New Blood

11

"The pain is too much for her to bare. Everytime caden ignores her it feels like a rejection only worse. Every Time someone dies around Baylee a part of them flows into her. She gets stronger, smarter, she takes all there authority. Gives her an aura that can't be matched but with all that comes feelings. She loves harder, she cares more, but the pain is unbearable. It's what would happen to one of you if you died and the other was left alive. Only it won't kill her. I need your help to ease her pain. I will stay in control until it's manageable. But I can't promise I won't punch caden when I see him next. Please try to understand that what she did she thought she had no choice. To prove it I want you to look into her mind and feel the pain she's in."

Mum had her hand over her mouth. Her eyes had a steady stream of tears running from them. She touched my head and her head flug back. She screamed as she felt the pain hit her. Gulping for air as she pulled away and heaved. Her chest was heavy trying to catch her breath as she looked me over.

"Drake you need to feel this"

He looked worried as mum touched him. He fell to his knees crying out in pain landing on his hands and closing his eyes. As she let him go he gagged but never got sick trying to get his breath back. He had tears in his eyes too.

"Baylee feels that pain?"

He said through deep breaths

"Yes, only she feels it all the time. She can't even eat. She tried but it's so consuming it takes a great effort to swallow anything."

Dad has tears falling from his face now. He looks at mum who has her head in her hands as the tears continue to fall from her eyeballs. After a minute of silence she stands up and puts her hand out to me.

"Tristan make coffee I'm going to get her dried of and in warm clothes"

I take her hand and she leads me to the bathroom in my room. She helps me undress and pushes me into the shower. I stand and look at her unsure of what to do. She smiles and picks up a yellow thing and squeezes gooey stuff that smells nice onto it. She shows me how to use it so I do what I'm told. Then she squirts more lavender stuff in my hair and makes it all foamy. It gets in my eyes and stings them. Mum laughs at me as I try to wash it out. After about 10 minutes I get out, still confused as to why I needed to wash when Baylee washed us in the lake.

She helps me get dressed then plays with my hair and puts it into a bun at the top of my head then leads me back to the fire with a blanket. Dad hands me a cup and I drink it but immediately I spit it back and screw my face up. They both laugh at me. I don't understand how Baylee can drink that stuff. I put it back on the floor and looked back at the fire. Aspen comes in and lays with me. He's my favourite friend. I hug him tightly and he eases the pain. Mum cocks her head to the side.

"He eases the pain?"

She is curious. I smile down at him then at mum and nod to her

"Yes when they are close by"

She seems to think about my answer for a minute.

"You share strength with them. So does that mean you can share pain? You have well over 60 wolves now. What if each wolf took a little pain. Just enough for Baylee to function?"

Mum is smart. She is always saying the right thing. I like mum a lot.

"Should we try? But I'm not sure how?"

She comes closer and touches aspen. He whines a little then stands up and licks my cheek making me smile. He rests his head against mine and I felt peace radiating through me. I could feel each wolf take a little bit of my burden. It was still painful but nothing compared to what it was. I took a large sigh of relief and thanked each wolf through a mind link. My body didn't feel so heavy anymore. And it was easier to breathe. I grinned at mum.