Chapter Twenty-One

"Grandpa?" Rayne asked, staring at the elderly gentleman before her. "Where are we?" She glanced around the cavernous place, with nothing but darkness surrounding them. An odd glow seemed to engulf them, but there was nothing that directly emitted the light. It just...was.

"I am so proud of you," he said quietly, his smile reaching all the way up to his eyes and crinkling the corners. "I knew that you could handle it."

"What are you...? Where are we? Am I dead?"

A small laugh escaped him, and he approached to wrap his arms around her in a tight embrace. "Always remember what I told you," He said, and slowly began to fade away. He became translucent and then was gone.

What was going on? Was this Real?

Standing alone in the darkness, she could feel a pounding in her head and in her chest. Her stomach sank as if she were going to be sick.

"Rayne?"

She jerked in a circle, looking for the source of the voice.

"Rayne, can you hear me?"

"Camden?" she called out and began to look around frantically.

"Rayne."

Slowly, Rayne's eyes fluttered open and the stabbing pain in her head was intensified by the brightness in the room. She grunted and brought her hand up to the place where the pain was radiating from. It was covered in a bandage, and there was something stuck to her arm.

Squinting, she tried to see where she was and remember what had happened. She was in her bed at Camden's house, with the covers pulled up to her chin, an IV in her arm, and fresh bandages wrapped around her head. She was disoriented, and a cloud-like fog shrouded her mind.

Connor and Paul stood along the wall, staring at her expectantly, and try as she might, she couldn't make herself smile or say a word.

"Hey," came a soft, soothing voice next to her.

She turned to see Camden sitting on the edge of her bed, his hand wrapped around hers. She couldn't stop the tears that welled in the corners of her eyes at the sight of him.

She bolted upright, and immediately regretted the move as the pain in her head sent a knife through her skull that seemed to radiate down her spine and all the way to her toes.

"Easy," he coaxed, helping her to recline again. "You took quite a fall."

"How long have I been out?" her voice was raspy, and she hardly recognized it.

"About three days." Paul approached the bed and gently patted her leg. "We were afraid we were going to have to lace ya if you didn't come to soon."

Her eyebrows furrowed in question. "Lace me?"

Connor laughed and pushed away from the wall. "Lace you. Give you some of our blood to make you heal faster."

She nodded and grimaced as she adjusted herself so that she was sitting up more. On more than one occasion now, she'd heard of the power of just a small amount of vampire blood in the human body and saw firsthand the effects of too much of it. That was one experience she hoped she would continue to have the privilege to say that she'd never had. "What happened?"

The three of them glanced back and forth between each other.

"Can you give us a minute?" Camden asked.

Paul and Connor both nodded, and shortly thereafter were shutting the door behind them.

Ice blue and emerald green locked together for a familiar electrifying moment, but there was something slightly different about it this time. It was him who broke the eye contact, glancing down to fidget with the blanket. "I'm so sorry, Rayne," he quietly choked out.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as she searched his face. "Camden..."

The vampire shook his head. "No. Just listen. When I first met you, I knew there was something special about you... something that made you unlike any girl I've ever met." He shook his head. "I couldn't put my finger on it at first, attributed it to a deeper connection because of Martin."

His eyes came back to lock with hers, and she smiled at him. Just being close to him again, able to speak with him, made everything all right.

"When I lost you and couldn't find you," he paused, "I've never been so afraid in my four hundred years on this planet. I couldn't eat, couldn't concentrate, and couldn't function without you invading my every thought, every move, and every breath."

Rayne could feel the tears coming, and her chest seemed to swell with his words.

"That's when I knew that it didn't matter why or how you are different. It only matters that you are." His hand came up to caress her cheek. "I will never lose you again, and I will never let anything like that happen to you again. I swear it."

A tear rolled down her cheek, and she nodded.

Camden leaned in and gently pressed his lips to hers. "I will never leave your side again."

She nodded again and forced a smile through the tears. "Promise?"

He chuckled. "I don't care if it kills me." His lips went to her forehead, careful not to hurt her already injured head.

A knock at the door made the two of them jump.

He grunted and pulled away. "Come in."

Rayne pushed herself up even more to get a view over the footboard of the bed and a glimpse at who entered the room. She was more than surprised to see Dr. Brennan slip inside.

"You remember Dr. Brennan?" Camden asked.

Rayne's eyebrows furrowed in question as she nodded. How did he get here? Why is he here? What have I missed?

Another knock.

This time, it was the young, blonde-haired vampire.

"Christophe?"

Now she was really confused. Her eyes darted to Camden, and a sadness washed over his features.

Why is he here? I thought he was ripped apart while Layla and I escaped... Her heart stopped beating. Her eyes frantically searched the room. "Where's Layla? Why isn't she here?"

Camden's large hand closed over hers and he looked down at the ground, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"No, tell me where she is. Where is my best friend?"

The room grew eerily quiet, and no one would make eye contact with her.

"You'll have to see it for yourself," Camden finally spoke up.

With some difficulty and a lot of grunting on Rayne's part, Camden easily lifted her from the bed and helped steady her shaky legs. She wrapped her arm around his neck and allowed him to assist her from the room.

"Why won't you just tell me?" she asked, unable to hide the fear in her voice.

He didn't answer.

It seemed as though it took a lifetime for the two of them to make it downstairs to the main floor of the house and then through the kitchen to a narrow door in the back.

Swinging it open, he carried Rayne into the darkness and down a flight of stairs. His advanced senses easily adapted, but she continued to struggle through the dark.

As they neared the bottom, every part of Rayne's body failed. Her heart stopped beating and her breath hitched in her throat. Her stomach felt as though it were a boulder threatening to fall from her body.

The gurgling, hissing moans reached her ears, and she knew without a doubt, before the light came on, what she was about to see.

Her best friend was chained to a column in the basement of Camden's house, parts of her flesh melting from her body. Muscle and bone were exposed, and the room reeked of decaying flesh. Very little of her black ringlets remained, and her body was no longer pudgy, but rotting and slowly falling away.

"No!" she screamed. "No!" She tried to push away from the strong arms holding her and reached for her best friend. "What happened to her?!"

Camden tightened his hold on her and buried his face in her auburn hair. "I know, Rayne. I know. I'm sorry."

"Not Layla!" she sobbed incoherently. "She's all I have!"

Camden turned and carried the inconsolable Rayne back upstairs.

She kicked and screamed with what little strength her healing body could produce. Exhausted and barely able to move, she screamed into his hard chest. "No! Don't leave her like that!" She looked at him, eyes wild with panic and pleading. "Don't leave her like that, please!" More tears fell.

As they emerged from the basement, Camden nodded to Paul who returned the gesture and disappeared down the stairs.

Her frail body nearly was limp as Camden carried her back upstairs to her room. A fresh trail of tears streamed down her cheeks, and she began to hyperventilate. Dr. Brennan rushed to her as the vampire laid her back on her bed.

"Breathe," he said calmly, and took deep breaths to show her how.

Eyes wide and full of moisture, she nodded and tried to mimic his actions. After what seemed like forever, she finally managed to calm herself to little more than a quiet sob and eventually was able to fall back asleep.

There was no imagining what she felt. Camden stared at her and refused to leave her side, holding her as she cried for hours on end and then rested. He couldn't change what had happened, couldn't right his wrongs. All he could do was be there for her when she needed him, for as long as it took.