The Breed: Nora's Choice (23 page)

            His eyes
though… could they both possibly have obsidian eyes? She had heard of this side
effect when joining the Breed, but had never seen it before.

            The ginger
twin was badly damaged too, but he wasn’t why she was here, he wasn’t the one.

            “Please,”
his voice cracked from disuse, and as his eyes locked onto hers, the pain
inside them seemed to amplify right in front of her because of the midnight
color.

            “I will,”
she smiled bravely up at him.

            She would
save his brother, no matter the cost. It was her purpose, her call in life.

            Lightly she
sat on the bed next to her twin and brushed her hand softly across his brow.

            He was so
feverish he scorched her hand, his breath so shallow she could hardly tell that
he was still breathing.

            Jax put a
comforting hand on her shoulder, “You don’t have to do this,” he whispered.

            “I’ve never
healed someone so close to death and I’m not sure what will happen, but tell
him if I can’t, that I don’t regret this, and my only wish is for him to find
happiness,” she smiled up at him, squeezing his hand.

            His brows
knit together in concern, but he stepped away and gave her space.

            No one
would dare try and stop her from saving him. No one would sway her from her
purpose.

            Could
she
do it though? That was the true question.

            To say she
had never healed someone so close to death was an understatement. She had never
healed someone who was in half as bad of shape as he was, the pain that it
would cause her to heal from all those injuries would be incalculable. Never in
her life had she had to experience anything as intense as what she was about to
do.

            He let out
a soft shallow breath and she knew he was already living on borrowed time.

            Leaning
forward she placed a hand on each side of his face, cradling him gently.
Closing her eyes she set to work pulling all the pain and sickness out of him
and replacing it with her own beautiful health.

            All around
them a soft light began to glow. Starting off as pale white, then slowly
growing to a brighter electric blue.

            “The
trade,” started the same way that it had every time before. A slow thrum of
electricity building in her veins, growing to a sizzling burn with every second
the light around them grew brighter.

            Her lips
trembled and her hands shook with the effort she was having to put in to it.
She had never had to give so much before.

            A dark part
of her mind wandered to thoughts of fear and caution, but it was too late, her choice
had been made. Never before had she stopped a healing and her fear of the
repercussions from that was greater than her misgivings about going through
with what she started.

            The burn
began to intensify and his eyes fluttered open. His gaze was unfocused, it
roamed the room erratically, not truly seeing anything.

            Breathing
became harder and harder for her as her strength and energy flooded into him.

            Gasping for
breath, fear over came her. It was a mistake, he needed too much, she shouldn’t
have done this.

            Fearfully
she tried to pull her hands from him, no longer caring what the repercussions
were, she had to stop it, had to get away.

            Her gift
cemented them together, draining her faster than it ever had before, she could
pull away.

            His eyes erupted
open in front of her, the lenses dark endless pools of midnight.

            Confusion
racked his features as he clearly tried to understand why there was a woman on
top of him, how he had miraculously recovered to nearly full health, and just
what in the hell the blue light surrounding them was.

            She tried
to scream, to beg him for mercy, but she could no longer speak. Her body was so
weak and wasted now, only the power of her gift was keeping her up right.

            Her eyes
pleaded with him for help, and finally the situation seemed to click in his
mind.

            Bolting
upright he grabbed her about the shoulders and attempted to pull her away with
all his might.

            “What
devilry is this!” he snarled as her hands remained cemented to his face, her
eyes locked fearfully onto his, “let go lass, you’re killin’ yourself!”

            Jax lunged
forward and tried to help, but the blue light had created a cocoon around them.
The moment his skin touched the light, electricity shot through him so
severely, he foamed at the mouth while his body jerked to the floor.

            Quinn
watched on helplessly along with everyone else in the room. Jax attempting to
help only seemed to only worsen the situation. The electric shock he had
received was the worst Quinn had ever seen, and he was sure that it was only
his Breed blood that had saved his life.

            The blue
light intensified after if finally let Jax go, eventually becoming so bright it
was blinding and they lost sight of both Remy and Balor inside of it.

            What could
they do to stop this? Had they just killed Remy?

            All at once
a roar echoed through the room, and the light extinguished. Remy collapsed like
a broken rag doll on top of Balor.

            He scooped
her into his arms like a child and ran his fingers frantically over her face.

            “No lass,
not for me,” he moaned in anguish, “I’m not worth this.”

            Memphis
stepped forward and placed a calming hand on his shoulder, “it’s alright, she’s
not gone. She’s done this many times, and part of the magic of her gift is that
she cannot die from healing someone.”

