In Sync

Part 6

I still couldn't understand what had happened, how just when everything seemed halfway alright again, all hell could break loose the next second. There wasn't much time for me to ponder as there was that damn arrow in Eileen's shoulder, that bitch Madeleine with some of her warriors blocking our escape, and some young and potentially angry sidhe draoi in the forest. The latter group hopefully had no idea that we had entered their sacred place despite our promise not to do so.

Eileen was obviously in pain, her usually vibrant blue eyes gone alarmingly dull. Making a clear effort she said, "Julia, I need you to get this arrow out of me. I can't reach it!"

Swallowing hard against the lump in my throat, I asked, "Can't you use some of your magic to get rid of it?"

She shook her head. I knew before she even answered my question that this solution would indeed be too easy for a day like today, where so far nearly everything had gone downhill since we left the manor.

"I can't," Eileen said. "There's a strong spell on it. I already tried but my magical ability is not strong enough to break it. Julia, listen to me - the spell they've used on the arrow keeps my blood from clotting. It's really simple, the longer the arrow stays in my body, the more blood I lose, the weaker I get, and the less ability to defend us I will have."

"Oh, God." I nervously bit my lip. "What do you need me to do exactly?"

Her voice was hoarse when she replied, "If this arrow is the same as the ones I caught, you have no other choice than to push it through."

"Push it through?" She wanted me to push a wooden stick through her body without disinfecting it or giving her something to minimize the pain? Some heartbeats later, I wasn't sure what to do or say, struggling with what she asked me to do, fighting against a new wave of nausea that nearly caused me to humiliate myself again. Thankfully, I got hold of myself and realized that there was simply no time for difficult or shy behavior. Eileen needed me. She needed my strength, and I knew that giving in to fear would serve no purpose. It was clear that I would have to be the one to push the arrow through if I wanted her to live, whether I felt like doing it or not. There was no one else around who would volunteer. The responsibility was mine alone.

With an effort, I laid a shaking hand on her arm, whispering fiercely, "Tell me what to do before I really lose it."

"Thank you." Eileen's relief helped ease my anxiety a little. She turned around, giving me an unhindered view of the feathered arrow shaft sticking out of the back of her shoulder. She started with her instructions, speaking softly, "First, you have to cut the shirt open so that the fabric won't hinder your work." She produced a dagger from somewhere on her person, pressing the cold metal hilt into my hand.

I hesitated a moment before I began carefully cutting through her blood soaked shirt. Peeling the two halves of the fabric away, I was shocked by the amount of blood running down her back in a continuous stream. Seeing the red fluid caused a throb in my temples, and for a moment I was nearly paralyzed.

Eileen's voice cut through the haze. "Julia, don't think too much! I need you to push as hard as you're able. The arrowhead has to come out through my chest! The faster the arrow goes through, the better and less hurtful it will be, and the sooner we'll put an end to this."

I swallowed hard. Grasping the slippery shaft, I pushed while trying not to concentrate on what I was doing, but rather on why I needed to do it, but the arrow didn't move more than a few millimeters. It didn't take long before I was ready to give up. I reminded myself how much Eileen was relying on me in this situation, and was determined to try again.

Trying to get a grip on my emotions, I put more pressure on the shaft, pushing as hard as I could, terrified it would snap off in my hands. Finally, the damned thing begun to move, and I watched with sick fascination as the point broke through Eileen's skin, bringing with it a surprising gush of blood that spilled over her chest. She collapsed on the grass, panting and covered in cold sweat. After a moment, she held herself up on a braced arm while I stared disbelievingly at my bloody hands, not sure how much reason there was to be proud about what I had just done.

I knelt next to Eileen and hesitantly touched her with my sticky fingers. Unable to hide my deep concern, I asked, "Hey, are you okay?"

Eileen didn't look good. I had never seen her pale like that. She took a deep breath and said, "Yes… but let's continue. Time is not on our side. Now comes the next step, lass - you need to cut the shaft behind the arrowhead."

