Omega (Alpha & Omega #1)

{Chapter Fifty Four}

My body jerked, but I didn't feel the pain right away. My attention was all on Keon and Cayson, and their horrified faces. I looked them over, making sure the bullet hadn't hit them, and attempted to breathe a sigh of relief when I noticed they were unharmed. But that breath caused me to cringe in pain, as the sudden realization hit me.

Tracy shot me.

I lifted my hand to my chest, where blood was beginning to seep through my shirt. The bullet had gone through my back, and exited out the front of my body. But my body had slowed the bullet, and it was on the floor in front of Keon's feet.

I'd never seen a bullet tear through someone like that bullet did me.

I slowly turned to face Tracy, every single movement hurting in a way I couldn't even describe. I never thought I'd feel that kind of pain in my life. The pain after my uterus was removed was absolutely nothing compared to a silver bullet ripping through my chest.

She still had the gun up, and a sick sort of amusement lit her eyes when she saw the blood. A harsh laugh escaped her throat.

"I guess I'll just have to do it myself, then," she cooed, moving the gun and pulling the trigger so fast, no one had time to react.

That time, I felt it the moment it happened. The pain of a bullet ripping through the left side of my chest.

"It's okay, you two," she said. "You won't have to live without her for long."

My vision was starting to get blurry, darkening around the edges. My hearing was becoming muffled by the sound of blood rushing through my ears and the lack of sound from my heart. Wasn't I supposed to hear my heartbeat in times like this? I couldn't even feel it hammering in my chest.

I coughed, and blood spurted from between my lips as I crumpled to the floor. I barely caught myself, my arms shaking so bad I could barely hold myself up with my hands. I was in so much pain. So much agony.

I clenched my fists against the blood-coated floor, and I heard Keon and Cayson making a noise I never wanted to hear from them.

They were crying. Screaming. I couldn't hear what they were screaming, but I knew it was at me.

Their minds weren't on the woman in front of them. Their minds were on their dying mate. And I knew every single shot of pain I felt, they felt just the same.

But they needed to keep their minds on Tracy. Tracy was going to kill them.

I bore my teeth at the floor, and in the next moment, I was standing, staring at Tracy through eyes that were once too filled with blood to see properly. But I saw her through sharpened vision, and I saw the smile that froze on her face and slowly faded. Her hand holding the gun faltered, but she raised it again and another shot rang through the house.

I didn't feel it. I only knew I got hit because my body jerked with the force of the speeding bullet.

She said something, but I once again couldn't hear her. I couldn't hear anything. Couldn't feel anything. I could see, and move. And that's all I needed.

She didn't get to stand there and kill me, then kill Keon and Cayson after they experienced my death. If they had to go through the agony of watching me die, the least they could do was fucking live. And for that to happen, Tracy had to go.

I took a step towards her and she moved the gun to shoot through my skull, but I moved and grasped her wrist, then moved it in a way I knew was unnatural. And her mouth opening was enough to tell me she was screaming. Then she was screaming words. The longer I watched, I realized she was saying "what the fuck" over and over again.

"Stop screaming," I said, my voice calm.

And she did. She closed her mouth, but bore her teeth at me.

I was sure she was growling. But I guess that was a perk of not being able to hear.

"You," I reached up and wrapped my fingers around her throat, "don't get to touch them."

She tried to punch me, but the hand that was holding her wrist moved and grasped the fist aimed straight for my face. When I shook my head, her eyes widened.

The hand around her throat tightened incrementally until she threw her hand over my wrist and began clawing with her long, fake nails. Even with her broken wrist, she still seemed to do some damage. But I just watched as blood welled up against my new wounds. I'm sure if I could feel it, I'd yell out. The fact that I didn't seemed to frighten her more than the fact that her throat was shrinking with the force of my grip.

I wrapped my other hand around her throat and squeezed, and her entire face became red as tears streamed. She was saying something to one of the men behind me - Keon, probably. Begging him to save her life.

I threw her to the floor and pointed her own gun at her head.

"Pathetic," I murmured, and pulled the trigger.

One would think the bullet would have caused a bigger gash in her skull, but it was a small hole, barely big enough to stick a finger in. She didn't move, and her chest didn't heave with breath.

Blood drained from the wound, down through her open left eye, then to the floor.

I looked up to see Theo staring at me, his eyes wide and his mouth moving too quickly for me to be able to read his lips.

I was being pulled away from the body, and the gun was taken from my hand.

Cayson turned me and grabbed my face in his hands, yelling something. His eyes kept flicking down to my chest, and I remembered.

I was shot three times.

I looked down, seeing the three holes in my shirt, which was coated in so much blood I wondered how I was still standing.

"Teo," Cayson yelled over his shoulder. "Fucking call Teo!"

I reached up and grabbed his hands over my face, finally starting to hear again. And to feel.

"It's okay," I whispered. "It's okay."

"Phoenix," Cayson hissed. "Stop. Just...stop talking."

I tried to smile at him, but I knew it didn't look right, if the agonized look he gave me was any indication.

Even though I killed her, I was still dying, it seemed.

"It's okay," I said again. "You're okay."

"But you're not," Keon said, his voice cracking. "Fuck...fucking call Teo, damn it, I don't know what the fuck to do!"

Cayson clenched his eyes shut, and the moment his eyes closed, my legs gave out from under me. Yet he held me close, sinking down to the floor with me.

Keon knelt and wrapped his arms around me, pulling my head to his chest as Cayson cradled the lower half of my body in his lap.

"It's okay," I said once more, my eyes closing. They were unharmed, and I'd killed our greatest threat.

My mates were safe.

I listened to Keon's heart slamming hard in his chest, and felt Cayson's shaking hands grasping mine.

They were alive.

And that was all that mattered.

°°°°°

A/N: I know some of you are probably thinking "one is a doctor and the other is a surgeon... How come they don't know what to do?"

When a mate is dying, that's all they can think about. Everything they've learned is kind of thrown out the metaphorical window. So that's why they're kind of clueless as to what to do and why they called for Teo.