Authors: Kelly Coughlin
Adam began slowing down, his muscles flexing more sluggish than usual, his once mighty roars were only powerful yelps now. I stood there, helplessly. Steve’s eyes never left my body, while he fought Adam off. His red hungry eyes, grew more ravenous by the minute. The smell of blood was everywhere, not just my own, but everyone’s. Everyone’s including Ty’s.
My eyes flicked back to where Ty’s body lay, in the opposite room, just past the twisting bodies that stood blocking my path. I won’t let them stop me. They’ve done enough damage as it is.
My head started to feel even lighter with the smell of blood, I’ve never had what you call a strong stomach—this was just barbaric. It was something straight out a gory horror movie, only I couldn’t stop this movie. It just kept playing and playing, endlessly in front of my eyes.
Now or never, right? I asked myself darkly. Running with a new determination, I darted past the debris, over near the brawl, I made it around Patrick’s scrambling body, only to be cornered as Adam lurched to the side, smashing Henry into the wall near me, he gasped as one of his rips was crushed noisily.
The sound like crunching glass made me twist to look at Adam’s face. Steve had wrenched his hand inside of Adam’s chest cavity, twisting one way then the other. Adam screamed one last time before falling mercifully to the ground.
I didn’t lose Ty or Adam. I lost Ty and Adam. The only strings that held my heart in one piece were finally cut, releasing me from any real claim to the earth. It hung there, empty now, I was just a husk. I crumpled weakly to my knees.
Steve easily knocked Adam’s weakened form to the side like garbage, pinning Patrick between Adam’s body and the floor. He wasn’t strong enough to lift Adam up. His heavy grunts were in vain. Steve brushed his expensive suit off, just as easily as he brushed Adam’s life off.
This time it was his turn to take small, deliberate steps, just slow enough for my human eyes to see. The joy on his face was visible now, unmasked. I didn’t even bother to put up a fight. I just kneeled there, waiting to be slaughtered. I couldn’t close my eyes it was just too painful to see Ty and Adam’s empty faces peer back at me.
Steve stopped directly in front of me. He reached down to place one hand on each side of my shoulders. Slowly, he lowered his lips down to neck, his foul ice cold breath billowing out on my human skin.
“Just business.” He repeated again. His lips pulled back to reveal the bright shiny teeth moving slowly towards my neck.
I saw everything without actually seeing anything. I saw Ty’s body slide menacingly behind Steve’s sinister body. I watched Ty discreetly slide one nail the length of Steve’s diamond hard throat, and I saw Ty wrench Steve’s motionless head from its body. I watched it without thinking one solid thought. The only five words that dared to echo inside of my hollow head will be etched into my memory for the rest of eternity. Thank. God. He. Is. Alive.
My desolation and emptiness were only a distant memory now, Ty was alive, so I had to survive now, it wasn’t a fact. It was a compulsion.
The normal response from a girl would be to scream or cry, or maybe even throw their arms around their savior. I am not normal. Never have been, never will be. I didn’t feel relieved, though I felt something similar. The danger was far from being over, on the contrary now that Steve was no longer after me I felt positive that it was only a matter of time before someone else in the club tried their shot.
Ty flung Steve’s head in Adam’s general direction before snatching Steve’s body—his still moving body away from my own, and tossing it against a far wall. He snatched me up in his arms, pushing my face into the folds of his chest. As good as it felt, as right as it felt I had to look; I had to know. I twisted around in his grasp, and clenched his teeth. He didn’t want me scared for life, a bit too late on that factor.
“I can handle it.” I reassured him. He grumbled, but eventually he did let me worm my way around to watch. I can’t say I’m completely sorry that I did.
Steve’s corpse didn’t stay on the ground where Ty hurled the remains. To the contrary, the body raised itself off the ground to grope blindly for the head. Steve began barking orders left and right, in his last breaths he was still ordering something around.
I was much past the point of being surprised any longer.
Adam opened his tortured eyes for one single moment; he opened his jowls and breathed one solid single flame of fire, burning bright blue, not red.
