Chapter 194
~ ROWAN
I felt coldness wash over me; like someone had dunked me in a tub of ice water.
My heart stopped, chest seizing as something icy settled on my insides. It came from nowhere, and it took Nyssa pulling back sharply for me to realize that it wasn’t my feelings... it was hers.
"What’s going on?" I asked, trying to gather my wits without her terror overwhelming me. "Did I do something? Did I hurt you?"
She shook her head, her lower lip trembling as she took a few steps back, staring down at her hands.
"Nyssa, baby," I whispered, closing the gap between us. "What is happening? You’re not saying anything?"
She just kept shaking her head, her hands shaking violently. "I don’t... you shouldn’t be next to me right now."
"Oh for fucks sake," I groaned.
I reached for her, grabbing her arm and tugging her towards me. She tried to swat me away but I held on firmly. Once she was close enough, I picked her up, tossing her over my shoulder easily.
"Rowan!" she exclaimed but I ignored her.
Exhaustion soaked my bones, and a few moments ago, I could barely keep my eyes open but all traces of that sleep had disappeared from me.
I set her on the edge of the dresser, standing between her legs to give her no place to run. "Talk to me, right now."
She frowned. "I don’t... this is stupid."
"In case you forgot, I can feel you. You have never been that fucking terrified in your life. What the fuck is going on?"
She pursed her lips tightly, and through the bond, I felt her unease rise, but it wasn’t enough to make a dent in her fear, not even a little bit.
"Something spoke to me," she said softly.
My brows furrowed in confusion at her words, head cocked to the side. "I don’t understand."
"In my head, while we kissed, something spoke."
I opened my mouth to speak but clamped it back shut, unsure of what to say.
It was easy to forget that Nyssa only recently got her wolf. Most werewolves shifted by the time they turned thirteen and within three months, their wolves began to speak. I wasn’t sure when exactly she shifted, but I knew it was under six months ago.
"Little wolf," I murmured softly, keeping my voice as calm as I could as I stroked her cheek. "It’s your wolf, you can hear their voices in your—"
"It wasn’t my wolf," she snapped. "I know what she sounds like. This was... it was something else entirely, okay? It wanted..."
She trailed off, burying her face into her hands.
Only then did I begin to panic, just a little. It couldn’t have been one of the pack members, she knew what a mind link was.
"Wanted what?" I asked slowly.
She didn’t respond.
"Nyssa, what the hell did it want?"
"More."
"More of what?"
She peered up at me through thick lashes, her eyes heavy and filled with defeat. "Blood... your blood."
I’d been alive for over a hundred years, and not once had I ever heard of a wolf craving blood before.
There were a lot of shifters who did. Were-panthers for example prided themselves in eating their prey raw. It was their way of sustaining their shifted forms. I also heard of but had ever seen some sirens who preferred raw meat, but Nyssa was none of those things.
"You think I’m a freak, don’t you?" she murmured, burying her face into her hands.
I turned to her sharply. "Of course I don’t."
"You should, I feel like a freak. When everything was happening today all I could think about was the blood. It was right there in the open and I was just... staring. I didn’t—"
"Pause," I cut her off. "When did all of this start?"
She shrugged. "I don’t know for a fact. I still don’t even know what’s happening. I want it to stop, Rowan."
I pulled her into my chest, running my fingers through her hair in a slow manner. She shuddered against me, her lips pressing into my skin as she clung to me tightly, her fingers clutching my shirt for dear life.
"You probably shouldn’t be this close to me, not when—"
"Don’t you dare finish that sentence," I snapped.
"I wanted your blood, Rowan."
"And I’d gladly give it to you," I said firmly, pressing my lips to the top of her head. "We’re going to figure out what the fuck is going on and we’re going to do it together. Until then—"
My phone rang loudly, cutting through my sentence.
I ignored it, letting it buzz in my pocket hoping that whoever it was would just leave a message but to my displeasure, it rang again.
Nyssa pulled back slowly. "You should answer that. It might be important."
"Nys—"
"I’m right here," she said, forcing a small smile on her face. "It’s not like I can run away or something. Just... answer it."
With a sigh, I reached for my phone, brows knitting in confusion when I saw Aria’s name flash across the screen. I saw her just a few minutes ago when I left the palace.
"What’s wrong?" I asked as I swiped right. "Did something happen?"
"No, Nyssa asked me to do something and I just got the results back today."
"Why not call Nyssa directly?"
She ignored my question. "She asked me to run some tests on something. I don’t know where the fuck she got it from but she better throw it the fuck away."
"Hold on." I put the phone on speaker. "What are you talking about?"
"It was some pink shit in a vial. She told me it made her feel better. Well, the researchers just called me. They said it contained so many things they have never seen before but they could only make out two of the properties."
Nyssa stiffened in front of me. "What were they?"
"First was some kind of plant. They said it only grows in the mountains in the North. It would be incredibly difficult to get on your own."
"What was the other thing?" I asked.
She hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Blood... human blood."