Page 37 of A Touch Of Death

Davis tilts his head and narrows his eyes, but before he can respond, I ball up my hands and throw a ball of white and gold dust in his direction. Davis' eyes widen before he pulls his arm over his mouth. His men aren't so lucky, covering their faces too late. They drop within seconds of inhaling the dust, leaving only Davis standing in the lot alone.

Yelling loud enough for Nix's insane hearing to catch, I say, "Nix, drive!"

The truck starts up, and tires squeal before gravel hits the back of my legs. Davis is still shielding himself from the dust that doesn't immediately settle, so I tell him, "This ought to teach you not to be so cocky when you're facing an unrestrainedfae who has been starved and beaten for five years."

I hear the truck peeling out of the parking lot, and I send Davis a glare that I wish would incinerate him, turning him into ash on the spot. He must hear the truck driving away because only then he looks around and notices his men laying in pools of their own blood where they'd once stood. He turns his enraged eyes back to me, and I give him an eyebrow raise. Filling my hand with more dust, I take a step back. I take another, and another, until I'm putting enough distance between me and the asshole. When I'm at a safe distance, I begin to phase out of the lot, picturing the truck bed in my mind.

I turn into the phase, moving to face the direction of the truck, but just as the phase begins to suck me in, I feel a burning pain in my shoulder blade. Another blast of fiery pain catches my waist, and one more pierces a spot on my lower back, just to the right of my spinal cord. I lose my breath, and the burning sensation grows, lacing through my body from where I've been shot.

It takes all I have to focus on phasing and not the searing pain that's growing by the second. Using all of my remaining energy, I phase out and feel myself drop into the truck bed heavily. The drop jostles me awkwardly, and the pain worsens, but I grit my teeth through it.

With too much effort, I lift my head and see us driving far away from the parking lot, Davis growing smaller as we go. It gives me great satisfaction to see the furious snarl on his face, but I can't relish the feeling for long when the burning grows until it's almost unbearable.

Making sure Zayn can't see into my mind, I cap my thoughts, keeping the pain to myself. I grind my teeth enough that they feel close to cracking and internally scream when the burn feels like it's setting every cell in my body on fire. I've felt this pain once before when they were testing their newly-developed bullets. I don't remember what they did to them, but I remember this one all too well. I just never felt the pain as intensely as I do now. Have they upgraded them? Added a higher dosage of whatever concoction they've created? Right now, I couldn’t care less because the pain finally grows to the extent that I can't keep myself quiet anymore.

I lose the battle to cap my thoughts when my focus weakens, and I grow lightheaded and dizzy. A scream rips from my vocal cords as my entire body feels like it's been doused in gasoline and lit on fire, and I know Zayn is witnessing everything I'm currently suffering.

Zayn tries to talk to me in my mind, but I can't hear or sense anything other than the agony ripping through my flesh.

My body begins to lock down, tensing and releasing with a seizure I can't hold off. Every movement causes more pain, but I'm helpless to stop it. My screams pour from me while hot tears stream from my eyes.

The world around me begins to fade, growing dimmer and increasingly bland the more I writhe in agony. Colours look less vibrant, and the sky grows to look a dull grey. My vision flickers in and out of darkness, but my sight always comes back to the miserable grey sky above me.

The edges of my vision grow darker and darker until it's flickering between black nothingness to blurred visions of the sky, and everything grows quiet. It's as though the world has stopped, and I'm suspended where I am, gazing at amonotonous empty sky while I burn. Numbness begins to replace the white hot pain when it grows to be too much. My body starts to shut down, and everything fades away entirely.

The last thing I see is the lifeless sky above me that suddenly turns completely black.

****

My eyes snap open, and my body jostles, eliciting a sharp cry of pain when a piercing sensation breaks out in my shoulder and lower back.

"Hey, hey. Don't move, babe. It's going to hurt for a little while but just don't move, okay?" Nix's deep baritone reaches my ears. It soothes me instantly, and I feel tears prick my eyes. "There we go. That's better."

As soon as I relax into the bed I've woken up in, I feel the aches and pains more strongly than before. My body feels like one giant bruise, as though I've been used as a punching bag for the world's strongestNatural. My head is pounding like there's a drum solo playing on repeat in the confines of my skull, moving hurts too much for me to even attempt, and there's a throbbing pain in three different spots on my body.

Even my hair hurts.

Nix's face comes into view as he leans over the bed to look at me. "I have never been so relieved to see a mismatched set of eyes in my life before."

I try to give him a smile, but my dry lips crack, and it does nothing but add to my miserable situation. His hand rises to my hair away from my face, but he doesn't move away immediately. Instead, he gently cups my face in his large hand and strokes a thumb over my cheekbone. The sensation is such a stark contrast to how my entire body feels that a tear slips out from the relief of a soothing touch.

When I try to speak, it's nothing but a high rasp that simply hurts. I lick my lips and swallow a couple of times before trying again. My words are choppy and strained, but I push the sentence out, "How long... been out...?"

"How long have you been unconscious?" Nix asks, looking over my face with rapt attention. I give him a pathetic nod, but he catches it easily. "A week. You've been out cold for seven days, almost going on eight."

My eyes slide away from his face, and I see the darkness outside the beautiful french doors Spencer created for me. So, I'm in my new room. I don't have any memory of the car stopping or being brought into the house, but that's no surprise. I'm just relieved to be home and away from Davis and his goons.

"What... time...?" I struggle to ask.

"It's three in the morning, babe. You chose a great time to wake up." He snorts, but the humour dies quickly. I haven't seen him look so solemn until right now. "I forced the others to get some rest, so they're all downstairs sleeping. I'm a light sleeper, so they agreed it was best I stay here for when you finally opened those pretty eyes of yours. I was sleeping in the rocking chair when you woke up."

I nod again, but it's all I can manage. Whatever energy I'd gathered was used to rasp out those two questions. Keeping my eyes open becomes a struggle, and Nix notices immediately.

"Get some more rest, babe. I'll be here all night if you wake up before the sun." He leans over me to drop the gentlest kiss to my forehead. Where his lips meet my skin, the ache leaves. It's like his kiss is a cooling balm for the pain.

I give him another attempt at a smile when he moves back, and he offers me one in return. My eyes begin the flutter closed, exhaustion creeping up on me, so I settle further into the soft pillows behind my head.

The bed dips beside me, and my body jostles slightly, causing me to wince. "Sorry! Sorry, trying to be careful."

---