A Valley of Darkness (A Shade of Vampire #52)(40)

“We were hoping you could tell us.” Hansa came to his side, frowning at Minah.

The Iman girl seemed sad, but peaceful in death. She’d most likely died in her sleep.

“This doesn’t make sense. She was healing! She was getting better!” Patrik growled.

Scarlett moved over to stand next to Caia and the others, watching Patrik in agony over Minah’s lifeless body. She didn’t hide her emotions. She was in pain, watching the Druid suffer like this.

“You were passed out,” Jax muttered, his eyes on Patrik. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I… I don’t know…” He breathed heavily, his gaze shifting from Minah’s face to Jax, me, then Hansa. He was alarmed and dazed. “You guys… leaving. Last night.”

Heron wore a menacing shade of darkness on his face, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

“I’ll get the nurses,” he said, then rushed into the other room.

We heard his muffled voice, then watched as he came back, accompanied by two nurses. Both Exiled Maras turned white as sheets of paper at the sight of Minah. One covered her mouth to stifle a scream, and the other burst into tears. They both moved to check on the Iman girl, but Heron’s arm shot out, firmly holding them back.

“Who was here tonight?” Jax asked, his voice cold, his glare vicious.

The nurses trembled before him, their expressions drifting between grief and horror.

“We… We were, but… but we were on the other side, sleeping! We left the Druid here, with her,” one of them sobbed. The other put her arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, for comfort.

“We… She was healing just fine,” the other nurse said. “We’d changed her bandages and applied more healing blood to her leg wounds. She was getting the color back in her cheeks… This doesn’t make sense!”

A moment passed as Jax analyzed and processed everything in the room, including the nurses.

“Did either of you see or hear anything, from the moment we left, until now?” he replied.

They both shook their heads.

“Only the door opening and your people calling out to Patrik. That is all… I swear!” the crying nurse said.

“Okay. Get out. Now!” Jax growled.

The Exiled Maras nodded and scuttled out of the room. I could hear them sobbing in the other hall, until they went deeper into the building.

I shifted my focus back to Minah, while Hansa checked her arms and neck.

“There’s still blood in her, right?” she asked, looking at me.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m not done scanning her yet, but from what I could see at first glance, everything’s there. And she couldn’t have died from blood loss due to her wounds; there’s enough in her to sustain her through the rest of the healing process. This is weird…”

“Tell me about it. No cuts… No puncture marks… Nothing,” Hansa muttered.

Jax cursed under his breath, then moved away and started pacing the room. Patrik sat back on his bed, looking lost and downright devastated as he stared blankly at Minah.

“I don’t know what happened,” he murmured. “I didn’t hear anything… didn’t see anything…”

“Patrik, you probably didn’t even wake up.” Hansa tried to comfort him, turning to face him. “You were knocked out just now. Scarlett shook you and you were unresponsive. I had to slap you hard to pull you back.”

Patrik then touched his reddish jaw, grimacing from the pain.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Hansa added.

“Maybe he was mind-bent, given the resident species in this city,” Jax said, then walked over to the Druid and quickly checked his pupils. His eyes glimmered gold as he used his own mind-bending ability on Patrik. “Tell me what happened last night, Patrik. You need to tell me. You can feel it in your gut that you need to tell me.”

Patrik blinked, his face blank as he reacted to Jax’s hypnotic suggestion.

“I fell asleep,” he said, his voice low. “I woke up during the night. I heard a noise. I saw dark figures by Minah’s bed… I couldn’t make out what they were. Then golden eyes came at me, and I fell asleep… I dreamed of Kyana… and she became Scarlett, and I—”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Jax snapped his fingers, slightly uncomfortable.

But his discomfort was nothing compared to Scarlett’s. Her eyes were bulging while the rest of us stared at her with raised eyebrows.

“This is awkward,” Heron muttered.

“Shut up!” Scarlett shot back, and I could swear she was blushing, despite her vampiric pallor.

“What… What happened?” Patrik pressed his fingers against his temples. “My head hurts…”

“You were mind-bent,” Jax confirmed. “You woke up in the middle of the night. You said you saw dark figures by her bed, then golden eyes, and you blacked out.”

“Damn it… I don’t remember!” Patrik replied, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

“I forced it out of you. It’s the single sliver of conscious memory you had left from last night. Whoever mind-bent you wasn’t an expert,” Jax said.

The infirmary door burst open, startling us all. I instinctively reached for my swords, my fingers gripping the sculpted handles. Emilian walked in, followed by Darius, Farrah, Rowan, and Caspian. They all seemed shocked and distraught at the sight of Minah.