Soul Bound

Chapter 28

DPOV

I tried to open my eyes. My body felt heavy, my eyes even heavier. The very bright lights in the room did not make it any easier. I heard the steady beeping rhythm of a machine. I had heard that beeping before. I knew where I was. I was in a hospital. I eventually was able to open my eyes fully and groaned from the sheer effort it took. I looked down to the side and saw tubes coming out of my body, or going into my body, I couldn't tell yet. The liquid was clear so it must be saline coming in? maybe mixed with some pain medicine. If it was, it wasn't doing much. I was surprised I wasn't hooked up to a ventilator or extra oxygen. Because I was having trouble breathing. But I looked at my saturation levels on the machine and they were fine.

I groaned some more trying to sit up a bit, trying to see the rest of the room. Two hands came into view and helped me sit up. I let my eyes move up the hands and arms to look upon my helpers face. I was very surprised when I saw it was Adrian. He had a strange look in his eyes. It was almost tender. I wasn't used to that from him. He looked like how I felt. His eyes were bloodshot and he had large bags under his eyes.

Adrian had looked bad before. His hangovers often left him a little worse for wear, but this looked different. He wasn't drunk. What was he doing in my hospital room? Why was I in here? What had happened? I slowly moved my hand to my neck, as if that gave me all the information I needed.

"What happened?" I managed to croak out. My voice sounded hoarse, as if I hadn't talked in days.

"You lost a lot of blood. You are stable, but you were out of it for a while. I would have healed you, but I am all tapped out. Lot of people needed healing."

So that is why he looked so tired. He had been helping people from the Strigoi attack and the subsequent rescue mission. My breathing became more labored with each and every thought that went into figuring out what had happened on that mission. My first thought was about Rose, as it always seemed to be. I remember her in the sun. I could remember her screams. But I couldn't remember more, because my chest got even tighter thinking about her. A feeling of dread spread through my body like gangrene.

"Rose, where is Rose?" I asked Adrian desperately.

He looked down at his hands and I thought I saw a tear fall onto the ground. I sat up more, forcing my large body to comply. I was sitting at the edge of the bed, willing Adrian to look at me.

"Adrian, where is Rose?"

I had flashes of Rose screaming again. She was in the sun, she was safe, but in the flashes she was moving back into the shadows again. Why would she do that?

Adrian looked me dead in the eye, his tears flowing freely now.

"She's gone, Dimitri, she is gone."

My breathing stopped. Now I know what had caused it to tighten in the first place. Rose. Rose was gone. My reason for breathing was gone.

I tried to get up, but found it very hard. My body had lost a lot of blood. Adrian tried to move me back onto the bed, but I was resisting him.

"No, it can't be, she was safe in the sun. She was safe.

Adrian pushed me back onto the bed.

"You were both nearly safe, the rescue mission was a success, but a Strigoi was able to get you on the way out. He dragged you back in and fed from you. Rose went back in to save you. She didn't come back out.

No, this isn't happening. She went back to save me? She died because of me? I couldn't process this. I didn't believe him. Rose had fought so many Strigoi in her life, and she had always survived. They were wrong. Maybe she was just hurt, maybe she was still in those caves, making sure every last one of them is dead. I wouldn't believe she is dead until I saw it with my own two eyes.