Hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 33
After a while Jace laid us down on the soft grass. I suddenly felt a sharp agonizing pain in my side. I gasped out in pain, and so did Jace. Then I felt Jace go limp under me. The pain went away. I sat up and looked over at Jace.
"Jace?" I asked.
He had passed out again. His adrenaline must have stopped numbing the pain, and his body was tired, so he must have just passed out.
"Jace?" I asked again, only louder. No answer.
Now what was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave him here. Jace needed to see a doctor. He needed to be stitched up, and wash all this blood off. I also had to do something with the... the body. If it were found, then there would be questions. We couldn't risk any questions from the authority, because that could give away everything.
My chest tightened up, as I thought of how hopeless this all seemed. No, I couldn't cry now. I gave myself the time I needed to do so, and that was it. I had to be strong now for Jace. Could I? Yes, I had to!
I looked back down at Jace. How was I supposed to drag him through the woods, all the way back to school, and then load him up in his car. Did I even know where his keys were? I also had to bury that body. I needed help!
Jace probably had a phone on him... but he shifted, so his clothes were lost. Maybe I could go back to school, and find John or borrow somebodies phone. I looked around myself, and realized I had no idea which way the school was. All around me were woods all looked the same. I did come from the opposite direction of the creek. But I could have been running around in circles before.
If only I knew where Jace had shifted. Maybe he was in the clearing, and saw the rouge was ready to attack me, and shifted. That would be a miracle, and very unlikely if that had happen. But still, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.
I gave Jace one last glance, feeling uneasy about leaving him with a dead body near him, before I started to walk over to where I had come from. I reached the log, and thought about where Jace had come from. He came from the right, so I started heading that way. I searched around the entire perimeter of the clearing, and found nothing. I decided to go around one more time, and this time also look into the woods. So I went a few yards into the woods, and walked around the perimeter keeping the clearing in view. I almost gave up, because it was too dark to really see much.
I saw several clumps that I thought were it, but just churned out to be a clump of weeds, sticks, or mud. I saw a clump of something dark, with patches of white. That had to be it. What else would have patches of white in it. I walked closer to it, and as soon as I could make it out I let out a cheer. I found his clothes!
I kneeled down in front of the pile, and started to sort it out. His shoes were partially intact. Hit tux, didn't look so good. It was shredded into pieces. So I guess I wasn't going to be getting Jace dressed. I found his car keys easily, but it was his phone that I wanted. I continued to sort through his pile. My hand touched something hard, and I quickly yanked it up, and it was... a rock. Great.
I chucked the rock behind me, and heard it crash in the bushes. A moment later I heard a twig snap. I froze with a shred of black fabric in my hand. It's ok. It was probably just a rabbit or something. Yeah, a cute harmless rabbit. I finally gathered enough nerve to turn around, and see what was there. Nothing. I glanced all around me, and saw nothing out of the normal. I let out a sigh of relief, and continued sorting through the fabric.
After what felt like ages I finally found it, after mistaking his phone for a rock a few more times. I clicked it on, and saw that there was no signal. Great. I walked back into the clearing to check on Jace. He was still unconscious. I got a slight chill when I looked over him. I felt that chill come over me when I looked at his face. A face that now looked calm and beautiful, but had looked like a killers.
I plopped down next to him, and checked for a signal. Still nothing. I needed to get to higher ground. I looked around myself. Or a tree would work. I left Jace again, and found a good tree with lots of high branches. I stuck the phone into my corset top of the dress, and started climbing up.
As soon as I got up as far as I dared, I paused and pulled out the phone. I had a signal. A faint on, but still a signal. I straddled the branch with my back against the trunk so I could use both hands on the phone. I looked through Jace's contacts for John's number. I dialed it, and it went straight to voicemail. I tried again, and the same thing happen. I sent him a text, and told him to call.
I then dialed the only number that I really knew by heart, that could help us. It rang eight times, and I was ready to just hang up, when I heard a gruff voice answer.
"What?" He snapped. His voice was cold, and it was probably because my nerves were still fried, but it sent chills down my spine.
"I'm in trouble," my voice cracked a bit, from the crying before.
