Betrayal in Elysium [malexmale]

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

I woke up to the worst sensation in the world.

It was like a hangover, but ten times worse. My ears were ringing and my head was throbbing something awful. I felt sweaty and hot, like I was on fire. I could hear voices talking around me, but they sounded so far away and muffled. My chest hurt and every gulp of air I sucked in felt like a kick in the chest by a giant.

I managed to open my eyes, my eyelids feeling as heavy as a box of rocks. My vision was blurry and distorted for a moment before the constant painful blinking cleared everything and I found myself staring up at the ceiling over my bed. I looked at it, confused. My body felt numb, but painful at the same time. I didn't want to move. I couldn't move. I managed to tilt my head to the left and saw Malachi standing there with Cain, Hannibal, Adrian, and Jahlia.

My heart soared at that. Jahlia! She was alive! But she looked so nervous, and pissed. But not as angry as Cain, who was snarling something at Malachi and Malachi just snapped back at him. Hannibal and Adrian were silent, both looking uncomfortable with the argument between my brothers. The longer I stared, the more my hearing started to clear up again.

"... fucking fault," Cain was shouting, pointing at Jahlia, who gave him a dirty look, "That's why he's like this! The fucking whore wanted him to do it. And that stupid bastard was the one who drugged him! He's probably never going to wake up! And I swear to God, if you don't let me kill her--"

"Abel said no," Adrian protested now, frowning at Cain, who pinned Adrian with a glare most murderous, but Adrian managed to ignore it, "He doesn't want you to kill her. He kept saying it when you guys brought him here. We're not killing her. It's not her fault. The guy at the bar was the one who did it, not Jahlia. And you already killed that man."

"Which was such a good idea on your part," Jahlia told Cain sarcastically, making everyone grimace as Cain fumed, "Now we won't find out why he did it. That wasn't a drug to put him into submission long enough for a fuck. I've been drugged like that before. It was something else and my bets are on that Alexion dude. He probably hoped it would kill him."

"And it would have," Malachi agreed, making Cain twitch, "But you got him here in time and we managed to pump what we could out of his system. The rest was absorbed and it's best to let it run its course. He'll probably be better in a couple days, but he's going to be weak." Cain made a sound of distress, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Hannibal looked like he wanted to help him, but when he reached out, Cain shoved his hand away and came toward the bed. I shut my eyes so he couldn't tell if I was awake, but he was really good at telling if I was faking or not, so I didn't expect much.

I felt his fingertips brush my cheek and it felt like blades of ice against the fire of my skin. I was still breathless, my lungs screaming for deeper gulps of air as I tried to breath normally through all of the pain.

"Get away from him," Jahlia protested angrily, her footsteps following as she approached the bed, "He doesn't want you near him."

"I know that, bitch," Cain snarled at her, and I could just imagine the scorn on Jahlia's face, "But he's my brother. I want to kill you so badly right now that it is literally causing me pain, but Abel's never done that to me before."

"Done what?" Malachi asked, confused.

"None of your business." Cain responded automatically. For once, I was grateful that Cain didn't brag about me being a pussy. My gut churned at the thought of the fact that I actually clung to him screaming at him to leave Jahlia alone. I had already had a best friend die. I didn't want to see it happen again, especially to someone like Jahlia, who had yet to see the rest of the world.