Shai Soi

Chapter 25

When Rebecca stumbled into the Hideout all bloody and battered, I nearly lost it. She burst out of the small pool and collapsed in a twitching heap. Her shara blistered my skin. She was burning out faster than last night. "Oh, God! Rebecca!" I dropped next to her. She was jerking so bad I had to put her head in my lap to check her pulse. My heart was racing so much it took a second to find her heartbeat. It was humming. She needed to calm down before she burst. Her arm jerked out and slammed into my chest. The air rushed out of my lungs, but I gasped, "Rebecca! Calm down. Breathe."

She continued twitching, almost like she was going through a seizure. But she was looking at me. She started taking deeper breaths. I pressed peaceful thoughts into her head. Her shara cooled to only boiling instead of unbearable. "That's right. Come on, Rebecca. You're okay." I brushed her hair out of her face. Her hand found mine. She squeezed, and I heard a crack. Dang, she was strong.

There's.... there's an attack, she said and tried sitting up. Her leg jerked, and she splashed into the pool.

"Bec!" I yanked her up, trying to push down my own panic. If this is how she looked and Rebecca got away, how were the others? How was Sadie? I knew she wasn't captured. I could feel her presence, but the water's current wouldn't let me communicate with her.

Sadie must've brought Rebecca to Council without me. I'd just slipped in the Hideout to bring her back when the raids started. If shai soi  ran nearby, I'd try to help but I couldn't without losing it. One blast from those guns rendered fellow shai  unconscious-I saw it for myself. I couldn't imagine what Rebecca went through. I nudged into her shara, encouraging her to dispense her pain onto me. It was another Chai  trick.

She gripped my hand. I braced myself before electric jolts raced up my arms. I flexed at my shot nerves. My ear buzzed with static. If this was a portion of what Rebecca felt, she must've been going through agony. I hugged her closer until she finally stopped twitching. Red mud smeared her skin. I attempted rubbing some off her cheek.

"Nathaniel," she croaked. "My parents... they have my parents."

"I'm sorry, Bec. They- they have a lot of people. We just need to wait it out." Tears made treks through the mud on her cheeks. I didn't like seeing her cry. "Hey," I wrapped an arm around her. "We're okay. We can find your parents when we're better."

Rebecca's breath was shaky against my chin. Her golden ore eyes swam. She was very close...

"Nathaniel!" I jerked away from Rebecca. Sadie lunged out of the pool and stumbled into me. We formed an awkward Chai pile. My arm was still around Rebecca's shoulders. Sadie glimpsed it, but if it bothered her she didn't show it. We stood. I brushed my hands up and down her arms. She shrugged them off in a 'I'm okay' gesture.

"Nathaniel, the Namuhi's got the Elders. All of them." She sucked in another breath. "Brown put up a fight. I don't know what happened to him. I tried to help but they have these guns-"

"They target the nerves. I know," I glanced at Rebecca. "Bec got hit with one."

"Two, and I still can't control my leg." She was right. It continued kicking at the water no matter how much I had tried to stop it. "I don't think I can shift without killing myself."

"Maybe that's because you idiotically used up your shara  last night," Sadie started, glaring down at Rebecca.

"Sadie, wait-"

Rebecca pushed herself into standing position. "That wouldn't have happened if you'd just told me I might kill myself. "

Sadie got in her face. "I'm not your babysitter, Reject."