Her Guardian Angel (Fire and Snow) (14 page)

Where the hell was she?

How did she have clothes again?

She looked up in confusion and trailed her gaze around the room then stopped still when her eyes landed on a woman sitting there looking straight at her. Her eyes went wide, and she tried to push herself away from the woman but couldn't move. She was attached to the machine with the tube, and the rails on the bed wouldn't allow her movement. She panicked, thrashing her arms and legs. She felt the pain the jerky movements caused, but she couldn't focus to stop. Her body and mind had left her behind.

"Shhh, Kelly. You are safe. You're in a hospital. No one here will hurt you,
cherie
. You are safe."

The woman kept repeating herself as she slowly moved closer to Adele. Kelly's body finally stilled and she focused on the woman. Did she know her?

"My name is Adele. My friend, Dominic, and I found you wandering by the lake. Do you remember?"

"I don't...what happened to me?" she said on a scared whisper. Her last memory was of Cole coming home early and dragging her downstairs. She tried to get her brain to focus, to remember that day.

"We don't know what happened to you,
cherie.
You
were very badly injured when we found you, so we brought you here to the hospital. You told us you were worried someone would come and take you. We've kept someone outside your room guarding you; I have been here watching you as much as I can. You haven't ever been alone. No one will hurt you again, Kelly."

Adele's voice was calm, soothing and helping to anchor her. Suddenly pain lacerated her skull and she closed her eyes, clenching her teeth against the pain. As memories flooded back to her, she pressed her palms to her eyes. Oh, damn, the things he'd done to her, threatened to do to her. She remembered everything now, getting away, being found. She dropped her hands away, desperately holding onto Adele's worried gaze.

"He was going to rape me; he told me that tomorrow he would finish my training. That I would be fully his forever after that. I--I got out. I ran away."

Kelly watched as tears flowed from Adele's eyes. This woman who had only just met her seemed so upset by her pain. No one had ever offered any sympathy toward her, not even her mother. Adele reached her hand slowly toward her own. When their hands were nearly touching, Kelly grabbed hold of Adele's. Her touch was warm, gentle, safe. Adele moved closer to the bed. Kelly watched as she lowered the side rail and slowly lay down next to her. She allowed her body to be pulled into Adele's embrace. The comfort she offered was too much, and tears began to fall as she fell apart in the safety of Adele's arms.

"He won't get near you again, Kelly. I promise, I'll do everything I can to protect you."

After a few minutes, her tears began to lessen. Suddenly, she felt so sleepy. Adele's soothing hand began stroking her curls.

"You were so brave,
cherie
, running away. You saved yourself and you were so strong,
petit fille
. Now, you have help. We will all help you get better and stronger."

Kelly couldn't remember ever being cuddled so lovingly. She snuggled into Adele and breathed in her smell. She smelled like vanilla and sunshine--and protection.

"How long has it been?" she asked on a yawn.

"You have been here eight days,
cherie
. You were very badly injured so we kept you asleep so your body could heal without causing you any more pain. You're going to be sore for quite a while. You have a number of cracked ribs which take time to heal."

Adele's voice was so gentle and soothing. Kelly wished she could stay forever in Adele's embrace, feeling safe and secure, but she knew better than most that life wasn't that easy. She took as deep a breath as she could without pain before bravely asking her next question.

"What is going to happen to me when I have to leave? I have no where to go, I have no one."

She buried her face into Adele's shoulder as a feeling of hopelessness enveloped her and she started crying again. How did she think running away would help? She would have been better off if he had just killed her as he had her mother. While she cried, she felt Adele rest her cheek on top of her head and begin to hum to her. When her tears slowed, Adele spoke to her.

"It's okay, Kelly. Don't you worry about anything. When you leave here, if you want, you can come live with me. I've been talking with the Child Protection Agency and since they can't find any of your biological family, you will need to go into foster care. I've been going through all their tests so I can take you in. I promised to keep you safe, Kelly. I meant it. You will never be alone again,
cherie
."

Adele's words made Kelly so happy she started crying again. Maybe, just maybe her life would be better now. She sobbed until the exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep snuggled in Adele's warm embrace.

~ * ~

Conner put his phone off speaker and held it up to his ear.

"You still there, Dom? Did you get all of that?"

"Yeah, I'm here, bro. That poor kid. I can feel Adele's pain from here, man."

Conner heard the ache in his brother's voice. The mating bond must be a strong one if it allowed mates to feel each other's emotions like that. Conner had been paying close attention to his brother and Adele, trying to learn all he could. He was hoping he'd start having dreams soon. Surely his mate would be turning twenty-one soon. He was getting close to his twenty fourth birthday now. He didn't like the idea of a huge age gap, but more importantly he was impatient to meet his mate and start courting her. His brother's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"How's Adele looking? Do I need to come over there?"

Conner was the current 'guard-cat' on duty; he'd rung his brother as soon as he heard Kelly wake up. He'd put his brother on speakerphone so he could hear the conversation between the girls without Conner needing to relay it all later. He hated relaying conversations. A speakerphone was so much easier--and he couldn't get in trouble for getting things wrong.

He quietly poked his head through the doorway to see what was going on then pulled back out of view before speaking again. He didn't want to disturb either of the girls.

"Adele is on the bed with Kelly, looks like the poor kid has fallen back asleep. Adele's stroking her hair and humming to her. Adele could probably use someone to talk to, and you know I suck at this stuff. You probably should high-tail it over here."

Dom chuckled at him, his brother knew him better than anyone, knew how awkward he was around emotional people, especially woman.

