I woke up to the feeling of something gently moving through my hair. I slid my hand up to my hair, grabbed for the foreign object and jerked as I realized it was a hand. As I turned my head to inspect it further, it was snatched away.
"You're awake." Kory stated. I looked up to see him sitting in a chair by the side of my bed. He sat with one leg crossed over the other, and had placed a book on a table close to him.
"I'm alive." I whispered amazed. "How?" I attempted to sit up, but Kory gently pushed me back on the bed with a hand on my shoulder. "Hold on for a little while. You have a concussion." That explained why my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.
"How long have I been out?" I asked, pulling the sheets up.
"Three days." He replied looking down. "Even with the concussion, they had to drug you. You were fighting in your sleep and busting up the doctor's hard work." I flushed, embarrassed.
"It's okay. The med staff here is used to it." He said amused. "How do you feel?"
I took a brief inventory of my body. Other than my head feeling a little woozy, I felt sore around my middle, my sword hand was stiff, and my right thigh felt heavy. "I'm okay, just a little sore." I watched as he got out of the chair, and walked across the room. He came back and held out a small plastic cup full of water. At the sight of it, I realized that I was parched. I took the cup from him, drinking the cool liquid deeply.
"Thank you." I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand before putting the cup on my bedside table.
He sat down in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. "I thought you'd already be a dog by the time we got there." He rubbed his hands down his legs.
"What? No. Never." I said, rolling onto my side, causing it to throb slightly.
"We didn't think you would willingly be bitten. We knew you would fight it. We thought the Lycans would have done it immediately. I was...relieved that you weren't." I watched him without replying. He seemed...twitchy. "When you were snatched, Lee and I were right there. Right there. We just couldn't reach you. There were so many of them, it was all we could do just to make sure we didn't go down. Evelyn was almost to you as well. But the dog that took you immediately ran. Who would've expected them to have a tranq gun?" He shrugged. "Anyway, we fought our way out of there and immediately called the compound. I'm so happy that Lee is the type to think on his feet. As soon as you went down, he started shooting the Lycans full of GPS trackers."
"GPS trackers?" I echoed lamely.
"It's a new prototype that one of the guardians has created. A dart that immediately ejects a GPS chip once it enters something. It's how we found the actual den." I thought about it for a moment.
"It's how you figured out where I was."
He nodded. "I had to call my contacts in the government for permission, because I didn't know how quiet we would be able to be when extracting you. Once we had permission, we flooded the place with guardians. Fought our way through room by room. When we burst into that room...I thought you were dead. There was so much blood..." He cleared his throat and turned his head away from me.
I reached out and touched his shoulder. "I wasn't though."
"No." He looked back at me and smiled, his eyes lighting up. "No you weren't." He reached out and touched my face gently. At the sound of the door opening, he sat back, pulling his hand away. I was slightly irritated until I saw who had entered the room.
She looked like herself again, long hair pulled back into a bun that helped make her high, sharp cheekbones look amazing. Her light brown eyes were heavily outlined in black, which made them extra striking with her golden tan. She was wearing a plain black t-shirt with jeans and sneakers. The best thing about her was her smile as she saw me, exuberant and warm.
"Lina!" I exclaimed, throwing back the sheets and sitting up slowly, mindful of my injuries. She rushed over, throwing her arms around me.
"Crystelle Jackson, if you ever scare me like that again I'm going to beat your ass. I'm so glad you're ok."
"Me!?" I laughed. "What about you, Miss I'm going to go meet with some strange man and let myself get attacked?"
"Well he seemed okay! And I went to a public place. How was I to know that he was, in fact, a real life werewolf?" I had to tap on her shoulder after a few seconds, she was squeezing me so hard.
"Newly stitched here." I explained, grimacing.
She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm just glad to see you awake and talking."
Kory watched the exchange with a small grin. "I'll give you two a few minutes." He said as he left the room.
Lina sat down in the chair Kory had vacated, taking my hands. "Why didn't you tell me about any of this?"
I winced. "What should I have said, Lina?" I asked. "Hey Lina, guess what? Werewolves are real and they busted into my house. Not only that but, I've been taken away by a secret government agency that is keeping the entire thing under wraps and I'm going to be trained to fight werewolves. You'd have been ticked off at me and thought I was lying."
Lina nodded, "Okay, you're right. I wouldn't have believed you. Sorry."
I shrugged. "It's okay."
She glanced at the door and then turned back to me. "So...I met Ana and Evelyn. They had some interesting deets to tell me while you were out." I cocked my head, wondering where she was going with the conversation.
"And?" I prompted.
"What's going on with you and Mr. Hunk out there?"
"Kory?" I guessed, smiling.
"Oh yeah," she said, grinning smugly. "The Kory. Spill it."
I sighed. "I don't know..." I gestured with my bandaged hand and shrugged. I needed to tell someone, and who better to tell than Lina? "I'm in love with him." Lina hooted. "I knew it! You looked gobsmacked when I came in here. So, you two had sex yet?"
I tried to hide my grin, ducking my head. Only Lina would be so succinct. "Yes. Twice." I admitted.
