Chapter 20 - Shadow Arrows Hurt

I was fighting off the fire lady when a sudden pain flared up in my side. I yelped and crashed to the ground. I heard another wolf join the fight and figured Erin had rescued his mate. Good, now he better fucking help me. I'd already been scratched all over my body from fighting those shadow creatures and now an arrow was protruding from my side. My body shifted back against my will and I winced. Goddess, it hurt so badly. My vision kept going in and out and it was tinged in red.

The sound of the lady screeching caused me to painfully turn my head only to watch one of our wolves lunge at her neck and break it in their jaw. She crumbled to the ground, a pool of black liquid forming around her quickly. Ew. The shadow man looked at her before snapping his fingers. The lady was enveloped in smoke and disappeared. When I looked back at the man, he was already gone.

Uh...okay.

The creatures disappeared with the two, leaving our group in silence. But, of course, the arrow in my side didn't disappear with the rest of those shadow things. Why the hell was no one coming over to help me?! This thing hurt way more than I thought it should.

"Oh, Goddess, Aaron," I heard Erin exclaim.

"Don't just stand there, help me," I snapped, wincing when I jerked a bit and aggravated the wound.

Why was it burning? Like, it was seriously painful. It felt like my blood was literally on fire. My vision blacked out for an alarming amount of time and slight panic settled in. Was I dying? Is this how dying felt? I expected less pain to be honest. And why was there no light? Wasn't I supposed to see a light?

"Hold on, Aaron," I heard someone call.

I'm trying to, geez.

I felt hands press onto my wound and I screamed. Then, the pain slowly morphed into intense warmth. Like a heat pack directly inserted into my skin. I prefer this over that intense pain from before. I tilted my head slowly only to find Minori knelt by my side. They must've woken up from whatever happened before. They had an intense look of concentration on their face as they dealt with my wound.

"What-"

"You were poisoned with a venom native to one of our animal species. It is quite rare and very deadly if not taken care of," they explained. "I am purging the venom with my flame."

"But you said you couldn't make fire," I heard Erin comment.

"This is not fire. A flame is a dragon's purest magical energy. I am essentially using my lifeforce to draw the venom from your body. Now, please, do not move."

I remained still as the warmth continued to flow throughout my body. My eyes kept closing without me realizing it, but someone would remind me to keep them open. Goddess, had I been the only one to be hit by one of these special arrows? What luck I had. Still, I honestly thought rescuing Rin would be way harder. But...it really wasn't. Why was Rin so afraid then? What were we missing?

The warmth left my body as Minori stood up. "You should heal soon. For now, we must journey back to the other group. They are probably worried."

Arms picked me up and I realized it was Erin. I smiled weakly at him. "Come to sweep me off my feet?" I teased.

He rolled his eyes, but there was a large grin on his face that he didn't try hard to hide. "Aaron, I found my mate," he whispered excitedly.

I know, and I'm really happy for you. "Is it...is it Rin?" I asked for his sake.

He nodded his head quickly. "Yes. I can't believe this is happening right now."

"Hmm," I hummed, suddenly feeling very drained.

Healing must've been taking a lot out of me. My eyes were still closing without my permission and it became harder to keep them open every time. I felt Erin lifting me onto Minori with the help of someone else, but I couldn't tell who.

I kept slipping in and out of consciousness until I felt someone place my body in someone else's arms. The sparks that erupted along my skin told me it was one of my mates, most likely Evander. "What happened to him?" Evander asked.

His voice sounded almost angry. I hummed tiredly. "Don't...mad...my fault," I mumbled before I blacked out again.

.

.

.

"Goddess, my side," I groaned as my hand reached down to touch my side.

I was surprised when I felt bandages over it. Where was I? What time was it? When I looked up, I was faced with Evander's worried face. When he saw me looking at him, he looked up. "Aubrey, he's awake."

Aubrey's face popped into view with tears in his beautiful eyes. "Oh my gosh, you're okay."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Minori and Yuki's home. We just got back an hour ago," Evander filled in for me. "God, we were so worried. You said you'd come back by nightfall and then you didn't," he added with a frown.

"And when you did, you were hurt. It scared me," Aubrey said with a sniff.

"It scared us," Evander corrected.

I felt my heart break within my chest. Goddess, I'd made them worry for me. But, it was worth it. We found Rin and Erin's mate - I still couldn't believe they're the same person. "I had to. I'm sorry," I whispered. "Erin's string was so close to its end and I couldn't stop myself from interfering. But, it worked out in the end right?"

Evander sighed. "Yes, it did. But, you got hurt still. Are you in pain?"

"No, Minori helped me. It was really bad, though. It felt like my entire body was on fire."

