All The Queen's Horses {Myrnin, Morganville Vampires}

Playing With Fire

Chapter 30 - Playing With Fire

Eve was asleep. I was thankful she was getting some rest. The past three days had been excruciatingly difficult. Liam, Myrnin and Gwion did not leave her side for the first 48 hours. Myrnin kept her pain at bay. Liam kept Faeryn calm. And Gwion held their bond together, while he tried to get through to Faeryn.

Undoubtedly, the scenario was surreal and not at all like Eve had planned her delivery to go. She wasn't complaining, but I knew the stress was overwhelming. About four hours into their vigil, Gwion had instructed Myrnin, "Compel Eve's anxiety."

"No! I don't want to fall asleep," Eve had objected.

Myrnin murmured gently, "I won't make you fall asleep. I will just ease your stress." He waited for her response.

She searched his eyes and then agreed softly, "Okay." Almost immediately, her entire body relaxed. I hadn't realized just how physically tense she was, until I saw her respond to Myrnin's compulsion.

Gwion had successfully gotten through to Faeryn. She did have healing talent. He couldn't tell the extent of it, but he was able to guide her in strengthening the bond.

On day two, they had a breakthrough.

Gwion had instructed Myrnin to pull back on his compulsion, so that he could gauge Eve's pain level. Eve's eyes tensed, dreading the excruciating pain, but then suddenly looked at Gwion in surprise and whispered in amazement, "The pain is gone."

"Indeed," Gwion smiled approvingly. "Faeryn can identify the bond now. She knows it needs to be tightly woven back together, and has worked to fix it. But I am not sure if she will be strong enough to maintain it."

"Please don't leave us," Eve pleaded.

"I won't leave her. I believe she trusts me now. Liam, slowly remove your hands," Gwion responded, closing his eyes in concentration as Liam had very carefully released Eve's swollen belly. Gwion nodded without opening his eyes. He was silent for a few minutes more and then looked up and dismissed both Myrnin and Liam, "Your assistance is no longer needed."

It had been evident that Liam did not want to leave Eve, but the look on Michael's face must have convinced him because he murmured, "Do not hesitate to contact me should you need something," and walked out the door.

Myrnin was also reluctant to leave, but for a completely different reason. There was no way that I was going to leave, and he was not thrilled about being absent with Gwion in the same room with me. It took a few minutes of convincing, but finally he had left. That was yesterday.

Eve stirred restlessly and opened her eyes. She immediately looked toward Gwion, fear and concern painted on her face; as she had done every time she had woken up.

He gave his customary nod, but it didn't seem to alleviate her stress as well as it had before. Her forehead remained pinched and she frowned. Before I could ask her if she needed something, Gwion surprised me, when he instructed, "Compel her anxiety."

"What? I can't do that," I replied in confusion. Eve's eyes opened wide.

"You most certainly can. I know you can use Myrnin's abilities offensively, not just defensively. It's how you beat me at our first challenge. You didn't just block me. You shoved me out. If I had known you were able to do that, I would have been prepared for it, but you caught me off guard," he said wryly.

I blushed slightly. "Yeah, Myrnin said humans were not supposed to be able to use vampiric traits aggressively, only in defense."

Gwion prodded, "So compel her."