Quinn
Ava had made the right choice. She had allowed the continuation of the tea. Well, she had no choice with how persuasive Mia was. Even Rudolph had been bought over when he heard how convinced Mia was. He had been forced to believe that she knew what she was doing.
It had been a battle trying to stop myself from laughing out loud despite the dire circumstances as I watched the interaction with the vampires. I wanted to ask her when she became a doctor in supernatural medicine as a joke but I knew that she wouldn’t like it. She was invested in this project that I suspected that it was more than healing the vampire king. She wanted to prove a point as well, to herself and others that her idea had validity. This was a personal research for Mia and I didn’t know if I should pity the vampire king or feel envious of him for being Mia’s lab subject.
I decided to pity him. He was Mia’s guinea pig and no matter how much I loved Mia, I didn’t think that I wanted to be in the position that Ethan was. No one decided to be in pain as he was. I pitied the guy as I watched him on his bed, looking helpless and weak. I had no doubt that he was annoyed at himself and hated how he was if only there was something that he could do about it.
There was nothing he could do about it but lie down there, knowing that his life was in the hands of those around him and hoped that they take good care of him.
As the king, he must have been a strong and proud man and it broke my heart to see him the way he was. As someone who prided himself on his strength, I couldn’t imagine being the way he was.
I had never seen a vampire look as terrible as he did and I almost told to let us stop administering the sap on him and find another way to get to the dark wizard directly without hurting another person. The only assurance that I had was that he was a vampire and stronger than a human. He wouldn’t die easily like that.
“I will be back.” Mia said as she stood up from where we were seated, talking about nothing in particular to keep our minds off the impending tragedy before us.
“I think you shouldn’t be out tonight.” I told her.
“I wouldn’t be out long. I just need to give the king his night dose. You don’t have to worry, I have everything in control. I have reduced the portion of sap I add to his tea. If too much of it was killing him, we can weaken the dark wizard slowly.” She smiled. “I think I like that idea better, just like using slow poison on someone. The dark wizard wouldn’t know what hit him until it did.”
I sighed. I knew that she had everything in control. She had taken over so quickly the other day when Ava had closed her eyes and nodded that she could continue with the sap treatment. She had asked that the king be given a strong sedative to stabilize him and had where he was tidied up while he was knocked out.
We had all looked at her as if we were watching magic. I had never been more impressed in my life. Jack and John were too. Rudolph had been stunned into swallowing his objections and had been convinced that she knew what she was doing, even though me and my brothers knew that she didn’t. We hadn’t fed someone else the sap before.
It wasn’t like I was going to tell the vampires that she didn’t know what she was doing.
As I had watched her that day, I had thought that all she needed was a doctor’s overall and she would look every inch the angel she was. If her idea worked and we were able to get rid of the dark wizard and get dad back, that meant she would be the one to save us.
I liked what she was doing but she didn’t do that tonight. She had to stay inside.
“Let Ava feed him the tea tonight. I will get it to her. Stay inside.”
“Why?” She asked, looking at all of us. “What happened? You all look tense.”
She was right. It was the night of the full moon and we expected that she would make her complete transformation tonight. As it was her first shift, she wouldn’t be able to control herself from shifting unlike us.
We had been worried about that for the past few days but we didn’t want to tell her. It wouldn’t help her shift if she knew about it and was tense. A tensed human made a very crazy and aggressive wolf when they shift.
“I know what you are afraid of.” She smiled when we didn’t talk. “You guys are worry warts. I’ve told you that you don’t have to worry. I will be back soon.” She said and walked out of the room before we could say anything.
An hour passed. Two did and Mia wasn’t back yet. I became pensive as I watched the full moon getting brighter in the sky.
“Do you think she is fine?” John asked, worried.
“I should go and check on her.” I said, already on my feet.
I gasped as I got outside and saw her walking back to the house. She looked as if she was in pain and was sweating in the cool night air. She swayed on her feet and reached out with her hands, looking for something to steady herself.
I ran to her side and scooped her in my arms. I gasped. Her skin was hot and she was boiling.
“Mia!” I gasped as I ran inside. “Let’s get you in.”
“Quinn.” She groaned. “I feel sick, strange.” She closed her eyes and moaned.
Her groan broke my heart and I wished that I could take this pain for her but I knew that I couldn’t. She had to deal with this alone and it was in that she would get stronger.
“Don’t worry, love. You will be fine.”
“What is wrong with me?”
“You are having your first shift. It’s the full moon having an effect on your body.”
She let out a breath. “This is painful.”
“This is not to scare you, mate, but the pain hasn’t started.”
Her eyes flew wide open. “Will I be in so much pain?”
I nodded. “You would be in so much pain that you would wish you were dead but you wouldn’t.”
She snorted. “Thanks for the comforting words.” She said in a sarcastic tone. “You could have lied to me.”
“Would you have wanted me to?” I asked.
“No.” She sighed.
“I thought as much.”
Her groan of pain was my response and I picked up my pace. My brothers jumped on their feet the moment they saw me walk in with her and moved towards us.
“Has it started already?” John asked.
“Can’t you see?” Mia yelled suddenly.
We looked at one another and held in our laughter. She was having mood swings already. I could tell that we were about to be extremely busy tonight. She was going to be one cute and aggressive wolf.
“Let’s get to the cellar.” Jack said, rushing to the bedroom to get what we would need.
We had intentionally asked Rudolph to get us a house with an underground cellar when he had mentioned that he was getting us out of the prison because of tonight.
We already knew that it was inevitable that she would have her first shift here if we didn’t leave on time.
Her eyes widened as we got to the cellar and she saw Jack walk in with chains. “You are strapping me up.” Her voice hitched.
“You know it’s for your own good.” Jack said as he moved forward and began to hook the chains through the wall. “You would hate yourself if you shift back and realize that you had hurt us or gotten out and attacked the vampires.”
“Am I going to be that crazy?” She sounded terrified of what she would do.
“No.” I patted her back as she was still in my arms. “It’s nothing like how the dark wizard cursed us to lose our sanity when we shift on the full moon but you are shifting for the first time so it’s possible that you get overwhelmed and not know what you are doing though you will still be in control of yourself.”
Jack straightened out from where he was fixing the chains and turned back to us, dusting his hands. “I’m done.”
“Let’s go, baby.” I said to Mia and moved forward to the wall. “Don’t worry, I won’t clamp the chains too tight.”
“Make it tighter.” She sighed. “I don’t want to find out that I had broken out of my chains and hurt people.”
“You won’t. We won’t let that happen.”
She looked up at us as I set her down and fixed the chains on her limbs. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never.” We all said at the same time, shaking our heads. “We are right here with you.”
She nodded, panting heavily at what she was scared of coming. “Don’t ever leave.”
We replied her that we wouldn’t but our reassurances were drowned in the air as she let out a scream as the full moon reached its peak and we watched helplessly and listened as her bones cracked and she turned.