As I was inhaling and exhaling steady yet painful breaths, I saw Andrew kick Kai off of him, and then he flapped his wings, floating in mid-air after picking himself up from the floor.
"After the vote, I will decapitate your mate's head from her neck just like you did to my mate, but before I kill her, she will beg for mercy like my mate did before you mutilated her body!" he threatened as I held my neck at the thought of losing my head.
In that split second, Andrew disappeared into thin air as if he had never been here to begin with.
"What did you do?" I whispered too weakly as Kai squatted to my level on the floor.
"Shhhh," he hushed me, rubbing the side of my head.
"Tell me now," a frustrated teardrop rolled from my eye because he refused to explain.
"I ruthlessly killed his human mate because he killed my friend's human mate during the war," upon hearing Kai's confession, I fainted from the suffocating feeling in my lungs.
~~~
"How are you going to tell her?" Mia's faint voice stirred me from my sleep.
My sleepy eyelids blinked awake as the blurriness gradually faded. Around my mouth was an oxygen mask, making a rush of air blow against my face as I glanced everywhere to realize I was in my darkly dimmed bedroom. Lucent glowing light pierced a shimmering lament moonlight through the furled black laced curtains that covered the balcony's glass doors.
Against the casting moonlight were the outline shadows of three figures standing outside on the balcony.
"I'm not sure, but I'll figure something out," Kai replies as I take off the mask. Remembering the attack, I touched my throat, and it felt perfectly fine, so I knew Zoey had healed me.
"She'll be heartbroken. This is all my fault," Mia's words drew my attention back to the conversation that was going on outside.
I got out of bed, and realized I had been cleaned up and dressed in a ebony silk nightie for bed.
"It's not your fault," Ivan reassured her. "She has all of us to help her get through it."
Softer muffled voices came from Kai and his friends, but this time, I couldn't make out what the discussion was about. I wasn't sure who or what they were talking about, but as I neared the glass doors, Kai unexpectedly opened one. Baltic cold air drifted into the thin fabric of my silk nightie as he came in, latching the door shut. A gentle smile welcomed me, and I knew by his gaze that he previously knew I was already awake.
"How are you feeling?" he asked me sweetly.
Instead of replying to his question, I inquired. "What were you talking about?"
"Nothing important," he smiled, embracing his hands around my waist. His lips leaned in, and he softly kissed me.
I asked when he hugged me, "How's Mia?"
The last I recall, she was knocked out when we were attacked.
"She's fine," Kai affirmed. "She came by to check on you before she and Ivan left to go hunt."
"I'm glad she's okay." I pulled out of his arms and went to the side of my bed to sit.
Kai turned off the oxygen tank when he informed me, "Zoey said we can cancel Coraline's birthday party to Sunday or towards the following weekend. She just has to call all the parents tomorrow. This way, you have more time to recover."
"No, she doesn't need to do that. I feel fine," I reassured him because it was the truth.
That's the way my life works. Zoey's healing gift always did the trick. You might as well say it's cheating the long recovery road or even shortens it. I could be dying one minute and then be on my feet as if nothing happened in the next second from her healing gift.
"Are you sure?" Kai eyed me suspiciously.
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll inform her. You should get to bed since we have a long day tomorrow," Kai insisted, and it seemed as though he had other plans tonight.
"Only if you join me," I played his game, which had him smirking.
By the end, he decided, "Alright, I'll lie down with you. After you're asleep, I have some things to do."
I nodded with understanding since I figured he needed to hunt or he was busy with something else he likely wouldn't share with me. To make himself more comfortable, he took off his shirt and pants before he crawled between the blankets to snuggle with me.
After I rested my head near his chest once I lay between his armpit, I inquired to understand more. "Do you care to explain the story behind Andrew?"
Kai sighed. "There isn't much to explain. It was during the first war. Andrew's Coven raided my friend's Coven, and that's how he killed my friend's mate. For revenge, I killed Andrew's mate without mercy."
I sat up and peered down at him. "Now Andrew wants a taste of revenge," I concluded as he played with the tips of my long blonde hair.
"Do you remember how I acted in your time-gap, the day I overthrew that Egyptian City?" he asked, and I nodded my head to remember that nightmare.
"You were lost," I uttered, thinking back on his paroxysm of rage.
Kai clarified, "Andrew isn't lost. He's far worse than lost. He is nothing more than an unpredictable dead hollow hole because his mate died by my hand. My dad thinks I'm unruly. I couldn't imagine how Andrew's dad is handling him because he's long gone in his head. Knowing your mate is dead kills a vampire's purpose to live his immortal life."
"How are you going to stop him?"
Seeming confident, Kai simply resolved. "Use his vulnerability against him. He's not stable in his head, so I only need to make sure to keep ahead of him, but he won't be easy to bring down."
"I hope you can. Otherwise, I'm dead," I gulped, thinking about the thought of losing my head.
Kai pulled me back down to lay my head side on his chest. "He won't touch you," he vowed, pulling the blanket over my shoulders.
"One more question before I fall asleep," I insisted.
"What's that?"
"What species is Andrew? I don't recall seeing him or the Darks in my controlled time-gap from when you showed me the First generation of Headmasters were rising from the soil," I asked in wonderment since I don't remember seeing them.
"He's a Nightshifter. You didn't see the Darks, the Shadows, or the Nightshifters that night because they didn't rise in the same area as Vlad, Morbius, and everyone else you saw in that controlled time-gap I put you under. They can turn into bats as adolescents, but once they reach adulthood, they can shift into gargoyles," Kai clarified.
"Why call them Nightshifters instead of just calling them gargoyles?" I outwardly pondered on it.
"Gargoyles originated from the 13th century by the French. We're far older than that," he shared. "Now get some sleep, my love."