Chapter 23 – Snap
Cora
I ignore the sound of my overwrought niece shouting at the door, keeping my eyes on the corpse and the half-dozen machines that monitor it.
“What do we do next?” Ella whispers, stepping close to my side after Tony’s ghostly blue form disappears completely into his body, slipping in like…well. Like it was made for it. A perfect fit.
Passively, I wonder if he would have been able to climb into any corpse and vivify it, like something from a terrible science fiction movie –
But I’m distracted from the thought when the screens on the machines suddenly jump to life.
“Oh, holy shit,” I whisper, my eyes going wide as I begin to take in the data that starts to scroll, indicating signs of…life. Life in this dead body, however tenuous.
“What’s happening?” Ella whispers, likewise looking at the screens, seeing the change in them but unable to read them as I can.
“Roger,” I snap, stepping forward, reaching for the buttons of the uniform we buried this poor boy in. “Get it ready.”
My steady mate does precisely that, flicking the buttons of the defibrillator machine in a practiced way that gives me a great deal of pleasure, showing he paid attention to the lessons I gave him all day as we planned this after Jesse’s call last night.
But my eyes are drawn away from the sight of Roger’s handsome face and capable hands as I unbutton Tony’s shirt, baring his chest and the horrible half-mended scar that crosses his throat, revealed now that the high collar of the uniform has been folded away.
Ella, I know, worked hard to mend that herself before the funeral. But there was only so much she could do on dead flesh.
“Ella, I need you on that,” I murmur, lifting my chin towards the knife wound as Roger lifts the paddles, ready to go.
“Okay,” my tender-hearted sister says, her voice tight as she steps to Tony’s head, clearly re-experiencing her grief at the sight of the wound that ended his life. But she begins to glow a steady lavender, indicating that she’s getting to work.
I smile softly at my sweet and steady Ella, who never lets her high emotions over-run her desire to help someone in need.
Passively, I notice that Juniper’s pounding has faded away and I send out a little prayer that her father has stepped in, as I asked him to. Dominic always has a way of working with our stubborn girl that sometimes eludes the rest of us.
“They’re ready,” Roger murmurs, looking between the two paddles and then up at me.
“All right, babe,” I say, glancing up at him and giving him a steady nod. “Just like we practiced, yes?”
He smirks at me and nods.
I exhale a long breath as I finish the final button and Tony’s shirt falls aside. I cast my eyes once more over the machines, which all show that the boy is…ready. “All right. 600 volts. Let’s get this heart started.”
Tony
I moan, my entire body shaking.
Somewhere far off I hear a woman’s steady voice giving commands – tense but sure.
I gasp for breath as my heart clenches in my chest, feeling like an iron fist squeezing it tight – reducing it to pulp –
Lavender light everywhere.
And my throat – it burns.
Water rattles in my lungs – so thick air can’t get in –
Drown –
I drown –
But how can I fucking drown – that’s impossible – I can breathe beneath water, it’s my gift – life is my gift –
My mind flashes back to the lake – a child beneath the waves, sinking down, screaming, reaching for the surface, never realizing that he keeps sucking in more air for yet another shout.
But now is different – I don’t have to panic – I remember now –
My lungs shift, relaxing, the air, or the oxygen, or the life – whatever – coming from elsewhere now. I relax, falling back.
Falling…elsewhere. Calmer, darker.
A stream, a river – grey souls. My wolf howls, desperate not to go there, but I think…I don’t know. Why the hell not? Easier than this.
“1000 volts!”
The pressure again on my heart, squeezing it, forcing it to beat. I moan again, turning away, but my wolf – he bites me. Again and again.
Remember her, he snarls, sinking his teeth deep into my soul. Remember Juniper! We have to get to her – she matters more than this – she’s worth this –
Her face again comes to mind with very near ridiculous clarity. A moment in the Underworld when, by some miracle, I made her laugh. She leans towards me, her eyes shut with the joy of it, her face tilted up to me, the light of the crescent moon reflecting on her hair.
And she was just so…perfect in that moment.
I mean, in every moment.
But that one, laughing at something I had said, ready to bite back at me with some wicked retort, her eyelashes a soft fuzz on that soft pale skin beneath her eyes.
God damn it, but she’s perfect. Perfect. Worth anything.
Yes, my wolf snarls, sinking his teeth deep, deep into my heart. Beat, damn it! Live!
And my withered heart complies, seizing once, for her.
“Back, back, Roger…” the steady voice says. “I think…”
My wolf snarls and bites again, and my heart seizes once more.
I moan, the pain of it – of a dead heart struggling to beat –
But I push it aside, filling my shattered mind with thoughts of her. Memories. Hopes. Juniper all hung over and laid out on her bathroom floor, still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, even if she was a damned mess. Juniper laughing at Orion, spilling her wine all over his boots.
Juniper resplendent, baring her teeth at absolutely everyone, fearless. But there are too many memories of that particular expression to narrow it to just one.
So, I just remember them all, one by one, letting them fill me as my heart slowly, slowly starts to beat.
Juniper
I sob against my father, my hands wrapped in his shirt, terror streaking through me, consuming my entire mind. I only barely notice my sister softly stroking my back, whispering soft things that can’t possibly matter or count right now.
Because I can feel him –
Can feel the tether getting thinner and thinner –
But down it, I feel his struggle and his pain. Anton’s desperate attempt to come back to life at war with his body’s desire to rest – to be at peace – to do what is natural to it and just stay fucking dead.
I shake my head against the horror of it all as my dad holds me tight.
“It will be all right, June,” dad murmurs, pressing a kiss to the top of my hair.
But I just shake my head. Because he can’t know that.
He can’t know.
And quite suddenly – a snap.
My entire body tenses as I feel the tether between Anton and me draw so thin that it snaps like a twig. Breaking. Finished. Spent.
I cry out, horrified, and press my face to my father’s chest.