She struggled to get into a position that granted me easier access to her chest. I closed my eyes, forcing my nausea down before I opened my eyes and timidly picked up the dagger. When I began, I found out that cutting through the sold wooden shaft wasn't as easy as it sounded. My fumbling attempts must have caused her considerable pain. She made no sound, but I heard her teeth grinding against each other, and felt her muscles go stiff under my hands.

Just when I was ready to stop and give us both a break, the shaft snapped and I held the arrowhead in my hand. The flow of blood continued its deathly stream down Eileen's chest. Looking at the triangular piece of metal I was holding, I said, "I did it."

Eileen seemed as relieved as I felt, and continued her advice after several quick inhalations of breath. "Good, you're doing good, Julia. Now comes the last step - you have to draw the arrow out from the back."

I starred at her, not believing what I'd heard. First she wanted me to push it through her chest, and now I was supposed to draw it all the way back again?

"You really owe me, you know," I muttered under my breath. I took hold of the shaft right under the fletching and drew back as hard as I could. The rubbery clench of her muscles resisted my effort, but this time the operation went a lot smoother. It wasn't long before the pieces of that damned arrow lay next to each other on the ground, with Eileen laid out on the grass next to them, her exposed skin beaded with sweat..

After a while, Eileen sat up and asked between gritted teeth, "Is the wound bleeding much?"

I took a careful look at her shoulder and chest. "Yes, it is. It's… well, it's a constant flow, really. Can't we stop it somehow?"

It was clear that even talking was a huge effort for her to make, so it was almost a half-minute before she answered, "Aye, you could cut the arms off my shirt to make a bandage, and try to put as much pressure as possible on both wounds. That should help a bit."

I thought about that for a moment before I decided to take my own shirt off. Forgetting about my body shyness, I made short shrift of both arms, slicing through the seams with my borrowed dagger. Looking Eileen straight in the eyes after re-donning the remains of my shirt, I said firmly, "You are the one who is ill and sit here with an already ripped shirt. I can spare some of mine… and don't you even dare argue!"

Eileen's open mouth shut with a nearly audible click. I took the torn strips of cotton, wadded them up and put pressure on the wound on her back and on her chest, hoping against hope that this would do some good. It most definitely was time for luck to be on our side again, I thought, but luck seemed to be in short supply today.

A voice cut through the silence, echoing eerily over to our hiding place, "You liars, you said you wouldn't set your foot in the clearing. You betrayed us. Come out and fight!"

Leaving Eileen, I crawled closer to the nearest stone and carefully looked around the corner without making myself a target. Eileen's opponent from earlier was with a group of the younger sidhe draoi. They stood some feet away on the other side of the clearing, all of them angrily gesturing and shouting at us without coming nearer the stone circle.

"Shit, it sure didn't take them long to figure out where we are and what we've done," I said.

Eileen agreed. "Aye, Julia, the only good thing is that they are not allowed to enter the sacred stone circle before darkness falls. That will give us another thirty minutes or so before we have to face them, I think."

I crawled back to her and reapplied the pressure on her wounds, worried that the cloth was already drenched scarlet. "You know what I don't understand?" I asked. She coughed and tiredly shook her head. I continued, "Why doesn't Madeleine come and kill us herself? I can't imagine her feeling bound to honor a sacred place."

"Well, lass, my guess is as good as yours, but I would think that she doesn't want to be part of the real dirty work, and would rather let the sidhe draoi finish what she started. I bet she only wanted us where we are now - trapped and injured."

I nodded; that made sense to me. "What are we going to do now?"

Eileen shifted a bit until she could look directly at me. When she spoke, her voice suddenly had the commanding tone I had noticed earlier. "Julia, I want you to listen carefully to me," she said. "I most probably won't be able to win a fight, but I will still be able to win you some time before the rest of my power abandons me. So what we will do is - I will go out there before they are allowed to enter the circle and start a fight with them, drawing the attention towards me. In the meantime, you have to find your way back to the manor on your own. As soon as you are out of hearing distance, search for Cinnia. Then…"

"What? You want to get yourself killed so that I have an opportunity to escape? Are you nuts?" I choked out, staring wide-eyed at her in disbelief.

