After Afterlife

Chapter 12

Eden's POV

I gave Bobbi a quick hug and slammed the car door shut.

"Luca!" I chirped as I ran in his direction.

"I've missed you kid!" He picked me up and swirled me around before putting me back on the ground. "Wanna go get something to drink?"

I nodded and together we started our search for a cozy place. Once we finally had decided where we wanted to sit and more importantly what we wanted to drink we started talking. At first, Luca asked me about my arms and I showed him the burn wounds which were already shrinking down revealing the red skin underneath.

"Eden that's a serious injury there!" He observed, "Are you sure you are safe there?"

"Yeah, this was just my own stupid fault." I began saying, "And like I said before, it's not like they let me out much so there's no danger." I let out an uncomfortable chuckle.

"Isn't that the problem though? Like if they never let you out or teach you how to defend yourself they are placing you in danger. It's smarter to just teach you to fight or even better allow you to have your powers."

I frowned not sure where he was going with his comments. "But they want to protect me."

"Yeah I understand, but your sister and her team are in a dangerous business meaning that sooner or later something will happen, and that is also something that will bring you into danger. So if they would just prepare you for that you would be a lot more likely to survive."

"Survive!" I yelped

"I'm not saying you're going to die if you can't defend yourself, I'm just saying that having some sort of skill will help you in the future. Daisy won't always be there to protect you, what if something was about to happen right now? I don't have my powers and neither do you, we both never threw a punch - I won't be able to protect you much more than you can protect yourself."

I didn't like the way this conversation was going. To be honest he was kind of scaring me but he was right. Sooner or later something will happen that will bring me in danger, hearing all those stories about what the team went through only confirmed that. I took a big gulp from my hot chocolate and looked into his eyes. Why wouldn't he be able to protect me? He was the older one, wasn't he supposed to protect the little ones?

"Can we talk about something else?" I suggested realizing my thoughts were jumping to the weirdest conclusions.

"Yeah sure, wanna go for a walk in the park?"

I giggled, just an hour ago I was walking down the park with Bobbi and now Luca wants to go for a walk too. What was it with old people and walking? "Sure after I finished my drink." I took another sip. After he had paid we started making our way to the park, this park was a little different from the one I was at this morning but in the end, all the parks seem the same to me. We were just chatting about how life had changed and how finding a job was harder than he thought when suddenly out of nowhere four dudes ran into us.

"Give us your money!" One of them shouted as another grabbed Luca's arms holding him down. The first kick landed in his stomach knocking the wind out of him. He started gasping for air but the next kick landed already.

"No! Stop! Stop it!" I shrieked running in to stop them from hurting Luca. Someone grabbed my shirt from the back and pulled me into their grip, holding me tightly so I couldn't move. "Help! Help!" I started yelling not knowing what else I could do to save Luca from the beating that was about to get much worse. A large hand got placed over my mouth to stop me from screaming and all I could do was watch as they started beating Luca. Luca was right, he couldn't even save himself how would he ever be able to save me? With the next couple of hits he fell to the ground and they started kicking him. I couldn't just do nothing! Without thinking twice I jerked my head back and bit down hard on the hand, the man let out a cry of pain pulling his hand away from my face. I thrusted my elbow back landing it in his chest and leaped forwards.

"Stop! Stop! we will give you everything!" I yelled jumping out in front of Luca. It didn't help though instead now I had become the punching bag. They hit me hard in the face causing me to stumble backward and trip over Luca. Once again I tasted the blood in my mouth as I lay still on the ground. The guys searched all our pockets and retrieved Luca's wallet before running off. Once I was sure they were gone I slowly got up and checked on Luca. People started pouring in around us, asking if we were okay and calling for help but I tried to ignore them as I wanted to get Luca to respond first.

"Luca? Luca?" I cried realizing he was out cold. I wiped away some of the blood on his head and lay him on his side. "The ambulance will be here soon, please stay with me." His blonde hair got blood in it and even though you couldn't see it I was pretty sure he broke some ribs.

As the ambulance arrived most of the people had been pushed backward giving us some space. They immediately started looking after Luca since he was the one who got beaten the worst.

"Will he be okay?" I sobbed

"He will be, now let's take a look at you shall we?" I got guided towards the ambulance where they started to clean me up. "Those are some serious burns you got there?" One of the ambulance workers said as she got a glance at my arms.

"Yeah, it was a stupid mistake on my end." I said knowing that I wasn't allowed to talk about what really happened. The other workers brought in Luca on the stretcher and we left for the hospital.