Chapter 78 Seventy Eight

Chapter 78 Seventy Eight
  KAZIEL
         "Kaz, baby...stop, stop, slow down—you're shaking...Kira, help him!"
   "I'm trying!" Kira snarls. "The spell isn't just a block, it's a trap. It's fighting back."
   Dani cups my face again, forcing my head up so I can see her. Her eyes—blue and gold—glow with worry and love.
   "Kaziel," she whispers, "come back to me. Right now. You hear me? Come back."
   Her voice is an anchor, and I cling to it because...Gods...Vanya didn't just deceive me. She tried to break me.
   "Dove," I choke, shuddering. "She...she wanted my core. I think...I think she's always been a member of the cult."
   Dani pulls me against her chest, shaking.
   "That wasn't a memory block," Kira says. "That was a cage."
   My vision blurs suddenly. There's no warning. It only feels like my mind is being dragged underwater by something cold and merciless.
   "Kaz—Kaziel?!" Dani's voice is distant and muffled, like she's calling to me from another world.
   Kira curses behind me. "Something's forcing its way through. This isn't voluntary! Brace him!"
   I'm on the ground in a forest clearing at night. My vision is spinning. The air smells like wet earth and blood. I'm gasping and sweating. We were supposed to be camping out in the woods. Why am I on the floor?
   Vanya stands over me. She looks bored.
   "Are you—" I wheeze, struggling to push myself up, "trying to... kill me?"
   She crouches beside me, her fingers gently brushing my cheek. But her eyes are cold.
   "No, love," she whispers. "I need you. Why should I kill you?"
   Her hand slides to my jaw, lifting my face. I can't fight it. My limbs are too heavy.
   "But your core..." she murmurs. "...will grant me what I want."
   Her pupils dilate unnaturally.
   "It pulses strongly when you're dying."
   My stomach lurches. She leans in, her lips brushing my throat. Then she inhales deeply.
   "Once you're weak enough," she breathes, "it'll be easier to harvest."
   Heat floods my veins.
   "Vanya... stop—" My voice cracks.
   She shoves me onto my back so hard the air punches from my lungs.
   Her smile widens.
   "No."
   She presses a hand to my chest, right over my heart. Pain explodes through my body, ripping a scream from my lungs. It hurts. It fucking hurts.
   But she laughs.
   "Quiet, love. You'll ruin your voice."
   Something tears inside of me. It's not physical, but it's somewhere deeper. She leans down so her lips are beside my ear.
   "The cult wants your core. But me...?"
   She runs her fingers through my hair. "I want your body."
   Everything goes black. I rip out of the vision with a cough. Air slams back into my lungs. My whole body trembles uncontrollably. Dani catches my face between her hands, horror etched into her face.
   "Kaziel!" she cries, her voice cracking. "Kaz, breathe! Talk to me!"
   I'm gasping, sweating and shaking so hard I can barely stay upright. Kira's tails curl around me to stabilize me.
   "That wasn't just a memory," she whimpers. "It was a ritual. She was siphoning your core slowly. Over months."
   Dani's tears roll down her cheeks, her thumbs shaking as she wipes my cheeks. I didn't realize they were wet.
   "Kaz," she whispers, her voice cracking, "she tortured you."
   "She didn't love me," I breathe. "Not even for a second."
   Dani pulls me into her chest, holding me so tightly, but it's the only thing keeping me from collapsing.
   "I love you," she whispers fiercely into my hair. "I love you. I love you. You're mine. And I will never let anyone do that to you again."
   My hands clutch the back of her shirt, desperate. A chill runs through me because my memory ended when I passed out.
   There's more. There's something she did while I was unconscious. And I can feel it, like a bruise deep inside my soul.
   "Dove..." I croak. "There's still something missing."
   Dani stiffens, terror rolling off her in waves. The chest pain from two days ago returns with a crippling intensity. It feels like invisible claws are piercing straight through bone, squeezing my heart in a merciless grip.
   "Kaz?" Dani breathes, her voice trembling. "Kaziel, look at me. Look at me."
   I can't.
   My vision whites out. My body arches once before turning limp in Dani's arms.
   "KIRA!" she screams.
   "I know!" Kira snaps, already rushing forward. "Something's still in his core...something's pulling—"
   Everything blurs. And then my heart stops. There's a faint sound, like Dani choking on her own sob.
   "Kaziel, no...no, no, please...Kaz, OPEN YOUR EYES—"
   Fuck...she sounds terrified.
   I try to reach for her, but my body isn't responding. I'm sinking into a deep, endless ocean. Everything blurs. My hearing fades. My poor Dani, she doesn't know what's going on.
   She's pregnant. She's scared. She needs me. I can't leave her. I have to get back to her. I have to—
   Darkness swallows everything.