"Were you shot with a bullet?" He asked quickly.

I scrunched my nose at his odd behavior. "Uh, no. I was shot with an arrow."

"Hmm. Remember when I was shot?"

"Yes?"

"The pain you described was similar to mine. It felt like my entire body was on fire and my energy was greatly depleted afterward. It would make sense to assume that the Eye has weapons not of our realm."

"Shit," I muttered. "You're probably right. That's going to be a problem. You're immortal so, of course, it wouldn't be able to do you in, but Minori said that the venom used was deadly. We have to find a way to counteract it."

"The only way would be if you weaponized a dragon's flame," Minori suddenly spoke up.

I tilted my head a bit to see them sitting there with Yuki tucked in their lap. Yuki smiled gently at me and offered a wave. "It's good to see you awake. Your friend and mate were very worried."

Erin.

"Um, where is my friend?" I asked.

"With my sibling," Yuki said. "They're...getting to know each other."

"Uh..."

She laughed. "No, no, I didn't mean it like that. They're just taking a quick walk to introduce themselves," she elaborated.

"I see."

"Thank you, by the way," she said. "You helped rescue Rin and gave them something more. Dragons don't mate many times in our lives, but when we do, it's special."

She looked up at her lover and Minori leaned down to peck her lips. They were so cute. I hoped that I could be that comfortable and in love with my mates one day. If you would get over yourself and tell them everything, maybe. "He's my best friend. I couldn't help myself," I mumbled with pink cheeks. "It's no big deal."

"If you say so," Yuki said with a hum. "Now, what do you plan on doing next?"

"Um."

"We should talk to Rin and figure out how they got trapped," Evander spoke up.

"I'd like to know that as well," Yuki agreed.

And speak of the devil, I heard the front door open and I hear Erin's loud voice. "Is Aaron up yet?"

"I couldn't possibly sleep with your loud-ass voice," I snapped, but he knew I was messing around.

Evander helped me to sit up - which also made me realize I'd been laying in his lap this whole time - and I faced Erin. I was surprised to see him linked hands with Rin. Wow, they move fast. Wren and Joshua were like that too. So were Ryder and Marie...am I really the only abnormal one?

"Sit down with us. We have some questions for Rin," Minori said.

Erin smiled and let Rin drag him to a loveseat. When Erin sat down, Rin sat down next to him, but they were practically glued at the hip. It made me happy to see Erin happy. "It's nice to finally meet you, Rin," I said.

They looked at me carefully. "I'm glad I can finally meet the people who are mated to Ev," they commented.

Ev, huh? I didn't comment because I honestly didn't want to think about how weird it was that my best friend was mates with my mate's ex. Ugh, don't think about that, don't think about that. You're thinking about it by trying not to-

"Rin, what happened?" Evander spoke up. "You disappeared, but I thought you were just on one of your regular trips."

Rin sighed and looked down. "I was forcefully taken. It happened at night. I was walking to the hotel I was staying in when I was drugged and woke up chained to the parasite rock."

"Do you know who put you there?" Minori asked.

"I don't know exactly who took me, but people kept visiting me to make sure I was still there. That lady and large man who were there visited often," Rin said.

"Did they discuss anything with you? Plans, leadership, important locations?" I asked.

They shook their head. "No. I wanted to see if I could see the present and figure it out, but the constant use of my powers drained me. I barely had enough energy to contact you," they said.

I internally winced. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it, Erin. I noticed my best friend frown curiously, but he let it go quickly. At least, he didn't vocally question it. Good.

"Wait, they did mention someone," they suddenly spoke up. "I'm not sure how important they are, but they said something about a Father."

"Father?" Aubrey whispered. "And you never saw anyone else?"

"Um-"

"Why do you keep avoiding, Rin?" Minori suddenly spoke up.

Rin looked up at them in shock. "What?"

"I know you. When you want to avoid me finding the truth, you use vague language. You're not telling us the truth," they accused.

The dragon was ghostly pale and looked genuinely afraid. Erin noticed and frowned. "Don't confront them. They just got out of a very traumatic situation. We didn't grill Kit or Aubrey like this when we first met them, so why are we doing it with Rin? I don't know what you mean, Minori, but I don't like you accusing my mate of lying."

Yuki straightened up in Minori's lap. "Erin, she is simply trying to point out that Rin might not be telling the whole truth. Minori is a truth seeker. She can tell when someone is lying and will see the truth within their subconscious," she explained.

"I'm not lying," Rin whispered. "You would see if I was, Min. But, some things happened that I would rather not get into. I'm not lying about them, I'm avoiding remembering things I don't want to."

"I'm sorry," Erin murmured and reached out to grab both of Rin's hands. "We can stop talking about it if you don't want to."

