There was no point in dialling 911, as the paramedics wouldn't be able to do anything. Adrian wasn't human; he was a vampire, a Moroi. But, CPR would still work, seeing as Moroi's hearts beat, at least when they're alive. I straddled his hips and ripped his shirt open exposing his chest. I tilted his head back and tried to open his mouth. It opened slightly and I put my mouth to his and breathed twice into his mouth. I put one hand, hell down, in the middle of his chest, my other hand coming to rest on top of the hand already on his chest. Pushing down about two inches, I quietly counted to thirty.
"Come on Adrian! Please. Breathe. You can't do this. You're not supposed to die just yet. It's not your time." I begged even though I knew he couldn't hear me. After the thirty compressions, I tilted his head back again and taking a deep breath and bringing my mouth back to his, I pushed the air I'd breathed in, I breathed it into him. I quickly looked back at the fight, noticing that there were bodies. Another bright flash of light blinded me again and another ear-piercing scream filled the air. Sonya must have finished restoring Adrian's parents.
"Sonya! Help me!" I cried out. I saw a flash of her red hair amidst the fight.
"I can't! I'm sorry Sydney!" Another flash of light and another scream. Sonya was trying to restore all the Strigoi back to their former selves. She'd planned this! She'd agreed to restoring Nathan and Daniella Ivashkov. But, she'd taken it upon herself to try and restore the others. A sure fire way to minimise the Strigoi population. I turned back to Adrian and began the thirty compressions again.
I was about halfway through, when I felt my pocket vibrate. I ignored it and kept on compressing. As soon as the vibrating had stopped, it started up again. I'd finished the second lot of compressions and breathed twice more into Adrian. I waited a bit before starting again, and took the opportunity to check who was calling me. I had two missed calls from Jill. As i stared at my phone, it rung again. Jill's name appearing on the screen.
"Jill?" I asked.
"Adrian! There's something wrong! I can't feel the bond anymore! I felt this intense pain , like I was dying. And then, nothing. I couldn't feel anything anymore!" Jill was hysterical. "Sydney, you have to help him!"
"Jill. I couldn't find a pulse. His heart stopped beating. I'm doing everything I can to get his heart started." My throat felt thick and my eyes watered. My attempt to blink back tears was futile, as one by one they slipped down my cheeks. On the other side of the phone Jill cried out and began bawling. Hearing her crying made me cry harder. "I need to go. I need to keep trying." I hung up and not bothering to put my phone back in my pocket- I threw it into the corner- went back to performing CPR.
I'd been doing CPR on Adrian for quite some time. I was getting weaker, my breathing laboured. My skin drenched with sweat as I continued my administrations on Adrian. After many bright flashes that continuously blinded me, the fight began dying down. There were on a few Strigoi left.
"Dimitri!" I yelled as I continued my thirty compressions. "I need your help! And I need it now!"Dimitri had heard me and ran over to me.
"What happened?" He demanded. I couldn't answer because a fresh wave of tears sprang free and I was crying again. It took me a while to calm down and explain,
"He's not breathing. Dimitri, he's not breathing! He can't do this to me! He can't leave me! Not like this!" My calm had escalated back up to hysterics as I frantically tried to restart Adrian's heart. "You can't do this to me Adrian! Breathe for me! Come on Adrian! I took a deep breath to breathe into Adrian, but I couldn't, because as soon as I put my mouth to his, I refused to move. I kissed Adrian. He was becoming cold, his lips starting to turn blue, his skin a deathly pallor. I held his face and kissed him as I cried, still sitting atop him. I felt arms wrap around my waist and pull me off of him. I struggled, kicking out at the person taking me away from Adrian. I kicked whoever it was in the shin and they dropped me. I took my opportunity to escape and crawled back to Adrian, crossing my legs and pulling him into my lap. I bent over him, a hand running through his hair.
