The Breed Casstiel's Vow (19 page)

Cass rushed into Remy’s ‘surgery’ room with her beating
a path behind him. Gently he laid her down and tried not to look at her; if he
looked at her now he knew he would lose it and that tightly capped bottle of
emotions he was carrying would spill out.

“Alright, I know you’re not going to be happy, but you
can’t stay while I do this,” she gave her most soothing voice.

“What?” he barked out, his patience snapping.

“Don’t growl at me. That’s exactly why you can’t stay,
you’re too charged up, too over emotional right now, I can’t concentrate while
you’re in here,” she cut him off and took charge of her territory.

“What am I supposed to do? Just sit on my hands and
worry?” he raged.

“There’s nothing to worry about. She’s not hit in any
major places, she has lost quite a bit of blood, which could be a problem in a
normal hospital, but with our handy blood bank in the next building she’ll be
fine,” she assured him, “It’s gonna be ok I promise, she’ll be alright.”

“You don’t understand
,
I’ve
bonded with her… I can’t… she has to be ok,” he choked out.

He needed her to understand how serious this situation
was for him.

“We all know you’ve bonded with her. She’s going to be
fine. I need to get to work, so get out,” she replied half playfully half
serious.

Using all the strength she possessed she pulled him away
from Tessa, and locked him out of her medical room.

As he stared at the locked wooden door he tried
desperately to keep it together. For the first time in his life he felt the
handle on his emotional control slipping.

With an older brother like Sebastian, keeping his
emotions in check was one of the first things he had learned growing up. Since
Tessa had come into his life however, things didn’t seem so black and white
anymore.

Get it together
he berated himself.

He had to do something, if he just stood here staring at
this damn door he would lose his mind.

He needed to work.

That’s what he had always done in the past; bury
everything in the job.

“Think… think… think…” he whispered frantically to
himself, rubbing his hands roughly across the stubble on his face.

He needed desperately to focus on what had happened in
the subway. He needed to call his men, figure out what was going on and get a
plan going. 

Cass went to the end of the hallway, just close enough
for him to still be able to see Remy’s room and hear what was going on and
whipped his cell phone out, preparing to bury all his pain in his job.

“Are you listening to me? Let me say it again because
apparently you want me to repeat myself. Leave him in the holding cell, I will
question him tomorrow. Memphis and Sebastian will be here tomorrow night. I
want you specifically to question Nora, right now, and report back to me. Are
you following the conversation?” Casstiel tried to express all of the anger he
was feeling via whisper, and was hoping Jax could feel the irritation rolling
off of him.

Jax nodded his head still looking confused, but
realizing if he asked one more question he was going to be strangled.

“Memphis isn’t here yet to question her, so you’re the
next best person. She’s going to need a friend right now. She’s alone, she’s
scared for Tessa, and you’re the best at that whole comforting thing. I don’t
care what it takes, I need to find out what happened with Quinn in that
subway,” stress made his temples throb.

Usually Jax was never put in charge of questioning
people. He didn’t like to push them, and was never as forceful as you had to
be, but he was by far the only one of them who would be sensitive to Nora’s
needs.

“When you’re done questioning her, call in an update.
Until then, piss off,” he grunted, ready to get back to his mate.

“Right, ok. I’ll give you a call and we’ll regroup in
the morning…” he slowly backed out of Remy’s office and shut the door.

Cass sighed in frustration and closed his eyes. It was
his own fault his men were so dumbstruck; if this had been any other day he
would be in his squad room giving out orders and directing his men like a
general preparing for war.

This however, wasn’t any regular day; this was the day
that the love of his life had been shot. This was the day that his world, which
normally spun so smoothly, skittered to a halt.

Last week he would have been ecstatic at the hunters
reemerging after these quiet years. He would have loved the idea of all the
pending battles and strategizing. Now he didn’t want any of that.

Now he wanted to spend his time getting to know the
beautiful woman before him, and the only strategizing he wanted to do, was to
figure out how to keep her. 

The hunters were the last thing on his mind and for the
first time he didn’t give a shit about his job. All he cared about was Tessa.

Tessa, whose breathing was finally
calm and stable, whose color and complexion were starting to come back, and
whose wounds had been healed for less than an hour.

He stared at her peaceful face and her slowly rising
breast and hoped she was finding peace in her dreams.

