The blade of the twin's scythe slide out of Ayden's shoulder with a sickening sound. He flinched from the action, gripping his shoulder for a moment and turning to face the twins. More blood leaked out onto the floor as she held the weapon upright at her side. It stood just a few inches taller than her. Neither of the twin's expressions changed.
"Selfish and foolish," the other twin sighed as she pulled her own scythe out of the wall, releasing me. I whimpered as the blade passed through the wound on my stomach a second time, opening it wider. Pressing both my hands hard against it for a few moments, I pulled them away to find them coated with blood. The amount alone made me dizzy as it pooled in my hands. Considering I'd lived a mostly sheltered life up until now, I'd never lost so much blood in one instance.
Ayden quickly spun to face me at the sound of my pained cry. Glancing down at my hands, something flamed across his face. His eyes burned with a bright intensity as his muscles tensed.
"I think he's mad," the first twin remarked.
"Pity. She should be the mad one," the other replied, adjusting her scythe at her side as well. "We were saving her."
As she spoke, I caught the glint of her sister's blade just beyond Ayden's shoulder. She'd positioned it and moved to slash it across his back. Startled, my eyes grew wide and I instantly grabbed him by the arms and pulled him toward me.
"Ayden, watch out!" I yelped.
His expression momentarily softened to surprise before he quickly spun, sword drawn, just as the blade should have cut along his back. Instead of an attack, Ayden found himself facing another fight. Peering around him, I realized that someone had shown up just in time to intercept the blow and defend us. He fought with a thick, jagged black sword. I recognized him almost immediately. Ayden gave what sounded like a short laugh before stepping forward to help.
"Watts!" Ayden exclaimed as he moved to help defend him. "Stay with Melinda. Get her to Cole's. I've got this," he ordered.
The twins both gave lazy sighs of annoyance.
"Finally," the one muttered.
"You've stopped letting other people die for you," the second finished.
Watts paused, gripping his sword tighter. He was enraged.
"I am more than capable-"
"I believe you've been dismissed," one of the twins interrupted.
"Dog," the second added. "A pawn and nothing more."
"Disgusting."
My eyes widened as I watched fire slowly spread across the black metal. Starting by Watts' hand, it slowly leaked down to the tip as if some kind of liquid.
"Angry?" the one asked with amusement, pausing from her battle with Ayden to send Watts a smirk.
"He should be. We orphaned him, didn't we?"
"His mother was a filthy low rank," the other spat.
With his blade now completely engulfed in flames, Watts charged forward with an irritated yell. Just as he was about to attack, Ayden gripped his wrist, dousing the flames, and flung him back toward me.
"Watts, trust me. I'll take care of it. Go," Ayden assured calmly, turning to fight with the twins yet again. "You two talk too much."
Watts reluctantly sheathed his weapon with a nod before grabbing my hand and guiding me down the hall. I planted my feet firmly to the ground.
"I want to stay," I insisted.
"You've already lost a significant amount of blood. We need to get you to a healer and out of danger as soon as possible," he pushed. "You're only a mortal. If you lose too much you could die."
Watts continued to pull me down the hall as I started struggling against him. I fought to keep Ayden in my view. He appeared to be doing well. Each time their blades collided, white and black sparks would explode in a small cloud. Looking at them closer, I realized that one twin wielded a bright white metal scythe while the other's was black. That could only mean that one was a demon while the other an angel. How could they be twins then?
With Watts still tugging desperately at my arm, I finally surrendered. Almost as soon as we both turned and continued down the hall, Ayden gave a pained yell forcing us to snap our gazes back down the hall. With one twin on each side, they'd managed to land a hit simultaneously. The blades of their scythes connected and pierced his body at the very same moment near his collarbone. Ayden fell to his knees, now bleeding even more. This wound was much more severe than the first and by the strain in his face, more painful.
"Shit," Watts muttered.
Ayden gave another yell as they pulled the blades out. Shoving Watts away from me, I sprinted as fast as I could back down the hall. All rational thoughts vanished completely from my mind as I charged toward Ayden. The twins barely paid any attention to me as I grabbed Ayden's sword of the ground and moved to block him.
"The determination in her eyes is brilliant," the demon twin remarked.
"Tragically so," the angel replied.
"The defender of the deceiver."
Still, I held my ground between the twins and Ayden. I ignored their words, my gaze unwavering. With their bored stares, I knew they weren't intimidated by me. If anything, they were laughing at my attempt.
A loud bang came suddenly from behind me making me jump about three feet. The demon twin instantly dropped to the floor with a gasp. Confused, I turned to see Ayden still kneeling with one of his guns aimed. Turning back toward the twins, he'd shot her in the leg. The other twin knelt down at her side now, cradling her sister with wide eyes. For once, her face reflected intense emotions. She was angry, surprised, and worried. Anger stood out the most among them.