She rested a hand on my shoulder. "This is your only chance to escape, Julia. Please be reasonable."

Her expression was pleading with me to agree, but I wasn't willing to lose this particular fight and told her, "I will have none of this. Either both of us will be able to escape, or both of us are going to die here! I don't want your sacrifice. I want to live with you!"

"Julia, please. You can't help, you're not a trained warrior, and the odds are that you won't survive if you decide to stay with me."

"There must be another possibility. Isn't there anything else..." I didn't want to believe that there was no other way than Eileen sacrificing her life for me, or both of us dying here. I covered my face with both hands, my mind frantically searching for a solution, when suddenly a thought struck me. Maybe there was one thing dearg-du's and vampires had in common. I uncovered my face. "Eileen, the spell on the arrow is broken right?" I took a look at her wounds before continuing, "It seems as if the blood flow has slowed down."

"Good. That is good," she said hesitantly, probably because she had no idea what I was thinking.

"You certainly lost a large amount of blood," I said, trying to be casual although my heart was thumping. "What if we supplied you with new blood, new energy? Would you regain some of your strength back?"

"What…." Eileen stared at me, realization suddenly dawning. "No!"

I expected her reaction and said in the most no-nonsense voice I was capable of mustering, "No, you listen to me. Drinking enough of my blood to make up for your loss should give you at least some of your strength back, shouldn't it? And then you would have a better chance to win any upcoming fight, right?"

"Julia, forget it. I am not going to do it," she said with grim determination.

"Eileen, you damn stubborn… I didn't save you from bleeding to death so that you can lose your life in a fight. Do you really want me to risk running through the forest and getting caught by either the sidhe draoi or Madeleine? You remember what she wanted to do to me the last time she got a hold of me, don't you? Can you imagine me outrunning her?"

Eileen remained stubborn, a mulish expression on her face. "I am not going to drink your blood!" she exclaimed.

"Then both of us will die today, 'cause I won't leave you."

She shook her head.

I clenched my jaw tightly and decided to opt for a different tactic. "If you drink my blood, will it kill me?"

She shook her head a second time, now looking irritated. "That is not the …."

"Damn it! What is your problem with drinking my blood?" I interrupted.

"I can't." she admitted grudgingly. "Julia, you don't really want me to feast on your blood! You don't know what you ask of me…"

"Eileen, I don't offer you my blood so that you will get drunk on it, but because I want both of us to survive." I took a deep breath, blinking against the sting of the tears. "I never thought I would find love after Jennifer. Damn it, I deserve a future with you!" I knew that I sounded egoistic, but I didn't know how else to voice my emotions. It was true: I honestly never thought I would never find the one person I was meant to be with, my one true love, and I had absolutely no intention of continuing my life without her.

I added after a pause, "We live together, or we die together. Please, Eileen… I'm not afraid."

Eileen kept quiet for a longer time, keeping her gaze fixed on the ground. It hadn't been my intention to make her feel guilty, but I was determined to fight this battle with all the ammunition I owned. I was not ready to surrender, knowing that my… no, our future was in doubt. I had to win. I had to! I wasn't keen on letting her put her fangs in me, since I had no idea if it would hurt or what would happen to me afterwards, but allowing her to do it was a simple question of our survival. If that meant letting her drink my blood, well, that was what I was going to do. Desperate situations required desperate measures. I was ready to give her everything I had in me, literally, if it would save our lives.

Finally, Eileen looked at me and hesitantly reached out to touch my hand. "Julia, drinking your blood will change you… you will become like a slave to me, obey all my commands without question… it is going to affect you in a way you wouldn't want. And, well, I once made a vow never to take human blood like this. Please reconsider what you're doing." Her gaze silently pleaded with me to take back my offer.

I shook my head. "Eileen, you don't take it, but I offer it freely, and the sole reason for my offer is love." I felt her resistance was beginning to crumble and pressed on, "Is there anything that can be done to avoid me losing my will?"

