Chapter 24 Hawk
Hawk
Flashes of memory appeared in the darkness of my mind.
A female with a small child in her arms, looking at me without seeing me. The most gorgeous creature I’d ever laid eyes on, bathed in sunlight.
The same female standing in murky darkness, anger in her beautiful brown eyes, the emotion directed at me. I’d liked it too much, enjoyed her rage because it meant she cared.
Her scent, potent and overwhelming, filling my lungs as she burned me with her magic. I felt her in my arms like I was holding her now, like her body was still pressed against mine.
Another flash. Another memory of guilt. Of disgust. Seeing her sadness as I hurt her. Hurting her over and over again. Always being the one behind her heartbreak.
I woke with a start, heart pounding. The darkness around me shifted, the light from beneath the door revealing nothing. The other bed, the one belonging to my bunk mate, was empty, his scent weak, but the smell of blood strong.
A dull pain started in my thigh when I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. The movement had my head swimming, vision blurring with another image of her.
The female from my dreams.
She felt familiar. Looked like someone I knew.
But who?
Pressing my hand against the sharp pain in my thigh, I tried to rise. But the pain turned into something else, a deep burn that radiated down my leg before coursing up my chest. I hissed, pulling my hand away to find it wet with blood.
I frowned as I reached for the witch light by my bed. My fingers only brushed the surface of the stone before light brightened the room, chasing away the darkness.
Lying at the foot of my bed was a dagger. One of my own, pulled from my belt which hung nearby. Blood covered the blade, and it was lying in a pool of it.
But when I looked down at my hand, my stomach bottomed out. More blood. My leg was covered in it and so was my bed.
“What the fuck?” I muttered. The pants I wore covered the damage. I gripped the pant leg in both hands and tore the fabric, the sound too loud in the quiet of my room.
The wound was clean, had stopped bleeding maybe an hour ago. It was clear the dagger had been stabbed through my thigh before being pulled out and dumped, but who the hell had done it? Why hadn’t I felt it?
The door to the bunk room pinged, opening to reveal the vampire. His eyes immediately went to the dagger on the floor, then the blood in my bed.
“What the hell, man?” He rushed into the room, grabbing a medical kit from the chest of drawers by his bed. “What happened?”
I shook my head, trying to remember if I’d felt the pain before. But I only remembered her. The moment I first saw her, the anger, the devastation, the heartbreak. Her grief, my shame, over and over and over again.
“I don’t know,” I finally managed, voice rough. “I don’t remember.”
The vamp’s eyes darkened, flickering between me and the wound. “Nothing?”
I shook my head. I almost considered telling him about the memories of her. But something within me shut that idea down. Like if I told him, it would be a betrayal to her.
I swallowed hard, not saying a word as he rubbed a healing balm into the wound. I hissed at the faint stinging it triggered, but after a moment, the sensation turned into a dull warmth that told me it was healing.
I tried standing again, breathing a sigh of relief when the pain didn’t course through me. “Where were you?” I asked carefully, eyeing the male as he put the kit away.
He didn’t look at me as he shrugged. “They were transferring the prisoner. Wanted to see what the fuss was about. Our King wanted us there, but you were sleeping.”
I frowned. “Then why not wake me?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, something dark filling his eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”
Part of me didn’t want to question him. I was used to him not telling me anything. He was my commander, and I was to follow his lead.
But there was a part of me now that didn’t trust him or his word. Something within me had awoken with the memories of her.
My eyes narrowed as he picked up the dagger. “This is yours?” he asked without looking at me.
“Yeah,” I said, limping to his side. “Came right out of my belt.”
“I don’t scent anyone other than you on it,” he muttered, setting the blade down on the bed. His eyes flickered to mine, darker than they were before. Filled with distrust.
I understood what he was implying, and I didn’t appreciate it. But I held my tongue.
“Could have been an elemental,” I replied stiffly. “Or a ghost.”
The vamp snorted at the last option. “Sure thing. I’ll call tech and see if they caught anything on the cameras outside.”
My heart sank, but I gave him a short nod. “Appreciated.”
“You aren’t worried that someone attacked you?” He wiped his hand on his pants, smearing my blood on the fabric.
I shook my head. “I should be,” I replied, “but I have a feeling it wasn’t intentional.”
Before he could respond, the comm on his belt pinged. The vamp made a sound in the back of his throat as he grabbed the device and checked the screen.
“We’re needed down in the med bay. There’s an issue.” He looked at me and sighed. “I’ll be outside waiting for you. Get changed. We leave in two.”
The further we went into the med wing, the more alarms went off. Loud, piercing wails sounded down the corridor, the lights that once glowed white now tinged red.
