Page 31 of Accepted Bonds
“I need to use a warming spell.Let’s hurry.”She said, placing her index and middle fingers on Levi’s neck to check his pulse.
I couldn’t seem to understand a word of what she was saying.After all, I was touching Levi and his temperature was pretty normal.
“Aurora, what’s going on?”I asked softly, trying to keep her calm by using as rational a tone as I could manage while pulling Levi’s arm over my shoulder so I could hold on to more of his weight.
Mateo, who was holding Levi’s arm over his shoulder with one hand, also used his free hand to rub her back.
It worked because her heartbeat stopped speeding up as she inhaled and exhaled for a few seconds before explaining, “I don’t really know how to explain the dynamics of this because I don’t understand it too well but Levi is a vampire-mage and his instinctual magic allows him to use his soul as an anchor to the soul of a recently dead person.When he uses his instinctual magic to summon the dead, he connects to their ghostly souls and uses his own soul to anchor them to our world, which is why he can’t stay connected for too long.”
She released a shaky breath and continued, “He only shivers like this when he stays connected for too long.If we can’t warm him down to the soul, it could hurt his soul’s vitality.That kind of thing could keep him in an awfully weak state for years.This has only happened once because we’re usually super cautious, but today ...”
I couldn’t touch her to console her, so I reassured her with my words.“Okay, nothing is going to happen to Levi.You’ll use the spell and he’ll be fine in no time.”
When we got to Aurora’s room, Aiden was already there, pacing back and forth.
“What the hell happened?Is Levi alright?I heard about the murdered Alpha?And why aren’t you answering your calls or replying to your texts?I ...”Aiden started asking questions as soon as we walked into the room.
“We’ll explain later.Aurora needs to use a spell on Levi.”I said, moving past Aiden and helping Mateo lay Levi on his back on Aurora’s bed.
After we settled Levi on Aurora’s bed, she wrapped him up in her blankets while we stood at the edge of the bed, staring at both of them with concern.
“When I do the warming spell, I’m going to need to concentrate and keep my hands on top of Levi’s heart until all the chill contaminating his soul is eliminated.Caden, please help me inform Alpha Owen why I’m using magic.The Curio Bracelet should recognize the warming spell as a mid-level spell, but it could also recognize it as a dangerous level spell because it affects the soul.”
“Can someone please explain what’s going on?”Aiden asked, raising his hands in a questioning gesture with a perplexed expression on his face.
Mateo whispered a brief explanation to Aiden as I spoke to her.
“Don’t worry about anything, Aurora.Just use the spell.We’ll explain everything to Aiden and I’ll text my dad now.”I assured her even as I sent a quick text to my dad.
Aiden finally noticed the urgent situation and stopped asking questions.The three of us stared at Aurora as she climbed onto the bed to sit beside Levi and pressed the palm of her left hand over his chest.She patted his chest lightly for a few seconds as if she was trying to gather the amount of concentration she needed to make the spell work.On the third pat, she started saying a spell.It was the first time I was carefully observing as she said a spell, but I was glad I got to see this side of her with that unmistakable confidence in her voice.
Her voice became cold yet soft, like she was about to sing a song, but the resonance that echoed with her words was all the evidence that she was saying a powerful spell.
After she’d completed the spell, she opened her eyes and stared intently at Levi.Her hand remained on his heart, but we couldn’t see the effect of the spell because Levi was still shivering.
Before I could ask if the spell had been successful, Aurora stared up at Aiden and as if he could read her mind, he pressed her hand to Levi’s heart as she slid down to lie beside Levi’s body such that she could hug him without removing her hand from atop his chest.
Mateo and I stepped forward to help her pull off the blankets we wrapped around Levi’s body to keep him warm earlier, so she didn’t have to move the hand that had remained over Levi’s heart since she said that spell.
Once we were done helping with that, we watched Aiden lay on the other side of Levi, covering Aurora’s hand over Levi’s heart with his hand.Then Mateo sat beside Aurora on the bed cupping her free hand in between his hands while I held on to her foot, unable to stop myself from massaging it.
I sat there until Levi and Aurora’s heartbeats were strangely synchronized, a phenomenon that had to be possible only because they were mates.After all, vampires, whether full or half-blood vampires, had slower heartbeats than the rest of us.Aurora’s heartbeat synchronizing with Levi’s meant that her heartbeat reduced its usual pace to the drugging slow pace of a vampire’s heartbeat.
I decided as Mateo, Aiden and I watched over Aurora and Levi that we needed to get that checked to ensure that whatever was causing Aurora’s slowed heartbeat wouldn’t hurt her.To make sure I didn’t forget in the craziness that was inevitable in the next couple of days, I pulled out my phone and left a note on my to-do list.
I was about to turn off my phone when I received a message from my dad requesting the presence of Mateo and me at the conference meeting room in Block 3C.
“We’ve gotta go.Aiden, can you watch over Levi and Aurora alone?Mateo and I need to attend a meeting.”I whispered, trying to avoid waking Aurora or Levi.
Aiden didn’t even open his eyes as he waved us away.
After a few glances at Aurora and Levi, Mateo and I walked out of Aurora’s room and shut the door behind us as quietly as we could.
20
Mateo
When everything went to hell several hours ago, I had been on an errand for Beta Alex to check up on the people in charge of feeding the participants of the Alphas Congress and to make sure that the food supply was enough.So it was several hours after Alpha Dean’s death before I found out that anything had happened.