She laughed. "I bet he was a firecracker. All that reserved testosterone goodness." She shimmied in her seat.
Grinning from ear to ear, I nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty earth shattering." My smile faded as I added. "But, he isn't for the long term."
"Why not?" Lina asked, frowning. "Is he an asshole? He seemed like a good guy to me. Helped me not lose it when I came to in this place."
I pinched my bottom lip for a moment. "He just won't be with me as a couple. I don't even know if he wants to."
"Want me to hit him upside his head?" Lina raised her eyebrows. The sad thing was that Lina actually would if I asked her to.
Laughing at the mental image of her wacking Kory in the head, I shook my head.
"Elle..."She said slowly, "Have you even talked to him about it?"
I just stared at her.
"Didn't think so." She said fast. "Look, you need to put it out there ok? Just tell him how you feel. I know as women, we're not supposed to, but for someone like him? Do it. Cause if you don't, you're going to always wonder, ya know?" A knock at the door made Lina stand up. "By the way, I'm joining up." I frowned at her as Kory walked back in. "I don't have any abilities, but it turns out I'm a crack shot."
I opened my mouth to argue with her, but with a little finger wave, she was out of there. "Chicken." I muttered.
Kory laughed as he sat next to me. "No, she's just wise enough to know when to run. The look on your face right now is priceless."
I lay back down, processing what Kory and Lina had told me. "Is Ana here?" I asked.
"Yes. Why?"
"Can you get her in here for me? Have her check me over and make sure that I'm okay to get up and walk?"
Kory scrutinized me. "Yes. Let me get her in here." He left for a few minutes before coming back with Ana in tow.
"I hear you want to get up." She said, smiling. "This is good. I'm so happy that you are ok."
"Me too. Thanks." I told her. Once by my bed, she laid a hand on my forehead as if checking for a fever.
After a few seconds, she withdrew it. "You're definitely not at one hundred percent yet, but you are stable enough to get up and walk around."
"Good." I said, sitting up again and swinging my feet over the side of the bed. "Do I have any clothes here? Or could I borrow some?"
"Of course. Let me go find some." She smiled at me, and abruptly hugged me, whispering in my ear. "I don't want you to go Newb."
My eyes began to swim in tears. "I have to Ana. I'll miss you too though." I whispered back. We both swiped at our eyes as she let go. She smiled sadly before she turned and left.
"What was the whispering about?" Kory asked as the door closed.
"She knows I'm leaving soon." I said, looking at my feet. When I didn't hear anything, I looked up at him.
He looked stricken, his eyes dull and lips pinched. "Leaving? You're not staying with the Guardians? What about Lina?" He said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Lina wants to be here." I said slowly. "I'm not staying, but if this is what she wants, I'm going to support her decision. Of course, I hope that you guys are occasionally granted leave or something, so I can still see her. One thing about Lina and I is that we have never held each other back from anything. We just try to be there hands out for each other if we fall."
He frowned, eyebrows drawn together over his beautiful eyes.
"I've told you repeatedly that I wanted to go back to my life." I explained. "There is nothing here for me."
"There's nothing there for you." He retorted. "At least here you have people who genuinely care for you."
"Do you care?" I asked softly.
"You know I do."
"You asked me if I was in love with you Kory. Do you remember?" I said, watching him carefully.
"Yes." He closed his eyes.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because...I didn't want to give you false hope. I didn't want you to get too emotionally involved with me and then be hurt. You know we can't be together if you are a Guardian."
"And if I'm not?" I asked, steeling myself for the answer that I knew was coming.
He sighed. "I can't leave. They need me here." The door opened again, and Ana walked in with an armful of clothing.
"Here you are Elle." She said, putting them on the bed. When she looked up, her eyes widened. "Um...I'm just going to...skiddadle...I'll see you later." She said, backing toward the door to make a quick getaway. I grabbed the clothes and got up.
As I made my way to the tiny bathroom that was in the corner I said, "Be out in a moment. Don't leave." I dressed as quickly as I could with a bandaged hand and stitches all over my body. I brushed my hair, but left it down as putting it in a ponytail was too much to handle. Walking out, I saw Kory sitting on the bed, jaw clenched as he looked at his hands clasped in his lap. He looked up at me, startled, as I sat down beside him, setting the gown I had been wearing at the foot of the bed.
I reached up and held his face in my hands. His eyes darkened as I leaned forward to kiss him gently. I savored it as I felt his lips against mine, wallowing in the sensation for a few moments. I pulled back, lowering my hands.
"Kory, I'm in love with you. Shh, don't say anything, let me finish." I said, putting a finger to his lips as he attempted to speak. He put his hands over mine. "I'm in love with you. I know that you don't love me, and it's okay. And...I know that you have to be here, but I can't be. I'm not made for this, even though my abilities are perfect for it. I'm just not a soldier." I smiled. "So, this is goodbye. I'm going home." I kissed his forehead gently, pulling my hands out from under his. I turned away quickly so he wouldn't see my tears. Holding my head up, I left tattered remains of my heart behind as I walked out.