BLOOD and Revenge

Chapter 40:Flight of Icarus

My parents had accepted the guest room from James when I started to feel myself growing exhausted. Recovering from a mortally grave wound was much harder than I had figured it would be. As I laid on James's bed, covers pooled around me in my mate's absence, I wished for just a moment that I had the healing of a vampire to recover from this faster.

There would be a permanent scar above my heart, the poor organ clearly taking its vengeance out on me for pushing its boundaries. A cold sweat covered me as I struggled to get the pain to go away, even for a moment to rest.

James had told me before he left that it would take only a few hours to get the pack situated from the fight and file paperwork for the transfers of my family as well as myself. I wished he would just do it all later.

The mate bond had been the only power holding the events of last night at bay. Now I can feel every single cell stitching itself back together.

I reached up to set my hand over my bandages, the wetness of my own blood seeping through the cloth.

"Damn it..." I whispered into the air. Struggling to sit up, I climbed to my feet and went into the adjoining bathroom. Having already dressed the wounds earlier, the medical kit was sitting on his sink's counter. I hadn't bothered with a shirt since I knew I would need to remove it later anyways. And with not being comfortable in the nude with James, I didn't want to ask for his help.

I've done things on my own for the past year. I wasn't about to give that freedom up just yet.

I opened the kid and reached for the scissors, using them to cut across the shoulder and down the center of my chest. The white straps fell to the floor, the red painting them a reminder of the sustenance I used to consume on a regular basis.

Just the mere thought of blood used to send me into a deep hunger. I was grateful that the only thing I hungered for now was rest and maybe a burger.

I glanced up to the wound in the mirror to get a better angle to look at it. Large clumps of dried or clotted blood held along the edges of the wound, the darkness within worrying if not for my supernatural state.

My eyes met my own for a moment in the mirror before darting off to the kit, only to return just as fast. What met me had my aching heart pounding and panic running though my veins.

The color should have brown at best and black like that of wolves in pain or about to shift but instead they were flashing red. The red that my vampire eyes would often reflect.

Thoughts left my wound as I opened my mouth and willed the fangs I once had to resurface.

And on command they did. They even were accompanied by my wolf teeth descending as well. When those orbs glanced up again, confirming my fears, I watched as the black took over for a second before swirling into the red as if either color was fighting the other. Then as if deciding, it lightened exceptionally bright into a silver, the stark contrast from either of the other three colors causing me to shake.

My eyes traveled back down to the stake wound to watch it close up faster than it had been. I now felt like I wanted to eat ten burgers. With extra toppings.

"No... Please no." Master's words rang out in my thoughts in a mocking tone I had known him to have.

Ah, finally a perfect hybrid. I couldn't be a hybrid. I finally got my life back in order. I had a mate, a job, a promising future ahead of me.

"Janine, I'm back. Everything is in order and the pack is getting ready to celebrate tonight. Are you okay in there?" With a shaky breath and eyes brightening the faster I healed, I responded.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine."