“I’m sorry for... you know… what happened back there. Yesterday at the detention facility.”
Xan furrowed his eyebrows and draped his arms over my shoulders. “Baby, you don’t have anything to be sorry about.”
“I could have hurt you…”
“Yeah, you could have, but you didn’t. Emi, what happened back there, I don’t blame you for one second because I know if it were me, I would have done the same exact thing. We’re not human. You and I have dragon sides that ride us hard with strong emotions and then you also have a vampire side that is even more volatile than that. It’s incredibly hard to resist the pull of the bloodlust and it’ll come with time, but if that were me, I know I wouldn’t have wanted to, not with those circumstances. Dragons value family above almost everything else. Ainsley wasn’t your blood, but he was your family.”
I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. He got me. He really got me. My dragon. I snuggled in closer to his chest and savored the feeling of being loved by him.
“See? There you are. I think you’ve finally come back to me.” I slightly pulled away and looked up at him inquisitively. “I told you to do what you had to do to come back to me as my Emi. It took a while, but I see you.”
I smiled and went up on my tippy toes to kiss his lips once more.
“I love you so much,” I told him.
“And I love you. Now, let’s go find your uncle.”
My smile and my mood dropped. Finding a caster who didn’t want to be found was hard enough, but one who just went through what Devlin went through… it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Chapter Eight
As it turns out, Devlin was the one to find me, not the other way around. Xan and I had searched for him most of the morning, finally deciding to give up and go about our duties for the rest of the day.
Amos was busy interrogating the scientist with Matias and Ingrid, so instead of working with him, I went to the infirmary. I wasn’t a healer by any means, but I still wanted to help. I couldn’t save Ainsley. I had to live with that. But maybe just talking to some of the other patients would help me and maybe them too. I knew it was a long shot, but I decided to give it a try.
When I got to the infirmary door, I put my hands on the surface and hesitated. My palms began to sweat nervously and I closed my eyes, trying to will myself to calm down. I had forgotten I didn’t have my caster side anymore, that it wouldn’t go haywire with the slightest change in emotion and sighed in relief.
“Firecracker.”
My eyes popped open and turned toward Devlin as he approached me from the other end of the hall. It was a dead end but I knew that wouldn’t be a problem for my uncle being a caster and all. If anything, it seemed as if he’d grown in power since that night Xan and I left him and Ainsley at the cabin.
“Where have you been?” I asked and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He didn’t return it for several seconds, then put his hands on my back stiffly. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” I pulled away and looked at him speculatively.
“I just… couldn’t be here.”
“Yeah, I know.” I eyed the infirmary door and began walking away, hoping he’d walk with me. He didn’t need to be near that door, not near the room where Ainsley died. “When I… found Ainsley in that place, I killed several of the scientists. Apparently, Matias saved one of them. Anyway, they’re interrogating her right now and I don’t know what to do.”
“So you thought you’d go to the infirmary?”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess. They don’t want me in there with her, for good reason. I’m so angry, Dev. Seeing him laying there, strapped to the bed along with all those other supes…”
“I get it.” Dev snapped, interrupting me and I immediately felt bad for bringing it up.
“Sorry.”
He breathed out heavily and winced. “No, I’m sorry. I just don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“Oh, okay.” I furrowed my eyebrows and looked down at the ground.
“How did the potion work?” he asked, changing the subject. We were in the living room at that point and he moved to sit down on one of the oversized couches.
“What potion? You mean the nullifying one?”
“Yes, that one. Did it work?”
I nodded my head. “A little too well actually.”
I studied his face for any indication as to what he was thinking and saw that his expression was inquisitive but dull, as if it were a mask, hiding his true emotions. There wasn’t a hint of sadness in his eyes like there was just moments ago and it worried me that he was trying to hide it like that.
“Oh yeah? What do you mean?” His dull gaze locked with mine as he tried to read me right back.
“It feels as if it was never there to begin with,” I told him as I attempted to play along. “I don’t like it, Dev. It’s like that part of me is completely gone.”
He furrowed his eyebrows in thought and rose from the cushion. “It sounds like it worked a little too well. I think we’ll wait to give you the next dose until