The healing was so
successful,
there weren’t even scars to remind her of the incident. The only thing that
remained from the shooting was her bloody clothes, which he refused to change
her out of for fear of waking her.

Repositioning in his chair, he took another sip of
coffee and told himself he would just sit and watch over her until she woke up,
then he would leave and go back to burying his troubles in work. She probably wouldn’t
want to see him for a while after what happened.

In less than twenty four hours Sebastian and Memphis
would be here, and with them would come the battle plans for a new chapter in
the war. Not a single embassy had been alerted that the hunters had left one of
their compounds; somewhere something had gone catastrophically wrong.

~

Nora paced the halls of her room feeling like she would
explode at any minute; she had too many emotions happening at once.

Anger and confusion over the hunters, guilt and fear
over Tessa, and she didn’t even want to begin to think about what had happened
with Quinn.

Every time she thought about him she could see his firm
lips, feel the light brushing of the kiss he had given her. Goose bumps rushed
up her arms.

She had to get out of this room.

Where she really wanted to go was to see Tessa, but she
had a firm suspicion that if she tried she would run into a strict body guard
outside her door.

A six foot, two hundred and something pound guard, whose
face was probably screaming for murder right now; and she was pretty sure she
could guess whose neck he would like to ring first.

A knock at her door brought her out of her thoughts.

When she looked through the peep hole she was highly
disappointed to see that it was Jax instead of her best friend.

“Hey,” he smiled sheepishly as she pulled open the door.

“How’s Tessa?” she demanded.

“She’s fine, Remy healed her so she’s just resting,” he
assured her.

“I already told your friend what happened in the subway,
he didn’t believe me so I’m sure you won’t either,” Nora shot out defensively,
remembering the way Kain had questioned every single detail of her story.

“Yeah, Kain’s kind of… let’s just say he doesn’t trust
anyone, ever. Anyway, can I come in? I brought wine,” he gave her the warm
crooked smile that was really starting to grow on her.

Part of her wanted to slam the door in his face and tell
him that he and everyone at this embassy could shove it up their asses, but the
majority of her was an emotional mess, and Jax was a good person to talk to.

She moved out his way and let him walk passed her.

“So you want to question me again?” she sighed at the
thought of reliving everything.

“It’s up to you,” he shrugged, opening cupboards,
looking for glasses, “Honestly I’d like to forget about today, but if you want
to talk about it, I’m here to listen.”

 “Today was a pretty shitty day for all of us, but
I guess at least I didn’t get shot,” she sighed before taking a long sip of the
wine he offered.

“After a while you just get used to it,” he shrugged, “I
mean, that’s what I do for a living; I get the crap kicked out of me, and pray
that I’m a little better than the other guy so I can walk away and come back to
my people.”

“You have another job though don’t you? You don’t get
paid at the embassy,” she didn’t mind keeping the subject off of the subway,
“wait, let me guess, male escort service?”

They both burst out into laughter. Usually it took a lot
to get Nora drunk, but all the stress of the day plus her lack of food, was
making it pretty easy.

 “I own my own business,” he finally replied.

“Really?
I never would have
guessed. What is it?” she asked, beginning to relax.

She quickly forgot about all the hardships of the day,
and her mind let go of all the impending problems that were about to come her
way with Quinn.

“Alright, but don’t laugh,” he chuckled, shaking his
finger at
her,
“I collect and sell vintage toys.”

Nora let his answer sink in for a few moments before she
fell to the side of the couch with drunken giggles.

“Ah! I told you not to!” he chuckled pouring more wine.

After her laughter died out, and she gulped down the
glass he poured, she felt completely at home with her new friend.

“Yeah
me
and Kain both run a
business. His is for guns and weapons though,” Jax continued the conversation,
and the pouring.

“See, that’s what I need,” Nora piped up, “it seems like
everyone has a dream but me. Memphis has got his restaurant, and you’ve got
your toys, I need that, I need something.”

“Eventually we’ll all have our shit together. That’s
what I keep telling Kain, eventually we’ll all get what we want, or what some
of us don’t want, but really need,” he recited seriously.

“What are you talking about?” she laughed as she
swallowed the last of the wine in her glass, “and we need more alcohol, I’ve
got rum in the freezer.”

Jax immediately hopped up to oblige her, pulling out
first the coconut rum, then a carton of juice.