But there were no other soldiers. No guards patrolling, no one reacting to the alarms.
“Where the hell is everybody?” I asked quietly, hand moving to my gun.
The vamp shook his head, barely sparing me a glance. “This is need-to-know and requires silence. Understood?” When his eyes flickered to mine, the distrust was back. Like he wasn’t sure I would be able to follow his lead.
All I did was bow my head, heart racing.
One of the doors sat ajar, and from it a pool of blood entered the corridor. I breathed in, expecting to smell bleach and copper, but what I got tickled a memory. One far off, murky, but I was able to pull at it.
A dark night. Trees. And the unknown female staring up at me with those dark, doe eyes. Lips swollen from a kiss.
I blinked hard, trying to push the memory from my mind.
Beside me, the vampire unholstered his weapon and raised it, the safety clicking off. “Be ready for anything,” he muttered, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. His irises darkened to a bloody red, and when his lips parted, fangs dropped.
I swallowed thickly, grabbed my own gun, but kept it low at my side.
The vamp moved ahead of me to the door. There was more blood now; it cut across the ground like a red river, leading to one of the other exam rooms.
My leader raised his fist, motioning for me to wait as he gently pushed the door open.
The buzzing exam room light flickered, swaying like it’d recently been hit. The mangled body of a mage I vaguely recognised lay on the ground, face slashed open from claws. His innards spilled from him, the source of all the blood.
My eyes tracked the blood splatter to the other side of the room where the healer witch lay unconscious. She was bleeding, but there was still a heartbeat from her.
Two other vampires lay dead, their heads torn clean from their bodies. Their fangs and dead eyes glinted in the white light.
There were two other guards, barely alive. A prisoner in the corner, unconscious. And a monster who convulsed on the floor at the feet of our king.
King Dante looked up, hair dishevelled, blood dripping from his nose.
Fury darkened his eyes, and his magic…something felt entirely wrong about it.
The hairs on my arms prickled as I felt it wash over me, dark tendrils of his power reaching for mine.
Instinct told me to fight it, to push it away, but I was locked in place when his eyes found mine.
“Finally,” he sneered. He motioned a hand at the creature at his feet. “Take this one down to the cages. I want him dosed and compliant. Is that understood?”
The vampire beside me bowed his head. “Yes, my King,” he replied, holstering his gun. “We’ll handle him.”
Our king made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. But his gaze shifted to something else, a bed in the corner of the room.
I followed his line of sight, feeling that same strange sensation from before washing over me.
It was untouched, though blood had splattered across the white sheets.
There was a body on the bed, a body I somehow recognised immediately—knew intimately.
My heart crashed against my ribs as I turned towards the female lying unconscious, dark hair framing her round face like a halo.
Blood rushed to my ears, and when I blinked, I wasn’t seeing her lying on a bed. For a moment, she was in my arms unconscious as I held her while the world around us turned to rubble. It was her face, dusted with dirt, as her head fell against my chest, her magic protecting us from the destruction.
The memory passed, only to be replaced with another. Her running towards me in the rain, magic sweeping over me protectively. Then her body replaced by a wolf as she took down a threat I hadn’t noticed, putting herself in the path of danger to save me.
I blinked hard and stepped back. My fingers tightened around the weapon still in my hands.
“What the fuck are you two waiting for?” King Dante growled. “Take the prisoner.”
I tore my eyes away from the female, listening to the steady beat of her heart as I asked, “What about her?”
The king’s eyes darkened, and he took a step away from the beast lying on the floor. “Do not ask about her,” he hissed, smoothing a trembling hand over his hair. “Do not even think about her. Understood?”
A cold chill rolled down my spine, followed by what felt like prickling in my mind. Something in King Dante’s eyes shifted, the colour of his irises muted as he slowly cocked his head.
The invasion turned into something else, like fingers trying to pluck memories and thoughts from my brain. The female on the table and everything I knew about her—the green dress, the kiss, the grief, her power—disappeared one by one.
You do not know who this prisoner is, a voice whispered. The prisoner is nothing to you.
“The prisoner is nothing,” I muttered.
As the words left my lips, pain struck me, starting in my thigh where the blade had sliced through my flesh, racing up my torso before reaching my heart.
The pain was so quick, I had no time to react. I sucked in a sharp breath, tried to keep from flinching—from showing weakness in front of my king—but as quickly as it came, it disappeared.
It left my brain foggy. Made my stomach churn.
I shook my head, focusing on the beast at the king’s feet once more.
And yet, my mind wandered to the bed behind me…
And the female laying upon it.