Odin
This is a goddamn nightmare. It has to be. There is no other possible explanation for what just happened.
Serena was shot.
And the fucking bastard got away.
His days are numbered. I will go to the ends of the earth to hunt him down and kill him for what he did. I don’t care who he is, he is a dead man walking. I pace back and forth across the waiting room floor. Too much adrenaline coursing through me. I can’t stay still until I know what is going on with her.
I need to know if she is going to be fine before I can calm down. The urge to get out there and find that guy is making me even antsier, but being further away from Serena isn’t an option right now.
I had a shot, and I didn’t take it. Why didn’t I take it? Maybe if I had, then this wouldn’t have happened. Serena would be safe once and for all. But I fucked up.
That thought has been running through my mind since I watched him drive away in his car. The whole ride here was a blur. I don’t even remember getting here.
Midas is sitting beside Zeus, on the phone with Serena’s mom. He offered to call her instead of the hospital. Like always, he takes on the role of the leader and tries to fix everything. He hangs up the phone and runs his finger through his hair, exasperated by the whole situation. You and me both. He leans over to Zeus, whispering something to him to try and calm him down, but it doesn’t work. His posture is rigid, breathing is ragged, and his fists are clenching and unclenching.
I have never seen Zeus the way he was tonight. He was scared, and that’s not something I ever thought I would see. I have watched him stare down the barrel of a gun and not even flinch. He has faced death more times than anyone our age should ever have, and he has never cared. Seeing Serena getting shot broke something in him.
It broke us all.
Midas is losing it, even if he isn’t showing it on the outside. I saw him with Serena, holding her close to him. I could see him whispering to her. The tension in his body while he cradled her. The anger in his eyes.
I know he blames himself for this even though it’s not his fault. No one could have predicted that her stalker would break in and shoot her. The worst thing I thought could happen would be him kidnapping her- not that I want that to happen either- but not trying to kill her.
Fuck.
I continue pacing back and forth until Serena’s mom rushes into the room. Her face is so full of fear as she looks at the three of us, all in different states of dishevelment. The blood covering Midas the most, as he was the one to hold her, but Zeus and I each have blood on our hands. I watch, dumbstruck as she drops to her knees, tears falling down her cheeks as she screams out. A sorrowful noise that will haunt my dreams for so many nights to come.
I rushed over to her, falling to my knees to hold her as she cried and begged for her daughter to be alright. I don’t know what else to do, but I can at least try to comfort her. Her grip is unyielding on my shirt as she buries her head against me and cries. I wish I could tell her that everything is fine, but the words are stuck in my throat.
Logically, she should be just fine. The wound was on her arm, not in a life-threatening spot, but that doesn’t stop the worry I feel for her. I know the hospital staff is competent, but anything could go wrong. That is what scares me the most. We have just been waiting for something, any sign that my princess is better.
I eventually get Emma to sit down in a chair. I keep my arm around her, holding her as close as I can to give her any form of comfort. I have never been one that people turn to for comfort. Pain and destruction are my specialties, not this, but I would do anything for my princess. Holding her mom while we all wait for news is the least I could do in this situation.
We all stay silent. No one speaks, moves, anything. I expected Emma to ask questions, but she is in such a catatonic state right now. I don’t blame her. Her only daughter was shot. That has to be scary for her. For now, we sit in silence, soaking up any comfort we can amongst ourselves as we wait.
After a couple of hours, a female doctor who looks to be in her thirties walks into the waiting room, still wearing a gown they use for surgery. Her light blue eyes scan the room before she walks over to Emma and me.
“Are you Mrs. Gold?” The doctor politely asks.
Emma jumps up and nods her head. Midas and Zeus rush over to sit next to me, wanting to hear what the doctor has to say. I feel like I am unable to breathe until I know what happened and how she is doing. The last time I saw her, she was conscious but in so much pain.
I hated not knowing. I am so used to being in control of everything around me. Of being the protector, and I feel like I failed tonight. I couldn’t protect her when Serena needed it the most. I failed her and everyone tonight. I don’t know if I can live with that. This was the first time in my life that I froze. I froze, and it could have cost Serena her life. I can’t help but blame myself for everything that happened tonight. Serena is in a hospital bed because of me. I have always lived by the motto of shoot first and ask questions later. But when it really mattered, I didn’t. I failed her.
“I’m Dr. Kendell. I was the surgeon who worked on your daughter. She suffered a gunshot wound to the arm. Thankfully, it was a clean shot. The bullet entered and exited without hitting anything vital, but it did go through some muscle tissue. We were able to stitch it up. She will have a small scar, but besides that, everything is fine.
“She also had a superficial wound to her foot. We were able to clean that up and bandage it. She went into shock from the loss of blood, so we have her in a room currently, receiving some fluids. You can go back and see her if you would like.” She held out her arm in the direction of where to go.
Emma nods her head before walking behind her. She reaches the door, pauses, and looks at us. Gratitude shines from her, but blame is prevalent too. With one final look that tells us to go home, she leaves.