“I’m talking about the bond,” he said, mixing her a
drink.

The breath stopped in her throat and a revelation hit
her. She had bonded with Quinn.

“Oh come on,” he rolled his eyes at the look of horror
on her face, “don’t tell me you’re with Kain, hating on the bond.”

“Of course I am,” she said, hastily trying to recover
her senses.

“I think I’m the only person in the Breed who’s actually
excited to be bonded,” he confessed.

“Well good for you, I’ll be with the rest of the normal
people, running for my life out there,” she was reeling, her life absolutely
spinning out of control, “speaking of which, do you think there’s a way to
break the bond? You know, to somehow get rid of it.”

“Holy crap, you might be worse than Kain, you’re over
here looking for a witch doctor and some voodoo,” Jax laughed hysterically, the
alcohol now clearly taking a hold of both of them.

“Well, I already told Kain everything that happened in
the subway, so if you don’t have any new questions, I need to get some sleep,”
she replied frostily.

The conversation about the bond was making her feel
sick. She couldn’t possibly have bonded with Quinn, could she?

“Oh come on,” Jax wrapped her into a clumsy bear hug,
“don’t be mad.”

Nora shoved him off and stood up.

 “There is something definitely off with Quinn. He
didn’t know anything about the Breed, but he joined us; also his healing is
pretty much nonexistent, from what it looks like he heals like a human. I’m not
buying this whole ‘my family is better off without me’ crap either,” she
changed the subject, wanting to tell him everything she knew quickly,
then
shove him out the door.

The last thing she needed to talk to anyone about was
bonding. Even just the word made her skin crawl.

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” he threw his hands up in
defeat then took one last shot of rum, “since you’re just going to chase me out
with work talk.”

She couldn’t show him to the door fast enough.

~

“Are you drunk?” Cass demanded quietly into his phone,
his patience stretched thin, “forget it,
just
tell me
what she said about the kid.”

 “She’s keeping something from us for sure, but I
have no idea what it is, or why she would, she didn’t let me stay long enough
to really get it out of her,” Jax shook his head.

“I don’t have time to deal with this, I’ll have Memphis
talk to her when he gets here,” he ended the call, just as an ear piercing
shriek ripped through Tessa’s lips.

“Tessa baby wake up, it’s just a dream,” he tried to
ease her.

Her eyes burst open, panicked and horrified. She looked
down at her blood stained clothes and started shakily clawing at
them,
her finger nails clumsily digging into her skin in her
hurry to pull them off.

“Tessa you’re in the hospital, you’re safe now, you’re
with me now,” he wrapped his hands softly around hers to stop her.

“Casstiel!” she shrieked, noticing him for the first
time, “oh god it was so awful. I found Quinn but he wouldn’t stop running from
me, and Nora was insane, and I fell and I was all covered in blood.”

She babbled on incoherently, her speech frenzied as her eyes
darted around the room.

“It was just a dream Tessa, just a dream,” he whispered
into her hair, hugging her tightly. He wished he could tell her the whole night
was a dream, that everything that had happened was all just a part of her
nightmare.

After a few minutes her breathing began to relax as she
took in her surroundings, and let his soothing whispers sink in.

 “They shot me in the tunnel?” she pulled slightly
away from him.

Slowly he nodded his head.

“They shot me,” she repeated quietly, her voice filled
with anger and disbelief.

He let go of her completely and sat back to watch her
reaction; he wasn’t sure how she was going to take the news of what had
happened. Would she throw him out? Demand to go back to her old life and never
see another member of the Breed again?

“Why the hell would they shoot me!” she suddenly
demanded her eyes full of a fiery rage, “I wasn’t a threat to them, the only
reason why I told Nora to go ahead is because I was sure they would let me go.
I’m not even part of the Breed!”

“The hunters are ruthless, more ruthless than I think
you can imagine humans to be. They don’t just think of themselves as better
than the Breed, they think of themselves as better than all humans. They shot
you because you were in the way of what they wanted,” he explained calmly,
knowing that it would be hard for her to accept.

“I’m a woman, what kind of a man shoots a defenseless
woman?” she snarled.

“They don’t give a rat’s ass about women. To them women
are just slaves that they buy and sell amongst themselves,” he had hoped to
keep her shaded from the ugliness of the hunters’ world.