Black Moon

Chapter 16: Cole

As soon as I managed to shoo away Jagger, Kiera appeared, as boisterous as ever.

"You ready to leave? Because I am. Honestly! I can't believe coffee could even taste like this. It's bloody rubbish!"

I raised my eyebrows. "What are you, British?"

She rolled her eyes in response. "No, I'm crazy. Get it right."

I chuckled. "Whatever. Let's just get out of here."

Kiera let out a whoop before running out of the room and reappearing with a wheelchair. "Here, you might need this."

I scoffed. I did not need a stupid wheelchair. Please! How weak could I possibly be?

Ready to prove Kiera wrong about me needing a wheelchair, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

I only lasted for about three seconds before collapsing on the ground. Dang, I thought bitterly, when did tile become granite?

A laugh bursted out of Kiera as she watched the scene... or rather me... go south very quickly. "Come on, weakling. Let the big girl werewitch help you in your dire situation."

She flicked her wrist, and all of a sudden, I was floating. I also felt nauseous, like I had when Gloria had done the change of her house so long ago. Now that I thought about it, it had actually only been about three weeks since my whole adventure had started with that fateful Black Moon Ball.

Wait. It had been three weeks if I stopped counting when I went to Transylvania. But I really didn't know how long I'd been unconscious.

The nausea faded as I realized that I had yet to find out how many days that I was asleep. Well, that and also because I was now sitting in the wheelchair.

"Kiera," I started, "How long was I out?"

At that she got all quiet. "Kiera?" I prodded.

Her throat cleared uncomfortably. "It's been two weeks. King was inconsolable. He had someone bring his work to your bedside, and he pretended to focus on it. When he thought no one was looking, though, he growled like a crazy man and nuzzled your hand. About one week in your heart stopped and the doctors wanted to let you go, but King wouldn't let them. He said that you weren't dead; it was only an illusion. He knew that you would come back. They kept the antidote running, and your heart started again on its own before you made a gradual recovery. You were in a coma the whole time. Those two weeks were probably the scariest of my life, and I'll forever remember the day when Dr. Padinski said your body was eliminating the venom by itself and she didn't really need to keep giving you the antidote. King made her keep dripping it.

"And... Here we are. You're fine now." Kiera perked up again and started wheeling me down the hall. I was reeling. Even knowing that Jagger was my mate, it was shocking to see it from an outsider's view. She saw the worry in his actions while feeling it herself.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I promise I'll never worry you like that again."

Kiera laughed, back to her bubbly self. "You shouldn't make promises that you can't keep. After surviving an attack of nearly 50 fully mature vampires, the whole Guard wants to fight beside you. They even know about your Lycanthropy situation and some of them don't care at all. Of course, there are the few that hate you and never want you out on a mission again, but most people want you in the Guard helping."

My eyes widened. "Really?"

Kiera snorted. "Yeah! Girl, you're so badass that you made Beta Martin look like a wuss. There's even a few people who want you replaced as the Beta because of this."