Eileen's face was ashen. I wasn't sure any more if this was due to the enormous amount of blood she had lost, or because of our discussion. At least there seemed to be a solution for our most immediate problem when she said, "There is something, but I am not sure…"

"What is it?" I asked impatiently.

Her voice was only a whisper when she replied, "You would have to drink my blood after I drank yours."

"Drink your blood?" I squeaked.

She looked defeated. "Yes, that is the only possibility to avoid making you a slave, a giolla lacking a will of your own."

That was a bit of a shock. While I didn't really favor the idea of her drinking my blood, to imagine me drinking someone else's blood was even higher on the list of things I had never intended to do during my life. Seeing the state she was in, and thinking about the situation we were facing didn't really leave us many other options. I controlled my shudder and asked, "How would drinking your blood affect me?"

"How exactly it will change you, I can't say," she told me. "You won't be human any more, well, at least not fully human. But you would keep your will, remain an individual, not a slave. You don't need to drink much, though, after tasting the first drops of my blood I can promise you that you will very much cherish the taste, and it won't be easy to stop sucking me dry." A faint smile played around her lips.

I felt sick just imagining drinking her blood, and couldn't really believe her when she said I would immediately begin to crave the taste. Yuck! However, now was not the time to be fussy. I said in a tone much calmer than I felt, "Okay, let's do it! Where do you want to drink from?"

"Hang on a second, lass. I need you to understand something before you agree to that. Hear me out first, okay? Drinking each other's blood is part of the bonding ritual between my kin, and is something not done lightly. We won't be able to see the whole ritual through today, and I have no idea how your drinking of my blood will affect you."

I frowned. "I thought you said that drinking your blood would be better than just you drinking from mine."

"Aye, that is true. I am sure nothing dramatic or bad will happen, but I am just not certain if and to what extent you will be transformed. Your part of the ritual will be something like a rite of passage; you'll be changed and won't be completely human afterwards. You would become a half-sidhe, a hybrid, something close to what I am, but still different." She ruffled her fingers through her hair, clearly struggling for words. "You would be different than you are now, but I don't know how different…"

"But we will be able to see the ritual through at a later point?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Yes, we will, lass. I want to marry you in a proper way."

I thought about what she had just said, and I was thrown back to the one major obstacle I had struggled with all my life - trust. Eileen had never betrayed the trust I had given her. Through our bond, I was able to get a hint of the myriad feelings she was going through right now. I knew that she wasn't holding back, and there was no fraud in her whatsoever. Therefore, I decided to stick to my plan. "A ritual, eh?"

"Aye," she said softly.

"Does it include getting naked?"

A small, startled chuckle escaped her. "In fact it does, lass."

Great. But that was a battle for another day. "And music?" I asked.

"Aye, music as well, with drums being the main instruments. Their rhythm will cause our hearts to beat in sync for the rest of our lives."

I searched her eyes and found what I was looking for, a deep love and affection that warmed me to the core. I smiled at her and said, "Then have a go at me."

"Are you sure?" She watched me, her eyes hooded and dark. "I don't want you to regret…"

"I am sure," I replied. "There is nothing else that I want more than to have a future with you. And if this blood drinking grants us the chance...." I let my voice trail off.

She nodded slowly. "Julia, I won't let you drink much of my blood, just enough so that you will keep your free will. The ritual will wait until we are home… and I promise that I will do my best to give us a chance for a future. You hear me? I promise."

Again, I had to fight against tears. "That is all I could ask of you. Now stop babbling and suck my neck," I said with much more braveness than I felt. The truth was that I was scared about what was going to happen to me, but I bent closer to Eileen, offering her my throat.

For once what I had learned during long and lonely hours in front of the television seemed to be right as she slowly raised her mouth to my throat, touching it first with her lips and gently kissing the skin over my fast-pulsing jugular vein.

She whispered, "Thank you," then I felt her fangs slowly sink into my flesh, causing a sharp pain as if two extraordinarily thick needles were piercing my throat. For a moment I writhed against her grip as survival instinct insisted I was being attacked by a predator. She held me close to her body as she drank from me, becoming stronger every second with every suck of blood she took. Suddenly, the pain was replaced by a feeling of total bliss, an ecstasy I had never known. I groaned, the pleasurable sensations cresting higher.

Eileen released me without warning, withdrawing her fangs. This time when I struggled, it was because I didn't want her to stop. I whimpered desperately, "Don't let go. Don't." I felt like I would die if she didn't continue her assault on my neck, but she didn't listen to me.

I understand now that I was more than ungrateful for her act of heroism. At the time, I wanted nothing more than for her to continue to drink my blood. I would have done whatever she had asked of me; I would have obeyed her every command without question. I needed her more than life. She was a goddess to me, dazzling my sight, and I was her devoted slave. When she held her wrist to my mouth after slashing it open with her dagger and said softly, "Drink!" I did just that and took my first sip of blood, tangy and iron-rich.

I was dizzy when I came back to my senses, realizing first that I had a sticky, slightly salty tasting substance in my mouth which had a delicious aftertaste. I craved more. Opening my eyes, everything around me looked sharper, more defined and more alive.

I sniffed the air, detecting a musky smell that formed a picture in my mind of the group of young sidhe draoi that were milling around outside the stone circle. I heard them talking to each other, disputing about what to do with us. I knew what I wanted to do with them! An urge for revenge burned inside me, a primal need I didn't want to fight. I wanted to rip out their throats and burn their dead bodies to teach the others a lesson…

A hand cupped my cheek in a tender caress. Confused, I looked into Eileen's endless blue eyes and felt a longing replace the yearning for revenge. Without hesitation, I sought the one that was mine, tasting her unique flavor, running my tongue over her lips, demanding entrance into her mouth, taking whatever she gave me. Too soon, I found myself gently denied. Eileen ended our kiss by drawing back a little.

She said, "Slowly, lass, slowly. How do you feel?"

"Alive," I whispered, searching for words to describe my altered state. "Intoxicated, dizzy, delighted. Everything seems lighter and sharper at the same time."

"Your senses are heightened."

Then I remembered our current situation. "Your wound, let me see your wound!"

Obediently, she showed me her chest and back. I was surprised to see that the wounds looked so much better already. Where moments ago the injuries had been raw and bloody, it now seemed as if the two wounds were nearly healed, the scabs dry and beginning to flake.

"It worked! It's not bleeding any more." I was excited but suddenly, I felt something different in my mouth. Seeking around with my tongue, I licked teeth that were too long, and realized that I was sporting fangs. "Oh my God."

Eileen turned to me, alarmed. "What? What's the matter?"

"I have… my teeth…" I closed my mouth, dismayed by the feeling of my new teeth. I had grown fangs! I was a … what was I? I was not human any more, as Eileen had warned, but did that mean that I was a dearg-du as well?

"Let's see," Eileen said, carefully forcing my mouth open. "You have fangs. I didn't expect that to happen now, but in the end it only means that you are able to open cans without a can-opener, nothing else." She smiled, tracing my lips with her thumb.

"Listen to me, Julia," she went on, giving me a serious look, "you are changed. Your senses are heightened, your emotions are stronger, and all that is something you have to get used to. I will help you with it. It's no problem at all, just a question of time, discipline, practice and patience. But right now, we need to make a plan and try to figure out how to leave this place without getting killed. Do you understand?"

Her voice was smooth as silk and made me wish to throw myself at her, enemies be damned. I needed her. I needed to feel her skin against mine, needed to smell her, to taste her, to touch her... my blood began to boil. Desire beat at me, irresistible and hot.

"Julia, do you understand?" Eileen's urgency cut through the fog in my brain.

It was hard to think clearly. My primal feelings were close to the surface. All my senses seemed to be focused on feelings, on tastes, on everything other than cool, logical thinking. Nevertheless, I was able to master myself and nod, closing and opening my eyes again and again, shaking my head, trying to get rid of the overflowing kaleidoscope of colours, feelings, smells and tastes. "Eileen, I feel as if I am going crazy. I am out of control," I whispered.

