Alpha's Blood

Chapter 14

The white hotel shower curtain forcefully rips away, a blurry face slipping into her view in its absence. Green eyes full of pain stare down at her and for a moment, she wonders what has made them so sad. She tries to reach her hand towards the stranger, the curious need to comfort them overwhelming, but her arm never moves, laying instead slack next to her body. Struggling, she tries to remember how she'd ended up in the shower as the person's body sinks down, their knees cracking on the tiled floor. They cradle her weak frame and tears stream freely, the tiny droplets landing on Lilliarna's cheek.

Strange, she thinks, as he moves around her, reaching to turn off the spray before wrapping a towel around her arm. Her head moves slowly, turning to watch as he places pressure on the makeshift bandage and she winces from the pain. Red seeps into the fabric, spreading out from under his hand. The sight, mixed with the steady grip of a pounding headache, makes her head spin, and she closes her eyes to steady the world. The man shakes her body gently, causing her to lazily open them back up in response.

"Stay with me Lilliarna. Keep those eyes open."

Why, she tries to ask, but her lips cannot deliver the question. Her body is weak. Tired, she thinks. So, so tired. Her eyes flutter between open and closed as her body, wracked with shivers, vibrates uncontrollably. Lilliarna barely registers her body lifting into the air, hanging limply in the man's arms as he carries her. She settles seconds later into the soft material of a bed, heat spreading through her left side as an individual rests against her.

She attempts one last glance at the stranger, her vision growing darker, fuzzier. His lips move, words unintelligible under the heavy white noise that now blankets her hearing. Soon multiple garbled voices join the chorus of background noise, their yelling loud and meaningless. A hand strokes at her hair, the voices fading away till only one remains, its soft low tone now coos in her ear. Quickly it grows more concerned as her eyelids grow heavy before closing, plunging her into isolation.

The sound of a man speaking enters her mind; the voice irate and far away as if they're speaking at the end of a tunnel. She stirs in slight from her sleep, nerves biting at her as she finds only darkness stretching out around her. The sterile scent of cleaners assaults her nose while a metallic tang fills her mouth. Soft rhythmic beeps come from somewhere out in the darkness. Under her, the crisp sheets of an unfamiliar bed crinkle and she registers just exactly where she is. A hospital. She struggles to open her eyes, fighting against her comatose to no avail. Her body stays still, trapping her in the dark weightlessness of her mind. The noise of an argument calls her attention, and she strains, trying to make sense of their words.

"You have no right to sit with her like you didn't cause this."

A second voice chimes in from somewhere near her, its pained sound sends a twinge of sadness through her heart, yet comforts her all the same. Tingles spread through her hand, her heart rate speeding up in response.

"I didn't mean for any of this."

"She thought you left her!"

Their voice spits venom, fury dripping from each syllable as it continues.

"The reason she's in this place; the reason she won't wake up. It's all because of you."

Suddenly, the tingling leaves her hand, and she begs silently for it to return. Without it, she was alone; the feeling of comfort it brought her dissipating by the second.

"Elliot, I'd advise you to take your mate someplace else."

Elliot, mate, those words ring through her mind distorted; the memories connected to them are even blurrier. She racks her brain, searching for the information that keeps itself just out of reach. A voice, one she assumes belongs to the man named Elliot, speaks up after a moment.