The Bite (Book 1)

Original Edition - Chapter 9: Cracking

Screaming.

I couldn't tell at this point if it was from me or from some rabid animal dying a slow death.

Levi was trying to hold me, console me, while Derek continually iced me down and rubbed the sweat off my body causing the unrelenting fever. Saying that I was in pain was an understatement; I don't think there were even words for how I felt.

At first, my arm broke. It broke into a position that scared me more than the pain from my arm actually breaking. Next went my foot. It felt like someone stabbed in the center of it with a hot iron. The most recent event were my fangs. They came in angrily; forcing their way through my gums and making their presence known.

Levi rolled up a cold cloth and had me bite down on it. The coolness helped ease some of my pain, but only some.

Derek and Levi had argued on whether or not to give me morphine. Derek couldn't stand to see me in so much pain and was ready to stick the needle in my arm without Levi's consent, but Levi stood firm in his beliefs. He always stood firm. He didn't want me to be out of it, he didn't want to dim my beast. I needed her, I needed her mind to be working at one hundred percent, as well as mine; a drug would only dull our senses and make it harder to fight for our lives.

Another crack.

I screamed into the cloth as my leg broke. The pain was like if someone took a sledgehammer to my leg and laid into it over and over and over again. It coursed through my body like a cold merciless fire, eating away at my resolve and drawing tears.

Levi was still stroking my hair and wiping the sweat off my face while Derek threw another bucket of water on top of me.

I only felt pain, though; mind numbing pain that seemed like it was never going to end.

It was going too slowly. I felt like fate was doing this on purpose, torturing me and dragging me along on a thin line that would eventually dissolve.

Another crack.

My vertebrae felt like they had been hit with a fiery sledgehammer as well. I hunched over, away from the pain, and into the only position that my back would let me lay comfortably in.

Levi tried to move me but I only cried out in an anguished moan. I felt more rags on my body; cold onto the fiery lake that was my blood coursing through my veins.

"Shhh, it's ok Charlie girl, you're doing great," Levi whispered.

I only cried as my limbs shook from fear and pain. The beast in my brain was feeling this hell too and was trying her best to be gentle. I didn't blame her. She wanted out and there was no pretty way to do this.

"How long?" I croaked out.

I looked up through sweat-soaked tendrils of hair at Levi and Derek who were both exchanging long glances. Levi looked back to me with a sigh and continued to wash the sweat away. "Don't know girl, but you're doing great. The closer it gets to midnight, the faster it will come. You just have to push through girl."

"Char, do you want some water?" Derek asked cautiously.

I nodded and quickly felt a straw against my lips. The water was cool and refreshing. It gave me a little more life, a little more fight. The pain was horrible, but it was getting to be more manageable, only barely, though.

Another crack.

My fingers on my right hand had broke and were disfigured into a position too sickly for me to even look at. I took one look and immediately vomited on the grass next to my face.