The Betrayal

Chapter Forty-Nine

We drove for miles through the fog and darkness. My mind faded in and out of awareness. Who was I?

A part of me died with Damon.

A part of me died with Luca.

A part of me died with my dad.

If people continued to die, who would I be anymore? I'd be just a skeleton with fractured bones. My soul would be stripped bare.

Did I even have a soul anymore? Had the human side of me disappeared? Had it been replaced with one of pain and anger?

After hours of thinking, trembling, and thinking some more, I wiped the tears from my cheeks. Valerio parked in front of the pack house, taking me by the hand and helping me out of the car. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, pressing his lips together.

I nodded my head and we began our trek to the pack hospital. The closer we traveled, the faster my heart raced. Saying goodbye to two men today, to two lovers?

Was it hard? Yes. Was I going to be able to do it? I didn't know. Did I have to do it? Yes.

Valerio opened the door for me, allowing me to walk into chaos. Nurses were running around frantically, their eyes wide. Papers were on the floor, all over the tables. A desk had toppled over. My brows furrowed at the mess.

"Where is he?!" someone yelled, rushing out of the hallway to the foyer. The doctor appeared in the foyer, his eyes wide, a deep gash across his face. When he saw Valerio and me, he stopped, breathing heavy and bowed his head. "Moon Goddess. Valerio."

"What's going on?" I asked.

He swallowed hard, his lips parting and shutting quickly.

Nurses sprinted into the hospital, carrying a doctor whose arm was completely ripped off and throwing her onto a hospital bed.

"He's... gone."

"Who?" Valerio asked, his eyes following the panic as Protectors carried others into the hospital.

"Luca."

My eyes widened. "What the hell do you mean 'he's gone'?!" I brushed passed him, running to Luca's hospital room.

Empty. It was completely empty.

His bed sheets were in a jumbled mess, a nurse was laying on his bed, blood gushing out of a gash in her neck.

Shuffling sounded behind me and I shot around, glaring at the doctor who was now in the room. "I thought you said he was dead?! You said he would never wake up!" I grabbed him by the neck, pressing him up against the wall, high in the air. "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THAT? WHY WEREN'T YOU WATCHING HIM?!"

"We... we didn't think he would wake up. There... there was absolutely no way that he could wake up. He was dead. His soul left his body."

Valerio walked up to me, his eyes black. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me away from the man. "We have bigger problems than this. He killed two of our Protectors who tried to stop him at the borders."

My eyes widened. I clenched my jaw, breathing deeply. "This is on you!" I pointed to the doctor and rushed out of the room with Valerio. "There are a group of Protectors waiting at your office, waiting for orders."

I nodded, my nostrils flaring. I couldn't believe this was happening.

He was dead. How could he escape if he was dead?

When we reached the floor to my office, I grumbled as the only thing that stood upright anymore was the wooden door. A group of Protectors were outside of it, waiting.