14. Rena
Rena
Iwas barely aware of my surroundings as Reese half-carried and half-dragged me to a small plane that had barely come to a stop by the time we reached it.
Someone let down the stairs, and she shoved me upward, saying something that I couldn’t hear.
Inside the cabin, I stood unsure where to go, voices ringing around me, until someone physically escorted me to a seat and strapped me in.
Then we were in the air. I stared at the seat ahead of me, the little white stitches against the black leather blurring in and out of focus.
I was still cold.
I was cold as we flew through the night, landing as the sun began to rise.
I was cold as everyone else got off the plane.
Cold as Reese took me by the hand and led me off too.
Cold as she brought me to a golf cart and pulled me in beside her.
Cold as we reached a large A-frame log cabin, climbed the stairs onto the wrap-around porch, and she tugged me inside.
“He’s in here,” someone said. A woman.
We followed her down a hall, through an open area with a lot of windows, and then into a bedroom.
Chance was lying on the bed, his face nearly the same color as the light gray sheets that were pulled up to his bare chest.
“Is he dead?” I asked hoarsely. It was the first time I’d spoken since I’d realized the mating heat was gone.
“No,” the woman replied quickly. “No, he’s just asleep.”
“Are you sure?” I couldn’t even see his chest moving.
“Positive,” she said firmly.
Pulling away from Reese’s hold, I moved closer to the bed. Chance had a bandage on his shoulder that wrapped around the side of his neck. It was held down with some kind of fabric tape, and there was a faint pink spot in the middle.
“You’re here,” Beau said from somewhere behind me as I stared at my mate.
“Did everyone make it back?” Reese asked.
Their voices faded away as they left the room.
“Talk to him,” the woman said kindly. “Even if he isn’t awake, he’ll hear you.”
She left me and Chance alone.
“If this is what being mated to you is going to be like, Chauncey,” I choked out, watching for any flicker of response in the lines of his face. “Then count me the fuck out.”
He didn’t stir.
“What the hell happened to you?” I whispered, gingerly perching on the bed near his elbow. “It was horrible in that lab. The worst things you could imagine.”
I closed my eyes as they began to burn, willing away the tears that had been waiting just behind my eyes since the moment I’d walked into that warehouse.
“There was a Vampire there,” I continued.
“Zack. When I found him, he had this god-awful wound in his side. It was so deep I could see one of his ribs.” The last word came stuttering out, and I paused to take a deep breath.
“They’d maimed his mate. Cut off her hand and did God knows what to her face.
” My hands began to shake, and my voice dropped. “She had a beauty mark.”
My chest ached as I tried to hold back the sob that was working its way up my throat.
In the end, fighting it was useless.
A nearly silent scream burst from my mouth as I covered my face with my hands.
I couldn’t bear it. The suffering in that lab had been so heinous that it was hard to even comprehend hours later.
I’d done what I’d had to do and focused on doing it well, but once I was in that quiet bedroom with Chance, everything I’d tried to ignore washed over me like an ocean of blood.
I would never be free of it.
“Dumpling,” Chance whispered, his voice raw. “What is it?”
I couldn’t even answer as I raised my eyes to his, my body bucking with repressed sobs. What could I say that would clarify this level of horror? How would I ever explain?
“Come here,” he said, reaching for my face. “Come to me.”
I crawled in next to him carefully, burrowing into his side like I wanted to crawl into his skin. Maybe I did. I’d never needed anyone as badly as I’d needed him at that airport tonight, moments after I’d realized that I no longer felt the mating heat.
“Shh,” he whispered, pressing his cheek against my forehead. “I’m here, love. I’m right here.”
Closing my eyes, I focused on the feel of his skin against my cheek, his fingers combing through my hair, the scent of him, the sound of him.
I realized all at once that for the first time in a long time, long before that monstrous night, long before we’d met, I felt safe. Wholly and completely safe.
I cried silently for all the mates who hadn’t felt safe. Who still didn’t feel safe. Who would never feel safe again.
I cried for the pain they must’ve felt, for the agony of being separated from their mates, only to be reunited bruised and bloodied and broken. Changed.
I cried for the missing mating heat. The wounds on Chance that made it so that he couldn’t hold me the way he normally did. The unbearable devastation that I’d felt when I thought he was dead, and the fact that I still couldn’t quite believe he wasn’t.
I cried and cried until my eyes were so swollen that I could barely keep them open, and I fell into a fitful sleep next to Chance while the sun illuminated the room.
