Plié (Lost Birds Book 2)

Part 25 Staples.

The strange tubes sticking out of me in every direction, annoying machines beeping every second, and the squeezing of my arm was going to drive me insane. How had I gotten to the hospital? What hospital was this? My mind raced with questions and I had no answers for any of them. This couldn't be any of the hospitals in Wilton. I'd been to nearly all of them and this wasn't familiar in the slightest. To make matters worse no one was in here. Whenever the guys brought me to the hospital they always left someone with me at all times.

My head hurt. It wasn't even a dull throbbing pain it was a burning pressure along the outside of my skull that radiated in toward my brain. I raised my fingers to gently feel along the pain area. My hair was matted and just underneath my hair I could feel three tiny metal pieces. I didn't know what they were but I didn't want to try and pull it out in case it was something a doctor had done. The matting had to be blood. What had happened to me?

The door opened and I looked up. Cameron and Tao stood frozen in the door way. Their eyes were wide with surprise and something I didn't recognize but seeing them made my shoulders relax. They could tell me what had happened and what was going on. I opened my mouth to ask but before I could get a syllable past my lips they rushed forward and surrounded me. I was engulfed by arms and an odd combination of citrus and cinnamon clouded my nose.

"Give her here!" Sab growled from somewhere behind Cam.

"No! She's not going anywhere ever again for anything." Cam said.

"Damn right she's not." Tao said.

"Release her right now." The order from Aydan came out so firm and loud that all three of us jumped. Cameron and Tao released me and took a confused step back as they looked to their leader for answers.

"Outside." Aydan ordered pointing to the door.

"But-" Tao said.

"Wha-" Cam said.

"Outside. Now." Aydan said harder. I'd never heard that tone from him before. The order was so strong I wanted to go outside with them.

            Cameron and Tao both glanced over at me as they headed toward the door. Theo held the door open for them but his expression was completely blank.

"Now Sabbatian." Aydan ordered.

Sab was standing with his arms crossed, glaring daggers at Aydan. He glanced at me and his jaw ticked but he walked out of the room after the others. Theo shut the door behind Sab and the three of us were left alone.

            Aydan walked toward the side of my bed. His dark green eyes scanned my face repeatedly, checking for signs of things I didn't even know about. I felt myself beginning to shrink under his scrutinizing gaze and his keen eyes didn't miss the action. He stopped walking. It was a few feet away from the bed but close enough to where I could reach out and touch him. He held one hand toward me, palm up. An invitation.  He was offering me comfort. I reached my hand back, placing it in his. His hand closed over mine and he sank down into the chair next to the bed before speaking.

"Baby, what happened?" He asked.

My eyes widened and my lips parted. I shook my head and winced. The jarring movement tugged on my matted hair and made the stinging in my scalp slightly worse.

"What is this?" I asked my hand going back up to the painful slivers of metal attached to my head.

Aydan shifted up to look at the spot I had touched.

"Staples." He answered and glanced over at Theo.

            Theo was standing at the edge of my bed with a clip board in hand. His eyes were flickering over the writing on the paper so fast I wasn't sure he could actually be reading it. He nodded in acknowledgement to Aydan's word but he didn't take his eyes off the paper.