Killer Instinct

Chapter XVIV

XVIII.

Branden's eyes popped open as one by one his injuries began to heal. Gasping for hair as the gash in his throat slowly closed, panic etched across his face.

"I'm going to kill him!" I growled, shoving more power into his body. "I swear Branden, I'm going to kill Doug. If it's the last fucking thing that I do."

Branden shook his head, still unable to breathe. "You have..." He choked. "To stop."

"No," my brow furrowed. "I can heal you. You're going to be okay."

"It wasn't...Doug..." He rasped. "Henry....James Henry. Double crossing you..."

My eyes flew open wider. "What?!" I shoved more power through him, his throat completely healed. "Doug Henry killed you?"

"He was here on Doug's behalf." Branden's eyes were slightly unfocused. "You can't save me, Isley. The minute you stop pushing power into me, I'll die again."

I shook my head, disbelieving although somewhere deep inside of me, latent memories told me that he was telling me the truth.

"Tell me everything that you know about James Henry. What did he say. Why was he here?" I shoved as much power as I could into him, holding his eyes.

"Ever since you'd been kidnapped by James Henry a few weeks ago, I started investigating him. Come to find out that at a certain level, both companies converge. They're the same fucking company, both funded by the US government. Henry is working with Dad."

"And that was enough to have you killed?" I asked, mostly to myself. "That doesn't make any sense. Dad would never have left his arch rival kill his son."

"I'm pretty sure dad didn't know about it." A violent shudder ran through Branden and his eyes unfocused again. I pulsed more power into him, my hands never leaving his chest. "Tell me what else you did." I commanded. "There has to be more."

"Henry's wife." Despite the astounding amount of power that I had been pushing into my brother, he was still slipping, gashes bruises reappearing, the line across his throat re-reddening.

"What about her? Isn't she supposed to be dead?" The power wasn't doing anything to slow it down. He was dying again and there was nothing that I could do about it.

"A-ive" Branden choked, squeezing my hand with a sudden strength I hadn't thought him capable of.

"What?!" I pressed my fingers against the gushing wound, hoping to slow the bleeding. Maybe my powers wouldn't heal him permanently, but I could get him medical help maybe?

"A-ive" He repeated, his words nothing but a gurgle. "A-ive."

"I don't understand!" I screamed, my fingers tighting around the wound as his eyes rolled back into his head and his breathing stilled.

Fuck. That didn't do anything for me at all.

I collapsed, covered in my brother's blood, having had him die in my arms all over again. The tears wouldn't come this time. Something in me prevented me from ever feeling sadness on that level again.

I replayed the conversation in my head. "Henry's wife." I muttered. Camilla Henry. She'd been dead for years, branded a traitor she had been privately executed by The Resistance years ago. I didn't know much of her, only that she had been an original. And she was a topic of sore subject between James and Doug. So what information on Henry's wife could've gotten him killed?

"A-ive," Branden had said.

My eyes widened, and I immediately located Apollo through our bond. I could feel him, angsty, agitated, and also I could feel him feeling me through the bond. Curiosity, hate, reluctance. I teleported, and soon, he was right in front of me, dark, disheveled hair, green eyes, a bottle of Campari in his hand.