Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

18 - Pancakes

"I can carry you if you want." Isaac kept his hand on my back. His ocean blue eyes darted from the side of my face to the remaining stairs I had to go down.

I dismissively waved my right hand in the air at him. With my other hand, I gripped onto the banister a little tighter, grimacing at the faint pain in my thigh from where I was stabbed. "Isaac, I'm okay, I promise," I reassured him, carefully stepping on the next step on the staircase. I shrugged my shoulders, adding, "It's no big deal."

Scoffing, Aiden folded his arms over his chest, where he stood at the bottom of the long staircase and narrowed his dark eyes at me. "No big deal? Chloe, the wolfsbane in your system was killing you."

My whole face contorted with pain as I slowly lowered myself down on the next step, taking a moment to lean all of my weight on my good leg. My fingers dug into the wooden banister, squeezing my eyes shut for a brief moment to stay calm, despite the pain radiating in my thigh. Isaac's right hand wrapped around my own right hand to give me something else to stabilize myself with.

When I opened my eyes, a soft sigh of relief floated off of my lips and I saw my brother taking away some of my pain. I smiled at him, gratefully. The pain in my thigh was gradually healing with the wolfsbane no longer in my system, thanks to the two guys in the house with me. My body was healing, but from being so weak from the wolfsbane, I was bound to be in pain until morning when I would finish healing.

"That kind--" I paused before I moved my leg down to the next step with Isaac's help, too stubborn to allow him to just carry me down the stairs and save all of us this trouble. "That kind of wolfsbane doesn't kill werewolves. It would just weaken me, like it did." I informed both of them.

"No, it paralyzed you," Aiden corrected me.

I stopped in mid-step to frown at him in confusion. "What?"

Isaac gently nudged me to step down once more, instead of keeping my foot hovering in the air. "The wolfsbane weakened and paralyzed you, Chloe."

I made a noise of surprise. "I don't remember that."

"That's because you were unconscious," Aiden pointed out. "Deaton told us the same thing happened to Brett.

Aiden bobbed in his head in air. "Yeah, we had to cut a two inch incision into your chest to get the wolfsbane out of your system. So, you're welcome for not letting you die." He waved his hand at me in a sarcastic manner, yet we both knew he held genuine concern for me.

My hand lifted off of the banister to rub the sore area on my chest, just underneath the thin, cotton t-shirt. "That explains the faint, pink scar on my chest," I mumbled under my breath.

By morning, the scar would be long gone along with the stab wound in my thigh. However, until then, I was forced to take everything easy and try to ignore the pain I felt in my leg from being stabbed with a dagger. This was not my first time being stabbed with a dagger, no thanks to Allison, but it was the first time for the blade to be laced with wolfsbane.

After I woke up in my own bed about ten minutes ago, Isaac filled me in on what happened after I fell unconscious in the boy's locker room, cradled in Stiles' arms.

Without getting anyone's approval, Aiden and my brother took off with me, saying they knew exactly what to do with me, and wanted me far away from the whole scene before Stiles' dad and the rest of the cops showed up. Brett was brought to the animal clinic to be checked out by Deaton while the police, including Scott's dad, arrested Violet.

Garrett was long gone before anyone had the chance to arrest him. Frankly, I just wanted to make sure no one else was harmed after what happened and to make sure I left Violet in a pretty bad condition with the bat.