“She’s got a fucking hole in her chest,” CK bellows. “Christ, Aefre, if that had been any lower…”
“I’m okay,” I say, my own voice muffled to my ears. I put my hand up to my chest, and, yes, indeed, there is in fact a large, gaping hole in between my breasts.
“The baby?” CK cries at me and it is the first time I have ever seen sheer panic on his face before.
“She’s fine,” I say weakly. “I can feel her kicking.”
I am unable to stand on my own two feet at this point, so CK picks me up in his arms and carries me to the bed.
“Why is it not healing?” he asks desperately.
“It’s a severe wound,” Remiel says, peering down at me but not at all concerned for my well-being, or so it seems. “But she is still alive. That’s a good sign.”
Still alive? Am I? I am not so sure how. My head is swimming and I close my eyes, needing to get the room to stop spinning.
I hear Lincoln, Vito, and Xane barrel into the bedroom, all with the exact same words coming from their lips. “They’re here,” followed closely by, “Oh shit!”
“Yeah,” I gasp. “What the fuck are they doing? Are they trying to break in?”
“That’s impossible,” Remiel says, still staring out of the window.
“Uh, not exactly,” Devon yells at him. “Look what they just did!”
“I don’t think that was meant to hit Aefre,” Remiel says, deep in thought. “They are trying to get through the ward. It seems it was kind of an unfortunate ricochet.”
“Who the fuck cares! She is dy–” Devon slams his lip shut as CK punches him, not so lightly, in the arm.
“She is NOT dying,” he shouts and then turns his attention back to me. “Aefre, my sweet?”
“I’m okay,” I gurgle again, struggling to breathe, which is no surprise as I am sure that bolt took out part of my lungs.
“They are merely trying to get through the wards,” Remiel says with a note of satisfaction in his voice. “They are not trying to harm you.”
“Well, too late for fucking that!” Devon yells.
“Too much shouting,” I m
urmur.
“What is our plan here?” Xane asks. “Because I, for one, am going out there. I am going to fucking kill them for what they did to me.”
To you? I have to shake my head slightly at that. This was all done to me. To me! I am the one who has suffered at their hands and Devon was right to say the revenge is mine to dish out.
“I told you, you will have to get in line,” CK says, facing off with Xane. “My charge needs his ass kicked once and for all.”
“I will deal with this,” Remiel says. “Vengeance is mine for my charge, after all.”
“No,” CK says, shaking his head, and I put up my hand to protest. Remiel has the best chance of defeating them and to be honest, if he doesn’t, I’d rather lose him than my husband, especially seeing as how our child has now almost been so close to death.
“Let him go,” I sputter, the blood still pooling in my mouth.
“I can’t, Aefre,” he says with such a sad look on his face it nearly finishes me off. “He is your sire now; you need him to heal. That’s all there is to it.”
“What?” I ask in my utter disbelief.
I try to sit up, but the hole makes it impossible. I draw in a few raspy breaths as he says, “If he gets hurt or worse, that will be the end of you. He stays here.” End. Of. Story.
There is absolutely no arguing with him as he has that face on him.