Ty jumped easily out of the way, taking me off the ground with him, out of the range of fire. Adam turned his grey steely eyes to face me. A small indistinguishable whimper escaped from his mouth before he fell back to the ground.
He didn’t even bother to defend himself from Henry and Patrick’s blows.
The fire died down to embers once Adam’s mouth was shut. Steve’s once debonair human form no longer existed. The only thing that remained of him were ashes. It hurt slightly. He had been a part of my family for so long even all the damage he had done didn’t completely negate the fact that I did care for him. More importantly I cared for my mom. She loved him. Or she once did. I didn’t know what happened to a human woman when her vampire boyfriend was burned alive by her only daughter.
Adam’s limp form was dragged across the floor by the tag team. He was still alive. He just wasn’t fighting it anymore. The will to live left his body while it ballooned in mine.
“STOP! I don’t WANT you to kill him! He saved my life!” I cried. Ty held me pinned to his side. His eyes opened wide in shock, the pain was visible in his face as I defended
him
.
“Amy, he
hurt
you. He deserves to be punished. Not to mention the penalty for going behind the club’s back is death. He knew that when he made the contract with Steve.” His voice was very soft, with a slight coarseness to it, as if he couldn’t believe that I would stand there and defend him.
“Yes he did hurt me, but he also saved my life. Shouldn’t that deflect most of his bad points? I owe him my life now. That debt has to be repaid.” I reasoned. I knew this hurt Ty, but I was right. I didn’t want to lose anyone else in my feeble life.
Silence. Adam’s labored breathing was the only sound that disturbed Ty’s thoughts.
His eyes lowered with a defeated air. “Stop,” he commanded. The contrast to his quiet voice and my shriek was oddly disturbing, even more so when Patrick and Henry
did
stop. “If this is really what you want?” He asked a bit sheepishly, hoping that I would snap back to my senses and let them take care of everything.
“Yes. I know this is exactly what I want. Trust me, if there is anyone that would want Adam dead it would be me. But, he doesn’t deserve death. I can just feel it.” I smiled back at him.
Perhaps that blow to the head did knock something lose. Either way, it felt correct, somehow, like it had been the obvious choice all along.
The surprise spoke for itself on my face when Ty smiled. “I trust your judgment one hundred percent. However,” he turned to stare viciously at Adam, “if you ever put even one unwanted hair on her i will rip out your heart and feed it to the sharks myself. Are we clear , Adam?” His voice was no longer the rhythmic swaying of the ocean. Rather it was the loud scrape of rock against rock. Goosebumps formed down the length of my body.
A
dam raised his head slightly, opened one eye and nodded once. The sides of his snout pulled back in a tight grin, before his face dropped with a loud splat back to the floor.
Patrick and Henry looked bewildered. They glanced at each other, at Adam’s immobile form, to my face, then Ty’s, ending finally with each other’s faces again. Patrick was the first to speak.
“Ty, you know we can’t really leave him like this. He went against the club code. He knew the punishment as well as any of us. Not to mention he nearly took Amy away from us again,
permanently
.” I felt a weird pride at Patrick mentioning “us” instead of just Ty. Maybe that meant that he was finally accepting me in the process.
“Don’t you think that I understand all of that—that I’ve observed this from every possible angle?” Ty’s incredulous tone caught me off guard. “Screw the club rules, we can see how much good they have done all of us so far.” He glanced timidly at my bloody frame. I tried to cover the wounds with my hands, but it only succeeded in smearing the blood further.
“Well, he does deserve some form of punishment.” Henry added a little bit glumly. Apparently he hadn’t gotten in his fill of torturing Adam enough. This surprised me a little. Henry always appeared to be the most easygoing of his brothers, the last one I would picture to pick a fight. And yet, here he was condemning an old acquaintance to death. I shuddered as I examined the notable difference between humans and, well, nonhumans if I was being completely honest.