"You son of a bitch!" she shrieked, standing again with her weapon ready. "I'll kill you myself!"
"We're being summoned," the other twin whispered from the floor. "Our job is done. Let's go."
The angel paused, anger and a lust for vengeance still burning in her eyes. Her weapon vanished in a puff of white smoke and she turned to scoop up her sister. Casting one, final, sharp glare toward me and Ayden, they also vanished into a shimmering blur.
Breathing heavily, I sighed, dropping Ayden's sword and facing him. Extending my hand out, I tried to help him up off the ground. He clutched the area of his chest where the twins punched that terrible gash through him. It streamed blood out onto his shirt. As I calmed down, the stinging in my stomach slowly returned.
While I felt relief, Ayden's expression seemed angry. His eyebrows pressed down against his eyes as he stared at me.
"What the fuck were you thinking running in there like that?" he scolded suddenly. "They are extremely powerful. They could have ripped you apart."
Watts jogged up beside us.
"I thought I told you to get her out of here?" Ayden muttered, wincing slightly.
"We were on our way but then you," Watts explained, trailing off. "I didn't know you could-"
"I know," Ayden interrupted. "I'm going to need Mick. Can you find him for me when you get the chance? Follow us to Cole's room in case we run into anyone else first. I don't want to take the chance of not being able to defend us efficiently."
Watts nodded then shifted his gaze toward me.
"I'm sorry, by the way. I was only concerned about your safety," he apologized.
"It's no problem," I assured with a small smile.
"Hey, are you okay? We should really get going. You look really pale and-"
"Melinda!" I heard Ayden's voice call out and arms wrap around me just before everything went black.
***
"Don't worry about that now. She's fine," I heard Mick's voice promise. "Just hold still, damn it!"
I smiled to myself. It seemed those two were always arguing about one thing or another. Yawning, I pried my eyes open and glanced around. Blinking a few times, I recognized that I was in the bed in Cole's room. Ayden sat on the edge of the big wooden desk by the window while Mick placed himself on a chair facing Ayden's back and working on his wounds. He pulled a small desk lamp over and positioned it to illuminate Ayden's back. I could see the gash from here – a bloody mess of torn flesh. It almost looked as if he'd been burned in some places. Ayden twisted slightly to try to look in my direction. Mick responded with a quick slap across the back of his head.
"I need you to sit still! You know this is one of the worst injuries you've ever gotten. I don't even know how long it will take you to heal," Mick grumbled.
"I'm fine," Ayden whined, trying to push off the desk then stumbling slightly.
"Sit. You lost even more blood than Melinda and your body isn't used to being so vulnerable. You're weak right now and what you need to do is let me finish patching you so you can go lay down and rest."
"She's awake," Ayden pointed out calmly.
I pushed myself to sit upright with a smile. Mick moved his gaze from Ayden to me with a sigh of relief.
"Thank God you're okay," he breathed.
With Mick no longer nagging him, Ayden continued on his path toward the bed. Plopping down beside me, his face read concern. Still silent, he reached for the blanket, peeling it back to reveal my bandaged stomach. He flicked his eyes up to meet mine, lips pressed to a tight line.
"It's not your fault," I mumbled before he spoke.
"No, it wasn't," he agreed, though I could see the truth in his crooked smile. "It was Mick's."
Mick scoffed from his place by the desk. He leaned forward to rest his elbow on his knee. A pair of small glasses sat toward the tip of his nose.
"Oh, yeah, everyone just blame the medic!"
The door suddenly busted open and Cole waltzed in followed by Giselle. Dropping a bag on the desk, he patted Mick on the shoulder before making his way toward me and Ayden.
"Our two little wounded soldiers," he muttered almost proudly as he looked us over. "Cathan and his men retreated. You should be happy to hear we suffered only a minimal amount of injuries and no casualties thanks to our two medics over there," he informed, gesturing toward Giselle and Mick.
"All the trainees also performed well," Giselle added. She then noticed Ayden's back and roughly shoved Mick's shoulder. "You didn't patch him up yet? Even with accelerated healing, you need to mend the wound first – you know that."
Mick rolled his eyes, plucking his glasses from his nose and running his hands through his hair. Leaning back in his chair, he sighed.
"You act like I haven't been trying. The damn bastard wouldn't sit still long enough," he explained with frustration. "It's a pretty severe wound. It's taken several layers of repair already. Even with," he paused, "special accelerated healing, he seems to be healing at a fairly slow pace. Well, I suppose I should call it a fairy normal pace."
That made Cole and Giselle both look toward Ayden. Cole grabbed Ayden by his good arm and pulled him up off the bed. Guiding him back toward the desk, he positioned his back under the light and hovered over to examine it. Ayden sighed but didn't fight him. Giselle moved to look over his shoulder as well.
