Crossblood - Completed

Chapter 34

~Moon's POV~


"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Moon?!" I attempt to give a faint nod, anything to show I'm still alive, but the restricting necklace holds me back from moving. The edges of my sight are burnt film, blackening and spreading as Julius carries me in his arms towards the foreign shadow of a house.

Head pounding I blink myself awake, desperately trying to fight against the suffocating stone and stay conscious. I can faintly make out the cries of Julius above me, the liquid drops freezing before resting in mounds on my hair. Sensing myself growing colder, I press closer to his cloakless body, nuzzling my blood stained head into the crook of his neck.

Everything hurts. The pain in my arm has become unbearable, muffled whimpers escaping my pursed lips as I grip the injured limb with the other arm. I don't want to remember what they did to me but I can't bring myself to start to forget. My body is blasted with heat and light, the clatter of pots and shuffling of feet seeming to be miles away.

At some point my back reaches the table, eyes blinking painfully at the too-bright candle light. "What happened?!" Mind a blur, I flinch at the unfamiliar touch of hands, Andrew undressing me as I lay stiff in pain, too weak to stop him.

Somewhere in my peripheral vision Kai stands with his hands on his opposite shoulders, weakly hugging himself as silent tears dip down his hollow cheeks.

For the first time in my life I don't want to die.

Not like this, tortured and half conscious, cursed obsidian slowly taking my life. If and when I die I want it to be of my own accord, not because I couldn't run fast enough, or because I couldn't escape their arms, or because I froze up with fear and let them take me away. Let them break me. "Hold him down." Even when floating through a dreamlike abyss I flinch at the words, body jolting as a pair of hands grabs at my left arm, surges of pain coursing to my shoulder and to the stone, echoing throughout my body as tears fall faster.

I'm only slightly aware that my mouth is wide open, screams pounding against the worn walls as the necklace is cut from out of my body, blood coated silver stringing around my neck and clinking to the floor. It's all too reminiscent of a bullet, fingernails marking the wood of the table when the air hits my now open wound. Maybe this was their point, to be tortured by family, not strangers.

Vision steadily returning and mind clearing I weakly face to my left, Kai weary and pained beside me. "Is this why I had a headache?" He frowns, turning away to stare at the wall with tearful eyes. "Because you put a spell on me so I wouldn't feel this?! Moon, we could of saved you!" Though his features are merely a blur the acidic anger in his tone gives me a big enough hint at how he feels. Agony courses up my right leg, Julius holding my thigh, Clide at my knee, and Matt constraining the other leg.

"S-stop!" My screams break halfway, another weight crashing down on my already broken leg. I can't help but think back to the alley at the sensation but the torture keeps me tied to the present. Something I never thought i'd be grateful for. There's no medication, no relief besides Kai's calming whispers next to me, bony fingers raking through my blood and ice matted hair as my breath quickens, the hyperventilating not helping my headache. "You're hurting me." Andrew's hand wraps around my shin before slamming the weight back down, my body curling up in a protective ball, leg limply dragging behind.

This is what they wanted. "Are you alright, Moon?"

Throat raw from tears I manage to croak out two words. "Throw...up..." Kai's finger grazes the broken skin of my bruising jaw, ordering for Will to grab something out of my limited line of vision.

I'm doubling over the silver can as a knife cuts through my body, a burning needle and seamster's thread following in on the agony train. "Is there not anything you can give him for the pain?" Julius travels to rest beside Kai, eyes red with tears as he stares at a knife wielding Andrew hovering over me.

"Nothing. He's doing well though."

"He's screaming at the top of his lungs!"

"Please don't remind me..." He seems pained by the thought, eyes squeezing shut until the ageless skin crinkles at the edges. "Just...there's nothing I can give him or Kaiien to make it better. Only a few more spots though." I can't tell if the last part was directed towards me or for Julius but it no longer matters once the chill blade begins gliding over my rigid body once more.

It's a sharp pain I can't forget, a pushing sensation as the weight falls over me and screams froth at my diseased lips, damaged and plagued by his. The knife cuts deeper, memories flooding out, the Nile of my wounds with each incision, each scrape. Screams fade to pants as fingers reach inside me, lashes overlapping when I press my lids together to cease the upcoming thoughts. From somewhere beside me there's a hushed plea, Kaiien's hand grasping mine until our knuckles stain white and the table stains red.

"Are you alright?"

I manage a slight nod, head rising from the wood in pain. "C-Clide hold his arm. Kaiien get on the table." Andrew's voice is strained, his hands finding their way to my throat as I try to raise myself up. "Julius, grab his shoulders."

White hot pain fires up my arm, Kai's small body falling into mine as he grips his own wrist in agony, his screams mimicking my own in intensity. The spells should still be intact, but as the knife slices against my wrist I can't be sure. The pain is nauseating, my screams gifting me with a dry throat and headache as I push against each restraint to stop him.

"Please!"

Kai.

All thoughts of getting away are gone, my attention on the crying boy gripping his arm beside me. I want them to stop for him, my own well being no longer important. With the arm that isn't being operated on I wipe a stray tear from the side of his nose. Bringing my bloody lips to his we combine in a mix of salt and iron, watery blood trailing over his trembling bottom lip. Andrew ties something together in my arm, sewing the loose skin while Kai whimpers in my ear.