"Who is this?" Cole asked.
"Eliana."
"Shit! What happen? Where are you?" He asked concerned.
"It's a long story, and I will explain when you get here. I'm in the woods by my school."
"How the hell am I supposed to find you in the middle of the woods?"
Good point. I couldn't find the school. Even if I did stumble across the school, how would I be able to find my way back. I didn't know how far in I was either. Then I remembered the creek.
"Ok if you go into the woods, you'll eventually find a creek. Follow the creek until you come across the clearing. When I go back into the clearing I won't have a signal, so call me when you reach the school. I will still be where I am right now, until you call. Then I will go and wait for you in the clearing," I explained.
"Does any of this have to do with Jace?" He asked.
"Yes, but he's not the reason I'm in trouble. I'll explain when you get here."
"Are you in life threatening danger?" He asked.
"Not anymore."
I hung up on him, before he could say anything else. I waited up in the tree, and tried not to think. If I did, then I would probably end up sobbing. I wanted to play a game on his phone, but was afraid it would die on me. So instead I started naming every state going by regions. When I reached Michigan the phone rang. I checked the caller i.d. and recognized Cole's number, so I picked up.
"Hey I'm at school. I'm heading into the woods right now. I think I might still be able to keep a signal for longer, so stay there for another 10 minutes."
"Ok," I replied. "I'm right above the creek anyways, so I should be able to see you before you get to the clearing."
"See ya soon," he said and then hung up.
I continued with naming the states, and a few minutes late the phone rang again. I picked up.
"Hey I found the creek," he said excited.
"Good follow it into the clearing."
"Just stay where you are, and try not to get hurt, ok?"
"Sure. Oh, when you get into the clearing, please don't freak out. I will meet you down there, and we can figure out what to do with the problem."
"Wait how bad is- shit!" He swore. "I'm ok, just tripped over a log. How the hell do you get around the woods. It's like a death trap."
I let out a shaky quite laugh that turned into choked up sob.
"Eliana, you ok?" He asked concerned.
"Yeah, just shaken up. I'll talk to you in a bit. Be careful please?"
I hung up, and my eyes started to burn. My chest tightened, and I buried my face into my hands. How did all of this happen? One moment I was dancing, the next I was about to be raped. Now I had to explain to Cole what had happen. How was I supposed to do that? I couldn't. I was expected to bury a body. I couldn't. I was expected to be strong for Jace. I couldn't. I was expected to act as if nothing ever happen after this. I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't. I just couldn't do anything. It wasn't like I could just get over nearly being killed and raped. That is probably what everybody will expect from me.
What about Jace? Every time I saw his face I got a chill. I would remember that other Jace that looked ready to kill me. How could I love him? I just cried and cried. Everything was a wreck. I couldn't even have Jace. I knew that eventually I would stop seeing that, but how long?
I suddenly felt a hand touch my shoulder. I jolted, and nearly fell out the tree. Whoever it was steadied me. I looked over, and saw Cole's worried face.
"Sorry to scare you. I heard you crying before I could reach the clearing, so I came up. You ok?" He asked me.
I shook my head. He realized that I couldn't talk right now.
"Let's get out of this killer tree before you fall and kill yourself."
I nodded my head, and took his hand. He helped me off of my branch, and then we climbed all the way down. I gave my head a shake, trying to make it all just go away. I put up a mental block to keep all my emotions at bay for now.
I led him to the clearing. When we entered it, Cole froze. There was blood all over different parts of the clearing. Where the fight had begun by the log, near the creek, and the most around the dead man.
"Is that Jace?" Cole asked. He was looking at the body.
"No, Jace is the one passed out. That is a man that had tried to rape and kill me."
Cole's head snapped over to me so fast I was sure it would snap off. His eyes were ablaze with pure rage. He too looked ready to kill the already dead man. His hand twitched to his back. Probably where his gun was. He looked scary, but because of my emotional block I had put up I didn't flinch away. This was probably the Cole that was in a gang, and got the job done right. I hated thinking of Cole like that, but this was the Cole that I'm sure dozens of people feared crossing his path.
