Her Immortal Love (Brides of the Vrakken #2)

13. Alexei

13

ALEXEI

I pace outside the medical area, my hands clenched into fists. The healers won't let me in, saying Alina needs rest. But I can sense her pain, feel it thrumming through our connection.

I still can't let myself think about what that connection is.

"Let me see her," I growl at the guard, my patience wearing thin.

He shifts nervously. "I can't-"

I grab him by the collar, lifting him off his feet. "Move. Now."

He stumbles aside and I burst into the tented area. The smell hits me first - sweat, blood, and the acrid scent of magic gone wrong. My eyes lock onto Alina's still form on a cot in the corner.

"Fuck," I breathe, rushing to her side.

She's pale, her skin almost translucent. Dark veins spider across her face and arms, pulsing with an unnatural light. Her breathing is shallow, each inhale a painful rasp.

"What's happening to her?" I demand, rounding on the nearest healer.

The vrakken woman flinches. "The magic... it's too much for her human body. It's consuming her from the inside out."

I grip the edge of the cot, my knuckles turning white. "Fix it," I snarl.

"We're trying, but-"

Alina's body suddenly convulses, her back arching off the cot. A scream tears from her throat, raw and agonized. Magic crackles around her, lashing out wildly.

I reach for her instinctively, ignoring the burn of her power against my skin. "Alina," I call, desperate. "Alina, stay with me."

Her eyes fly open, unfocused and glowing with an eerie light. She doesn't seem to see me, lost in some inner hell.

"Do something!" I roar at the healers.

They scramble around us, muttering incantations and applying salves. But nothing seems to help. Alina's convulsions grow worse, her screams more frequent.

I feel helpless, watching her suffer. My own magic surges, wanting to help but not knowing how. I've never felt so powerless.

"There's only one way to save her." I turn my head to study the head healer, Eira. "She needs to be Changed."

I tear myself away from Alina's bedside, my mind reeling. The healers' words echo in my head, a death sentence I can't accept.

"There has to be another way," I growl, pacing the length of the tent.

Eira shakes her head. "The magic is consuming her mortal form. It's too much, too fast. Her only chance is to become one of us."

I whirl on her, fangs bared. "You can't be serious."

"It's that or watch her die," Eira says, her voice maddeningly calm.

Images flash through my mind - the searing pain of my own transformation, the hunger that followed, the loss of everything I once was. I remember the agony, the feeling of my humanity being ripped away.

"No," I choke out. "I won't put her through that."

Eira's dark eyes bore into mine. "Then you condemn her to death."

Another scream from Alina cuts through the air, and I flinch. The magic crackles around her, visible now - a storm of power with her fragile human body at its center.

"Fuck," I mutter, running a hand through my hair. "There has to be something else we can do. Some way to contain the magic, or-"

"There isn't," Eira interrupts. "We've tried everything. The Change is her only hope."

I look back at Alina, writhing in pain on the cot. The dark veins have spread further, pulsing with sickly light. She's barely recognizable now, consumed by the very power that saved her life.

The memory of my own transformation rises unbidden. The burning in my veins, the feeling of my body tearing itself apart and reforming. The hunger afterward, all-consuming and terrifying. The loss of my humanity, my connections, my entire world.

But as I watch Alina suffer, I realize the alternative is worse. I can't let her die. Not like this.

I stare at Alina's writhing form, my mind a storm of conflicting thoughts. The decision before me is impossible, a choice between two unbearable outcomes.

"She didn't ask for this," I mutter, more to myself than anyone else. "She didn't choose to become... one of us."

Eira's voice is soft but firm. "She didn't choose to die, either."

I clench my fists, feeling my nails dig into my palms. The pain grounds me, helps me focus. "But who am I to make this choice for her? To fundamentally change everything she is?"

"You're the one who cares for her," Eira says. "The one who can save her life."

I close my eyes, remembering Alina's smile, her curiosity, her fierce determination. The way her eyes lit up when she discovered something new about her magic. The warmth of her skin against mine.

"If I do this," I say slowly, "she'll never be the same. She'll lose her humanity, her connection to her old life. She'll become... like us."

Another scream tears through the air, and I flinch. When I open my eyes, Alina's back is arched off the cot, her body contorted in agony.

"Fuck," I growl. The sight of her suffering tears at something deep inside me. I can't bear to watch her in pain any longer.

With a heavy heart, I nod to Eira. "I'll do it. But not here."

I lift Alina in my arms, ignoring the burn of her out-of-control magic.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, pressing my forehead to hers. "I hope you can forgive me for this."

As I carry us out into the forest, away from the moaning and cries of the others, I silently pray to Akeldama, to whatever powers might be listening, that I'm making the right choice. That Alina will understand why I had to do this.

That someday, she'll forgive me for changing her very nature and saving her. Because I just can't let her go.