Pushing the sheets off me, I slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up to get a closer look. My side still had a dull but tolerable stinging.
"How many hours has it been now?" Cole asked Mick.
"About thirteen," Mick replied.
"The muscles should have reconnected by now," Cole commented to himself.
"It's because I was hit with both powers at exactly the same time," Ayden explained finally. "The perfect combination of dark and light power can cause an immense amount of damage – especially for me."
Finally close enough to look myself, I glanced at the gash on his back. Looking deeper inside, I noticed stitching laced all over the place. It appeared that closing up the cut was all that was left.
"Well then, if you know the extent of the damage already, you should be more than willing to let Mick seal you up, you stubborn ass," Cole stated with a shrug. "I don't see the point of your struggle."
Giselle broke her gaze with Ayden's back to peer at me. Her eyes slowly moved from my face to my stomach.
"Oh," Cole sighed in understanding. "Well now that our sleeping beauty has finally awaken, Mick – seal him up."
Mick nodded, moving to position himself behind Ayden again. Picking a needle and thread off the table, he replaced his glasses on his face and went back to work. Cole stretched, tiredly. The shiny, black and white material of his tuxedo was torn and bloodstained. Passing glances over Mick and Giselle, it seemed like everyone had their fair share of action during the battle.
"Melinda, how are you feeling?" Cole asked with a warm grin. "That's certainly one way to get out of a bargain," he winked.
I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What bargain?"
"You still owed a dance," he replied with a glance at Ayden. "I suppose I can settle for half your debt. Anyway, you should really eat something. I brought some food from the kitchen."
"Calvin's going to kill you," Giselle warned.
"He can try if he wants. I'm still his commanding knight," Cole shrugged. "I only stole a few breakfast trays."
Laughing, I rummaged through the bag he dropped on the desk. Pulling out one of the covered trays of food, I popped it open. Its contents included waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast – all still warm and leaking steam into the air. Inhaling, my stomach gave a loud groan. I clutched it, blushing slightly.
"Are you okay?" Ayden asked from beside me. He then flinched, gripping the edge of the desk tightly and wincing. Cursing under his breath, he turned to give Mick a warning glare.
Smiling slightly, I gently brushed my fingers over his hand.
"If anything, I should be asking you," I teased. "I'm just hungry."
He still looked at me with sad eyes as I picked at the food. My stomach gave another aching rumble, begging for more. Self-consciously peeking toward Ayden to see if he heard it, I noticed he now wore a small smile, comforted slightly by the fact that I really was hungry. In fact, as anything else, he found it amusing.
Glaring, I turned back toward my food. Scooping up the tray, I moved to the bed to finish eating. Giselle and Cole chattered about something quietly. From the few bits I gathered walking by, it appeared to be about the attack and Ayden.
"Ouch!" Ayden growled at Mick.
"Well it's your own damn fault," he shot back. "I'm just about done."
By the time I finished clearing off most of the tray, Mick pulled the last stitch tight. Snipping the remaining string, he turned to his bag until he produced a syringe of clear liquid. He pushed the needle into the skin of Ayden's back. Once it was empty, he plucked it out and replaced it in his bag. Grabbing a piece of blue fabric off the back of his chair, he flung it toward Ayden. Finally free, Ayden shrugged the shirt on, buttoned up the center, and made his way toward me.
"Now that we're both settled, we really should have a talk about your survival skills. If you keeping hurling yourself into danger, you're basically inviting people to kill you," he explained as if I didn't already know. "You shouldn't have come back for me," he added with a more serious tone.
Behind him, I watched Mick roll his eyes as he packed up his supplies.
"You're one to talk," he muttered.
Ayden ignored his comment but I just shrugged. I didn't have much to say. I knew it wasn't the smartest move I could have made but I wasn't going to leave him there.
"Would you prefer I left you to die next time?" I questioned, raising a brow.
"Yes," he snapped, almost angrily.
My eyes widened in surprise. He'd never been so short or serious with me before.
"Come on, let's go," he mumbled quietly, holding his hand out.
Taking it, I let him pull me up off the bed.
"Good," Cole interjected. "I need some time to think over our current situation, so if you all don't mind…"
Everyone nodded in understanding. The seemingly spontaneous attack caught everyone off guard and as a commanding knight, Cole had to plan their next move.
"Ayden, stop by here later when you get the chance," Cole ordered. "We certainly have a lot to discuss."
Ayden gave a quick, dismissive nod before guiding me out the door. I remained silent at his side. Casting a sideways glance at him, I watched as he gently pressed his fingers to his chest. The pain of his injury seemed to be taking a toll on him but was that the only thing weighing on his mind?