I ignored Cole, and walked over to Jace to make sure he was ok. Even with the block, I still saw the killer in Jace. I did flinch slightly, but still kneeled down next to him. His breathing was labored. I knew he was in some pain, because I felt that stitch like pain in my side. While he sleeps I must get less of the pain that he feels, because the link is weaker. I laid my hand on his bare chest, and his breathing started to even out when he felt me nearby.
"What happen here?" Cole asked from behind me.
I doubled up my emotional block before answering him.
"Jace and I are good now as a couple, but I panicked and ran out of the dance. That man found me in the woods, and I knew he wanted to kill me, so I ran. He caught up to me in this clearing, but Jace stepped in. Jace and that man started to beat eachother up. The man knocked Jace out, and then he went after me. He tried to rape me, and he was very close to it, but then Jace somehow woke up. He beat the man to death." I finished.
"Are you ok?" He asked again.
"I am."
"No you're not. Before you were crying, now you're just emotionless. That's not normal. You went through a lot, you should be crying like before."
"I'm ok. I was weak before. I couldn't beat that man. He nearly took my virginity. He nearly killed me. I cried after. That was ok, but continuing is being weak. I don't want to be weak anymore by crying."
A smile lit his face. I gave him a weird look.
"You know what my fortune cookie said today? People cry, not because they are weak. It's because they've been strong for too long."
"You really got a fortune cookie that said that?" I asked shocked.
He nodded with a stupid grin on his face. Then he became serious.
"Since we have established you are not ok, could you tell me what really happen?"
I looked at him shocked. He didn't believe me. Ok, that did bring tears to my eyes. He saw that, and quickly jumped to explain.
"I believe your story is true, just it's lacking something. Like why your boyfriend has a huge bite in his side? Why he relaxed right away when you touched him? Why there are tufts of fur all over the place? Was there an animal here or something? What happen?"
I looked up into his eyes, and knew I had to tell him the truth. Actually I wanted to.
"I'll tell you the truth, but later. I promise I will, but we have stuff to do here first."
He nodded his head, and bent down and looked at Jace.
"I don't think he's in danger of bleeding out right now, but we should get him some place soon. I could stitch him up at my place."
I gave him a worried look.
"Don't worry I've stitched people up before. We should bury the body so no animal gets to it, and somebody sees an animal walking around with an arm." I flinched at that. "Sorry. I don't have a shovel with me right now though. I think we should take Jace back to my other house soon. I don't want to take him through such a busy area looking like this, so I'll take him to a house we use to hide in. We can hide the body for now so nobody finds it. Clean up around here a bit. Actually we could probably leave some of it, because it would look like an animal fight. Then I will come back later and bury the body. Sound good to you?" He asked.
No.
"Sure..." I answered not too sure. Half of that plan just flew right over my head.
Cold chuckled at me, and led me over to the dead body. He reached down and grabbed the arms, like it didn't even bother him. Probably from being in a gang and dealing with bodies.
"Eliana, could you get the legs?" He asked.
Is he serious?
Cole looked up, and saw the look on my face.
"On the other hand, why don't you try to clean Jace up. Lead him over to the creek, and wash off some of the blood."
I nodded my head, and grabbed Jace's arm. He was huge. I tried to drag him, but I was only getting a small inch. The creek was about 10 yard away. I gave up, and just ripped the bottom of my dress. I walked over to the creek, and and drenched it in the ice cold water. I carefully carried it back over to Jace. I started to wash the blood off of Jace. He let out a gasp as the cold water touched his skin. I tore off another piece, and draped it over Jace's lower area. I worked on washing the blood off of his chest, and arms.
When Cole came back he helped me, and got his legs. I got all of the rouge's blood off of Jace, and ran back to the creek and scrubbed the fabric real well. I didn't want to mix Jace's blood with the rouges.
When I was satisfied I took it back, and started by cleaning the gash on his head. It was already healing. I then moved to his his side. I tried not to really think of it as a big wound in Jace, just something that needed to be cleaned out. I could do that. When I was satisfied it wasn't dirty anymore, and was starting to heal I moved to his upper arm. He had a small bit there. The rouge must have just nipped it. I cleaned that also.