   ....
   DANIKA
   "Kaz...?"
   I shake him gently at first. Then I try harder.
   "Kaziel… wake up. Hey. Hey, look at me."
   His head lolls against my shoulder, his body frighteningly limp. A chill shoots down my spine.
   "Kira…Kira, something's wrong—he's not—he's not—"
   I press my ear to his chest. There's no sound. My stomach drops so hard I almost vomit.
   "Kaziel!" I scream, patting his cheek with trembling hands. "Kaziel—no, no—don't do this—don't you dare—open your eyes—"
   His chest isn't rising. He isn't breathing. Oh my God, he's freezing. My heart shatters.
   "Oh. Oh…shit. It finally happened," Kira breathes.
   I turn to look at her, tears blurring everything.
   "What do you mean?! He's not breathing! HE HAS NO HEARTBEAT! HE'S COLD, KIRA, HE'S COLD—"
   Kira raises both hands, trying to soothe me even though she's moving fast.
   "Dani, listen. Listen to me, this isn't the first time he's…um...flatlined."
   My brain scrambles to remember the one time I heard him telling me he flatlined so many times from the pain of the Hollow. I didn't think he'd meant it literally.
   "What?" I whisper. "What do you...what do you—"
   "He's immortal," Kira says breathlessly, lowering him carefully out of my arms and onto the floor. "His heart and core shut down when he's overloaded. He always wakes up. We just need to let his system reboot."
   "REBOOT?!" I choke, nearly hysterical. "His body is shutting down!"
   Kira gently pries my shaking hands away from my mate's cold cheeks.
   "Danika, look at me."
   I force myself to meet her eyes.
   "He always comes back," she says softly. "Every time. But it's dangerous to shake him while it's happening. We need to lay him flat and let the core stabilize."
   I stare down at Kaziel's still face. He looks... Dear God. He looks dead. My throat burns as panic chokes me.
   "But...he's cold," I whisper. "He's never cold. Kira...he's freezing. Why is he freezing?"
   Kira hesitates for a second, and my heart skips a beat.
   "His body has been running on overload for months," she utters. "Emotionally. Magically. Physically. The memories, the frequency backlash, the core drain, the ritual trauma, protecting you, your pregnancy—everything. He's been holding it all together with sheer force of will."
   My hands curl into fists on the floor.
   Overload.
   My beautiful, stubborn mate...
   "Overload from what?" I whisper, my eyes locked on his unmoving chest. "What pushed him this far?"
   Kira swallows hard. Oh no, this is much worse than I thought.
   "Say it. Please," I croak, and she lowers her head.
   "He's been extracting your pain into his body. The pain caused from your cores clashing," she breathes, and my eyes bulge in their sockets.
   "What?!"
   "He kept doing it because he didn't want you to suffer. Doctor Callen warned that he would have a cardiac arrest if he didn't stop. But he refused to listen."
   Her words bounce around my mind, chilling me to the bones.
   "Are you saying..." I gulp. "Are you saying he's been in pain all this time?"
   She says nothing, but I already know what she doesn’t say. The tears roll down my cheeks, my heart hurting as though there’s an open wound in it. Sniffling, I move closer to my mate, stroking his hair, which is splayed like a halo.
   “It’s okay, get some rest. You deserve it,” I croak, rising to my feet to grab a blanket and a pillow.
   Kira assists me in carefully slipping the pillow under his head and covering him with the blanket up to his chest. Just then, the front door jerks open. Aaron and Doctor Callen hurry in.
   I gape at them, surprised. Kira reaches for my hand and squeezes gently.
   “I asked them to come over,” she utters, and I nod.
   Aaron curses under his breath at the sight of Kaziel, a worried look on his face.
   “This can’t be happening now,” he mutters, and I swallow hard, fiddling with my fingers. He’s right. There’s too much at stake.
   Doctor Callen presses two fingers to Kaziel’s neck. Relief crosses his features. “He has a pulse now. It’s tiny, but it means he’s not too far gone.”
   This feels like a nightmare. I suddenly regret using my Sanctum energy at all.
   I watch as Doctor Callen flashes his light in Kaziel’s eye, raising his eyelid. He curses under his breath, muttering ‘idiot’.
   “W-what is it?” I ask. He sighs.
   “There are ruptured blood vessels in his eyes. There must be several other ruptured vessels in the other parts of his body as well. He must have been in a lot of pain. He shouldn’t even have been moving at all.”
   I bring a hand to my mouth, fresh tears welling in my eyes. “H-how long will he be like this?”
   “It depends on the damage. No, scratch that. I can’t predict. Because even when he had the worst damages, there were times he came back in a few hours and other times…”
   “M-months?” I stutter, and he nods slowly, my heart plummeting into my gut.