Dark Matter - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 2

Chapter Five - A Change of Heart

"Do you think she'll ever wake up?"

Leah heard the voice as if through a sheet of running water, the words came disjointed to her ears, shooting through the dark mist that clouded her mind. She could still feel the dead all around her, like a blurred backdrop, as she slowly gathered her bearings.

She was lying on a bed, the mattress soft beneath her, as the steady beep of a heartrate monitor filled her ears. A headache was pounding against her temples and her chest ached – a deep, probing throb that made her want to curl up into a ball.

"Of course, she will, Riley. Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?"

"I'm not being pessimistic. She's been sleeping like the dead for three days now."

"That's not funny."

Finally, Leah managed a soft moan and her eyes fluttered open. Riley and Seth were sitting beside the bed she lay on, Tai lounging against the door in the corner. They were in a bedroom that'd been made into a makeshift hospital, the cluttered bookshelf and chest of draws contrasting oddly with the heartrate monitor and the IV drip set up beside her.

Seth jerked in surprise at Leah's voice and jumped up, leaning down over her. His eyes were red-rimmed, the skin beneath taunt from lack of sleep.

"Leah? How are you feeling?"

His voice was drenched in concern and Leah suppressed a grimace as she sat up, clutching at her chest. It felt like one of her organs had been ripped from beneath her ribcage, leaving a gaping hole behind. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply through the discomfort.

"I'm not sure," she said, unwilling to give Seth any further reason to panic. The words sent a shot of pain down her throat. "Where are we?"

"We're at Andrew and Tai's house, just outside of Christchurch in New Zealand."

"New Zealand?" Leah echoed.

Tai came forward and leant against the end of her bed. "The S.I.S decided to leave Australia for a while. After what you did the rebels were practically destroyed, but we decided it was better not to take any chances, particularly after what happened to..."

Tai's voice trailed off and he flushed, looking away from her. Seth's face had turned slightly green.

"What happened to your dad," Riley finished softly. "Patrick led us for years. We need time to regroup."

Leah's head was spinning and she let it fall into her palms, allowing herself a few deep breaths. There was a deadly numbness condensing around her heart; all the anger, fear, betrayal and sorrow that'd haunted her since she'd entered this world morphing into an overwhelming sense of exhaustion.

"Why am I here?" she croaked eventually, looking back up at the others. "I thought the S.I.S decided to send me away."

"They changed their minds when they realised that people who piss you off get ripped apart by blood thirsty ghosts," Riley said dryly.

Seth let out a choked laugh, but the room quickly fell into a tense silence, and Leah drew her legs up to her chest, ignoring the stab of pain as her arm pressed against a large gash on her calf.

"So, they're just scared of me."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing," Riley said, raising an eyebrow.

Leah glanced at her, the movement sending another thud through her scalp. "Isn't it?"

Riley shrugged. "You didn't hurt a single S.I.S member and you demolished Brenton's forces. You proved you have power and can control it. No one would want that turned against them. You couldn't have thought of a better way to make yourself indispensable."