"Sydney? Let go." Dimitri crouched down beside me, a hand on my shoulder. Behind him, the fight was over. The survivors were beginning to crowd around us. Distantly, I heard someone crying. I shrugged off Dimitri's hand and clutched Adrian's body closer.
"Leave us alone." I sobbed. "Just leave us alone." I looked up, not really seeing anything in particular. "Leave us alone!" I screamed. Someone else knelt on my other side; Sonya. She ran a hand over my hair.
"Sydney? I'm sorry. Adrian's gone. I can't see his aura anymore." I focused on Sonya's face; tears were streaming down her face, she had a small gash on her cheek, and her hair was wild and unkempt. "We have to go. We have to take his body back to Court for burial."
Hearing Sonya say 'burial' made me realise a few things; one, Adrian was dead. He'd never marry, have children and grow old. I'd never get to see him smile again, I'd never get to see the way his emerald green eyes danced mischievously, or stared at me adoringly. I'd never get to hear anymore of his witty remarks; or the way Spirit would temporarily take hold and he'd ramble on about nothing and everything.
And two; I really and truly did love Adrian. His messy brown hair, his impossibly gorgeous emerald green eyes, the way he cared about everyone even though he acted like he didn't. And most importantly; the way he understood me like no one else did. I loved him and he'd never get to hear me tell him so. My heart and soul shattered. Bringing Adrian's body even more closely, his head resting in the curve of my neck, I let out an impossibly loud and blood-curdling scream. My scream reverberated throughout the basement causing everyone to flinch and cover their ears.
My scream died down and I choked on my sobs. Someone pulled me away from Adrian and I let them.
"Ssh. Sydney, it's going to be okay." Rose whispers as she held me.
"He's dead Rose. Adrian's dead!" I sobbed quietly.
"No. Look. Sonya's using Spirit to bring him back." I jerked my head up and tried to see through the film of tears obscuring my vision. As I blinked, my vision became clearer and I saw Sonya's hand hovering over Adrian's body, a faint gold shimmer surrounding them. She was using Spirit to bring him back from the dead.
"They'll be bound. They'll be Spirit bound. He'll be Shadow-kissed." I murmured in surprise.
"But he'll be alive Sydney." Rose said. I looked at her. She had a smile on her face. I turned back to Sonya and Adrian, watching in amazement as his chest began moving. It was over as soon as it had begun. Sonya looked exhausted. Dimitri tentatively moved towards the pair and checked Adrian's pulse. He let out a sigh of relief and moved to Sonya. He murmured a few words to her and she nodded. He helped her stand and they both looked over at me. Hope surged through me, yet I was still worried. Adrian hadn't moved yet. He was unconscious.
"He's alive, but barely. He's slipped into a Spirit-induced coma. I don't know how long he'll be comatose." Sonya said gently to me. She then looked at a few of the Guardians closest to us. Authority radiating off of her in waves. "We need to get him back to Clarence Donahue's house, so we can monitor his progress." She briefly looked at me then averted her gaze, looking back at the Guardians. They were still in protection mode. "His parents are not to be notified just yet. They've just been restored. I'm sure you'd also like to discuss with the other Guardians back at Court about how Daniella Ivashkov became Strigoi and escaped from Tarasov?" A younger Guardian stepped forward,
"Yes, ma'am. We'll report all this and investigate Daniella Ivashkov's escape. Now, point me in the direction of Clarence Donahue's house and I shall take Mr. Ivashkov there myself."
"I'll come with you. I'm not letting him out of my sight." I said pulling away from Rose and getting to my feet. The young Guardian nodded respectfully at me. Dimitri took a step back towards Adrian.
"I'm coming too." Sonya and Rose both said that they were coming too.
I walked over to Adrian and got down on my knees, kneeling over Adrian.
"You'll be home soon. Just like I promised. I won't leave your side. Not until you wake up," I kissed him gently on the lips. Warmth flooded me as my lips connected with his. "And you will wake up. I love you." I kissed him one more time and then stood up, looking around the basement.
