Cole's Redemption (Alpha Pack #5)(68)

“I won’t forgive you if you don’t!”

“I can’t do it, Selene.” His eyes begged her to understand. “I won’t trade in your life to save his. I can’t use my gift that way.”

He wouldn’t help. Frantic, she looked to Tarron. “You can change him into a vampire, right? Bite him or something?”

“No,” he said with real regret. “I can’t turn a person who’s already departed. You don’t know how sorry I am.”

No, please. She held out her arms to Jax. “Give him to me.”

Relinquishing his burden, Jax placed her mate in her embrace. She held him tight, close to her heart, stroked his beloved face. His silky, ebony hair.

“I waited too long,” she whispered, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I wanted to tell you that I love you so. I thought I had time. I’m sorry I waited. I love you. Love you.”

She rocked him, a well of grief surging to choke and overwhelm her. Her heart broke, and a keening noise reached her ears, ragged. Raw. She couldn’t go on without him. Wouldn’t.

“God, this is so wrong,” someone said quietly. It sounded like Ryon. “Why?”

There was no reason. No justice in this. She couldn’t accept that he was dead.

The anger took her by surprise. The refusal to let him go. That’s when she became aware of a strange tugging in the region of her heart. A thread, golden and strong. It began in her chest and stretched to just beyond Zan’s body in her arms. Our bond.

That’s when she knew he hadn’t left.

“The bond,” she gasped, eyes widening as she looked at her father. “It’s still there.”

Relief and something like hope stirred on his face. “Then there’s still a chance.”

Her pulse tripped. “What do you mean?”

“Remember what I told you about your gift? That it would manifest when you need it most?”

She nodded. “Yes. But I don’t understand. I don’t know what to do!”

“Follow the thread; find his spirit. Lead him back to his body, and then we can help him heal.”

“Is that really possible?”

Ryon stepped forward. “Zan and his wolf are still here, and he doesn’t want to leave you. He’ll hang around as long as he can.”

“But—oh, God, what do I do? How?” What if she’d missed her chance?

“You’re a Spirit Catcher,” Nick explained. “That means you can follow your mating bond and bring his spirit back into his physical body. You can do this.”

Several gasps met Nick’s revelation about their immortality. But for now, she concentrated on doing as he said. Carefully, she focused on the thread as she’d done when Zan was in the coven’s infirmary. But this time she was bringing him all the way back instead of simply anchoring him to this world. She imagined winding the thread around the two of them, drawing him to her. When that worked, she gave him a mental push toward his broken body.

Selene? Baby? What’s happening to me?

Her heart leaped. Let yourself slide back into your body. Don’t fight it.

But it hurts. My brain is fried, and I don’t think you can fix it.

Somehow we will. Please, trust me?

A pause. For you, anything.

I love you.

She heard the smile in his voice. I knew, and I love you too.

He followed her lead without hesitation, hovering over his body and then slipping back down into his shell like smoke, his wolf following. Once he was inside, she heard a rattling intake of air and saw he was trying to breathe.

“Help me,” she cried. “What now?”

Suddenly, Tarron was crouching at her side. “I’ll give him a bit of my blood to speed the healing. Then you give him some of yours to bind him to you forever. Together we will gift him with immortality, though he likely would’ve had that anyway as your Bondmate. Now it will be a sure thing.”

“All right,” she said gratefully. “Let’s do it.”

The prince went first, slashing his wrist. Without wasting a second, he held the sliced skin over Zan’s blue lips while she pried his mouth open. The first drops fell into his mouth, but there was no movement. And then, without warning, he latched on to Tarron’s arm and sucked like a newborn. A murmur rose in the room, growing in excitement.

When he’d taken enough, Tarron gestured to her. “Your turn.”

Encouraged, she repeated the process using her own blood, thinking it was strange to be feeding him as one would a vampire. But she was for anything that helped him to heal.

“That’s enough,” the prince said. “Now we take him back to the stronghold and get him into the infirmary. With any luck, we’ll see signs of improvement within a few hours.”

“Do you think he’ll be well that soon?” She stroked her mate’s hair again, unable to stop touching him.

“No. I expect it will be days before we know whether his brain has recovered from the damage it sustained today. But don’t lose hope.” His smile was gentle.

“I won’t.” The tears flowed anew, but this time she could handle them.

Her mate would live. She couldn’t ask for anything more.

He had thought he was dead, for good.

Still, he hadn’t been able to go into the light that beckoned from beyond the chamber of suffering. To give his soul over to the gorgeous white presence that promised eternal happiness, peace among the angels. That hadn’t sounded so bad.