Cold Moon

Chapter 8: Tess' POV

"Are you okay Ryder?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That slayer that attacked you, he put up quite the fight."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Cara told me that you also helped Austin. You saved him and me."

"It was no big deal, really."

"Yes it is."

He just smiled.

I walked closer to hug him and as I lay my head against his chest, I could hear his heart racing. We stand there just hugging for a few minutes. Something about him, was very comforting.

I see Cara out of the corner of me eye coming back and break my embrace with Ryder.

"Tess. We've taken all of the injured bodies, and this might be hard to hear but, Nathan was stabbed with a poisoned dagger. His lycan, Star was fighting off the venom as long as he could. He hasn't woken up."

I don't say anything as I let the news sink in.

"We've taken Austin too. He's in really bad condition, he took quite the beating, he has a lot of internal damage and Nurse Baker doesn't know when he'll wake up either."

My ears start ringing and everything gets muffled.

"Tess.....Tess...Tess? Are you all right?" Ryder's voice muffled.

"Are you okay?" Cara asks.

Snapping back to reality I respond "No.....I'm not." My voice breaks.

"You zoned out on us. You can go see them."

"Okay..."

"I'll go with you."

I look down and see Ryder holding my hand, supporting me.

"I'll be fine Cara. Help Ryder get the rest of the dead bodies out of here."

Ryder looks down and let's go of my hand. I give a small smile and start walking towards the infirmary.

As I walk, there is so much blood and it sticks out in all the white of the snow.

"Nurse Baker?" She was checking on another hurt hunter.

"Tess. How are you holding up?"

"Okay, I guess. What about Austin and Nathan?"

"Well Nathan is healing fairly quickly, from the venom. I gave him an antidote as soon as he was brought in. Austin, well...."

"Has he woken up?!"

"No, unfortunately. He's injured badly. I don't know when I'll see signs of improvement. Only time will tell now."

"Can I see him? Austin."

"Of course."

She guides me through all of the injured bodies. When I see Austin my heart breaks.