Ty nodded gravely. “I agree he does deserve a lot more punishment.” He murmured accusingly. I cleared my throat loudly. He smiled slightly at my irritated manner. His eyes turned abruptly serious the instant he turned to look back at his brothers. “Give him the second greatest punishment.”
I felt
a stab of anger, pain, and sadness all bubbling inside of me because of Ty’s sudden betrayal. It should be
my
job to decide what Adam deserved and what he didn’t deserve. After all he had almost killed me, so it should be my right to delve out the punishments. A little too roughly I turned Ty’s head towards mine, not that he noticed anything about it. I opened my mouth to tell Ty how I felt, but a low whine cut through my thoughts.
All of our heads snapped to stare at Adam. He half raised his head off the ground, his dull lifeless eyes stared hopefully back into my own. He whined slightly again. I became instantly confused because the whines all sounded like they
agreed
with Ty. That just couldn’t be right, could it?
“Adam are you positive about that?” I asked. Not like I had the slightest idea of what the second greatest punishment was, but it didn’t sound that pleasant to me. His dark tongue hung out of his giant snout. I almost gasped because instead of being the frightful beast he was right now, he reminded me of a giant overgrown puppy. He nodded his solemn head again. I sighed in defeat. Ty was right yet again.
Men. I’ll never understand them—human or not.
This time it was Ty’s turn to nod his head. “Once that is done burn this house immediately to the ground, don’t leave even the faintest bit of evidence. Finally, you will take Steve’s ashes and scatter them around. To be honest I don’t care what you do with yourself after that, get as far away from here as you can. You are an intelligent man. Your possibilities are endless. Good bye Adam.” I wasn’t used to his harsh tone; the deep cords of his voice crashing violently with his words.
Adam nodded his head just once to Ty. He turned to me and let out a very despairing whimper that sounded similar to
goodbye forever
.
My heart crashed between my chest. I didn’t have much time to think about it though. Ty picked me up in his strong arms. “Cover your ears and eyes very tightly Amy. Whatever you do I don’t want you to look in this house or listen to the sounds.”
“Only if you promise to tell me what they do to him.”
He grunted angrily, the impatient faces of both Henry and Patrick gave him no option but to agree or be forced to argue with me here for eternity. “Fine, but I’m getting you out of here first.”
To be honest I was very grateful I didn’t have to see the sightless faces of Mathew and Janice, if they were even in their human forms still. I snapped my eyes shut tightly, pressing my index fingers snuggly in my ears. I could feel Ty bounding out of the house swiftly, carrying me as far from the living tomb as possible. I hardly felt him move under me, but I could tell from the wind that he must have been moving very quickly, too quickly for even a human to see us.
Even with my eyes snapped shut, even with my fingers lodged in my ears, and Ty running quicker than the wind, the shredding ripping sounds weaseled themselves into my ears. The awful scrapping sound like metal being ripped from bone, the horrible bellow of pain soon after that signaled the last painful act of punishment was over.
Ty wouldn’t have to explain it to me anymore. I understood perfectly what the punishment was. It almost seemed simple now, like it had been obvious that I should understand it all along. After all, what would the club want with a dragon that could no longer fly? I tried very hard not to picture Adam’s pearl grey wings burning with the rest of the garbage, but it kept pressing harder and harder into my subconscious, willing me to watch it over and over again, the last proof that Adam had even existed. Gone forever.
21.
Broken
“Are you boys sure that I can’t do anything for you?” A heavy set nurse at the hospital inquired again. All three of their handsome faces turned much too innocent; with wide eyes and soft voices. The staff eyed them skeptically in their ripped clothes stained with blood, mostly my blood.
Ty answered. “No ma’am but how kind of you, it’s easy to see why you became a nurse. Your kindness is passed on to all those that have the joy of being near you.” He blinded her with his amazing smile. She fidgeted with the clipboard containing all my medical history that Patrick had filled out in two seconds flat. He never even asked me a single question. It’s very annoying having everyone around you know every detail of your life when you are just meeting them. Again.