A sigh of relief leaves my lips knowing she is alright, but now I am more worried about her mom. Does she blame us for this happening? Will she ever forgive us? Right now, I would say no. In a sense, she is right. We are one of the reasons this happened. None of us stopped it before it got as far as it did. But we didn’t bring this upon her. That sick fucker who is obsessed with her is the real man to blame.
I still want to leave and hunt down the man who did this to her. His time is coming, and I will find him soon. He will suffer and pay for all that he has done to Serena. I look over at my brothers, and both are just as devastated as I am. Serena is hurt, and we couldn’t stop it. I hate this feeling that is taking over me.
I need to apologize to Serena. Tell her how I feel. Make things better. I decided at this moment that the second I see Serena again, I will never leave her side. I will be her dark knight, the one who protects her no matter what, even if it costs me my life. I will make that bastard pay for what he did to her. I will kill him with my own two hands. That is something I can promise.
The three of us sit in absolute silence, not knowing what to do or say. This all feels like a bad dream. One I can’t wake up from.
I turned to Zeus, needing to know if he was in a better mental state than he was when we entered the hospital. He is sitting so stiff and robotic-like. He has retreated to his old self, a hollow shell of a person. It has been so nice to see him finally breaking out of it, but if we ever lose Serena, I know we will lose him forever.
I want to go over to him, comfort him, reassure him that everything is fine, but I can’t find it in myself to get out of my chair to check on him right now. I can barely feel my legs.
So much adrenaline and anxiety are pulsing in me. I need something to get this out, but I can’t leave this hospital. I won’t until Serena does. Midas’s leg is bouncing up and down against mine. He is holding his phone in a death grip that I fear it will crumble in his hands.
Zeus gets up and, without thinking, punches a hole into the wall. He keeps punching until his knuckles are bloody and there is a massive hole. He lets out a soul-shattering scream before turning and facing us.
His heavy breathing is the only thing that could be heard in this small, confined room. You can practically hear the wheel turning in Zeus’s head as he goes over every detail, trying to find who could be behind all this.
That’s the ultimate question. Who is the stalker?
Needing some fucking answers, I take my phone out of my pocket and open the app for the cameras in her house. I click on the one for the living room and scroll back through the footage. I watch her and Evie sitting on the couch after coming back from the Halloween party. Evie gets a text, they hug, and she leaves the house. Serena turns some music on before tossing her phone on the couch and walks down the hall to her room. I continue watching the feed, hoping to see the guy enter the front door or something. A couple of minutes later, she runs out of the hall from her bedroom and into the kitchen with the masked man chasing her.
I change to the camera in her room and scroll back as far as I need. The room is dark. You can barely see anything except the outlines of her furniture. The window slowly starts to open, and the curtains are pushed aside. A man dressed all in black with a ski mask on sticks his head in the window, looks around before crawling into the room. Once he is fully inside, he just stays still. He stands by the window, motionless. He doesn’t look around or grab anything. He just waits, staring at the door.
Why isn’t he doing anything?
A few minutes later, Serena opens the door and turns the light on. When she sees him, she screams and turns to run. He moves just as quickly, wanting to grab her. I can’t see what happens next on that camera. I turn back to the living room camera and watch as she runs into the living room and grabs a vase off a table to throw it at him. It hits him on the shoulder but doesn’t slow him down. She looks around for something else, but there is nothing. She runs out of the living room and towards the kitchen. There are no cameras in there, so I can’t see what happens next, but I can guess from what we walked in on. Not much longer, we barged into the house and pulled our guns.
I shut down the app, vividly remembering what happened next. My mind will play tonight over and over until the day I die. The scream Serena let out when she was shot is something I will never be able to forget. The look of fear in her eyes made it so much worse. I know she thought she was going to die tonight. I know she was terrified, but she held her own. She looked strong, staring down the barrel of his gun. She looked like a queen even more at that moment.
As much as I hated seeing her like that, it just made me realize even more how much I wanted her. She is everything I could ever want in a woman. In a partner. In a wife. She is perfect and I won’t let her go. No one, not even my brothers, will keep her from me now.
There is this animalistic need in me now for her. That kiss at the party sealed that for me. That kiss was everything. I have never felt so much from just a kiss before. It was electric and all-consuming. It made my body feel weightless, but I also have never felt so strong before.
Midas’s normally perfect hair is sticking up all over the place. His eyes hold a darkness that I rarely see in them. I can see the revenge he is already planning forming in his eyes. A sick sense of joy fills me. Death and violence shouldn’t make me giddy, and normally it doesn’t. But in this instance, nothing would make me happier.
“Do you think it was Dante?” Zeus’s voice is quiet, but it’s deafening in the small room.
Dante?
No. It can’t be.
Maybe?
I am having a hard time justifying it, but it could be. The man we once knew is no more. He has done some questionable things over the years, but he wouldn’t stoop so low to hurt the person we care about to get back at us.
Would he?
Fuck. Maybe he would.