"You'd be fine, Conner, but I'll head over. I have to finish up here. See you soon."

"Cool, see you then."

Conner ended the call, rested his head back against the wall and let thoughts of finding his own mate take him away.

~ * ~

Dominic had been in the office with his Dad drawing up the rosters for the next month when he received Conner's call. As he hung up, he felt his father's gaze. He slipped his phone onto the desk and scrubbed at his face with both hands. What should he do now? Had he and Adele cemented their relationship enough for this test? He really wasn't sure. He hated feeling like this. He was the cool calm one, the one who planned everything out. Suddenly, he felt out of control, nothing was planned and the few things that were, weren't panning out. The fact his mind, body, and soul were all constantly burning to claim his mate did not help matters.

"Stop thinking so hard son, I can hear your wheels turning from over here."

Dominic dropped his hands to his knees and looked up at his Dad with a frown.

"Kelly. She woke up. She's awake." Dominic felt like a tool for not being able to construct a better sentence for his Dad, but his brain was just so busy with everything, he wasn't in the mood for wasting time on grammar.

"Ahh, so the young lass is awake and I'm guessing the lovely Adele was there for the occasion? And you're little brother was playing spy for you?" his Dad said with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk.

"Hardly spying, Dad, Conner's on guard duty and you know as well as I do he hates having to remember stuff so he can relay it. He chucked me on speaker phone so I could hear everything that was said."

Dominic couldn't stop the shudder that ran through him at the memory of what Kelly had told Adele.

"Care to share with your old man what was said? Don't think I didn't see that shudder that just went through you, son."

Dominic took a couple of minutes to fill his Dad in on the details.

"Well, son, looks like your mate is going to be mighty busy real soon. Why don't you see if Adele will come over to the house for dinner tonight? Your mother has something she wants to discuss with her."

Dominic raised an eyebrow at his father. What was his mother up too this time?

"What's Mum planning? Should I be worried? Or scared?"

Jake barked out a laugh.

"Neither, son, nothing to worry about or be scared of. She's been thinking about the care of young Kelly. You know, since she stepped back from full time teaching last year, she's been looking for something to fill her time? Well, she's thinking about tutoring. She was hoping Adele would let her help get Kelly up to speed and into school, which, I suspect might take some doing. Doesn't sound like she's been out in the world much, if you know what I mean."

Dominic couldn't help but chuckle. "Trust Mum. Neither Adele or me had even thought about that side of looking after Kelly. I'll do my best to get her away from the hospital for dinner. With Kelly awake, it's probably going to be harder than ever."

"I'm sure you'll manage, son. Now, I heard you say you'd be heading over there. You better get a move on. I'll finish up the roster and get it out to everyone."

Dominic sighed with relief that he could go straight away to Adele. His Dad was simply the best.

He paused on his way out the door. "Thanks, Dad, you're the best."

"Just you remember that when my birthday rolls around." His Dad responded with a wink.

~ * ~

On his way into the hospital Dominic stopped by Clint's office.

"Hey Doc, got a minute?" He called out as he knocked on the doorframe.

"Sure, Dominic, what can I do for you?" Clint's voice sounded tired. Poor bugger, being head of the hospital meant he was under some serious pressure.

"Heard Kelly woke up earlier, wondering if you could give me an idea of how long she'll be in here for? Adele wants to take her in when she leaves, and a time frame for how long we have to get organized would be great, Doc."

Dominic watched in amusement as Clint flew up out of his chair.

"She's woken up? When?" He grabbed at the pager on his belt and cursed.

"Damn it, dead battery again! I swear the current box is made up entirely of duds. Follow me, Dominic."

Dominic understood Clint's frustration. Pagers were vital to all emergency services. For a doctor, missing a page could be the difference between life and death. He followed behind Clint as he strode out of his office toward Kelly's room. They briefly stopped at the nurse's station so Clint could hand over his pager with instructions to ditch the box of batteries.

As they approached Kelly's room, Conner rose and stretched.

"Hey, Dom, Doc. Was about to come looking for you, Adele was wondering why you didn't answer her page."

"Hey, Conner, the joys of technology my man. Damn thing was dead. Is she still awake?"

"Not sure, Doc. Last check she was curled up with Adele sleeping. Poor kid." Dominic watched as Conner shook his head. Yeah, his brother was as pissed as he was about the abuse Kelly had suffered.

He and Clint entered the room, and sure enough Kelly was still sleeping and Adele was still on the bed with her. The sight before him was instantly imprinted on his soul. Adele would make an awesome mother. He fell a little more in love with her as he watched. She had Kelly protectively embraced in her arms with her cheek resting on the top of Kelly's curls, and her eyes were closed as she quietly hummed.

Adele raised her head from Kelly to look at him as they approached. He loved how she could sense when he was nearing her; he sure as hell did whenever she was close to him. He remained standing behind Clint. He didn't want to get in the way of any poking or prodding the doc wanted to do.

"Pager dead again, Clint?" she asked the doc with just a slight hint of a smirk. His mate was a cheeky one when she wanted to be.

"Yeah, damn batteries. I asked Lyn to throw out the whole box. Dominic tells me she woke up. What happened?"

Dominic drunk in his mate as she was relaying to Clint how distraught Kelly had been upon waking and what she had recounted upon her memory returning.

"Poor little mite, how on earth did she manage to get away from the monster?" Clint asked while shaking his head, his disgust easy to read in his face.

"I guess the threat of rape was motivator enough to give her strength and take a few risks." He noticed how Adele tightened her hold as they spoke. So protective. So perfect.