The pain shatters her, wiping her mind of anything but the bone deep ache. There’s blood everywhere, she can smell it thick and heavy on the air, stuck in her throat and dry on her body. Forcing her eyes open, Kiera hisses at the effort. She lets them close again.
Even her eyes are sore, heavy and hazy like she’s on the verge or sleep-or death.
Kiera can’t bring herself to move, the pain’s embedded too deeply to escape.
She doesn’t know how long passes until she finally forces her eyes open, bored with the waiting. The pain doesn’t seem to want to go away anyway, so she won’t delay the inevitable.
The room is the exact same as the first one she woke up in a few days ago. It may even be the very same room. Weakly she rolls her head to the side, already sick of the pain that every move causes.
Kiera’s not alone.
Halfway across the room Chase is slumped over a bed, mouth hanging open and drooling on the blanket since the pillows are at the other end. His right shoulders been hastily bandaged, but it’s hard to see the real extent of his wounds because most of his body is covered in dark, virtually dry blood. His hair looks crimson in the dim lights.
Between the beds Hunter and Carter are scribbling pictures.
Slowly Kiera pushes herself up, wincing as her body protests. Her arms shake from the effort to lift herself. She swears silently under her breath and pauses before she attempts to move again.
Someone starts shouting. The door slams open and a livid Raymond throws himself through the doorway in a hasty lunge. A nasty cut runs down him face, and one arm isn’t moving properly. “Three! Three fucking times!” He roars. “Your nothing but monsters! Monsters!”
Kiera watches him in pained silence as Raymond’s thrown out of the room but a brawly man. They keep shouting and through the dark glass window Kiera can faintly see silhouettes scrambling between each other, throwing limps and fists wildly. After a moment one storms away.
More careful then she’d ever done anything, Kiera steps out of the bed. Her legs threaten to bend like jelly and toss her onto the floor. She locks her knees. The kids look up, warily watching her.
“You’re not going to hurt him again, are you?” Hunter asks cautiously.
Kiera makes a face. “No, why wou-“ she forces a sad smile. They’re still too young to understand the curse. What do the kids think? “No, guys. I’m not”
“So you don’t hate Chase?” he inquires slowly as if testing her reaction. His eyes are wide.
“No”
He frowns. “Do you still love him?”
The airs seems to become thin, yet heavy, weighing her down. “What’s this? An interrogation?” she mutters. Hunter’s frown deepens. She pauses heavily against the wall since walking seems such an effort and levels her gaze at Hunter but has to look away before she can answer. “Yeah, I still love him,” but her voice is hardly a whisper from the heavy pain in her.
Neither of the kids seems hurt so she wobbles strait to Chase’s side with an army of bad words and a wall to keep her standing. He looks almost dead; she can’t even tell if he’s breathing. “Chase?” She grunts. She almost falls onto his as she nudges his shoulder roughly. “Get your lazy, sore butt out of bed”
Chase grumbles something incoherent. He visibly winces as he moves his head. His bottom lip’s split, but he doesn’t seem to notice. “Hm agh”
Kiera leans her battered hip against the beds side. It feels like her whole bodies been through a blender and polymerized back into shape. To her surprise, she notices there is a bruise on her hip, a massive one, making most of her leg blue and black. She tries not to take too much notice.
“Chase,” She sounds whiny, even to her. “Don’t make me shove you out of bed. It will do more damage than good.” And the effort involved is way too much right now.
“Then don’t” He groans. He wiggles around, growling in pain. His eyes flick open to take her in. “Damn Ki, you don’t look so hot…you know, if you weren’t wearing so much blood and cuts, this would be the best wakeup call I’ve ever received.”
She bites back a grin so she can punch his ribs with a scowl. “Shut up, pervert. There are kids in the room.”
Chase makes a face and drops his head back into the pillow. “Go away, let me sleep.”
Behind Kiera, the door opens. Creven seems unfazed that she and Chase are nude; or that they are splattered in blood that’s not all theirs. “We are leaving in half an hour, get ready. This is the weakest moment in the Alcrest’s defence. Your friend returned an hour ago, everything’s set.”
“We can’t even fight,” Kiera snarls. She won’t sit out of this, but she can hardly walk; fighting will be impossible.
“You will. Travish will find some painkillers for you, but it’s now or never. Sit out, or move out.” She turns away, and Kiera only sees the back of her dark hair before she’s gone.
“Hey…stop growling” Chase mumbles.
She stifles the growl she didn’t even realize she was making.
With a sigh of pain he pushes himself into a sitting position. For a moment he looks tied and in pain, but then his mouth quicks into a lopsided grin and he’s just silly Chase again; if one can ignore the blood and bruises. “So you still love me huh?” His eyes are bright with pain and playfulness, but Kiera can’t help stiffen. “Stop looking like I’m about to attack you,” He cups her chin gently; “I love you too.”
Kiera wishes she can say that when he leans down to kiss her it’s magic. Perfect; making her stomach do funny summersault and fireworks to explode behind her eyelids.
It doesn’t.
Kiera pulls back with a grimace. He tastes like blood and his lips feel like a fist smashing into a fresh, tender bruise. “Ouch” she pushes him away, but Chase only laughs weakly.
“I didn’t expect it to feel like that” he chuckles, touching his own lips. “Damn, a new moon; it’s like hell on earth”
“And not just for us” Kiera mutters sadly. She almost doesn’t want to know how much damage they caused together. She remembers Chase charging through the window, but everything after that is a blur of blood, pain and fury mixed into one hazy ball of ‘kill anything that moves’.
The destruction may be catastrophic.
YOU ARE READING
Repeal
Werewolf-For the first time ever, Kiera wonders if the Chase she knows is the real Chase. The gentle pressure on her stomach says yes, but the far away, hollowed eyes say different. Maybe she's been wrong this whole time.- As a child, Kiera grew with her fa...