The nurse’s gaze trickled down to all of our clothes; torn, spattered with blood, which was mostly mine, and just a hint of broken bones. Ty hugged me closer to his chest, as it was he wouldn’t even let me stand on my own, making a big scene until I let him carry me the last steps into the hospital.
My thoughts weren’t really at the hospital at the moment. They were far away at the remains of the Grey’s house. We stayed outside to wait for Patrick, Henry, and even Adam to emerge. Adam’s was still in his dragon form, only now he was without wings. The bile rose hot in my throat as I saw the holes where the wings had been, the fresh, purple blood still oozing out of the open wounds. Ty, and his other two brothers forcibly, but gently placed my struggling body in the car as the Grey household was burned to the ground.
“Wel
l…if you insist that you are fine…” My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse’s voice. Patrick snorted impatiently before stepping forward, unafraid as he relinquished the full power of his mesmerizing eyes and his voice on the poor woman.
“Our friend was the one that was hurt in the motorcycle incident. We were just so lucky to be there when it happened. Please, please, Dorris. I know it is in your power to ensure that she gets the adequate health care that she deserves.” Pat’s voice took on the rhythm of the early morning waves, carefully dragging the listeners in the room to the pressing powers of his eyes. He reached his tan hand out to grasp hers in it.
Dorris swayed uneasily from side to side, struggling with the evidence that was right in front of her eyes and what her brain was telling her. “Er… when you put it that way…”
Ty stepped around Pat, so that he was facing Dorris with me cradled gently in his arms. The pain had long been numbed by my brain but it was an uncomfortable feeling to have the blood caked on your skin, and the open scratches still bleeding.
“Dorris I am begging you. Look at her.” He gestured to me. “I love her, more than anything in the world. Wouldn’t you want immediate help for your loved ones?” Ty’s face had just a very subtle note of impatience, only audible to our group.
Dorris tore her eyes away from Patrick to see me curled up in Ty’s arms, my eyes dilated to twice the normal size. She immediately snapped back into nurse mode.
She turned to bark orders at anyone available in the nearly empty emergency room. She turned to Ty. “You should have called the ambulance! Someone in her condition could have died!” She scolded him. I wanted to turn and tell her just how wrong she was, that I wasn’t near death but my tongue was too heavy to move. Besides, she might not have been that far off.
“Yes, you are absolutely right. But the ambulance wouldn’t have found us. We were off road.” His eyes shimmered with deep sadness. It hurt my heart to watch him, he wasn’t pretending like Patrick. This actually hurt him.
A hospital bed was hurriedly brought out. Several pairs of arms held different parts of me while they lowered me down. My eyes went wild, flickering from one face then to the other. Ty gently combed through my hair, murmuring softly the whole way. “Sh. Sh. You will be fine, better than new. Just let the doctors do what they need to. I will be by your side the whole time.”
A white gloved hand was placed cautiously on Ty’s shoulder, while the team wheeled me out of sight of the small waiting room. “Actually son, we’re going to need you to leave.” My body tensed, my breathing accelerated. Five pairs of hands pushed me down as I tried to sit up again.
“No! Please don’t make him leave. I don’t want him to go.” I pleaded. The doctors scowled to themselves but eventually agreed that he could stay. Ty turned to offer me a small smile.
“I will be right here no matter what happens. I promise.” I was barely aware that someone started an IV until the drowsiness of the pain medication hit me. I forced my eyelids open, keeping Ty’s perfect face in my sight. My lids faltered for one second, closing heavily over my eyes. I refused to let sleep take me. I grappled with them unsuccessfully for a few seconds, willing them to open once again.
“It’s alright beautiful. Get some sleep. I will be here when you wake up. I promise.” He whispered. I could hear his smile in his words, probably laughing at me for not cooperating with the doctors. I smiled back just for him. I let my eyelids close over my eyes, within a matter of seconds I was asleep.
“Rise and shine, A.J!” Henry’s voice trilled loudly in my ear. I groaned rolling over to my other side. His snicker was audible in his voice. He jumped off the side of the fragile hospital bed to skip down near the foot of it. “So, you are going to make me do this the hard way? No problem for me.” Before I could respond the sheet was ripped off my body, allowing the cold air to wake me up. I gasped.
