Sanctuary

Chapter Twenty

Prising Raven off of Cahya was hard, both physically and emotionally. A kicking and screaming Raven was deaf to their pleadings, unable to realise that they were going to help Cahya, not take him away. Setting aside the death grip Raven had suddenly developed, the sobbing and intense aura exuding from the pair made them want to just leave the two. But if Cahya was going to be healed, Onyx had to be able to do her thing.

Eventually, Raven had been made to sit on the couch, seeming to be catatonic with the psychological trauma of Cahya possibly dying. Having to leave him be, Jake and Daegel carefully moved Cahya to his bunk. They then went to check on Raven and clean up the blood trailed throughout the bus, leaving Onyx alone to work her magic. Literally.

Now that Cahya had stopped moving, it was much easier to work. Thankfully, there were no fatal wounds. A lot of bruising and scrapes, more than a few cuts that were bleeding quite a lot, and some broken bones. It was clear that Cahya had put up a fight, but had he won?

But as she worked, Onyx couldn't help a feeling of foreboding and dread. Her gut told her that even though Cahya was unconscious and needed quite a lot of healing, whoever did this could have done much worse. There was no hesitation in any of the knife wounds, and the bruising and broken bones would have required tremendous force to be so damaging. Yet none of the wounds had greatly affected any vital organs. The kind of creature able to inflict wounds like this to a vampire wasn't mindless, or Cahya would be dead. What if Cahya had been allowed to come back as a warning to the rest of the pack?

No matter how much Onyx tried to convince herself that Cahya had run into a powerful witch or vampire, who had been dispatched or chased off after an obviously brutal fight, she couldn't help the gnawing feeling in her gut, or the way her hands shook incessantly as she healed her brother. Snapping and popping filled the room as Cahya's shattered ribs knitted back together. His fractured pelvis, broken jaw, and broken metacarpals cracked back into place. The dislocated and broken ankle crunched as it straightened. A dislocated shoulder clunked back into place. All the badly bleeding cuts sealed back up. The bruising on his neck shrank and vanished.

At that stage, Onyx stumbled back and sat on the bunk directly across from where Cahya lay. Healing was exhausting, the most taxing of all known vampiric abilities, and Onyx didn't trust her knees not to buckle beneath her. They really did not need her to fall and knock herself out right now. All Cahya's serious injuries had been dealt with, leaving only bruises and scrapes which his enhanced healing would deal with in no time. Though, all the sheets would have to be replaced, seeing as Cahya's pitch black blood was everywhere. Vampire blood stained like a bitch, the dark substance worse than wine or indian ink.

However, now that all immediate issues had been dealt with, Onyx's mind wandered back to that bad feeling she had. Trusting her gut had kept her alive for hundreds of years, and brought this pack together, so there was no reason this time would be different. 'Surely it's nothing, but I'll check his memories. Better safe than sorry.'

Under most ordinary circumstances, Onyx didn't like invading people's minds, but this was important. Plus, she knew what and when she was looking for. Rising from her seat on the bed and standing next to the prone form of her wounded brother, Onyx placed her hands over Cahya's temples and focused her energy on finding the memories she needed.

A jolt shot through her as she was suddenly seeing through the eyes of Cahya as he had been a few hours earlier. The whole pack had been goofing around, laughing and joking as they so often did. That was earlier in the night. Searching a bit further, Onyx was then seeing what Cahya had been seeing around an hour ago.

Cahya had been watching some kind of show about unsolved murder cases, wrapped in Raven's arms. Then the view swivelled to a close-up of Raven's face as Cahya rested his hands on the arms encircling him. A look of pure adoration was seen in Raven's eyes, accompanied by a goofy, lovestruck smile. It was kind of weird for Onyx, as she was seeing that from Cahya's perspective rather than her usual third-party one. This side of Raven was reserved for Cahya and Cahya alone.