Rage and Ruin

“We will. Not now, though.” Several moments of silence passed. “I was scared.”

My gaze shot to his, and I was snared, unable to look away.

“When I saw you like that, bleeding all over the damn place, and I couldn’t wake you up, I was scared, Trin.”

My heart flopped over. “Because you thought you might die?”

“You know damn well that’s not the reason.” His voice was low.

A hundred different things I needed to say rose to the tip of my tongue. I didn’t know where to start, but it didn’t matter. The door opened, and as Zayne leaned back, I saw Jasmine hurry into the room carrying a tray of bandages, towels, bowls and shiny silver objects. Her long dark hair was pulled up and out of her face and she was wearing some kind of house robe. She drew up short. “You’re awake.”

“I am.” I expected to see Danika follow her sister, but she didn’t.

“She woke up about ten minutes ago,” Zayne added. “And already thinks she can get out of bed.”

“I’m sure you advised her that wasn’t a wise idea.” Jasmine sat the tray on the stand near the bed.

“More like demanded,” I muttered.

Zayne shot me a dark look.

“I’m sorry it took so long to gather everything from the medical facility. It would’ve been quicker to treat her there.” Jasmine hurried around the bed.

“No one else needs to see her right now. Just you,” Zayne answered.

Jasmine didn’t reply as she sat beside me on the other side. “I want to take a closer look at the back of your head as that’s the most pressing concern. I wasn’t able to see it well when he brought you in.”

“Okay.” I was wondering what she thought she was going to do with those tools. “You need me to sit up?”

“How about you just turn your head toward Zayne. That should work.”

I did as she ordered.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to roll onto your side. Can you do that?”

“Yeah—”

Zayne intercepted when I started to roll, curving a hand over my shoulder and hip, turning me onto my side like I was a log. He held me there. I scowled, thinking he was being a bit dramatic.

“Zayne, can you hand me that pen light?” Arms moved over my head as I stared at what I realized was Zayne’s exposed navel.

“How’s the bleeding?” Zayne asked.

“Let me see...” Jasmine pushed my hair aside. Her soft inhale concerned me.

“What?” My gaze met Zayne’s. “Is my brain visible or something?”

“Quite the opposite.” Jasmine sounded too unsettled for that to be something good. “Your skin is...”

“What?” I asked, starting to twist toward her, but Zayne stopped me. “Is my skin missing?”

Zayne frowned as his gaze moved beyond me. “What is it, Jasmine?”

“Does this hurt?” she asked instead, and then I felt her fingers just below the crown of my head, probing gently.

I winced at the flare of pain. “Doesn’t feel exactly that great, but it’s manageable.”

“That’s good,” she murmured. She poked and prodded a little more and then she sat back, letting my hair fall into place. “There’s just a fine cut. I don’t think it even needs stitches. Head wounds bleed a lot, but I was expecting more damage.”

That probably explained the whole tray of scary medical instruments and was also proof that Zayne was overreacting. It took more than a knock on the head to warrant all this, even if a Trueborn had delivered the blow.

Jasmine asked for one of the sterile cloths and, once it was handed over, she cleaned the area. I kept staring at Zayne’s belly button, thinking it was kind of cute.

“Remarkable,” she murmured. “You were unconscious for a while, so I feared swelling was possible and swelling could’ve been an indication of serious issues, but the bleeding has stopped and the swelling is minimal.”

I hoped Zayne could see my face right now.

“There’s still a chance that there’s more damage beyond what I can see,” she continued, swabbing my head some more. “A CAT scan and MRI would need to be done to rule out anything more serious than a concussion.”

I opened my mouth.

“But I have a feeling you’re going to refuse that,” she added. “You can let her onto her back now.”

Zayne did, thank God, and I scowled up at him. He ignored me. “You’re positive she doesn’t need stitches?”

“Are you trying to inflict pain on me?” I glared at him. “Do you remember the last time I had to get stitches—”

“I haven’t forgotten,” he responded coolly.

“There’s no need for stitches. There should be, but there’s not.” Jasmine tossed bloodied cloths into a bin.

“What do you recommend?” Zayne’s hand was still on my hip, and I had no idea if he was aware of that or not.

