Chapter 8 Amun
Chapter Eight
AMUN
This was the second time within twenty-four hours that I’d stood at the bedside of my precious human as she lay unconscious. Although, could I call her a human anymore? Not truly. Arabella was so much more than that.
I’d known she was special from the moment I’d met her, though, so that wasn’t entirely surprising. Despite her newly discovered durability, I couldn’t ignore the concern saturating every ounce of my being, mounting higher the longer I stared at her limp form surrounded by blankets and pillows.
I knew her being unconscious was a good thing in theory, because it meant her sis meta power had worked.
When it rebounded back, this was the result.
We had even experienced it before, and of course it helped knowing that she wasn’t unconscious because she was hurt, that it was the overload of power that had knocked her out…
but it didn’t make me feel better. It may have reduced the tension of the group to an extent, but that was about it.
Everyone was still anxiously waiting for her to wake up.
Although there was plenty to keep us busy—so much so that Ashur and I, along with the healer that was monitoring her, were the only ones in the room.
The others were helping with the aftermath of what Arabella had accomplished, and it showed a lot of trust that they’d left her in such a vulnerable state with the two of us.
Saint could give me all the shit he wanted, but it was obvious he had accepted my place in Arabella’s life.
A place I was honored to have.
For a very long time, the idea of having a mate wasn’t one I’d found appealing, but it was obvious that was only because I hadn’t met my precious human yet, the woman who’d changed everything in a matter of seconds.
And now that my mark was on her arm? I craved to complete the bond so that we were joined in the most basic and primal ways.
Unfortunately, it was hard to do that when War was literally at your doorstep.
While the battle had been won, War weakened and his control over the humans broken, we were still in a precarious position.
“He had an exit plan all along,” Ashur said as the healer left the room, reading my mind.
“War?” I sighed. “Yes, he did.” Just like Keres said he would. Except we hadn’t anticipated the exact method he’d use to escape.
The minute he had recovered from his rage of losing the humans, he’d been gone. In retrospect, it didn’t surprise me that he had prepared for this—after all, it was what the man was known for, and he did have an expansive knowledge of sis metas. In fact…
“I don’t think he was angry about the bonds as much as her magic affecting him,” I said, thinking about the way his magic had fizzled momentarily as hers had slammed into his.
“I felt it,” Ashur said, a look of awe on his face. “I felt what her magic did to his—it damn near suffocated it, like a flame being blown out. There was absolutely nothing he could have done to protect himself from it besides leave.”
“Do you think he’ll get sick like Hate did?”
“Probably, but he may have already thought of that.”
“Hopefully the humans will give us some insight into his plans moving forward,” I murmured in thought.
Following the breaking of the compulsion, the nightmares had gathered all the humans and brought them into the institution.
There had been so much confusion that none fought against us; they had come willingly.
I had no doubt that now that things were getting settled, they were starting to feel fear, but at the time a primal instinct had sent most humans running or had left them in a daze, absolutely frozen.
Which was why the outside of the institute looked barren and desolate, the massive holes in the ground and blood the only sign that a fight had taken place.
It was almost eerie, looking down out the window at all of it. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and the afternoon sun was shining down on the grounds as if it was a normal day.
“They probably don’t know more than Keres, but it’s worth a try. Plus, we can give them a message for when they return to the other humans,” Damian said as he entered the room, returning to check on Arabella. I stood and nodded towards my chair, needing to pace and think through everything anyway.
“We’re going to need a story,” I agreed.
I may not have had a great grasp on present human society, but even with the compulsion broken, confusion, fear, and hatred would probably still exist. I would like to think not, but War had probably needed some type of foothold to attach his influence to, even if it had just been the fear of something ‘different.’
“Do we know how long he’s been influencing all of them?” Ashur asked.
“We could ask Keres,” Damian suggested. It was a good idea.
It would be important to know because at the end of the day, even without War’s influence, it was possible that we would still be facing a society that wanted absolutely nothing to do with nightmares.
I ran a hand over my face before putting my hands on the window ledge and staring out.
Society was so much more complicated now than it had been before, and it largely had to do with technology.
When I had been pharaoh, it had been easy to send out a message to the masses, and while that could be done now, there were ten million other messages being sent that ours could get lost in.
