Page 17 of Fallen Star

"Alex! Alex!"

The voice becomes more urgent, and I look around, wondering where I am. The scene with my parents fades, the room disappearing, their smiles turning to smoke as a new face materializes before me. Dean Vane, with worried blue eyes, stands inches from me, his mouth turned down, his brow furrowed. "Alex, come back to me."

I stumble and he catches me, as the reality crashes into my heart. "What was that?"

He holds me steady and peers at the bowl of water. "That's the Mirror of Idis. It shows us what might be, if things were different. It can be very hard to resist losing yourself in its visions."

"No shit," I say with a painful laugh.

"What did you see?" he asks, tilting his head.

"My parents. I saw my parents." My hands grip his arms tightly, and I feel a certainty surge within me. "We have to destroy the shards of the Fallen Star of Nirandel," I say. "They are too dangerous for anyone to ever collect for themselves."

Because I know what I would do with them if I could wield that power, and it would take everything in me to stop myself from committing a great evil with that artifact.

As we turn to exit the room, we pass the man who has been quietly acting as a sentinel. I didn't look closely at him before, but now I see that his eyes are wide and he looks pained.

With a groan, he throws himself at me, sword in hand, teeth elongated, a primal growl rising from his throat.

His teeth sink into my neck before I know what's happened, and I kick and punch but he is armored and has a weapon pinned into my gut as he feeds on my blood. Pain permeates everything in me and my vision swims. Another roar fills my ears, and the guard is pulled away. My body falls like a limp rag doll to the floor as Dean tears into the man, his normally handsome face distorted by rage as he ends the vampire's life with a quick twist of his neck.

He rushes back to me, the bloodlust in him fading as he sees my state. "I'm so sorry. That should have never happened."

But of course it should have. I am, after all, surrounded by monsters. I was stupid to let my guard down because of a pretty face and nice words. These creatures are deadly, and I am only food to them.

Alex Stone

I'm shaking, more in rage than pain, though there's plenty of both to go around, as Dean escorts me out of the room and through the halls. We head back to the dining room, where he sits me down and proceeds to give commands to everyone near him. He's pissed, clearly, but also worried.

"I can offer you my blood," he says, the normal bluster and confidence in his eyes gone. "It will heal you quickly."

I glare at him. "Nope. I'm good."

He nods and grabs a napkin from the table, pressing it to my neck to stem the bleeding. "It is rare for a vampire to lose control like that, but it does happen. Normally they are sent to a special island, to keep others safe and give them a chance to gain control of themselves. We don't get a lot of humans here. But even so, this isn't what most of us are like."

"Really?" I ask, my skepticism clear. "Because it seems to me this is par for the course. I never should have stayed. I want to go home now." My voice is firm, only belied by the vague dizziness I'm still feeling from the attack, and the experience of seeing my parents, of living a reality that will never be. Of knowing once and for all what's actually at stake.

"Let's get you fixed up and then I'll take you home, if that's what you want."

"It is," I say, a little less firmly than before. The man is arrogant and cocky and infuriating, but right now he's being compassionate and kind and it's a lot harder to stay mad at him like this. Still, he's no different from the monster that killed my parents and the one that just attacked me.

I steel myself against any softening of my nerves as Helda joins us, a small jar of ointment in her hands.

She passes it to Dean, giving him a chastising look, before turning her attention to me. "This isn't the best introduction to Inferna you could have gotten, but it's not all bad, my dear."

I don't know what to say to the kindly Fae, so I hold my tongue as Dean removes the napkin and applies the ointment to the wound. His fingers are cool and gentle and the touch sends an unwanted shiver up my spine. Damn this man.

"This will heal you," he says. "It will just take a bit longer than my blood would have. And might leave a small scar."

"What's in it?" I ask. I sniff and detect hints of lavender, but the other scents are foreign to me, though it's vaguely similar to my friend's concoctions that have saved my skin—literally—more than once.

He shrugs. "It's an ancient Fae mixture. They don't share their secrets with vampires."

"Smart."

Helda snorts in laughter and turns to walk away, but not before giving Dean another look of disappointment. He shifts his eyes away from her piercing glance and focuses back on my neck. Once the ointment is applied, he covers it with a bandage and leans back. "You're all set. But… are you sure? There's so much at stake, and everything I've learned has me convinced we have to work together. There are pieces to the puzzle neither of us are seeing yet."

I sigh, exhausted and frustrated. "There is no 'us.' I… I appreciate you saving my life back in Israel. But being with you, being here… it puts me at greater risk. Vampires aren't safe. They never have been. Nothing I've seen so far has changed my mind about that." I place a hand over the bandage, a low ache forming as the ointment presumably gets to work healing the skin. "I'll find the other pieces on my own and stop Global Tech. You should destroy the one you have."