Everything went black.
Chapter 5
I knew I was awake, but I didn’t want to open my eyes. I felt horrible. I reached over to the other side of the bed, hoping beyond hope that Jasper would be lying beside me. The movement hurt so much that I thought I was going to throw up. But none of this physical pain was even close to the ones of the memories running through my head.
I remembered Ream crushing Jasper. All the blood. The helpless feeling of not being able to do anything for him.
No. Wait. I was helping him.
But he had ordered Zane to make me stop. He hadn’t been strong enough. I hadn’t been strong enough.
“You’re awake!”
I jumped at the sound of a chair moving beside the bed. My eyes flew open and closed again. The light was blinding. My head was about to explode. Another wave of nausea hit me and I swallowed hard.
I started to cry. I had been strong enough.
I squinted to see him. He ran a thumb over my cheek to wipe away the tears. “I’m so sorry. I was trying to stay awake because I thought you might wake soon. You were mumbling a lot.”
I tried to sit up and groaned, my head spinning. I gave up and lay back down. “How long have I been out?” It even hurt to talk. My throat felt dry and my voice cracked.
“Six days.”
I heard him walk to the other side of the bed and lay beside me. I rolled over slowly and wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could without passing out.
He inhaled sharply. “Easy, Shlova .”
“You’re still hurt!” My scratchy whisper made my head pound.
Jasper pulled the blanket over our heads so that I could open my eyes. He brushed the hair back from my face and kissed me softly. “I had to get Zane to stop you before you were done. I wasn’t going to have you kill yourself trying to save me.”
“But you would have had plenty of energy after that. Why didn’t Fillian finish the job?”
“She tried. It seems she can only use a person’s original energy to heal. But don’t worry. She said it looks like all that’s left to heal are some cracked ribs. I’ll be good as new in a few weeks.”
I was crying again.
“Shush, now. What’s wrong?” I rolled back a bit so I could look at him. Dark bruises covered his chest and sides. Even in the dim light under the blankets they were visible.
“I’m fine, really.” He pulled me to him, trying not to wince while I looked at him.
“I thought you were dead. I saw him crush you. You promised. Nothing stupid!” A new wave of tears streamed down my face.
“Well, it didn’t seem stupid at the time,” he laughed softly then caught his breath. “It was a two on one fight.”
“He’s a sorcerer.”
“He’s not a very good one. And besides. Namaels and Majs can’t do magic while in their animal forms. Who knew he’d have someone hiding out in the woods waiting to shock anyone who got too close to him. It was the strangest feeling. I couldn’t move.” He looked at me. “And what about you? Coming down the ridge after us. What’s not stupid about that?”
“I couldn’t just let you get yourself killed!” I winced as my voice raised an octave.
He lifted my chin up and gazed into my eyes. He leaned down, gave me the softest kiss and I tried to remember to breath. “Thank you,” he whispered.
I smiled at him. “Anytime.” I snuggled back into his chest, being careful not to hurt him. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”
He chuckled. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
“What about everybody else?”
“Dodge dislocated a shoulder, but Fillian fixed that right away. Ben got an arrow in the side, but he’s fine.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Hayden, you should concentrate on going back to sleep. You need to rebuild your strength.”
“How many.”
He sighed. “Fifteen of the Wedelves. Three Scannoves. Nine cats.”
I started to cry again. Jasper wrapped his arms around me tightly, ignoring his pain to try and ease mine.
*****
For the next two days we lay in bed and slept. Tara would come to the room every few hours to see if we needed anything or to bring us our meals.
Jasper would leave the room for brief periods of time to go visit downstairs then come back to bed.
By day number three I finally felt strong enough to get out of bed. I thought of attempting to go downstairs to see everyone. That plan was cut short when I started to feel dizzy by the time I had moved around the room and started to make my way to the door.
Jasper helped me back to the bed.
“I’ll go get our breakfast,” he offered.
“Are you sure you’re ok to do that?”
He smiled. “I can move around, just slowly.” He caught me looking at the bruises on his body and frowned. “I’ll put a shirt on.”
“No. It’s ok.” I watched him try to get his shirt on and cringed when he sucked in a breath. “You’ve been walking around with no shirt on for over a week, Jasper. I’m sure no one will mind if you do it for a few more days.”
He grumbled and gave up.
I laughed at him. “You must be the only person I know who would be grouchy after nearly dying.”
He smiled at me. “I’m not grumpy about the fact that I didn’t die. Just the fact that I can’t get my shirt on.”
“Well, I don’t mind at all.” It wasn’t a lie. Even with the bruises he was beautiful to look at.
“Really?” He looked a combination of smug and embarrassed. “I thought the bruises would bother you.”
“They do. But only because it means I wasn’t strong enough to take away all of your pain. Though I guess a few bruises and some cracked ribs are infinitely better than the alternative.”
I sat on the bed, relieved. “I came so close to losing you. It still seems impossible that you’re still here.”