I couldn’t imagine how complicated true warfare was in this day and age.
I looked back at Arabella, appreciating how easily she handled all of this. While the ‘no fear’ element worried me when it came to my precious human, it also left her with a clear head that served well in situations like this.
“How many have been injured? Precious will want to know,” I asked Damian, whose gaze was riveted to Arabella.
“Injured by the new weapons? Around twenty-five or so, but more than half have already been treated,” Damian explained. “The bunker was just opened, so there are a lot more hands to help, especially from the Class D nightmares down there.”
I nodded, glad that the number was so low.
I knew Arabella would have preferred zero, but considering the extent of the battle and how many humans had died, the fact that we only had twenty-five nightmares that could be considered ‘seriously’ injured was commendable.
We had won this battle, and while it was hard to remember that right now, I planned on emphasizing that to Arabella.
The battle had been won because of her.
“I need to see her!” The determined young voice had me turning towards the door, where Blackwell was barring someone from entering.
“She’s unconscious. This isn’t really a good—”
A head of silver hair slipped past Blackwell, the nightmare offering the small girl a confused look as she rounded the bed and immediately sat on it, taking Arabella’s hand. This was the young sis meta we had saved—Nia, I believed was her name.
“She probably won’t be up.”
“I know,” the girl said. “I felt her use her magic. I’m not here for her to wake up; I need to help her.”
My brows furrowed. I didn’t know how she planned on helping her…
A silver orb came off the girl’s hand as she closed her eyes and magic saturated the room.
I had no idea the extent of this girl’s experience with her magic, but we watched as her silver glow transferred to Arabella, and I immediately noticed color returning to her cheeks, her magic once again beginning to shimmer under her skin.
After no more than a minute, Nia pulled back. “Okay, she should be up soon.”
“What did you do?” I demanded.
“She gave her some magic to heal,” Ashur said, tilting his head as he stared at our mate.
“I don’t know a lot about my magic,” Nia admitted, “most of it’s instinct. But when we’re hurt, we take longer to heal if our magic is drained, which is what’s happening with Arabella. I couldn’t give her a lot, but it will help a little.”
“I’m sure it will help,” I said evenly. “Thank you, Nia.”
The girl stepped away, offering us an awkward smile. “When she wakes up, can you tell her that the others want to see her? We love Isla, but the boys shifted out of their wolf forms and they want to meet her officially.”
“We’ll tell her,” Damian assured, and the girl was gone as fast as she’d arrived.
Blackwell shook his head, stepping fully into the room before letting out a long exhale. “We have a problem.”
“How much of a problem?”
“Large scale, semi-time sensitive,” Blackwell said as he handed me a tablet, Ashur joining us. It was open to a human news website showing a picture of a walled community with military forces outside of it.
“All throughout the country, these small nightmare communities are surrounded by MAM forces—clearly a coordinated effort on War’s part.”
“But they haven’t attacked yet?” I frowned.
“I think he planned to attack here first,” Damian said, apparently having already pondered this for a while. “Or maybe he planned to use this to keep us distracted from a larger effort he had planned.”
“That sounds right,” I agreed. I didn’t know much about War—even during my time, we hadn’t run in the same circles—but every decision he made seemed calculated.
“The news article doesn’t seem in favor of MAM,” I said, scanning through it.
“They aren’t, but they also aren’t pro-nightmare. They’re more neutral than most.” Blackwell frowned. “Then again, I don’t know much about the human news stations. Everything I know is from what Arabella has told me.”
Saying her name brought my attention back to the woman in question. Her eyes fluttered slightly as she turned her head but continued sleeping. The young sis meta was right—she would be up soon.
“We need to tell her everything,” I said as I moved to the other side of the bed, kneeling down and intertwining her hand with mine.
I skated my lips over it and nearly willed her to wake up.
The others continued to talk about the article as Ashur looked over it further, but I was listening to everything that was Arabella.
Her pulse.
The beating of her heart.
Her even breathing.
I could hear the rush of blood through her veins and the slight twitch of her muscles as she began to shift beneath the covers. She would wake up soon, and I would get the pleasure of seeing those unique eyes open to me.
Until that happened, though, I would be right here waiting.