            “Wake up
girl,” he shook her lightly, his eyes hinting at madness, “She’s just a human…
so fragile… it should have been me… should have let me die.”

            “Here
friend, give her to me and I’ll take care of her,” Memphis opened his arms to
take her limp form.

            Suddenly
Balor snarled ravenously, clutching her close to his chest like a precious
jewel.

            “Brother!”
Roderick snapped just as viciously, “You are among friends in a place of
safety. Find yourself, and be at peace! He means the girl no harm.”

            Balor
slowly looked around trying to take in his surroundings, and it broke Quinn’s
heart to see such a powerful man brought down to such a low state.

            He couldn’t
help but remember how rabid and irrational he had been once he escaped
imprisonment. He knew exactly what Balor was going through, but could do
nothing to help him.

            Remy’s
ability to heal had brought his body back from the brink of death, but she
couldn’t put meat on his bones, or help his mental state.

            There was a
time that this man was the most fierce and powerful person he had ever stood
next to, and now he was sickly thin and with a look of lost helplessness
covering his features.

            Finally he
loosened his grip on Remy’s lifeless body and Memphis scooped her gently into
his arms.

            “I’m taking
her down to the head of the medical department, I’ll send in a team of doctors
to check on everyone and be back in a minute, try and keep him together,”
Memphis tossed his head in Balor’s direction and then carried her out the door.

            He had
waited years to be reunited with his adoptive family, but now that the time was
finally here, he couldn’t think of a single thing to say to them.

            How the
fuck did anyone bridge such an emotional gap?

            Ruffling
the back of his hair, he decided to say to hell with it, and approached the bed
where Balor now sat with his head in his hands.

            “I… I never
stopped looking for you guys,” he cleared his throat.

            There was
so much more he needed to say, so many things that flooded through his mind,
but nothing made it past his lips, he was already struggling to keep it
together.

            Roderick
squinted at him, then his face broke into a jovial smile.

            “Quinn you
daft bastard, is that you?” his voice was weaker than before, “You’re alive?”

            “I escaped…
I’ve been searching for you for months,” his chest was heavy with emotion, but
he bottled it.

            “No… no…
no…” Balor shook his head frantically, muttering, “dead… the boys dead… they’re
all dead.”

            Sitting
down next to him Roderick stared his brother down hard, almost as if he was
trying to heal his mental state with sheer force of will.

            A stream of
doctors flooded through the doors interrupting the moment, with Memphis shortly
behind them. They swarmed over everyone inside the room like locusts, all of
which were badly injured.

            Quinn
jerked away from a doctor his height, then snarled so severely the man backed
away and moved on.

            “You have
to get fixed up kid, you’re no good to anyone if you’re dead,” Memphis clasped
him on his uninjured shoulder.

            “I’m going
to Nora, She’s had enough medical training to stitch me up, I can reset my own
shoulder, and I’ve already cracked my jaw back into place,” he replied,
thinking that Casstiel had a right hook that connected like a nine pound
hammer.

            Looking
over Quinn met Rod’s eyes.

            “It’s
alright to go, I’m going to sit and talk with him in private anyway, we won’t
be separated anymore boy,” his Scottish accent was thick with emotions.

            “No, no,
leave that one,” Memphis stopped them from attending to Jax, “he’s going with
me.”

            Kneeling
down he hoisted him off the floor and slung him over his shoulder.

            “He’ll just
have to heal up on the way,” he shrugged, “take care of Nora while she’s taking
care of you, you two need to lean on each other through tough times.”

            “Yeah,” he
replied distractedly, his mind already on his secretive mate and how difficult
it was going to be to get her to talk to him tonight.

             “You
better shake it off pumpkin,” Memphis spoke to Jax’ unconscious form as he
headed towards the door, “you’ve got a long day ahead of you.”

            Nora hadn’t
moved from her spot at the kitchen table. Her mind was filled with so many
things, so many thoughts on what she needed to say, and how she was possibly
going to make it through saying it all, that a cold numbness covered her.

            The burden
of keeping her past a secret had been so heavy for so long that the weight of
it felt comfortable to her now; she didn’t know how to shed it, was scared of
being without it.

            She didn’t
fear him judging her. He
was
her mate, and the longer she had sat here
staring into her cold swirling coffee, the more she had realized Remy was
right.
He
wasn’t bringing on her PTSD attacks,
she
was.

            Her fear,
her logic, her insecurities, her anger, her self loathing, her pain, her
sadness, her burden.

            Her choice.

            All of it,
always, her choice.

            He could
handle what she was about to put on his shoulders, was strong enough to carry
her and all her demons, but was she strong enough to let him?

