Chapter 17- Finished
Time moved in slow motion as I saw Viktor raise the dagger over Lucian's heart. Not him, my mind was screaming. I lunged my body forward, pumping my arms, body rigid, and forcing through the air and all of the wind resistance from my fast movement as best I could. I thrust myself down under the knife, pushing Lucian out of the way, and felt a sawing, agonizing burn as the knife ripped through flesh and muscle in my left side.
"NO!" Lucian screamed with terror and preconceived grief. Just then I heard a shuffling noise, and turned around in time to see Selene push Viktor into a wall as he lost consciousness momentarily, and Lucian turned around as well, grateful to see her. Viktor's body hit the floor, and Lucian and Selene ran towards me as I lay there, coughing up blood and struggling even more to hold my consciousness than before.
"Maya, Maya speak to me! Say something, anything!" he demanded, pulling my face up from my side to look up at him. "Maya, look at me, I need you to say something."
"Bite me," I whispered pleadingly, struggling, blood gurgling forth.
"She's losing blood fast Lucian, you'd better do as she asks," Selene instructed coolly.
"NO. NO, I will NOT turn her into a Lycan! Do you understand me? I make no apology for who I am, but I will NOT turn her into a Lycan!"
"You have to," I managed to yell, "it's the only way! If you don't turn me I'll die right here, right now."
"No, we'll get you to a hospital…"
"It will be too late," Selene stressed.
I rolled back over onto my side, coughing up another small pool and struggling to breathe.
"DO IT," I hissed, gasping for air, and clutching at my side. I ripped the dagger out with a yelp.
"No," he whispered, tears streaming down his face.
"Listen to me, Lucian. I just met you recently and fell in love with you. I just recently got to start all over again after losing Emery and experience this overpowering joy in being with you, and if I die now then I won't get to love you anymore, and I am not finished loving you, do you understand me?"
The room spun and swirled around in my vision, and I felt my eyes becoming heavy. As I faded slowly out of consciousness, I grabbed Lucian's hand and squeezed it hard; he was my last shred of hope for life, and the Lycans' and vampires' last chance for peace and accord. "Bite… me…"
The next thing I knew, I heard his sobs pick up in tempo, and I felt the feeling of about twenty or so spikes driving through the flesh in my shoulder, and I groaned, biting my lip. My heart rate increased, and I began to sweat. I suddenly had a splitting headache, and I realized that that was about as literal as the description of my condition got. Blood ran out of my nose, and just as I thought the pain was too much to bear, I felt my blood congealing, and my chest exploding with pain.
"Oh God, I think I'm having a fucking heart attack," I shrieked, clutching at my sweatshirt, and surprised at how easily I ripped through it without even intending to. I flipped over to my knees and clutched my chest in agony with my right hand, my left hand holding me steady against the ground.
"No, Maya, you're not…"
"OH GOD!"
"Maya, Maya listen to me, look at me. LOOK AT ME," Lucian commanded.
I looked up, tears streaming down my face.
"Maya, your body is changing. You have thicker blood now, your skull is widening, and you're growing an extra set of ribs. In just a few moments you're going to grow talons and fur, and your vertebrae and bones are going to expand in order to allow you to grow larger when you morph into a Lycan."
I nodded tersely and closed my eyes as I allowed my body to shift, crunch and stretch. Through the pain, a sudden peace washed over me as I realized that Corvinus' prophecy was finally coming true. Lucian helped me lie down on my back, and took one of my hands, and Selene took the other; both of their stares were intense and concerned. Selene kept her emotions in check, but I could see that she was just as scared as Lucian.
"Mortals usually die within an hour of being bitten by either of us, how could you have asked me to do this?" he asked Selene in a panic.
"Lucian, it's her only chance. She has a better chance of surviving with your bite than anything else. Besides, I can assure you this will end well. It was foreseen."
He looked at her in surprise, and then understanding, his eyes blazing with wonder and fear. "This was prophesized." It wasn't a question, it was a confirmation.
"Yes."
"Maya is Corvinus' prophesized female Lycan."
"Yes. She was meant for this. She will live."
