through the darkness that enveloped me and pulled me back into consciousness.

I slumped over.

Jovi held me upright while I processed the pain, allowing it to spread through my body. My head fell back, resting against Jovi’s shoulder.

And then I heard the most wonderful sound—Phoenix groaning as he awoke.

I looked at him and recognized his befuddlement. He didn’t know what had happened or what he was doing there.

“It’s okay, Phoenix… You’ll be okay,” I said to him, my voice weak. Relief washed over me.

Anjani and Bijarki knelt in front of the Daughter, removing the broken shell pieces from her alabaster skin. She wheezed her first breath and sat up, big violet eyes staring at us with panic and confusion.

“The Daughter!” Bijarki exclaimed. “She’s awake!”

The girl was petite. Her long, reddish pink hair covered most of her naked body like a layer of silk. She looked around with quick head turns until her eyes settled on Phoenix. A spark of recognition flickered over her face, and she immediately moved to wrap herself around him.

“Somebody get me a blanket. We need to cover her up!” Anjani barked the order to no one in particular.

Field nodded and darted inside the house to fetch covers for the Daughter. He emerged less than a minute later with a pale yellow tablecloth that he’d probably snatched from the banquet hall. Anjani tried to wrap it around the Daughter, but the girl hissed and bared her teeth at the succubus, then nuzzled her face against Phoenix’s chest, which only had a faint pink scar where I guessed he’d stabbed himself.

Draven listened carefully, seemingly trying to ascertain what was going on. He called out to Bijarki, who moved next to him and described the scene in a rapid succession of muttered words I barely understood from my distance.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Serena,” Draven said to me, his voice somber and reprimanding.