The Breed: Nora's Choice (33 page)

            Memphis
roared and within seconds his body came into view as he attempted to climb down
to her with
one
arm.

            “You’ll
kill yourself!” she screamed, hot tears burning her face.

            “Then we
die together,” he bit back stubbornly, as he tried to find a way down.

            She tried
to pull herself up but the floor was smooth solid marble with no grooves for
her fingers to latch into. Trying to lift her legs onto the floor only resulted
in her losing the grip of one hand and temporarily hanging by only her left
hand.

            A roar
ripped through the night with such ferocity it hurt her ear drums and made her
flinch. She would know that sound anywhere.

            Turning her
head as far as she could she saw two glowing red eyes. Quinn had seen her from
the gaping hole in the medical wings floors and was now on his way to save her.

            He would
have to run down nearly fifty flights of steps, across the massive courtyard to
the education building, and then up the crumbling foundation, all before her
arms gave out on her.

            “Memphis
stop,” she begged as the floor boards beneath him groaned and snapped with his
weight, “Quinn is coming.”

            “Fuck that
I’m not leaving you baby girl,” his voice cracked and a tear slid down his dark
cheek.

            “You have
to let him save me,” she pleaded as the muscles in her back and shoulders began
to burn with her weight, “you have to let me go.”

            “I won’t
let you die,” he choked back a sob as he scrambled to make it down one floor.

            “Trust me,
he’s going to save me,” she mustered as much confidence as she could, making
her voice sound as calm and self assured as it was possible, “he’ll always save
me.”

            The wind
blew a chilly breeze past her aching body, and it carried with it Quinn’s
feelings. She felt the strength and determination he was mentally sending her,
and it calmed her. He was here, and he would save her no matter what.

            This
situation around her was irrelevant, because he was with her, and he would
never let anything happen to her.

            “I can’t
hold on,” she said calmly, “stay where you are.”

            “Don’t you
fucking let go Nora,” the sound of heartbreak in his voice devastated her,
“don’t let go, he’s not down there, I can’t see him.”

            “I can feel
him,” she smiled up at Memphis, tears clouding her vision, “I’ll see you in a
minute I promise.”

            With that,
she simply let go.

            Memphis’
screams of sorrow and rage followed her down, but she closed her eyes and
breathed, relaxing her body as it hurtled floor after floor.

            Thirty
stories up…

            Twenty
stories up…

            Ten stories
up…

            The sound
of shattering glass exploded all around her. He had jumped out of the eighth
floor window, his body even breaking past the safety grate that had gone up.

            Grabbing
her in the air he tucked her against his chest, then wrapped his massive form
around her, cocooning her.

            When they
hit the ground he plummeted into the concrete while she bounced out of his arms
with the force of the landing.

            Dazed from
the impact she looked around and saw nothing but corpses of dead Hunters and
civilian Breed members. Fires were being put out, and all the fights had ended.

            Had they
won?

            Realization
hit her and she scrambled to her feet and rushed to him.

            Looking
down into the crater that he was now in, every bone in his back had to have
been broken, but he still managed to smile up at her.

…
Three weeks later…

            Time had
flown by since the battle at the Embassy.

            Quinn truly
had broken every bone in his back, shoulders, and collar bone from the fall,
but she had ever so lovingly been nursing him back to health.

            Sebastian
had shown up to help with the battle, and behind him had brought all the
members of the Charleston Embassy that were still loyal to the Breed. By the
next day nearly half of the members of that Embassy had disappeared, no doubt
to go into hiding and support the Nine.

            Marcus had
disappeared completely, and within the first week of the rebuild Sebastian had
gone off to track him down. He had stayed only long enough to help cremate the
dead, pay off the police, city building inspectors and public officials, so that
the “accident” at Lee Com industries was written off as a “mechanical
malfunction”, and then he was off like a blood hound.

            Casstiel
had spent the last two weeks in meetings with the other Embassy leaders finally
filling them in on everything that had happened, and was more stressed out than
she had ever seen him.

            Nora
however was currently sitting pretty on cloud nine.

            The day
after the battle, while Quinn was laying in the hospital bed full of misery, he
had told her to bring him an envelope from the inside of this milk crate, that
was
still
sitting on her couch.

            Hastily she
brought it to him, but he insisted that she open it instead. When she ripped
past the seal she found two one way tickets to Puerto Rico inside.

            He had
bought the tickets weeks ago when she had confessed how upset she was at not
knowing any of her own history, and was waiting for the right time to give them
to her. He wanted to take her to explore her roots and find her culture, and
had even been giving her Spanish language lessons while he had nothing else to
do in his hospital bed.

            Now that he
was finally well enough to walk again, and lift small items without grimacing
in pain, they were finally ready to leave. Casstiel wouldn’t let them be gone
for too long, a month tops, but that was still more than she could ever have
imagined.

            Her heart
was so full of love for the man standing beside her she didn’t know what to do
with herself.

            “What are
you staring at?” he mimicked her adorable voice, “Oh I know… you’re thinking
about how much you
love
me, and how you can’t wait to be with me
forever
.”

            Smiling up
at him she didn’t even bother to answer, the truth was written on her face, she
simply grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for one hell of a
kiss.