He came to sit beside me. “It is because of you that I am,” he whispered, his voice thick. “The ribs will heal. I just have to remember not to shift. I rebroke a couple when I shifted back into a human. Honestly, I am having the time of my life just lying in bed and holding you.”
I laughed at him. “You’re bored stiff!”
He grinned down at me. “Yes, I am. Not the holding you part. I could do that forever. But not being able to move properly is starting to get to me.”
“Well, maybe tonight I could try to finish healing you.”
He shook his head. “You have just as much healing to do as I do.” He laughed, his smile taking my breath away. “We’ll just have to be happy with lying in bed for a few more days.”
“I can definitely handle that.” I smiled up at him as he leaned down to kiss me. My stomach growled and he laughed.
“I’ll be right back with breakfast.”
“Ok. But don’t move to slow. I don’t want to starve to death.”
He stuck his tongue out at me like a five year old. “Though it might be a good idea to keep some bread and cheese up here. That way if you are hungry, you can just go ahead and eat.”
The way he said it made me think he wasn’t telling me something. “What?”
“Nothing. I just think it will help you get your strength back.” His ears were red, a sure indication he was keeping something from me.
I realized then that I hadn’t looked at myself in the mirror since I had woken up. That’s when I noticed that the mirror had been turned to face the wall. My eyes widened. “What do I look like?”
He scowled and the rest of his face matched his ears. “It’s nothing. You look fine. It’s just that I know that for some reason you don’t think you are beautiful, which you are, and well, I don’t think this will help with your delusions.”
I could tell he was mad at himself. “I want to see.”
He sighed. He walked over to the mirror, all the while muttering something about his big mouth.
I had to smile at him. He turn
ed the mirror so that it was facing the bed again.
My mouth dropped and my heart sank. I looked like I had lost at least ten pounds. I could see bones through the skin. There were dark circles around my eyes and my skin looked yellow. I started crying. “Why didn’t you tell me I looked this bad?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just like I said before. You judge yourself to harshly and I knew that this would upset you.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks. “You look fine! Think of what you’ve been through! Hayden, you almost died!”
I snorted at him.
He took my face in his hands. “Hayden, you could lose another ten pounds and turn green, and I would still find you the most beautiful creature on this earth.” He stood me up and put his arm around me. “Look.” He faced us both towards the mirror. “We go perfectly together.”
I had to laugh. My small, gaunt, yellow self was very well complimented by his muscled purple and blue torso.
“Now, let’s get you something to eat.”
“Ok.”
For the next three days I concentrated on sleeping and eating. By the morning of the fourth day, I was ready to get some fresh air. There were a couple of factors that made me think an outing was a good idea. One was the fact that I was feeling quite a bit better. The other was that if I had to stay with Jasper indoors one more day I was going to have to kill him myself. Though he was well enough to move around he insisted on staying with me. I had come to the conclusion that tigers had never been meant to be indoor cats.
Jasper was asking me what I wanted for breakfast before he headed downstairs to get it.
“Actually, I thought that I would come down today. Also, I was thinking that if it’s nice out, we could go relax by the pond. I don’t imagine it matters if I sleep on a bed or on a blanket.”
His smile lit up his face. Even Tiny seemed to think this was a good idea. She jumped out of her nest and ran up my leg as I headed out the door.
When we got downstairs, Zane, Brice, Tara and Ben were already eating. Zane and Brice looked at us as we entered the room, their eyes widening before they decided to stare at their food.
Ben glared at them while Tara jumped out of her chair and ran to give me a hug.
“You are looking much better!”
I smirked at her.
“No, really. Goodness, the first day we got you back here I think Tiny could have dragged you all the way. I can barely see any bones now.” She smiled. “And your coloring is definitely almost back to normal.” She turned me in a full circle to look me over.
“Thanks, Tara.” I hugged her back.
“Well, that’s hardly fair,” mumbled Jasper.
I looked over at him. “What?”
“I have spent the last week telling you every day that you are starting to look better and all I get is ‘you’re just saying that’, and Tara does it once and you accept it and give her a hug.”
I laughed at him. Getting him outside was definitely a good idea. “Do you want a hug?”
He blushed. “That’s not what I meant.”
I walked back to him and carefully wrapped my arms around him. He winced as he put his arms around me in return. I looked up into his beautiful eyes and couldn’t help to put my hand on his face. He closed his eyes at the touch and I pulled him down to my lips. The kiss started softly, and he brought his hands up to hold my face as well. Everyone else in the room disappeared. He ran his tongue over my bottom lip, sending shivers down my spine. I moaned.
Someone cleared their throat.
We broke apart, both of us beet red.
“Sorry,” I muttered. Ben laughed. I looked at them. Tara was smiling, Ben’s arm around her. Brice’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their head. Zane was making gagging noises.
I laughed. He was me when I had been around Shayna and Shawn.
“One of these days, Zane, I’ll be telling you ‘I told you so’!”
He surprised me by looking a bit sad. “I highly doubt it.”