All over Jace had cuts that were already closing up, and started to turn into faint pink lines. Cole eyed them curiously, but knew he would find out later.
Cole went to go wash his piece of fabric again, and came back over. He started to inspect my cuts. He gently touched one on my shoulder that I had forgotten I had gotten. I gasped, and looked up from Jace. On my shoulder that didn't have a scar, was blood. Cole went to go wash it off with the rag.
"No!" I yelled.
He froze and looked over at me worried.
"I need to clean it Eliana."
The blood it was werewolves blood, and I didn't know what would happen to me if it mixed with my blood.
"Not with that it has blood already on it."
"I scrubbed it clean. Don't worry," He said frustrated.
"No, that's not it."
"Then explain it to me. Will you? I want to know what the hell is going on here. You're hiding something, and it's something big. I knew you were hiding something from me when I first met you. I thought you would tell me eventually-"
"And I will," I broke him off, "Tonight. Just there is so much more stuff that needs to be done right now. Just trust me on this one."
"Fine, but I need to stop your bleeding somehow," he said frustrated.
I looked down at my dress, and knew that even if the blood blended in with the dress it was covered in it from when Jace held me, and when the rouge was laying on top of me. I looked over at Cole's clothes. They were some patches with blood from when he dragged the rouge.
"Your sleeves are free of blood you can use those."
He started to reach for it, but I stopped him quickly.
"Wash your hands first. Our blood can't mix with theirs," I informed him.
My blood already probably mixed from when the rouge was on me, or from Jace. But I still wasn't taking a chance.
He nodded his head, and went back over to the creek that was luckily had a fast current, so it was taking the blood further downstream. He came back with his ripped short sleeve soaked in the cold water. He started to dab away the blood from my shoulder, and revealed five circular holes. They seemed to be pretty deep. There was one on the front of my shoulder, the claw from the rouge's thumb. Four on the back, the claws on the rest of the fingers. Cole said they would need stitches.
He then moved to the back of my head. He tried to wash that off, but it was bleeding too much. He went to go wash off the cloth, and wash the blood from my neck and back. He then got small cuts here and there.
When he examined the bottom of my feet, he let out a gasp. He ran his fingers over something, and I felt it push into my skin. He gently pulled it out, and showed me a wide yet not too long thorn. That was in my foot this whole time? I didn't even feel it.
He shook my head at me, and started to clean them up. Pulling out small stones, and other stuff that clung to my feet. After he was satisfied he started to clean up the clearing. I offered to help, but he just told me to rest.
I curled up against Jace, and felt warm and safe. His arm instinctively wrapped around me, pulling me closer to him. I just sat there listening to his now steady breathing. I relaxed a lot, and let out a deep sigh that I hadn't even realized was there. I just lay there listening to his breathing, and knew I would get over seeing Jace as a killer sooner then I thought.
When Cole finished we slung Jace's arms around our shoulder, and followed the creek. The walk was short, only forty five minutes long, and that included dragging Jace with us. It probably would have taken a bit over twenty minutes just walking at a normal pace. It was comforting to know that I had actually run in circles most of time.
When we reached the car we laid Jace down in the back seat. Cole found an old shirt in the back, and swapped his out for that one. He draped his old shirt over Jace's private part.
There were still a few cars parked around the parking lot. I could only guess that it was a miracle that the few people hidden around, getting it on, didn't see us.
I got into the front, and we took off. Cole turned on the music softly, and my mind and body finally truly relaxed. We were away from that horrible place. One that will now be stained with memories of what had happen tonight.
I started to get tired, so when my eyes drooped down I let them. I deserved a good rest. Besides I had no idea how long it would take to get to Cole's hideout house. So I just let my mind and body relax like they had been begging to all night.
So... what do u guys think? Should eliana tell cole? What do u think his reaction will be?
I just kind of passed out last night, so I couldn't get the chapter up, but here it is. I have absolutely no idea when I will get the next chapter up, its about half done already.
Please Vote and Comment!!!!!!!!!! thanks guys!