23
Connor
E verything was going so well. Farlen was making a good pace around the track until the Instructor talked to her. Then she started to jog. She looked so happy, and I was so proud of her. As she was getting closer to the end, she looked like she was in a lot of pain. I can’t fucking move from this spot if I want to watch her progress. Instructor Payne is keeping an eye on her. He was an instructor here when I was a student; I had him one semester; he was a hardass, but fair. As a shifter, he’s a lot larger than the non-shifters. He is also a match brother to Healer Daniel. So I’m sure he knows a lot of what is wrong with Farlen.
I look back up at her, and she has blood coming out of her mouth. Some women standing here are staring at her and are gasping. I fucking need to get to her. Something is wrong. Fuck the rules. I go to take a step, and Farlen starts to fall. Before I can even move, Instructor Payne has her in his arms.
“Someone call Healer Daniel NOW. Her heart isn’t beating!”
Fuck, not this again. Damn the rules. I run over to her and grab her hand. Please Gods, don’t do this shit to me again. I press her hand to my heart, willing hers to pick up the beat mine is thundering at.
“Connor, I understand this is your match, but I need you to step back. I’ve got to get her to the clinic now! Let go of her son. Meet us there.”
He stands up with my entire world bundled in his arms and fucking runs as fast as he can, everyone standing around staring at their retreating form. I run behind them, determined to be only one step behind. As I pass by the building, Farlen’s other match is in, I stop. He needs to know. I run into the hallway and push open his door. He is in the middle of a class, and everyone stops to look at me. My eyes lock onto his and it’s like he can read my mind.
“CLASS IS FUCKING DISMISSED, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND GET OUT OF OUR FUCKING WAY NOW.”
I take off running, using that as my cue to get him to her. He doesn’t say a word as he keeps pace with me. I’m not the fastest runner, but he isn’t even struggling like I am.
“What happened?” He asks as we are at a dead-ass run. How in the fuck? I can hardly breathe.
“Her. Heart. Stopped. Coughed up blood.” I manage to get out, even though it’s stealing my precious oxygen.
His speed picks up and leaves me in the dust. Fuck, I can’t be the slow one in our match group. Looks like I need to pick up running again. I get to the clinic and run through the door. He is standing there arguing with another healer who is blocking his path.
“Connor?” the healer asks me. I nod to him. “You can go on seeing as you are her match.” As much as I want to rush back there to get to her, I can’t leave my match brother here.
“He is too. They both got the notification earlier in the day, and we haven’t had time to file the paperwork. Show him your phone so we can get back to her.”
He grunts and pulls out his phone to show the other healer. The healer reads the message and moves out of his way. When I get back to the treatment area, it is pandemonium. Apprentice Healers are running around trying to find things Healer Daniel is shouting at them to get. Both his hands are glowing and are focusing on Farlen. Instructor Payne is standing there looking so fucking pissed. I focus on his thoughts. His anger better not be at my match.
If he would have just fucking told me the extent of what was wrong with her, I wouldn’t have even attempted to get her to run. Fucking dick. Doesn’t he understand by not telling me everything that was going on with her could fucking kill her? I’ll beat it out of him tonight.
I stop focusing my powers on him. No need to listen to more. He had no clue what exactly was going on with her. Farlens body starts to convulse and both I and Fry move forward to help hold her down. Healer Daniel looks at the two of us. He must see the same look on both of our faces. He nods his head and continues to heal her. His energy starts to wane, and I am afraid of what he is about to say.
“I am almost out of magic. I cannot get her heart to start again.”
Fry loses his mind and starts punching the wall. Payne walks over and pins his arms down as he rages. I grab her hand and squeeze it. Come on sweet girl, come back.
The white glow from Healer Daniel stutters to a stop and he droops like he is about to pass out. He gives himself a little shake.
“Both of her lungs burst. I healed them, though, and all the scar tissue on them. I told Payne not to push her too hard. I should have told him about a lot of her conditions, so she wouldn’t have had to go through this. But I wanted to protect her privacy.”
I won’t give up hope when I thought all lost before the voice said they wouldn’t let her die, not for a long time. I sit here, still holding her hand. Fry walks to the other side of the bed and grabs her other hand.
“I just found her. After so long alone, and seeing so many people find their matches, I lost hope. Then finally, here she is. I can’t lose her the same day I find her.”
Like his words summoned the other voice, Farlen sits straight up in bed, startling everyone but me. She looks over to Fry and in that same detached voice from before says, “She is sleeping. We will not allow her to die, not for a long time. Her heart will start once we have finished the healing.” She cocks her head to the side looking at Healer Daniel, “Thank you, wise one, for what you have done for us. Our lungs can finally breathe the first full breath since we were small. It will make healing her easier. I am not sure how long it will take. We have never had to heal her with her being so well.” She looks over at Instructor Payne and sniffs the air. Which is something I have never seen Farlen do before. Wait, can she smell? “Wolf, if you push her so hard again, I will rip through the constraints placed upon us and eat you.” She then lays back down and closes her eyes. The entire time I am focused on listening to her heart, not a single sound comes from her chest.
Everyone seems to be having a silent conversation, one that I am not privy to. I stand up and clear my throat, looking at all of them. Waiting to be clued in.
Instructor Payne looks a little green. He finally stops staring at her and shakes his head. “Well fuck, guess you can put her in my shifter classes, then. She’s definitely one of us. Though wanting to eat a wolf is going to put her in the dangerous shifter classes for the more predatory animals. She is definitely not a prey shifter.”
