Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Eleven

Something was wrong. Lily was shivering, her hands curled tightly against the fluffy blankets and yet she was sweating like it was summer. Her legs were drawn up, her heels pressed against her bottom, but when Lily tried to twist her back pain ricocheted through her body like lightning. Her shoulder throbbed in agony and Lily didn't know how long she could last with this pain.

Her eyes remained shut, somehow the darkness mulling the pain only just. Lily breathed through clenched teeth as the smallest things grated on her ears; the coarse fabric of the sling knotted at her neck, the cuffs of her shirt brushing her scarred wrists, her jeans had twisted in her wriggling and now the seams weren't straight. A piece of her hair was across her forehead, stuck in place with sweat, but Lily couldn't move it.

Both of her arms were now useless; one rigid in pain, the other rigid completely.

Lily couldn't think straight, her mind was foggy and a dull throb was beginning to ache at the base of her neck. She hadn't had migraines often, but this was by far the worst. Her triggers were normally exhaustion or hunger, things she dealt with during her depression when her family had only just passed, but she wasn't tired nor starved right now.

The only thing aggravating her was her shoulder - Yuric's claw fragment must have shifted when she jumped off the waterfall, or maybe she hadn't noticed it because she'd been too focused on her paralysed arm, or Ryan's words to her only days ago, or her induction as Supernova from Jacob.

Lily groaned as she heard the front door slam open, the sound like a gunshot in her ears. Her shoulder now throbbed in time with her migraine. The fragment had to come out, it had to leave. She wouldn't endure this pain forever, she wouldn't let Yuric try to take another limb of hers. Lily wouldn't have this - she'd lost enough, endured enough, and she wasn't going to live with this pain if she could help it.

Her bedroom door opened wide, the darkness behind Lily's eyes reddening as light rushed in from the corridor, along with several people. She vaguely heard someone curse, it had to be Jack, and someone brushed their fingers over her wrist to check her pulse.

"What happened to her?" Lily heard someone ask. She knew that voice, why was it so familiar? Her mind was clogged with pain.

"I don't know," Someone answered. Lily registered a hand with five cold rings press on her forehead. She whimpered at the cool feeling, her mind's haze lifting for a fragment. "She was just pale an hour ago - she wasn't feverish like this."

"What happened in one day Jack?" The familiar voice said. Lily heard them walk around to her right side.

"I don't know Haidan - she ran away from werewolves, jumped off a waterfall, met a phoenix and a nymph, fell asleep, had a parmigiana, and then this. What part of that sticks out to you as unusual?" Jack snapped.

"The parmigiana, weirdly."

"Enough," Another voice said and Lily hissed as someone laid a hand on her sore shoulder. She didn't recognise herself, the guttural groan of pain she released when they pressed harder. Her stomach twisted - this wasn't help like she thought. This was pain and she didn't need more of it.

Lily's eyes snapped open and everyone backed away when the eerie grey light enveloped the room. The light cut out rapidly as Lily tried to blink the pain away but she registered Haidan on her right, Jack on her left, and Niall was perched at the foot board like a bird. Lily frowned when she spotted a familiar set of blonde ringlets over her shoulder and the shy silhouette of a vampire at her doorway.

"Karen?" Lily whispered as Claire pushed her into a sitting position. "C-Claire? What...?"

"Lily, long story." Karen swallowed as she saw Claire take a pair of scissors out of the bag she'd taken into Lily's room. "I'm going to wait outside."