The Living Game

(21) Aftermath

I woke up in a familiar white room. It was the room I had been kept in after my change, in the vampire hospital. Unlike last time, when I had woken up alone, there was a person slumped over in the chair beside my bed, his feet up on the side of it.

I kicked his feet off, waking him up. It was quite comical, the way he jumped out of his chair at lightning speed and whipped his head around, searching for danger. I laughed and then gasped when my side hurt at the motion.

Alek was there in a second, pushing my wild hair back out of my face and holding a bag of blood to my lips. "Drink, it'll make the pain go away."

I hadn't even realized my thirst until there was blood in front of me. Gratefully, I took the bag and finished it quickly. It did make the pain go away.

After I was finished, my head was more clear and I was able to remember what happened. "Where is Jace?" I demanded, attempting to get up out of bed. Alek pushed my shoulder back, forcing me to lay back down.

"Jace is fine." He sighed. "Theo saved him."

"What happened?" I asked.

He took a big breath and let it out as the words poured out. "They chained us all up and lit the barn on fire but they didn't realize that Theo was awake. He grabbed Jace and threw him outside and then grabbed Jamie and tried to chain him in the barn, after it was on fire. Jamie called out Anna to help him but she didn't give me a second look, just left. After that, Theo unchained me and then Kiera and I got you out. We were going to leave Jamie in there but...I just couldn't." His eyes pleaded for understanding.

I nodded, smiling. "Where is Jamie now?" I asked.

"They took him to a vampire prison. He'll have a trial soon and will most likely be put to death." He explained, his face crumpling as he did so.

Even after what Jamie had done, he was still Alek's brother. "Don't blame yourself." I said, knowing that was what he was doing without him saying it.

He smiled sadly and took my hand. "Jace probably has a concussion. We've been monitoring him closely and he'll be fine."

I nodded. "What about Anna, where is she?"

His face darkened. "She got away before we could catch her. She just left Jamie and ran off. We've been looking for her but haven't had any luck."

They'd been looking for her. "How long have I been out?" I asked.

"Three days." He responded.

I nodded, that felt about right. I caught a strange look on his face and shot him a confused one back. "What?"

He smiled. "I'm just really glad you're okay."

I smiled back at him. Before I could say anything, he leaned in and kissed me. It was very sweet.

When he pulled away, I laughed. "I'm glad to see that's still the same."

"What?" He asked, puzzled.

"I mean that I'm glad we aren't going through the awkward we kissed phase." He smiled and kissed me again.

Doc came into the room then. "Oh, excuse me." he said, flustered. He started to turn but Alek stopped him.

"It's fine, Doc. Come in."

Doc came over to the bed and sat down in the chair that Alek had previously been in. He explained my injuries to me and told me that I would need to drink blood in order to heal — I didn't bother to tell him I already had. He then explained Jace's concussion to me and told me that I shouldn't push him too hard for a couple days and should watch him closely for odd behaviour, poor appitite or trouble sleeping. As I wouldn't be watching him carefully enough, anyway.