I wailed and twitched on the cold floor, giving way to the pain, knowing it would be over soon. I could feel my bones and muscles growing and stretching at an alarming rate, and felt a strange sensation of something breaking through in each of my fingers; the talons. In this moment the pain was so intense, and it was everywhere. I tried to concentrate on something, anything, but nothing could distract me. I tried to concentrate on Lucian's hand holding mine, his soothing voice, and our future; even that didn't help in this moment. I was praying hard for the end- my end- to come. I knew there was more to this seemingly senseless pain than met the eye, but it was so miserable and consuming.
I lay there, and my consciousness waxed and waned regardless of my transformation. Amidst what I could only inadequately describe as delirium tremors, I could almost swear I saw a female vampire with long, dark hair. She looked a bit like Selene- actually a lot like Selene.
Sonja.
She spoke slowly and softly to me. "It's alright, Maya. You're almost a Lycan. I was sent here to tell you that Emery is alright, and he's happy. He's also happy for you. He and I will be looking after you and Lucian. We were merely preludes to the love you two will share together for eternity. Lucian has let go of me completely, and it's alright for you to completely let go of Emery. It's time now for you to be who you were destined to be, and to be with who you were destined to be with. Now go and help create the world that Lucian and I saw for the vampires and Lycans alike. I know you will take the utmost care of Lucian, and he will of you."
She smiled at me. "And Lucian does not have to know that you saw me. He will not need to."
Just as quickly as she came, she dissipated into thin air, and I lay there, feverish and imprisoned in my painful immobility. I heard Lucian's soothing words, and Selene's encouraging words. Both were telling me that I would be fine. Selene told me that I'd come farther than anyone who'd been bitten by an immortal that didn't have some pure strain of the virus that made them immortal, namely from the Corvinus line.
I had a will to live. I had a will to fight. Not just this fight between two divided peoples, but this fight for my life, and this fight for me and Lucian. I was surviving this virus because I wanted to. If nothing else, Lucian was worth it. I doubted very much that anyone else had ever been bitten out of love- besides Michael, who was also immune to the deadly effects of the virus- before, and so out of fear and intense pain, but no reward for surviving, they gave up. They succumbed to it, and didn't fight. This was my fight though, and so I had to survive. This was my destiny. I lay there and stopped praying for the end. The pain would end, but not me, not Lucian's and my love, and not my legacy. I would not cease to be here, tonight.
Just then Michael came running into the room.
"What the hell is taking you guys so long- Jesus Christ, what the hell?"
"She took a stab to the side to prevent Viktor from stabbing Lucian with a silver dagger, and so Lucian had to turn her to save her. She's turning into a Lycan," Selene informed him.
"Yeah, I can see that now. I recognize the way she's twitching. I must have looked something like that when I was turned," Michael said. He bent down to me. "It's alright, Maya, you look like you're getting pretty close now. Once you've been completely transformed you won't feel that pain anymore. You'll heal at an alarmingly fast rate."
I concentrated on what Michael had said, because he was the only one in the room who knew what it was like to be turned into a Lycan. Selene had been turned into a vampire, and I didn't know what that was like, and Lucian was born a Lycan, so his transformation, so to speak, would have to have been at conception or in the womb during development. Michael would know how much more of this excruciating experience I would have to endure.
Just then, I heard a grunt which could only have come from Viktor, and I knew he was regaining consciousness. Lucian bared his teeth, an intense loathing and seething anger burning in his eyes and carved into his features. He was struggling to not transform; I could tell. I felt the same burning in me as I snarled and sprung to my feet. My body expanded out in an instant into a blue-black furry creature, magnificent and strong, and my breath came out of my nostrils in loud, reverberating puffs. I bent my head slightly forward, my eyes darting around the room, and I felt an easing of my pain and a surge of strength and energy coursing through my body.
Viktor sneered, appraising me from head to toe.
"So, it is done. I told you, Lucian, the girl is indeed of concern to me. You have turned her, and now she is one of you. She is my sworn enemy, and no more than an uncivilized beast. It will do me great pleasure to kill her before your eyes before I kill you. Then I will deal with the Hybrid before Selene's eyes, and then her. You are all done for."
The rage was as consuming as the pain had been just moments before, and with that empowering rage, I leapt forward until I was just feet away from Viktor, and let a roar rip through my chest. I would not let him kill my savior, the man I loved, and my two allies. There would be hell to pay now, and Viktor's threats were deemed empty the moment my vocal chords defied his haughty outburst.
A/N: I'm going to try to make this into as many chapters as I can, but I had a pretty defined plot ahead of time, so it will be as long as it will be.