“Can we be honest with each other for a moment? There’s just the three of us, and if you want sound, educated medical advice, you need to be open about something.”

I shifted my narrowed gaze to Zayne and said, “What do you want to know?”

“Are you human?” she asked.

“Well, that’s kind of an offensive question.” I sat up and when Zayne moved to stop me, the look I gave him should’ve burned out his retinas. There was pain as I went upright, but nothing serious. “I’m not going to pass out if I sit up.”

“A part of me wishes you would, because then you’d at least—”

“If you say be quiet, I will show you exactly how okay I am,” I warned.

The corner of his lips tipped up in a way that reminded me of when he was amused, but I had to be reading it wrong. “I was going to say, then at least you’d be still.”

“Oh.” Well then. “Fine.” I glanced at Jasmine, and her lips were pressed together as if she was fighting a smile or a grimace. “To answer your question, I am human.”

She tipped toward me. “No human bleeds as if they’re seconds away from a massive brain hemorrhage and is able to sit up and argue like you an hour or so later. Now what I think is that you have incredibly tough skin and a thick skull—”

“Well...” Zayne drew the word out.

“The other option is that you were seriously injured, but you have some level of accelerated healing that allows you to heal within an hour,” she continued, and I honestly didn’t know. Previously, whenever I was injured, medical aid was always rendered immediately. “What I do know is, either of those things would mean you’re not human, and it’s not like Zayne overreacted by bringing you here. He doesn’t.”

“I beg to differ on the last point.” I sighed. “But I am human. Partly.”

“You’re not part demon,” she said.

“She’s not,” Zayne confirmed. “Dez knows. So does Nicolai, but I can’t—”

“I’m a freaking Trueborn,” I said, so tired of lying, and what was the point? Her husband knew, and there was another Trueborn out there. Hell, there could be a league of them for all I knew, with their own softball teams.

Zayne slid me a long look. “Really, Trinity?”

I shrugged and then grimaced, which caused Zayne to appear as if he was seconds from forcing me to lie back down.

“You’re...you’re half angel?” Jasmine whispered, placing her hand against her chest. “And that...” Her eyes shot to Zayne. “Are you her Protector?”

“Yes. We are bonded for forever and ever,” I murmured.

“My God, I never thought... I mean, I thought there were no more Trueborns.”

“Yeah, so did we,” Zayne muttered. Confusion marked Jasmine’s features, but Zayne went on, “This is something we were trying to keep quiet.”

I met the look he sent me with raised brows.

“I won’t say anything. I mean, I’m totally going to talk to Dez, because you said he knows, but otherwise I won’t.” She let out a little laugh. “I have so many questions.”

“I’m sure you do, but now that you know what she is, can you tell us what you think we should do from here?” Zayne said, getting us back on track, as always.

“Well, I’m not sure with her being angelic blood, but I don’t think you have to worry about her blowing a blood vessel in her brain,” she said, and I wrinkled my nose. “But with her being unconscious, that human side probably got a nasty concussion. She should probably take it easy for a couple of days.”

Couple of days?

I didn’t know how Zayne got Jasmine out of the room or how long it took, because I spent the time gearing up for the major battle I knew was coming.

As soon as we were alone and he turned to me, I said, “I’m not taking it easy for a couple of days. We finally found out what the Harbinger is, and those tunnels have to be important. There is no way I’m spending days in bed when I’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“You have no idea if you’ll be fine in a few hours.” He sat down on the bed. “Have you ever been knocked out for an hour?”

“Well, no, but I know I don’t need to be bedridden.”

“How about forty-eight hours—”

“Twelve.”

“Twenty-four.”

“No,” I argued.

Zayne looked like he wanted to strangle me but was resisting. Thank God, because that would probably result in more taking it easy time. “Tomorrow. You take it easy all day and night. That’s it. And you could use the time, because you’ve got to pack up your clothes, which are scattered all around the bedroom. We’re moving in to the new apartment on Thursday.”

Wow. I hadn’t been keeping track of time. “How about we go to the tunnels tomorrow, during the day, to look around, and if we come across any potentially dangerous situations, I will sit it out or run as fast as I can in another direction.”     PrevNextTip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between pages.

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