Healer Daniel looks like a fish out of water. His mouth keeps opening and closing, disbelief written across his face. Fry doesn’t look to be in much better shape.
“Uh, well, this isn’t the first time this has happened, though. This is the first time she’s ever threatened anyone. Uh, I guess they, not she? I’m not sure. The first time this happened was in the hospital. They said that their best guess is whenever her magic tries to come out, it can’t and ends up hurting her instead. It caused her heart to stop in the hospital. Technically, she was still dead when we were transferred here.”
Healer Daniel lowers himself to the ground as I talk, getting paler and paler. “Tony, call my fucking sister and tell her that this doesn’t cover the debt. I am still in debt to her. I can’t accept her as my charge with strings attached to it. Even just knowing a fraction of what is wrong with her, I would have taken her care.” He looks over to me and to Fry, who he finally recognizes, “Ah, Zachariah, I see that you’ve finally met your match. I told the other healers that only her match could come back. Guess I should have made that a plural. Connor, we need to bring her healing up to a few times a week. We need to get her body stronger, or I fear this is going to keep happening. Bring her by after hours, and I will use all the magic I have left for the day to do what I can. Instructor Payne is going to be her instructor for physical and defense training, as well as her shifter instructor now, I guess. Are you both okay with me explaining everything wrong with her, so he knows what he should and shouldn’t push?” Both Fry and I nod our heads. Anything to stop this from happening again. If I have to carry her to every one of her fucking classes and sit with her the entire time, I will do it.
“I’m going to take her home so she can wake up in her own bed. I don’t think she knows what happens when this occurs. Last time she woke up and was just confused about where we were and how we got here.” I bend down to pick her up, but Fry grabs her first and cradles her to his body. He doesn’t say anything, just holds her close and waits for me to lead the way.
As we head towards our match house, he finally speaks. “What the fuck is wrong with her? Why is she covered in so many scars, Connor?” I shake my head at him.
“Once we are inside, I will tell you, I’m not going to talk about it here in public, where anyone can overhear.”
We walk in silence back to our match house. I unlock the door and turn on the lights, leading him to Farlen's room. As he lays her down in her bed, I go to her bathroom and get a rag wet so I can clean the blood off of her. As I walk closer to her, he backs away and lets me clean her. Once all the blood is cleaned up, I pull the blankets up over her and kiss her head. He takes one last look around the room and heads back out to the sitting room. I turn off her light and leave her door open a crack.
Walking into the sitting room, I rub the back of my neck.
“Alright, so what would you like to know first?” I ask him.
“Everything. I want to know everything about her that you do, so you choose where to start.”
I sit down in one chair and he sits across from me.
“Uh alright, well you know her name and her birthday, which is something I found out after a few days of knowing she was my match. Uh actually, before I really get into the nitty-gritty here, how much detail of stuff are you wanting, are you wanting the stuff I’ve just kind of put together on my own without her confirming it, or just the stuff that she has confirmed for me? And I am going to preface all of this by saying you can’t lose your shit. She doesn’t handle violence well, or anger at all. She will shut down faster than you can blink if you direct any violence towards her. We don’t know how long it is going to take her to wake, and I would rather it not be during you beating the fuck out of the wall.”
He takes a deep breath and nods at me. “I want to know everything, everything you have put together on your own, and every fucking tiny detail you have figured out.”
I begin the long task of telling him about everything that has happened to our match, the things I have figured out on my own, and the things she has hinted at. I have to stop a few times so he can go outside and lose his shit. He comes back in, takes a few deep breaths, and makes a motion for me to continue on. Once I have finished telling him everything I know, he looks at me, confused.
“I don’t know how you can sit here and tell me everything without losing your fucking shit.”
I shrug my shoulders at him. “I guess I’m kind of used to strange and weird shit. With my mom being who she is, we get a lot of really ominous things being told to us by her. I have kind of learned to compartmentalize shit, like when I’m alone yeah I’ll rage and spend quite a bit of time in the gym beating the fuck out of the punching bag, but she doesn’t need to see that shit you know, she needs me to be levelheaded, to show her that nothing she could do would ever anger me, even though her entire situation makes me want to rip the motherfucker who did it to her into a million pieces and feed them to him as he dies.”
He nods at me. “I think we need to come up with a better plan for him, something that will stretch out his torment for decades, not just days.” He sighs, “I know a big worry in match groups is if someone is going to reject the bond, I am not one of those people. I have waited a long time for her, and I will not give her up for anything. If I have to drag her out of the depths of hell back to us, I will.”
“Then, we are on the same page. Just try to take things slow with her. She’s pretty slow to open up to people. It took me a week to really get her to talk to me, and even still, she struggles. Pick any room as yours, except hers and the door to her left. That one is mine. Give me your number, so I can text you when she wakes up.”
I hand my phone to him and he types in his number, and hands me his next. I add my number and Farlen's number to his phone.
He stands up. “I have some shit I need to take care of, and then I will be back. If she shows any signs of waking up, text me immediately. I should be back before the sun is up. Is there anything you need while I’m out?”
“Nah, I’m just going to go sit in there with her and read to her while she’s resting.”
Fry nods his head and gives one last look at Farlens bedroom door, then leaves. I head back to her room and sit in the chair, turning on the dim light behind me, and pick up reading to her where we left off.