She pulled me into her lap and said in my ear, "We don't have much time left, lass, but I want to try something. Close your eyes for a moment, will you?"

I did what she asked, closed my eyes and listened to her voice.

"Open yourself to the forest-bound energy around us," she said.

I tried to do what she asked of me without having any clue how I was supposed to manage it. I tried to open my senses, and was surprised when I 'saw' wave-like energy dancing in my inner vision. I opened my eyes, and got a second surprise when the waves where still there, right in front of me. "Wow," I breathed in awe.

"Yes, it is pretty impressive, isn't it? Now, listen… can you swim?"

I stared confused at her, but confirmed that I could swim.

"Good," she said. "It is the same as if you're in an ocean - either you allow the waves to dominate you, and then you have to fight against them, or you go with the flow and use that energy and power for your own purpose. Try to work with the energy, use it instead of being used by it. The energy will help you to control your new abilities."

I wasn't really sure what she meant, and wondered how to use those 'waves.' I was a bit angry about Eileen's cryptic instruction when what I felt I needed was a more a hands-on approach. Before I could get too angry, I remembered the one time I had ridden waves at the beach. Closing my eyes, I tried to visualize being atop a body board, the only thing I've ever ridden only half successfully in the water.

I didn't need to wait for the next wave to come, but had only to decide which of the waves around me I preferred. There was a vast variety of those - green, blue and brown; there were also bright orange, red and yellow and all of them were vibrating with energy. Going with a gut feeling, I decided for a cobalt blue wave and immediately feeling a pulsing around me that at first seemed overwhelming. I tried to relax and just go with the pulsing instead of fighting against it, and was startled when suddenly I felt grounded, safe and brimming with energy.

I had no idea what just happened or how it was accomplished, but was nevertheless thankful for the effect it had on me. Slowly opening my eyes against the bright lights, I was stunned to find that even though I still saw the area around us with different perception, I wasn't as bombarded any more. I took a deep breath, enjoying these changes in myself, when I felt my fangs vanishing. "They are gone," I stated, stunned.

Eileen smiled, wiping away one of the tears that had slipped down my cheek. "Yes, you feel better, more relaxed, I can sense that. It won't take long until you will be able to control your fangs and everything else. I will teach you, but this will have to wait until we will be safe. For now, you just have to realize that your senses, your reflexes, your emotions and even your physical strength has increased beyond human limitations."

Still in Eileen's lap, I wrapped my arms around her and leaned my head against her shoulder, soaking in Eileen's love for a moment before facing reality. "So, what now?" I asked.

"Well, I will challenge this piece of shit who attacked us and cut him to fire wood," she said. I sensed her seething with anger.

"You feel up to it?" I asked.

"Yes, I do. I am not worried about any fight with the sidhe draoi." She hesitated for a moment and added, "But I am worried about what Madeleine will do once she realizes that I am not as disabled as she thought."

"Is there anything I can do?" Looking at her, I saw she was struggling with something.

She finally said, "As much as I hate to involve you in something you have no experience with, I guess it is too late now anyhow." Something cold was pressed in my hand. It was the dagger again. "Lass, I need you to get Cinnia and pick me up here."

"What?" I blurted.

"I have enough strength now to distract the sidhe draoi, and even be able to kill some of them, but then there would be a war on my own land. So I need you to get Cinnia. Bring her here so that we will be able to escape together."

I protested, "But Madeleine is still around!"

"Aye, that she is, I'm sure. But that is the best chance we have if you don't change your mind and flee alone back to the manor."

"No way!" My growl was a perfect imitation of Eileen's.

She sniggered. "You are really something else, lass. Where is the fearful and shy woman I met last week? And who is the feisty woman that replaced her"

"I wonder myself, but the fearful and shy woman is still part of who I am, Eileen. The only difference is that now I know there is something worth fighting for." I smiled shyly at her and received a warm smile in return.

"That is true. But let me tell you: I love the feistiness inside you and look very much forward to seeing that part of you blossoming in the future. But now, let me tell you what we will do…"

Continued in chapter 7