The Stars Lie {Myrnin, Morganville Vampires}

A Debt Repaid

Chapter 30—A Debt Repaid

Claire

Just as she began the forward motion of the dagger toward her heart, she heard a loud cry from behind her.

"No!!!"

Before Claire could even comprehend what was happening, she felt the dagger snatched out of her hands and iron arms wrapped around her.

"No, Bebe'...what are you thinking?!" Rhysian questioned urgently in her ear.

"Get off me, Rhysian!" Claire snapped, her grief-stricken eyes still lost to her pain. Pushing against his chest with all of her strength, Claire squirmed to release herself from his grip. She may as well have been trying to move a cement wall; she could not budge him even an inch.

"Get away from me!" She screamed the words now, panic and pain beating relentlessly through her brain.

"It's going to be okay, Bebe'," Rhysian murmured. "He will come. I promise...I promise, Bebe'. Please do not despair..."

Tears shattered through Claire's anger. Huge sobs shook her small frame. She clung to Rhysian now. He held her twitching and convulsing body as uncontrollable cries mixed with screams of agony, ripped from her very core.

Her emotional outburst somehow freed her; released her from the grip of the hallucinations. As Claire's breathing slowed, she found her thoughts were crystal clear...the muddiness of her mind completely gone.

Rhysian gently relaxed his hold around her. He continued making soft shushing noises. When she was finally silent, he leaned back to look in her eyes.

"He will come, Bebe'."

Claire hiccupped as she worked to control her air flow, still shocked to realize what she had just tried to do. "You can't know that, Rhy..." she whispered.

"I do know it-" He stopped and hung his head before continuing.

"How?" Claire knew he wasn't telling her everything and her heartbeat began to increase again. "How, Rhy? How do you know it?!" She yelled.

"-Because...he sent me to you."

Claire was dumbstruck and stared at him, trying to make sense of his words.

"He...sent you...to me?"

"Yes. My instructions were to come to Morganville in 2015. I tried many times. But I was never able to attain 2015. The earliest year I could reach was 2016."

"When I arrived, I was shocked that you were not back. I didn't know what to do, so I waited for you. Amelie employed me. And I waited."

Claire stared at him, unresponsive, so he continued. "Myrnin told me to contact him when I found you..."

"Contact him?!" Claire interrupted. "You have been able to contact him this entire time?!" She hurled the accusation at him.

"No! I mean yes...but no." He stuttered.

Claire's eyes flashed in fury. "Explain!"

Rhysian continued quickly. "He tried a few times without success. I was more skilled in navigating the time portals with accuracy, so Myrnin sent me ahead to find you."

"He created a blood bond to me before I left; instructing me to open the portal on my end, so he could find me. I did, Claire"-Rhysian broke down-"I opened the portal. Every day."

Claire stared at him trying to understand.

"It should have worked." He shook his head. "The only explanation I can consider is; he is having trouble getting to this exact point in time, just like I did. If we wait, I know he will come..." his eyes pleaded for her to understand.

"Why didn't...you tell me," the pain of betrayal laced her tone, as she whispered.

He searched her eyes. "Bebe'. Does it make it better to know - or worse? Every time you let yourself hope and he still didn't come, I watched you unravel into tiny broken pieces. I missed the mark by one year. I hoped that before the year was up, he would make it here. But in case he...never made it...I thought it best to let you heal as much as possible."

He waited to let Claire consider his words.

She exhaled slowly, knowing he was right. This knowledge did give her too much hope. She fought against it, but the merciless hope unwrapped the tension from her body anyway, and excitement began to build in her chest. The science side of her brain had begun to function again, as she contemplated his words. "Okay...there has to be something we can do. Something you haven't already tried. What do we do now?"

"I don't know..."

"Wait! We can go to him - you know where he is!"

Agony - and something else Claire couldn't identify - crossed over his face. "I can't...I can't remember where he is."

"You forgot?" Horror crashed through Claire's mind as she realized what he meant. "Rhy, how many times did you go through the time portal to find me?!"

"Too many..." he whispered.

"Why...why would you do that? You didn't even know me?" Claire was stunned at the risk he took, in finding her.

"Myrnin was the only family I had left...before I found you. He was willing to die to save my daughter's life. How could I not do this for him...?"

Claire hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she whispered. An idea was slowly percolating in Claire's mind, "A blood bond." She murmured absently.

"Yes, he has a blood bond to me." Rhysian looked confused.

Claire's eyes took on a strange intensity.

Rhysian spoke in alarm. "That look in your eyes scares me. What are you planning?"

Without answering him, Claire grabbed the discarded dagger lying next to her, and tried to slice her wrist with it.

She wasn't fast enough.

Rhysian stole it from her clutches with an invisible move. "What are you doing?!" He hissed. "I thought we were past this."

"A blood bond! Don't you see?!" Claire exclaimed. "He also has a blood bond to me. What if it helps for the blood to be shed? I have to try!"

Rhysian understood. "No." He said flatly. "I am not going to worry every minute I am away from you, that you are sitting here - bleeding yourself."

"Do you have a better idea?" Claire confronted him. "We've tried everything else. I know this will work." She pleaded.

"Yes. I have a better idea."

Claire's eyebrows rose.

"His blood bond to me. I can withstand a much larger loss of blood than you; not to mention the little detail that I heal faster than you."

"Oh..." Claire breathed. "You're right."

She tried to control the hope that surged through her, but couldn't slow down the eagerness glowing in her eyes and the anticipation curling her belly. She knew she would pay for this. The pain would be a hundred times worse if she let herself think this plan could work. The devastation would consume her this time - if they failed. Rhysian had been right not to tell her. But she couldn't stop.

Rhysian stood; the dagger tight in his right fist. His left fingers rose slightly toward the wall, and Claire stared as a perfectly formed time portal materialized. In the next instant, Claire saw a deep gash in his arm; the movement had been too fast of her human eyes to see when he fileted his skin open. Blood flowed profusely and splashed onto the cement floor. Rhysian stumbled back a step, struggling against the pain and blood loss.

"Rhy!" Claire cried. Her hand flung out toward him, clutching the empty air. She tried unsuccessfully to coordinate her inebriated legs to do her bidding. She never made it to her feet, because every muscle in her body, including her heart, stopped, as she stared transfixed on the portal - as the form of a man stepped through.

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Definitely don't miss the next chapter. Enough said. :) :