When I woke up hours later, I was in the exact same position as when I’d fallen asleep. Chance’s hand was resting on the back of my neck beneath my hair, and he was quietly speaking with someone. I opened my eyes to find his brothers gathered in chairs by the side of the bed.
I caught Danny’s eye, and he smiled gently.
“It makes things harder, not impossible,” Chance said. “We don’t even know if Hermann would’ve given us anything.”
I stiffened as I realized they were talking about the man I’d found in the hospital bed. Chance’s thumb rubbed soothingly beneath my ear.
“I can’t blame him,” Ambrose replied with a sigh. “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to keep my cool either.”
“He was very cool,” I countered quietly. “Even when the man told him he could’ve been with Zeke by now.”
The brothers cursed in shock and disgust.
“What happened?” Chance asked. His brothers looked at me silently.
“I was checking to make sure we hadn’t missed anyone, and I found a bed up against the wall that had a body in it that was covered with a sheet,” I croaked out. “I thought it was a dead person.”
I shuddered at the memory.
“But when I pulled the sheet back, he pointed a gun at me and told me to cover him up and bring him over to the doors with everyone else.”
“What the hell did he think would happen?” Beau asked doubtfully. “It’s not like we wouldn’t have noticed him.”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I didn’t want to bring him over there with the others, but he had a gun?—”
“You did exactly what you should’ve,” Chance cut me off.
“Charlie saw me and came over to help,” I continued. “But he must’ve realized something was off because he threw the sheet back and pointed the gun at the man’s head really fast. I think Danny saw the rest of it.”
Danny nodded.
“How is everyone?” I asked. “How’s Alice?”
One by one, I watched the brothers’ expressions fall.
“She’s paralyzed,” Chance said quietly, turning to press his lips to my forehead.
“No,” I argued. “No, she’s immortal. She’s?—”
“She’s alive, baby,” he said. “But she can’t move.”
A wave of rage rose up in my chest so fast that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to contain it. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to calm, letting Chance’s heartbeat under my fingers be my anchor.
“What about the Vampire who hurt her?” I ground out after a few minutes.
“He’s being held,” Beau said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But…”
“But what?” I snapped. “He attacked her when she was just trying to help.”
“They’ve been tortured, Rena,” Danny reminded me softly. “In ways you and I can’t even imagine. He’d had to listen to his mate scream for Gods knew how long without being able to help her. When he was finally able to stop it…” His words trailed off.
I stared at him in shock.
“Nothing has to be decided today,” Ambrose said, getting to his feet. He looked at Chance. “Glad you’re not dead.”
“Hey, me too,” Chance said. I could feel him smile.
Danny reached out and grabbed Chance’s foot, shaking it a little with a smile before he left too. Only Beau stayed seated.
“We got them all,” he said, leaning forward so his elbows were resting on his knees. “They torched the place when we left.”
“Did someone look at Gordy’s arm?” Chance asked. “That looked like a fucking rough amputation.”
Beau nodded.
“Who’s Gordy?” I asked. It wasn’t a name I recognized, but to be fair, I’d met so many people over the past two days, that wasn’t saying much.
“He’s an old teammate,” Chance explained. “We found him at the facility.”
“Speaking of old teammates,” Beau said, clearing his throat. “They found Zack Walsh in the lab.”
“Fuck,” Chance breathed.
“He’s got a chest wound that they were able to close last night.
” He shook his head. “The more we hear about this shit, the more I’m convinced that finding immortality wasn’t the objective.
Some of the shit they did…” He shook his head.
“It all just seemed to be finding out how they could cause the most pain.”
I jerked in surprise. “Zack?” I asked, leaning up on my elbow.
Beau looked at me curiously.
“Is his mate’s name Suzie?”
“I don’t know,” he replied slowly. “She didn’t speak when I was there.” He gestured to his head. “She’s got bandages.”
“Oh my god,” I said, looking at Chance. “I know him.”
“You know him?”
“I took care of him last night. I found Suzie. I had to touch him…”
Chance stiffened.
“And it burned like hellfire. It wasn’t fun for either of us,” I said, frowning at him. “Alice was helping the mate who was screaming, and no one else was close. I had to put bandages on his wound.”
Chance just shook his head in surprise.
“I liked him. He was nice. I’m glad he’s going to be okay.”
“If you get a minute,” Beau said thoughtfully. “You might want to go see them. As far as I know, Suzie hasn’t spoken to anyone since they got here last night. She might be more comfortable with you.”
“I can do that,” I agreed.
When Beau left, I rose.