Rin offered a small smile. I noticed how pained their eyes looked. They still looked genuinely afraid. "You're safe with us," I spoke up. "You don't have to worry about them anymore."

They nodded. "Thank you." They then turned to look at Minori, who had an unreadable expression on their face. "Min, I know you mean well. I wasn't trying to deceive you."

They sighed. "I'm going to be honest, Rin...I don't trust you. Not since what happened."

Rin looked down. "I get it. No need to explain."

What just happened? As I looked around the room, it seemed that only the dragons understood what the hell just happened. My mates and Erin looked just as confused as me, though Evander seemed to be slowly piecing it together. Figures.

"If you feel like disclosing more, please do so," Evander said. "Any information would help a lot. The Eye is becoming far too powerful."

"The Eye...you have to stop them," Rin said. "They're dangerous."

We all silently agreed.

"Well," Yuki suddenly said and clapped her hands together. "It's very late. I think we should all get some sleep and talk more in the morning."

"What time is it?" I asked.

I decided to lay back down in Evander's lap. What? He was comfy. He looked surprised when I laid back down, but smiled lightly and began running a hand through my hair. It felt a little weird being so vulnerable in front of other people, but Erin had seen me like this before and I honestly didn't care much what Yuki, Minori, and Rin thought. Yuki had seen way more personal stuff about me in my past, Minori didn't seem like the type to judge, and a small and very jealous part of me wanted to stake my claim over Evander in front of Rin. Stupid, I know, especially since they've found their mate. Maybe I should be staking my claim over Erin instead. He was my best friend first.

"You've been out for a few hours. It's close to midnight I believe."

"Holy shit," I muttered.

Evander smiled at that. "Yes. You were out for a while. Are you still tired?"

I looked up into his eyes and noticed how dark they were. With a frown, I stated, "You're hungry."

Evander raised an eyebrow. "I asked you if you were tired, not that I was hungry."

"I'm not that tired after passing out for basically the whole day," I said. "Do you have a blood bag?"

"No..."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "Really? You'd expect that an old vampire like you would always be prepared with an emergency blood bag."

"I'm not that old, Aaron," he huffed surprisingly childishly. "And I didn't bring it because I couldn't exactly bring a bag of blood through the airport."

"Oh...makes sense."

"I can deal with it later, don't worry. I'm more worried about you healing properly," he said. "So, why don't we get you and Aubrey to bed?"

I sat up when he indicated that he was going to stand. I made a move to stand up as well, but he held a hand out to stop me. "Your body is weak."

"It's not that week, Godde-"

One minute I'm protesting calling my body weak - I could walk just fine - the next I'm hauled into his arms like a newlywed. "Evander, come on, this isn't necessary," I grumbled, my ears burning.

I could feel Erin smirking. Oh, Goddess, I was never going to live this down. I glared - albeit weakly - at my mate, but his gentle smile weakened my already-mild attempt at anger. "Indulge me."

With a sigh, I crossed my arms and faced forward. I heard Aubrey's adorable giggle and I looked over at him. "Don't laugh," I complained.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it. You look too cute," he said with another fit of giggles.

You're cute. "Whatever, let's go already."

We left the house and Evander took us to some tents we'd brought along with us. Evander led Aubrey and carried me into one of the ones set up nearest to the house. Once we were inside, he gently laid me down on a large sleeping bag. "Alright, you two should get to sleep."

"What are you going to do?" I asked him.

"I'll be right here if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm more concerned about the fact that you haven't eaten in a while. Why didn't you eat before we left if you knew bringing blood would be an issue?"

Evander sighed. I didn't care if he was already tired of my pestering. A hungry vampire wasn't something I wanted to deal with on top of all this other shit. "If you want an honest answer, I wasn't thinking about it. I was more concerned with Rin and what was going on. I ate sometime last week and that was it," he explained.

"Evander, that isn't an excuse. You should take care of yourself," I argued.

"Says the person who almost died trying to guide their friend to their mate!" He suddenly yelled.

Oh shit.

~~~

So, what do you think happened to Rin? You will get to see their entire history in the next book since I'll be using their perspective the most (Erin will ofc get his time). And what do you think about Evander's sudden outburst? What was that about?

The chapter alone was almost 3,000 words, wow! These last few chapters have been much longer than I anticipated. I actually had to cut this one in half. If you couldn't tell, there's still a loooong way to go. I hope I can keep up with it!

The next book is gonna be long too, but that's to be expected given that it will be the finale in this little series. We'll see what happens from there, but I already have more story ideas ;)

Stay tuned for more insanity and thank you so much for reading!

Please vote, share, and comment if you like it :)