            She was so
damn tired , too worn down by her own feelings not to just accept the hope that
was now burrowing its way through her belly.

            After
spending the day with him, there was absolutely no doubt in her mind that the
bond was correct. If anyone could soothe her, if anyone could bare to hold
together the shattered fragments of her soul, it was Quinn.

            To make
this work, she would have to confess all her demons and weaknesses to someone
who held the power to reject and destroy her. She had never cared before what
other people thought of her, whether they’d judge her or walk away.

            If Quinn
turned his back on her…. That was a pain there was no coming back from.

            She felt
him before he stepped off the elevator, and her lip trembled. What was she so
damn scared for? She growled to herself.

            Throwing
her shoulders back she mentally readied herself. This conversation was going to
suck, really,
really
suck, but it had to be done for… for them.

            Sighing to
herself she accepted the fact that after tonight there would be no going back.
After this conversation there would always be a ‘them’ and a ‘they’.

            He would
never let go of her once she bared her soul to him.

            Gently he
opened her door and peered inside. He was so much different than the blood
thirsty beast ready to kill that had busted in earlier.

            Now that
the rage from the beast had subsided, she could feel the mess of emotions
swirling inside of him.

            His face
was worn, his body bloody and battered, his mind was pulled in several
directions and his heart was suffocating under it all.

            She felt
all of that inside of him, but when he looked at her he just smiled lovingly.
The tension in his shoulders eased and she felt his heart relax.

            At the
sight of him, even though he was so injured and broken from the battle, she
felt her own heart rate relax. 

            She stood
up and held her arms out to him. Confusion clouded his face, but he came to her
just the same.

            The hug was
light because of his wounds, but the emotions behind it were still blaringly
there. Even in the face of all the horrible things they had to talk about, she
was still happy to see him, and to her, that meant more than anything.

            “Let’s get
you patched up,” she took his hand and led him to the bathroom.

            Thanks to
whatever the Hunters had done to him, it would take him days to heal from all
these wounds unlike the rest of the Breed. She was glad her medical training
could help him and that for the rest of his life he could come to her instead
of going to the Breed doctors.

            He was
shirtless and wearing a pair of someone else’s over sized pants. Dried blood
marred his skin, and bruises were already in full bloom.

            “You may as
well strip,” she sighed, the process of ‘patching him up,’ was going to be a
long one.

            Silently he
dropped his pants and stood before her in nothing but tight boxer briefs.

            She swallowed
the lump in her throat and forced herself to focus on the man in front of her
as a patient, not a lover.

            His eyes
roaming over her body in just the t-shirt she wore weren’t helping the
situation.

            “Just sit,”
she hastily shoved him down on the toilet seat so that he faced the wall and
not her.

            The muscles
of his shoulders and back bunched and relaxed as she swabbed him down with
antiseptic to clean everything. To her surprise he didn’t even let out a hiss
of discomfort at all the stinging.

            He sat
stonily silent as she covered all the smaller wounds in bandages and gauze, he
was the perfect patient.

            “These need
stitches,” she pressed her fingers into the skin around the areas so he would
know which wounds she was referring to.

            “Then
stitch them,” he shrugged.

            “I don’t
have anything here to numb you with, I’ll have to go to the medical wing,” she
worried her bottom lip over her teeth. Even with her nursing classes, this
would be the first time she had ever sutured a live person.

            “You don’t
have to worry about that, I won’t feel it, just do it,” he turned  back to
smile at her.

            “Can you
feel anything?” she looked across the wounds on his back and was honestly
astonished. He could shrug off such enormous physical pain so easily, maybe
they had turned him into some sort of superman.

            “I feel
you,” he tugged at her hand, then planted a kiss on her palm, “now please get
this over with before I bleed out.”

            She thumped
him on the back of the head, then picked up her case of sutures.

            Carefully
she began the process of sewing his back together. She was nervous, but kept
her game face on, and he was true to his word. Not once the entire time did he
flinch or react to the pain at all.

            She had a
fairly high pain tolerance, and even she would have had a death grip on
something and her teeth clenched every time the thick needle pierced her flesh.

            Instead you
would have thought she was simply running her fingers across his skin for all
the reaction he gave.

            This was
how he had run all those miles on his fractured leg when he first came to the
Embassy.

            “Tell me
how you’re doing this,” she knew she had seen him flinch before in the hospital
wing. From his reactions to her, she knew he had felt her kisses, was aroused
by her hands on his skin. He
had
to feel things.

