Whispering Snow

Vision 11

I felt like I've been sleeping for years. I woke up in my bed only to find my chest was bandaged.
the memories flooded back to me that I'd been shot. How was I not healed yet? I looked around my room. It was a mess, a bed was on the floor next to the balcony and chairs were placed all around. I heard the bathroom door closed and looked to see my sister Sienna stand there. 

"You're awake!" She jumped. She ran to my side and checked to see if I was still damaged goods. 

"Are you hurt do you feel pain? Can I get you anything blood? Avett?" 

The last word rang in my head. Avett, my poor lover whom I broke his heart. 

"No, I'm not ready to see him. Could you get mother." I asked  with a hoarse voice as politely as I could.
She nodded and ran out of the room. Minute's late mother and father were coming through the door. 

"Claire! Oh, thank the gods you are awake." 

"What happened, why were you outside the walls?!" Father was furious. It was my mistake to even be out there looking for him. But I too tired to lie to anyone.  

"I...I saw Avett by the forest and had to see him." 

"So you climb down the castle to see him! If it wasn't for that guard you would have been killed!" I lowered my head in shame. I did put myself in danger and the family but my mate was more important. 

"We finally got you back and then you go off on your own." I felt like a child, a small child that didn't know how to feel. 

"Father, you're scaring her. She gets the point." Matteo said coming to his side calming him down. 

"Mother, what happened? Why didn't I heal?" She looked at me worried to tell me. 

"Someone developed a serum to paralyze us. the bullet had some traces and it caused you to stop all healing" Mother was bitter about this. Everyone was with the look they had in their eyes. 

"It was like my nightmare. It all happened the same way." I was not scared anymore. I just wanted to sleep. 

"Can I rest now?" I asked everyone in the room. Almost everyone left. My mother was still sitting by me. 

"Claire, Avett has been sleeping by you. Do you still want him close by?" I cried when she said his name. I didn't realize how stupid I had been. I put everyone in danger including him. She was holding me, she was trying to stop me from blaming myself as any mother would do. 

"I hate this! Why don't I have any memories, why can't I fight without losing control? Why did they choose me!"I couldn't stop crying. It was all bottled up inside now spilling out. 

"Shh, Claire everything will be fine. We are finding a way to return your memories. As for your love life well that's very normal. Your father wasn't the best at courtship." She giggled at a memory only she had. 

"Sleep now and we will take about this in the morning." Morning! I looked up from my mother silk blouse and saw that the moon was out. Only this time it was close to a full moon. Meaning weeks had passed. 

"Get some rest." Kissing the top of my head she left my room and myself to ponder on everything.

I wake up for the second time since my attack. I didn't bother calling anyone. I had no idea how long I slept for. I looked around my room and fewer chairs were stationed. The bed, however, was being slept in. Avett was sleeping next to me. He was sound asleep, he looked so peaceful.
I slowly got up without making much noise to the bathroom. Once I closed the door I stared at myself. I was starting to see bone on my face. Gosh, did no one feed me or was this an effect of the serum. 

I touched my bandage and it hurt still. How long was this going to last? I started to undo the bandage only to see that I had black vain's all around my bullet hole. It has closed up but still pretty bad. 

A knock at the door startled me, I quickly covered my wound and headed outside. I opened the door and he stood there with pain in his eyes. I caused that pain. 

"Avett, I..." He didn't let me finish. He was crying and went to hold me. I didn't think I would ever see him cry. He held a strong presence around him. He was brave and held a lot of pride. 

"I'm the one that's sorry! I almost lost you. You didn't understand what happened to you." He kept crying and I held him. I was my turn to be his shoulder. 

"When you were shot, it felt like I lost you. The pain was nothing I ever felt. It almost severed the bond." When he said that I was trying to remember what it felt like. But again my memories were faded. It was like the serum had a memory effect. 

"I'm fine now, still not completely healed but I'm alive" I reassured him. I lead him back to the bedroom and we held each other under the sheets. He was careful not to move my right arm so much. 

"You father wants us to complete the ceremony tonight." He said it, but I wasn't listening. I was finally in his arms and safe. 

"Can't we just do it now? We are alone and no one knows I'm awake." I really didn't want my family to know. He looked at me carefully.

 "Claire, you are going to lose a lot of blood. So will I. We need to let someone know." I then realized what he was saying. We were going to drink each other's blood until we were one. Another memory that I had lost came back. We needed to make sure we had a backup supply to recover. I thought back to the lesson of mates and how the bonding was so intense that it was a perfect time to attack. 

"Just one person!" I stuck out my index finger and made sure he understood. 

"One is fine, but your blood still is tainted. I will have to drain that out first." He then goes out of our heaven and went outside. There was a guard there so I'm guessing father wants a backup.  

"I called for Matteo. I trust him with my life." He came back by my side. Taking the bandage off he saw a better view of my poison. 

"Claire, there's going to be a lot of blood. More than you might handle." I shook my head telling him it's fine. His fangs came out and he bit hard! He was not sucking he was just biting. All around my bullet. Since I wasn't healing it was easy for the blood to come out. He disappeared into the bathroom and came with clean towels. He then squeezed around my wound to get every drop of black blood out of me. To say I wasn't in pain was a lie it was shooting up and down my body. I was digging my nails into the bed with every strength I had left. I'm pretty sure fathers were flying around. 

"I'm sorry, it's the only way to get it out. I can't risk poisoning myself." Or he won't be able to move either.
A knock at the door and he was off me fast. Whispers and a lock was all I hard. He was back on me squeezing again. 

"Claire if you faint then I'll wake you up again. Here's blood drink it to help regain strength." He passes me the pouch of blood and I happily sucked on it. Only it wasn't helping with the pain.

It must have been an hour when he finally started to see red. 

"Finally!" He shouted. I giggled, by this point, I went through ten bags of blood and the pain was bearable. He moved off me and let me sit up. I felt my body again. It was healing a little faster with the grace of the gods. 

"You seem better, the blood is now looking red. Do you feel stronger?" He was scared I was too. 

"Yes, I feel myself healing. What are we going to do with the bed? It was covered with black blood and fathers. I really must have clawed the stuff out. Fathers were floating all around the room. He shrugged and pulled me in for a deep huge. 

"Claire are you ready? Ready for forever to be bonded to me and have me as your mate?" He was serious and I could tell there was a lot of love with every word. 

"Yes, Avett. Have me for always and forever. Have my body and soul. Have my mind and sprite." I said as I reached up to kiss him. With that it was the start of forever.