Page 10 of Stand: Part One

I grunted at his reminder, moving to the nearby sink to wash away the dried blood from my skin with hot water. When I was finished, I pulled a chair to Jaden’s bedside and took one of her small hands in mine. Her hands were cold like I’d suspected, making me close my freshly warmed up palms around hers.

With Jaden’s heart monitor beeping in the background, I was left alone to brood and plan in silence while I waited for her to wake. I’d been gone only a week, hell-bent on finding Javier Spade to collect the blood he owed for killing Dominic. And this is what I come home to. Disappointment, murderous rage, and frustration stormed inside me, and there was only one thing that would calm it—absolute fucking carnage.

4

Damages

Beep……beep…...beep……

What the fuck is that stupid noise?

Beep……beep……beep……

Oh no……no…not this shit…not again……

Beep……beep……beep……

Ugh……goddamn it……I survived…why do I always have to survive everything?

The very weight of my eyelids was painful, the heaviness a barrier to sight I had no interest in fighting. I preferred to stay unconscious.

But hearing required no effort, so when the sound of the heart monitor echoed in my ears, telling me I was still very much alive, I wanted to hurl it out the fucking window. But I couldn’t. Because I knew my body was broken. Again.

Everything hurt. Everything.

I didn’t even want to assess the damage I had sustained, knowing there was nothing to distract me from concentrating on every nerve ending attached to my body. I was already under the impression that an elephant was sitting on my pelvis, the pressure so incredibly destabilizing I could barely breathe.

I decided to test the strength of my fingers first, finding my right hand stuck in a warm but gentle embrace. A single curl of my fingertips gave life to the rustling of fabrics and furniture, the grip on my hand suddenly growing stronger.

“Jaden?” came a soft deep voice next to me. “Can you hear me?”

I hummed my acknowledgment, taking a slow breath, the expansion of my chest making me groan from the strain.

“Sid! Get in here now!”

The sudden shout made me wince, but the sound of quickly moving footsteps and a swinging door changed the course of my attention.

“Jaden?” came another voice. “Jaden, can you hear us?”

“Mhm,” I mumbled, hoping they would finally stop asking me questions.

But with the soft stroking of a thumb along my cheek, I knew I wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Open your eyes, princess,” Darren whispered, the longing in his voice a soothing reminder of his own helplessness. As it was, he could do nothing for me but witness the aftermath and destruction of his own makings.

I tightened my fingers around his palm instead, denying him for a little while longer while I could still get away with it.

A few more moments of silence brought me the clarity I needed, my situational awareness now expanding beyond the agony of my own body and the limits of the bed. It bounced off the walls until I could finally sense everything and everyone in the room, down to the last speck of dust in the air. Awareness required focus, and focus required energy, summoning just enough to finally see again.

Slowly cracking my eyelids, my vision fixated on a massive blur of a man sitting at my bedside. I felt his hand gently graze against my cheek, brushing the loose hair away from my face.

“There she is,” Darren murmured, his voice low, but his tone grateful.

I grunted in response, finding my mouth far too dry to formulate actual words before wincing from the light.

“Bright,” I mumbled anyway, hoping my voice was loud enough.

In a flash, the light was gone and the stinging brightness faded away, but the shivers that began to erupt down my limbs had me hunching into myself for warmth.