I finally let an annoyed exhale escape me as I rounded the corner and headed north up the same street Jade had taken. A very memorable scent brushed my nose and I jolted to a stop, looking down.
Droplets of blood marked Jade’s progress up the street. I couldn’t see her, but the blood trail was clear—troublingly so given the frequency of the drops.
I should have slammed Gisila’s head into the wall twice. At least.
I gritted my teeth—my vampire fangs prickled the inside of my lips—and kicked my pace up from a lazy walk to an actual jog before giving into a run.
I followed the trail—which thankfully became less clear after a few blocks; she must have tended to her wounds or something—all the way back to her apartment.
Her blood led to the fire escape stairs, so I turned into my bat form to zoom up to her apartment and plant myself against the window.
It was dark inside—not a single light was on. But I had no problems seeing her. She was wavering on her feet, tilting back and forth as she staggered towards her bedroom. She’d dressed her arm wound so it wasn’t bleeding nearly as much, but blood still dripped from her clothes to the carpet.
She’s in there. She probably has fae potions.
The assurance didn’t do much to abate the sick feeling in my gut. She looked so weak—would a potion even work when she was in this state? I didn’t know—I hadn’t bothered to learn about the effects of fae potions on magic humans as I never intended to need the information.
Her already snail-slow steps were getting slower by the moment, and I still hadn’t gotten a look at her face, but she had to be in a lot of pain.
An old familiar feeling that felt horrifically like caring throbbed in my chest. It was overwhelming and drove me to do something, anything!
Swallowing a curse, I stopped peering into Jade’s apartment like a creeper bat and glided down to an entrance of the building. I found a patch of shadows where I could safely make the instantaneous shift from bat to humanoid, then rushed inside.
I yanked my hood down as I took the stairs two at a time, trying to come up with a plan but unable to. I needed to change out of my night clothes—because there’d be no charming my way out of appearing as Connor and wearing Ruin’s clothes—but the burning sensation in my chest said I didn’t have time for that.
I can dazzle her with pheromones later—wait, no I can’t, she’s a slayer, she’s immune. She’s so out of it, maybe she won’t notice? But the second she’s stabilized she will…
I jumped the last two steps, landing on our floor. I meant to aim for my apartment to go change, but almost against my will I strode up to Jade’s door.
“I’ll figure it out somehow,” I grumbled before knocking on the door with enough force that I rattled the whole thing. “Jade? Jade open up. I know you’re in there. Jade!”
I was loud enough that if this went on much longer I was going to wake the neighbors, but when I pressed the side of my head to the door I couldn’t hear any movement within the apartment. “Jade,” I hissed.
Nothing.
I didn’t even take a moment to think—I was running off panicked instinct. I backed up and kicked the door by the lock.
Vampire strength is nothing compared to werewolf strength but given how our powers increased with age I had plenty of strength to kick the door open—breaking the door frame and the door lock.
The apartment was still pitch black, but the scent of her blood was so overwhelming it made me sick.
I cast around for an explanation—anything that would explain my sudden presence. “I—uh—need a cup of sugar. I was suddenly filled with the need to bake,” I said as I strode through her apartment heading towards her bedroom. “I get why you’re so obsessed with—”
I broke off my flimsy excuse with a few curses in languages that had been lost to time when I saw Jade slumped on the ground—her legs and lower body stretched out in the living room, her upper body and outstretched arms laying in her bedroom.
Her fingers twitched, but her eyes were closed and her face was a deadly pale color I didn’t care for.
“Jade.” I knelt at her side and gently shook her.
She didn’t respond.
She needs a potion. Or medical help. Unfortunately, I have neither.
Stupidly, it had never occurred to me to keep a few potions in my apartment for Jade—I hadn’t thought I’d care about her maintenance and wellbeing.
Even more unfortunately, I didn’t know where Jade hid her fae potions in her apartment—since she was pretending to be human, she’d have to hide her supernatural grade potions. Assumedly, it was somewhere in her bedroom or bathroom as it seemed like that was where she was headed before she collapsed.