Ty growled angrily in the corner. Patrick held him at bay with his hand, allowing Henry to run rampant. “Why can’t you just let me sleep?” I asked. My vision was slightly blurred by the bright sun streaming in from the window. Henry rolled his eyes playfully. I could hear items being tossed haphazardly into a bag.
Not good.
“Because the doctors finally agreed to let us take you home now! Do you know how much persuading it took on our parts to reach that verdict? We’re not about to let you sleep through another day.”
I squirmed so that my eyes were slightly covered by the sun, when I felt Ty’s soft hand grasp mine. “Another day?” I asked confused. “How long have I been out?” He stroked my hair softly with his free hand, letting his eyes pour into mine.
“About two days.” He answered. For once I tore my eyes away from his, allowing me to look at his clothes. It was blatantly obvious several days had passed just looking at him. The deep gashes that covered his whole body disappeared, leaving behind only smooth tanned skin. His ripped shirt and denim shorts were replaced with a button up burgundy shirt and dark jeans. I couldn’t help but marvel at how handsome he was, with his vivid eyes still probing intently into my battered face.
“Or if you think it is best that you stay we have no problem with that. Do what you think is best.” Ty amended for his brothers. He mistook my silence for pain. Henry groaned in the background.
I sat up quickly, afraid that Ty might force me to stay here for another day. Ty’s strong hands caught my shoulders before I got up too far, his
eyes searching for any sign of strain. My eyes widened as the pain hit me. I hadn’t realized just how much damage I received. Ty’s jaw clenched when he saw my face. He reached out to press the nurses’ button. I rapidly composed my face.
“No, you don’t need to do that. See? I’m fine, perfectly fine.” I attempted a smile. Ty stared accusingly at Henry for placing pressure on me. Patrick’s deep, gurgling laugh erupted from the other side of the room.
I turned to find him nestled comfortably on one of the small dingy chairs placed in the far corner by the window. His hand absently stroked his dark five o’clock shadow that he kept meticulous on the edges of his face.
“Yep that’s our Amy all right. Twenty-six stitches, a severe concussion, two cracked ribs, and deep bruises later and she still won’t admit to any pain. I have to admit it though, the girl has got some guts.” I was so shocked to Patrick paying any compliment to me that I just stared open mouthed at him. I expected his face to harden instantly into the black scowl that he usually reserved for seeing me. It didn’t.
Ty wrapped his arms protectively around me. I leaned into him, inhaling his wonderful fragrance of sea salt and sand that always followed him. “She shouldn’t have to suffer through that Patrick. We should have been there earlier to protect her.” Ty’s eyes burned with a deep hatred of himself. I flinched away from his eyes instinctively. The only other time I had seen them was the first reunion at the beach, where his anger actually burned me.
“I can’t ask you to forgive me, Amy. I’ve already asked you that so many times before. Why should you forgive me again? The only excuse I can offer is that I had no idea that Steve planned to use Gaby—that she would be the one to lead to your downfall. I couldn’t imagine a plan that disgusting.” He barred his teeth.
“After you were in the house I waited and waited, every passing tick of the clock that you didn’t come out sent me into a crazed frenzy. Before time was up, I heard Adam’s flying near the house. I tried to go in and save you, but he grabbed me with his talons and flung me out to sea. I rounded up Patrick and Henry as fast as I could but I almost lost you. I won’t forgive myself for that. Ever.”
“Stop it Ty.” I stated angrily. He paused to look into my suddenly irate face. “Stop it now. Not one of us would have been able to predict that Steve would coerce Gaby into working for him. Even more, none of us could have stopped it because that would have meant that Gaby’s love would have died. I wouldn’t want that.” I said a little bit softer.
Ty buried his head in my shoulder. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Amy. I’m not sure that I do.” He mumbled against my skin.
