All right, this is my other favorite chapter to write! And Isaac is in this chapter so hopefully you guys enjoy it
Happy Reading!
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CHAPTER TEN
Nate was in room 25 on level three. I made my way there, making as little eye contact as possible with the doctors and nurses around me. The white lights were as bright as ever, my temples starting to throb. My ribs and left arm were starting to pain me some as well, but I made sure that my hair covered the cut on the side of my face to avoid the superfluous staring.
When I reached room 25, I realized that Nate was in the Intensive Care unit. This made my chest feel like iron bands were being wrapped tighter and tighter until my lungs were crushed. That’s when I smelled that horrible scent; one that I would never forget.
The smell of death.
It was tangy and raw, burning as it made my way into my nostrils. It made my body convulse and my eyes darken with need. Death and blood combined made my body tense with desire. Thankfully, I had fed and I was able to diminish it with a quick shake of my head.
I pounded my hand against the door and then entered.
There was only one bed in the room, the area empty beside certain luxuries, like a television turned to the cooking channel, a bottle of water, a bathroom, and a window that showed the back side of the hospital.
I looked at everything besides Nate. I didn’t want to see him. I was afraid of what I would see. Did the doctors know what he was? Did they have him tied to the bed like an animal? Did he still have red eyes?
Not able to avoid it any longer, I forced my eyes to land on the bed, to the person occupying it.
Nate’s eyes were closed, the lids a blackish-blue color of fatigue, along with full moons circling them. His skin was, by far, whiter than his surroundings and it made him almost seem to glow. A green hospital gown covered his frame and his hair had been cut, the curls barely an inch long curling around his head, no longer wild. His chest rose and fall, but I could see the telltale signs of his travels.
Scratches and bruises dotted his frame as if he had been splattered with black and red paint. His left arm was in a sling and the complicated machine to his right was monitoring his pulse. I almost laughed when the line that read his heartbeats was completely straight. If someone didn’t know better, they would have thought he was dead.
When a soft laugh did escape my lips, Nate’s eyes fluttered open, displaying black eyes with tinges of pink around the irises. His mouth twisted into a smile, his incisors slightly longer than normal.
“’phia, that you?” His voice sounded brittle, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time, and he immediately reached for his water bottle.
I got there first and twisted the cap, holding it up to his cracked lips. He drank greedily, and I watched in fascination. We didn’t need to eat food or drink water, as humans were required to. But if by some miracle we fell ill, water was the only thing that could clear our systems of whatever ails us.
“Thank you,” Nate croaked when I was done, and I put the water bottle back on the counter, taking a seat in the chair beside his bed. “Here to bust me out?” he asked, his voice slowly coming back to normal.
I smiled. “Of course.”
“I thought I smelled you downstairs but I wasn’t sure.”
“Are you allowed to leave?” I wondered, knowing that was going to be the biggest issue.
He shrugged, pushing down on his arms to raise up his body into a sitting position. I couldn’t take my eyes off his own. The redness was becoming more severe, seeping into the blackness of his irises, making them appear almost blood-soaked.
It made me feel like retching.
Swallowing hard, I forced a smile when Nate turned back to me. But his face was absent of all joy; it was grim and his eyes flashed.
“How long have I been gone?” he managed to say through thin lips.
“Only a day and a half.”
“It feels like ages…” Nate moaned, letting his eyes slipped closed. “They thought I was dead, you know?” He laughed then, but it was a hollow sound, one lacking delight. “I remember them wheeling me in like the devil was after them, using all those stupid machines, shocking me again and again until I screamed for them to stop. I think I scared ten years off of them when I did.” I couldn’t resist smiling, picturing Nate flying out of the bed while the doctors around him were trying to revive him.
“They assumed that something was going on with the machines so they left me be. Still have this thing on my freakin’ thumb, though.” Nate yanked on the cord and the heart monitor was wrenched from him.
“At least you’re okay,” I said, gently touching his arm, but he flinched away from me, shocking me into silence.
“Yeah, sure,” he mumbled. I could tell in his eyes as he peered at me that he wanted to know what happened between us. I wanted to avoid it; I didn’t think I could face him after I told him that he had hurt me. I knew the remorse he would feel, and I don’t think I could handle that for the rest of eternity.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. Nate pierced me with his blood-shot eyes but said nothing. My inquisitiveness was growing inside of me and I couldn’t help but ask him what was on my mind. “Nate… how did we get in Duluth?”
He sat there for a moment, pondering over how to answer. When he did, it surprised me. “To be honest, I can’t really remember. All I know is that I wanted to keep you safe, though I was fighting over myself to do it.” I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
He did it to save me?
Forcing myself not to think more on the subject, I asked him the other question that had bothered me. “How did you get here?”
This time, it only took him mere seconds to answer. “Some kid found me in a snow bank. What are the odds?” I nodded, lost in thought as Nate continued to speak. “Him and his mom have been taking care of me. She’s a nurse, I think.”
It made me panicky to think that humans were helping Nate, and I knew that the sooner we got him out of there, the better. So I stood and grinned down at him. “Should we get you out of here?”
He nodded eagerly, his face breaking into a smile again, washing away all the seriousness I previously saw. It made me feel almost hopefully that he would return back to normal. I just prayed that this wouldn’t permanently damage him like it had to me.
I should have known that even thinking of that night would bring it back. Flashes of the bloodshed I had created back in Bock came to me in crippling waves, making my knees tremble. Faces came to mind, people that I had killed, blood that I had drank. I could still feel the many necks under my hands, the devastating power I had over them. And I had held their lives in my hands—
“Sophia, you all right?” Nate jerked me from my thoughts and I looked at him. Really looked at him. I saw the fragile way his body was bent, the weakness in the furrow in his brow. Nate was one of the more powerful vampires and to see him so broken almost made my heart ache… almost.
I helped Nate from the bed as he ripped the cast from his left arm effortlessness as if it wasn’t made of plaster but of paper. He flexed his fingers of that and winced. It appeared that he had broken his arm. “You’ll have to go see Cassandra,” I informed him when I discovered his clothing in the linen closet of the bathroom.
“Cassandra?” His voice was filled with confusion as he walked around in the room, testing his weight on his legs.
“She’s the coven doctor,” I said when I reemerged into his room to find him twisting his torso back and forth, loosening the knots in his back.
Nate inclined his head in understanding when I told him a little about Cassandra, carefully living out the fact of her vibrant blue hair. Handing him his clothing, he stopped before going to the bathroom.
“Sophia?”
“Yes?” I was worried about what he would ask. Would I be able to tell him? Would I be able to answer whatever he asks?
“Did—“
But I never got to hear what Nate wanted to say for at that moment, another came into the room. The smell that came from the person was pure human and I turned to tell whoever entered hopefully a good story as to why Nate was up and out of bed.
There was no need, however, for I was met by a pair of Nordic-blue eyes and was stunned into silence.
It was the boy from the woods.
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