Jasper took my hand. “Shall we have a picnic?”
“Let’s.”
He went to the hall closet and grabbed a blanket while I packed us a brunch.
We were outside for a total of three seconds when Dodge trotted up to us.
“Hey, buddy.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him for a minute.
Dodge blew out of his nose.
“We’re going to the pond,” Jasper explained to my horse while I looked on and waited to hear what he was saying.
“He wants to know if you would like a ride there.”
I gave Dodge a quick kiss on the nose. “No, that’s ok. I need to stretch.”
“He is wondering if you would mind if he left for a bit. There is a herd not too far from here. He was waiting to make sure you were well before he went.”
“Of course,” I smiled. “Go be a horse.”
Dodge nuzzled my face and trotted off.
“Hayden!”
I turned in time to get crushed in a hug as Phlann gathered me against him.
“Thank goodness you’re ok!” He put me down and looked at me. “You are ok, right? You don’t look ok.” All excitement left his voice.
I laughed at him. “I’m fine. Give me another week to get some more food into me and I’ll be back to normal.” I reached up and gave him another hug. “Thank you.”
He grinned at me. “Well, I had to make up for almost letting you die the first time.”
“I’m glad you were around. “
Phlann glanced at the blanket in Jasper’s arms. “So where are you going?”
“To the pond. I’m tired of lying in bed. That, and if Jasper doesn’t stop complaining that he can’t move properly I might finish the job for Ream. I’m hoping this will cheer him up.” I grinned at Jasper who looked sheepish.
“Ok! Have fun!” He trotted off in the direction that Dodge had gone.
The pond was a quick five minute walk from the house. It took us closer to ten to get there.
Once we had the blanket down on the ground we lay on our backs and looked at the white clouds slowly making their way across the sky.
Jasper reached down and took my hand. “Have I been that hard to live with?”
I laughed at him. “Yes. I have a theory that tigers would never make good house pets.”
He laughed with me. “I’m sorry. I just can’t bear the thought of leaving you for any length of time after almost losing you. And to think you almost saved my life just so I could live miserably for the rest of it.”
“Well, I guess we’re even now. Let’s leave it at that then, shall we?”
He nodded.
“Why did Zane seem sad when I bugged him about when he finds the one he is fated with?”
“He doesn’t think he will ever find her. Zane started dreaming of her when he was fifteen. He has been actively searching for her since then. It’s been ten years now and he can’t even find someone who might have seen a girl who matches her description.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. Especially now that I know how it feels to find the one you are meant to be with.” He brought my hand up to his lips.
We lay quietly for a while, enjoying the peacefulness of the pond.
“So what do you think you might feel like doing once we are back to normal?” he asked.
“Well, I told Dodge that we would go on his stone quest when things settled down.” I glanced at him and caught him shaking his head, trying not to laugh. I turned a bit red. “What?”
“So the Majs weren’t challenge enough for you, now you want to take on the dragons!” He looked at me, grinning.
“He refuses to go because he’s my guardian. I won’t have him miss out on his life because of me.” I grinned back at him. “You did say you would go live with the dragons as long as I was there with you.”
He started laughing and caught his breath. “So I did.”
We lay in the sun and enjoyed the warmth of the day. I closed my
eyes and breathed the fresh air.
“This is great. I’m glad we came out here.”
“Hmm hmm. Are you hungry? Do you want to me to get the lunch out?” Jasper asked.
“No. Not yet. Unless you are. You can start if you want.”
I heard him shake his head. “I’m fine for now.” He gave my hand another squeeze.
There was a rustle in the bush behind us.
Jasper turned awkwardly to see who was coming to join us.
I heard him grunt.
“Hayden, run!”
I didn’t look back. The look on his face as he tried to get up was enough to send me sprinting toward Tara’s house as fast as I could manage.
I could hear someone catching up to me under the sound of Tiny’s excited chattering. She unwrapped her tail from my neck and jumped from my shoulder.
Whoever was behind me cried out and swore, but kept on coming. I heard Tiny’s squeak and Jasper’s grunt of pain somewhere behind me. Then my head was exploding and everything went black.
*****
I lost count of how many days we traveled. We rarely stopped. I was blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. I was made to change horses every so often and my guess was so that we could get as far away as fast as possible. They must have had horses waiting along the way. When I would fall asleep from exhaustion someone would hop on behind me and hold me up. That same person would sit behind me and feed me bread and cheese.
I was assuming it was the same person. Whoever it was always smelled and felt the same. But I was sure there was at least two. There was no way one of them could have hit Jasper and my head at almost the exact same moment.
Sometime after I stopped counting the days, we may have been at about four, the person who was behind me touched my head and grunted.
“We better stop and clean her up. She won’t be any good to them if she dies from infection.”
Someone else muttered an answer. It was the first time I had heard any of them talk.
A little while later we stopped. I could hear running water. The man sitting behind me swung down then pulled me off. He directed me towards the water and made me sit on a rock.
Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' Page 13