            “It’s all
about the adrenaline,” his began explaining, “the more I practice, the more I
learn to control it. Even a normal human, if they cut themselves severely
they’ll go into shock. The adrenaline takes over and their body goes numb. It’s
like that except amplified. I can feel the pressure of what you’re doing on my
skin, and if I lost my concentration the pain would start, but as long as I
keep it up, I’ll be fine.”

            “That’s
kind of amazing,” she felt a twinge of jealousy at his badassery.

            Once she
finished his back, she swallowed hard and prepared herself to have to work on
the front of him.

            “Turn,” she
ordered, sounding oh so much stronger than she felt.

            His chest
was just as much of a bloody playground as his back had been.

            Slashes and
angry red marks covered his torso, dried blood had matted down his chest and
arm hair.

            “Are you
ready to talk about it?” he quietly broached the subject of what had been
bothering her.

            Avoiding
his eyes she shook her head. Not yet. She was stalling, but she didn’t give a
damn. This was the hardest thing she would ever have to talk about in her life,
she was allowed to be a little bit of a chicken shit about it.

            “Can we
talk about what happened to you tonight instead?” hearing the details of a
bloody battle sounded way more exciting to her than ever having to talk about
her past.

            The smell
of alcohol rubs stung her nose as she practically bathed his chest and
shoulders in it.

            “Come here,
I need you,” he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, resting
his forehead against her soft belly.

            It was so
intimate that her first instinct was to pull away, but she felt how bogged down
by emotions he was. It wasn’t like him to be pulled in so many directions and
to be so emotionally overwhelmed. He truly did need her comfort, and so she
gave it to him.

            Her fingers
slid softly through his hair, and she rubbed his back tenderly as he began to
tell her everything.

            He had
almost no feelings at all about taking down an entire ship full of Hunters, not
even pride for a difficult job well done, but once the story at the Embassy
began to unfold, she found the source of all his emotions.

            She felt
all his fear, sadness and confusion about the situation with his pack and their
leader. Once he began telling her about Remy she couldn’t stop the tears from
silently rolling down her cheeks.

            Knowing
that her friend wasn’t dead held very little comfort for her. Would she ever
wake up? Was her mind intact and trapped inside a broken body she was unable to
leave? Everyday would she just be trapped in an inescapable agony?

            The
thoughts twisted her heart and her stomach.

            There were
far worse things in life than death.

            Helplessness
overcame her and suddenly she was clinging to him as hard as he was clinging to
her.

            She wrapped
her arms tightly around his head and neck and held on.

            They were
both so strong every day, moving through each moment as if they weren’t
carrying around the weight of anguish and misery.

            That’s when
she realized there was no other human being she would rather show her
weaknesses to. No other person that would understand her as well as him,
because in so many ways, they were the same.

            He shrugged
off his pain and the demons of his past the same way she did. Never once had he
broken down or shown weakness over what the Hunters had done to him; but now
was the time.

            With both
of them alone and crying in her bathroom, she started her story. Wearing
nothing but a ratty old T-shirt and not even a scrap of makeup on to hide her
emotions from his gaze, she had never felt so exposed to anyone.

            She forced
herself not to swat away the tears, and when he pulled away from their embrace
to look at her, she made herself keep eye contact.

            He never
interrupted her, even when the story got difficult and her voice crumbled
beneath her, he stayed strong and silent. His hands gently rubbed the backs of
her thighs, the steady strength of his touch soothed her and helped her finish
it.

            When she
was done he pulled her down onto his lap and held her close, tucking her head
into the crook of his neck.

            For the
first time in her life she felt fragile and weak and safe all at once.

            So much
time went by that the tears dried to salty streaks on her face and still he
hadn’t said a word, just held her in the strength of his arms.

            “I’m ok
now,” she spoke quietly into his shoulder.

            He looked
down at her and his eyes held a tormented sorrow that she had never seen
before.

“I’m
just so tired of all the bullshit in this life,” he looked away from her as he
spoke, “meet the woman of my dreams 100 years too late to save her, finally
feel like I’ve found a place that I belong and end up traumatizing my sister by
joining them, turn the curse of being captured by the Hunters into a gift, but
I still didn’t have enough strength to keep my pack safe, bring Balor here to
save him and end up ruining Remy’s life. I can’t fucking do anything right.
            No matter how much I try to love and protect you guys, I just end
up letting you down and ruining your lives.”

            “Stop it,”
she grabbed at his chin, “you’re being as dramatic as Tessa and I don’t date
drama Queens. None of these things are your fault and you know that. You’re
strong enough to handle everything that life has thrown at you, and together
we’re strong enough to keep going.”

            “Who says I
want to date you?” he smirked down at her.