Shattered

Chapter 42: Empaths

Kaden's POV:

"We need to sit on the rim of the well of darkness and fish for fallen light with patience."- Pablo Neruda

I woke up in the room of the Air BnB I'd been staying in, confused. I got my eyes open and tried to sit up, groaning in pain.

"Easy," Xander said, setting his hand on my chest and pushing me back down. "You're not fully healed yet but you should be soon."

"The fuck happened?" I asked breathlessly, wincing as I adjusted and pain shot through my ribs. I was having a hard time remembering what happened and I definitely didn't remember getting back here. The last thing I remembered was taking down hounds with Blood Moon.

"I don't know," he said, his brows pulling together. "You tell me."

"I don't remember," I sighed, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before looking over at him. "Did I get surrounded?"

"I guess," he said, a frown tugging on his lips. "I mean... You did, but something else happened."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "You were hurt before they even touched you. I felt it in our connection but I've never felt anything like that. I don't know what it was, but we need to figure it out because-" he stopped. I raised an eyebrow and he avoided my eyes at first but when they finally met mine, I could see the concern and pain. "You almost died. I... I didn't think you were going to make it. Those hounds... Kaden, they really tore into you and it didn't look like you fought back. If Cassie and Viktor's fae healer got there a second later, we would've lost you."

"Shit," I said, lifting the blanket covering me and glancing down. My entire torso was wrapped up in a bandage that stunk a lot like it always did when Cassie put on a salve to speed the healing. Fuck, I was a little worried to see if it scarred. "How long have I been out?"

"Several hours," Xander said, crossing his arms. "I wanted to get Violet here, give her some bullshit excuse about an animal attack or something just so she'd come sit with you. The bond being close helps, but I couldn't find your phone and she didn't answer from mine."

I nodded slowly and tried to sit up again, finding much less pain this time. "Yeah, well, I don't know she'd come anyway. She has other..." I wasn't sure what to call what she was doing since I didn't even know. "She's got other stuff going on." I tried to remember the last place I had my phone because I did want to try calling her again. My head felt fuzzy still and it took me a minute but then I remembered dropping my phone. "I dropped my phone in the kitchen, think it went under the table."

"I'll ask someone to get it. The room... It smells like her," he commented. "Did she stay with you?"

"For a little while," I nodded, wincing slightly as I stretched out my arms then started unwrapping the bandages. They had blood on them but there were no cuts left underneath. "She had to go... Somewhere," I sighed. "I don't fucking know where."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. You know Cassie and Kora's salves always do the trick."

"I didn't just mean the physical wounds."

My head snapped over to him and he had the same expression as always. Stoic poker face you couldn't read to save your life. I'd been trying for years. Sometimes I knew exactly what he was thinking but moments like this, I had nothing. Renzo came into the room with my phone in his hand, offering a smile.

"Hey, he lives," he said, tossing me the phone. "You okay, man?"

"I'm fine."

"Thanks Renzo," Xander said in that tone he used very infrequently. A dismissal, asking him to leave us alone. He raised an eyebrow and looked over at me before going out the door, closing it behind him.