"Moon?" There's something hidden in his speech, Andrew's tone too calm for the matter at hand. Julius helps me into a sitting position, my head swimming as I double over. "There was no way I could fix it...it was shattered. I'm so sorry." A tear catches the light as he opens my palm, dropping hard fragments onto my blood crusted skin.

Slowly, I open my hand, my empty hand coming to cover my lips as I stare at the purple fragments of Amethyst, of my jewel.

They broke my jewel.

"I'm so sorry." Andrew's condolences are lost in my cries, head falling into Kai's shoulder he wraps his arms around my shuddering body and pulls me close.

"Just let it all out..." His voice is the only noise in the room, everyone deathly still, deathly quiet as they watch us embrace on the spoiled table, eyes red from constant tears. I want to stay curled against him, stay crying for years until I can no longer take it and my heart stops and the flow dries.

But I can't. I can't stay like this. Not with Kai damaged as well.

Pressing the heels of my hand to my eyes, I stop the flow of tears and straighten up, climbing off the makeshift bed until I'm pushed back with Kai on top of me. Andrew lays a blanket over us both, the room slowly returning to life like a buffering video, their movements choppy as they awkwardly shuffle about, eyes occasionally wandering to the bloody pile of amethyst beside me.

Andrew passes us a bowl of soup, leaning his weary frame against the cool metal of the fridge, eyes puffy and red from tears though he looks away to hide it. "We need to think about how this could affect you going into heat."

Clide steps forward, his bowl untouched in an empty chair nearby. "Maybe a better time-"

Andrew glances up briefly, his grip tightening on the metal spoon before him. "Now is the best time."

"I feel fine." It's a lie but it's better than being asked twenty questions. I flinch slightly at my own words, another pain swimming up my veins as a reminder that I'm not. "Maybe we should talk about mating in private though?"

The blonde crosses his trembling arms over his chest, coming forward to help me sit up on the table while Kai lays still on his back. "And if it happens while I'm not here?"

"I would like to know," Julius's eyes meet mine, violet connecting with violet as they shift to the amethyst. "about what might happen to my Blood Servant." Voice hollow, he blinks his water filled eyes, kissing my tussled hair lightly as I lean into his chest. Julius pulls the slipping blanket back over my chest, cradling me against his own as he shakily exhales into the shell of my ear.

"You're overdue, Moon."

"I-"

"Overdue for what?" I still as Jules's grip tightens, breath slowing to a stop until I'm forced to exhale.

"Shifters are supposed to go into heat when they're about twenty, Moon's a couple hundred years late."

"Heat?"

Eden clears his throat in the darkening room, shrugging his coat closer as he shuffles nearer to Matt. "It's only called that because they get like one-hundred-twenty-degrees. They just go on this huge hump and kill rampage for like a month and then it never happens again."

"It's more of a tear them limb from limb until they die of blood loss type of deal." Kaiien scoffs from under the blankets beside me, tugging the comforter over his head and curling into my sewed hip. His lips are cold against the heat of the damaged skin, my body leaning farther from Jules and closer to Kai without me realizing.

Shying away from the stares I lay next to Kai, dragging the blanket even further over us so we're encased in a fort black as night, the loose stitching our stars as I shield his ears from the yells and cries. "Moon?" He whispers, breath warming the tight cocoon.

"Mhm?"

"Why are they fighting?"

"They're scared. I was attacked by the Vedil and they took my jewel, Kai. They're still out there and who's to say next time they'll stop at that? Who's to say they won't keep going until we're both dead."

"Maybe," He laughs, pressing the tip of his nose against my own and holding me tight. "that isn't such a bad thing. What with Father coming and all."

The silence grows stronger between us, Kai's gentle smile lingering while I listen to what they say outside the blanket. Eyes fluttering, Kaiien falls asleep, the atmosphere too familiar for him to resist keeping with routine.

"So now we have a hate group and a child molester to look out for?"

"Who's to say it'll get cold enough for that?"

"Why not ask Kai? If we can't get it from him we can surely force it out of Moon."

"We aren't using force!"

"We have no choice!"

"It'd be easier to just let him take them."

"Will-"

"Think about it? Promise?"

Drawing my knees to my chest I pull Kai closer, blinking away tears with each word they yell across the small room, a dish thrown, a curse yelled here and there. I try to ignore Kai's flinching, his mutters of whether or not Father is coming but each time his grasp on my shirt tightens I'm drawn back, just a child trying to hide when he knows he can't.

"M-Moon..." He could never hide the fear in his eyes well enough, even in as groggy of a state as he is now. "Your arm...it's turning like your tag."

I throw the blankets off in hast, cradling the limb against my chest until Andrew coaxes it away. "You need another shifter."

"Not an option." I cough out through gritted teeth, eyes rolling back from the pain of his touch.

"Werewolf? Nagel?"

"Where the hell are we to find either of those?" Our eyes connect for a brief second before I mouth the words. "Jesse."







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Note:

So I just realized that since the prequel isn't out, you have no idea how huge of a character Jesse is!

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