The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1352: Healing Power of the Forest (Part One)
Ashlynn stood, the Blood Acorn still cradled carefully in the palm of one hand while she reached out with the other to pull Ollie up from where he knelt on the floor.
"Take off your tunic," she said in a tone that reminded Ollie of his mother when he was much younger, and she needed to tend to his scrapes and bruises. "Then lie down on the bed. This will likely hurt, and you may not be able to hold yourself upright. Do you want something to bite down on?" Ashlynn asked, glancing around the room to see if there was anything more reasonable to offer him to bite into than a handkerchief.
"No, but I may cry out," Ollie said as his fingers quickly worked at the laces of his tunic before he pulled it over his head, revealing a physique that was even more toned and sculpted than it had been on the night Ashlynn cut into his chest in order to bestow the seed of witchcraft on him.
The mark of the witch that covered much of his side pulsed with the faintest energy when Ashlynn ran her fingertips along it, drawing a startled gasp of breath from Ollie at her touch. Ashlynn, however, hardly noticed his reaction as she focused on how paper-thin his skin felt beneath her fingertips.
His skin hadn’t actually thinned, but the roots running through his body felt like they were barely beneath the surface of his skin, as though layers of topsoil had been washed away in a flood to expose the roots beneath. He was still hanging on, but it was a precarious thing.
"This will feel strange," she warned him as he shifted on the bed, lying down as Ashlynn had told him to and doing his best to steady his breathing and calm his racing heart.
"You know the touch of the void better than almost any witch," Ashlynn said as she stood over him. "But Nyri’s blood sorcery is different from the Kiss of the Void. You know the power of cold darkness, but this is the power of hot blood, spilled into the mouth of the world’s greatest predator. It doesn’t submit easily," she warned him.
Ollie nodded, trusting her completely.
"Tell me what you need me to do," he said.
"Nothing in the beginning. Just do your best to endure," Ashlynn said. "But when the time comes, there will be a blood oath to swear. I will tell you when it’s time," she promised.
Ashlynn took a deep breath, closing her eyes and centering herself for what was about to come.
"Gather darkness, gather night.
Deep in shadow, hide from sight.
No light to see, beneath the trees.
No whispers heard, on faintest breeze."
What Ashlynn was about to do was incredibly dangerous, even if Abbot Recared had taken half of the Inquisitors of his abbey with him. The amount of power that would be unleashed when she cracked the acorn would be impossible for the experienced clergy of either the Abbey or the Temple to miss.
So, before she even began to heal Ollie, she used sorcery that she’d learned from Marcel in her earliest days in the Vale of Mists. No one could match Marcel’s command of darkness. For him, shadows behaved like obedient hounds, eager to please their master. He was a vampire, the bearer of the Cloak of Darkness, and a creature of the night. Ashlynn couldn’t compete with him in a contest of shaping darkness.
But she was still the Mother of Trees, and trees were no stranger to creating shade. Just like the densest forests held a darkness all their own. Now, she blended the shadows of the forest with the darkness of night to create a shroud around the entire Broken Blade Tavern, concealing it in inky darkness that would prevent the Church’s prying eyes from noticing what was about to happen here.
In the small room, the light from the trio of tallow candles seemed to dim, and the dancing shadows on the wall felt like living things, eager to break free from the surfaces that held them captive. At the same time, the glittering light from the Blood Acorn, shifting from deep crimson to midnight blue and emerald green, felt even brighter than it had before, wrapping the entire room in its subtle hues.
"Brace yourself, Ollie," Ashlynn whispered as she drew a small knife from its sheath on her belt. She moved slowly, reaching out with exceptional care as she placed the point of the blade in the center of Ollie’s chest, directly above his breast bone. Then, with the slightest bit of pressure, a drop of dark, crimson blood welled up on the tip of the blade as she gently pierced his flesh.
Then she closed her fist around the Blood Acorn, and her voice rang out in a slow, steady meter.
"Ancient seed, born of pact and pain,
Where forest’s fury sleeps in crimson vein,
What vampire’s thirst and witch’s heart have wrought,
What Oak’s dark promise to this seed has brought,
Now break your shell and let the power flow,
That withered roots may drink, and strength may grow."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Ollie heard a soft crack, like a twig snapping, and brilliant light burst from between Ashlynn’s fingers; deep crimson, midnight blue and brilliant emerald green, all intertwining in complex spirals that seemed to pulse in time with the beating of Ollie’s heart.
Suddenly, Ollie’s mouth felt incredibly dry, as if he hadn’t touched a sip of water for an entire day. His gaze was fixed on the power flowing from Ashlynn’s hand and every instinct in his body screamed at him to lunge for it, to latch on to her hand and sink his teeth into her flesh to drink...
For a single, agonizing moment, the only thing preventing him from moving was the point of Ashlynn’s blade, still pressed into his flesh and pinning him in place.
"No," Ollie muttered, struggling to say even that much as his tongue felt like it had become stuck to the roof of his mouth. He was thirsty, so incredibly thirsty, but this was wrong. The roots within his body were dry and brittle, dryer than his mouth and aching just as much, but he couldn’t slake that thirst by attacking Ashlynn, no matter how much his heart thundered in his chest and his body cried out for him to do just that.
As soon as Ollie spoke, Ashlynn’s eyes flew open, glowing so brightly they were almost painful to look at. Then, moving with a speed that no ordinary person could match, she withdrew the point of her blade and pressed her hand, filled with pulsing energy, against Ollie’s chest directly over the small wound she’d created.
And suddenly, less than a heartbeat after the energy touched his skin, Ollie’s world exploded into sensation....