"Let's get him home."
We all went back to Clarence's in one of the vans the Guardians have arrived in. Sonya and I were in the back with Adrian; me refusing to leave him alone even for one second. And Sonya, to keep an eye on his progress via Spirit.
"I'm going to see if I can try and contact him in a Spirit dream." Sonya said settling herself down on the floor of the van and trying to get comfy. "Wake me when we get to Clarence's." She said to me. I could only nod my head. I sat against the van's wall, Adrian's head in my lap. I was staring down at him, running my fingers absentmindedly through his hair. My body relaxed, bit by bit and I soon found myself dozing, only to be jolted back to reality. I looked to the front of the van, confused.
"Sorry!" The young Guardian called out. "I swerved to avoid hitting a truck." Rose got out of her seat and came and joined me in the back. Sonya was still asleep. I assumed she'd either reached Adrian through Spirit, or was still trying.
Rose came and sat down next to me, she looked how I felt; exhausted. She wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them up to her chest, turning her head sideways to look at me, then down to look at Adrian.
"How is he?" She asked looking back at me. I sighed and leaned my head back against the side of the van.
"Still comatose. Sonya's trying to contact him through a Spirit dream. I don't know whether she's having much luck. I hope she is." I looked down at Adrian and took one of his hands into my own, clasping our fingers and resting them against his chest. My fingers on my other hand still running through his brown hair. There were dried clumps of blood in his hair, on his skin and his clothes. I looked down at my own clothes and skin; I was coated in his blood.
The van rolled to a stop and the front doors opened and closed, footsteps circling around the van to the back. The doors swung open and bright sunlight shone in, making Rose and I flinch and blink away the bright light. Dimitri climbed in and grabbed ahold of Adrian, sliding him off of me, our fingers coming loose. My hand felt devastatingly empty without his hand. I slid to the floor and shook Sonya. She woke up instantly. Her red hair was tangled and looked like birds nest.
"We're back at Clarence's." I said. Sonya nodded and I helped her to her feet. "Did you-?" I broke off as I saw a small lithe body, with brown hair running towards us and stopping in front of Dimitri, with Adrian in his arms. I heard Jill let out a small cry and Dimitri murmur a few reassuring words to her. I visibly saw her relax and then turn to me. She ran and barrelled into me, almost knocking me back into the van.
"Thank God, you're all okay." She cried. "And Adrian's alive. But I still can't feel anything through the bond." Rose and I exchanged glances. Rose cleared her throat.
"Jill, the bond's gone. You two are no longer bonded. It broke when he died. Sonya used her magic to bring him back, now he's bonded to her." Rose explained.
"Actually, we're not bonded." Sonya said from behind us. We spun around to see her sitting on the edge of the van, her legs swinging freely. "When I brought him back, I really didn't need to." Sonya looked at me.
"It seems all your hard work at administering CPR paid off. His heart was beating, though it wasn't very strong, his pulse was very weak and he was breathing, though it was shallow. So really, all I did was just heal him. But I think, because his injuries were that bad, it caused him to slip into a Spirit-induced coma." Everyone was looking at me. My knees buckled and Rose caught me before I hit the ground.
"Help me get her inside." Rose said. Sonya came to my other side and swung my arm across her shoulders. Jill ran ahead as Rose and Sonya half carried, half dragged me into the house. They moved to put me in the spare room, but I shook my head and told them no,
"Adrian. I want to be with Adrian."
"Sydney...you need to rest." Rose said.
"Fine. I'll rest but I want to be woken if he wakes up while I'm sleeping." I said stubbornly. Rose and Sonya both said they'd wake me if he woke up.
They tucked me into bed, pulling the covers right up. They said they'd come and check on me every now and then, and switched off the light as they left. In the dark room, I sank into my pillow and fell into the deepest sleep I'd ever had.