“Well, if you lit a batch of puppies on fire that might answer your questions. I would be punishment enough.” Ty shifted his head from side to side, tickling my shoulder. Very slowly he lifted his head along the shape of my neck to whisper in my ear.
“You couldn’t be more wrong about the punishment part.” I took a calming breath to steady myself.
“Wait!” I said suddenly an errant thought surfacing. “If I’ve been in the hospital for two days wouldn’t my mom have been alerted by now? I mean, wouldn’t the hospital have to call her?” I turned to stare Ty in the eyes.
All three brothers suddenly busied themselves at that moment. Henry continued to pack the last of my bloody clothes into a small duffle back. Patrick pulled his cell phone out, pretending to have a message. Ty lowered his gaze so I couldn’t see the emotions behind his voice.
“Yes, they called her the night you were admitted.” He answered slowly. I thought about it carefully before answering.
“Ah. I see
. And she didn’t come.” It wasn’t a question. It was obvious just looking at everything. It didn’t sound true until I said it. Like the words were fake until someone had the courage to say them aloud.
“She probably just couldn’t come, I mean what with all the—”
“It’s alright Ty. You don’t need to make excuses for her. I just thought with Steve gone now… that maybe we had a chance to reconnect. I thought it could be different… I thought that maybe she would change without Steve tricking her into following his will. I at least thought that she might come see her only daughter in the hospital because of what her boyfriend did to her. I see that it was silly for me to hope. That’s all.” Ty hugged me closer in his arms.
“It’s never silly to hope. Don’t forget that.” He mumbled into my ear. I wrapped my arms around him. For the first time I didn’t feel alone anymore. My whole life I was alone in one way or another, but not anymore. I had someone, even if it was only for a short while until I had to go back to my dad’s house. I loved someone.
I dressed in the clean clothes that Ty brought with them from my house. Ignoring the bruises and the pain wasn’t as easy as I hoped it would be, but it wasn’t that hard either when I imagined Ty’s face. We left the hospital, Ty and I hand in hand, carrying a mountain of my prescriptions. I was elated to be outside where bleach and sickness were not the predominant odors.
It felt surreal to sit in the back seat with Ty’s arms wrapped securely around me, to pull into my driveway, knowing that my mom was only a few feet away. To my utter amazement Patrick fished in his pocket until he found a tiny silver key. Before I could blink, he placed the key in the door and pushed it open, too fast for my human eyes to catch.
“Patrick, where did you get that?” I asked incredulously. He grinned wickedly at me.
“We each have a copy of your house key. We did a little bit of checking up on your mom when we could, and when she didn’t have a knife in her hand.” All three shuddered in unison. “I almost lost a hand to that woman.” He growled darkly.
I tried not to think that this might be one of the last times that I would get to see all three of them. I didn’t want to believe that my times with them might be numbered. The sadness choked my throat, closing my airway. I allowed myself to be pulled numbly towards the house.
We stepped into the darkness, the open doorway only allowing enough light to illuminate our walkway. My hand tightened unconsciously on Ty’s. The hairs on the back of my neck perked up. The similarities between the last time I entered this house and this time were eerily consistent.
“It’s alright. Don’t be afraid. We’re right here.” Ty said. I was barely aware of Henry and Patrick as Ty stroked my cheek until Henry flipped the light switch on, showering the front room in bright light.
“Jeez, oh Pete, Nicole.” Henry cried in exasperation. “You could have at least cleaned up slightly for your daughter.” My heart dropped through my chest to shatter on the hard wooden floors below.
“Mom?” I croaked. I took a cautious step forward. “What happened to you? I mean, what’s wrong?” We found her pale body crumpled in a ball on the floor, with a primitive edge to her wide eyes, staring first at the light, then back to us. Her usually neat hair was sticking up in blond tufts around her face. Her porcelain skin was spotted with red blotches. The hollows under here eyes were lined with deep lavender bags.
Mom shrank back as Henry approached her, grumbling noisily that she should have at least showered before. Her eyes stared accusingly into mine, her lips working with silent frustration at the words that burned her throat. She raised one limp finger to point at me.