Descending Darkness(107)

Ryanne hasn’t been gone for that long, but it feels like forever. Liam is starting to grimace, which means that Ryanne is awake. “Where?” I ask him.

“Everywhere. I have a killer headache and my left arm and leg…I’m not really sure. My stomach.” He shakes his head. “She’s in a lot of pain; I’ll tell you that.”

“Do you know if it’s from the accident or because she’s being attacked?”

“I don’t know,” he says.

Travis jumps up. “I think she’s calling me,” he says as he disappears. I jump up and stare at the spot where he was just standing.

“If she’s calling that means that she got away from Dravin,” Natalie says hopeful.

We all look toward Logan. “I can try, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything.” He stands up and tests his leg. He can put pressure on it now. Logan limps over to me and waits. None of us know what condition Ryanne will be in when she gets here.

We don’t have to wait long to find out.

Travis transports back into the room holding Ryanne. Emma and Natalie both gasp when they see her. I clench my jaw to keep from saying anything. She is completely limp in his arms. Her head is lying at an odd angle across his arm; her long hair is caked with dried blood from a cut on her head. Her head rolls to the side, showing even more dried blood that had fallen from her ear onto her neck. The right side of her face is swollen, and there’s a handprint there, so I know it happened while she was at the compound. Her left arm is dripping blood which is probably where the IV was attached. There’s a deep gash on her left leg that’s still bleeding. It looks like that will need stitches. Almost every visible inch of skin has either a cut or bruise.

Travis places her down on the bed and steps back. Everyone moves out of the way as I walk to her. “She passed out. When I got there, she was lying in the hallway, shaking. I’m assuming that the effects of the dormirako wore off, and she’s actually feeling the pain.”

I slowly move her head, so I can see the wound. She doesn’t react to my touch like she usually does. I sit down on the bed next to her and move her hair out of the way. The wound is still bleeding a little. Shouldn’t it have stopped by now?

Ryanne groans and slowly turns to the side. Grabbing her head, she screams the most blood curdling scream I’ve ever heard. Everyone flinches and takes a step backward. The pain on top of everyone’s thoughts has to be unbearable. “Ryanne, Ryanne, babe. Calm down,” I say.

Logan rushes forward and places his hands on her head, trying to lessen some of the pain. I know that he won’t be able to heal everything. She stops screaming but begins whimpering. The wound on her head closes, and her ear stops bleeding. The skin on the gash on her leg starts to come together, but before he can finish, Logan falls back gasping. He can’t do any more at the moment. She goes limp under his hand again. I pick her up and lie her down correctly on the bed.

“Did you see what happened to her?” I ask.

“Not really, her memory is really fuzzy. Dravin slapped her across the face, which was why her cheek was swollen, but that’s all I got. She doesn’t really know what happened. She remembers the car crashing into them but doesn’t remember anything between that and waking up strapped to the chair.”

“Is it because she hit her head or because of the dormirako?” I ask.

“I couldn’t tell,” Logan says honestly while glancing up at me with dark shadows under his eyes. With a shrug, he sits down and exhales loudly before shaking his head.

Tom takes a step forward. “We should let everyone rest. Colton, David, and Emma, you guys can have this room. Everyone else, out. We’ll figure out the arrangements in the hall. Logan, you and Liam should take the room next to them, just in case Ryanne wakes up.”

“I’ll come back when I can finish healing her,” Logan promises as he leaves the room.

Walking back into the room, Tom looks between us and says, “I’ll bring up your suitcases in a little bit.” His eyes land on Ryanne lying on the bed. With a frown and a slight shake of the head, he moves out of the room and shuts the door again.

When everyone is gone, I realize how tired I actually am. This has been a long day. Ignoring David and Emma’s prying eyes, I crawl across the bed and pull Ryanne toward me. In her sleep, she sighs and snuggles into my side. There’s my Ryanne.

I pull the blanket over us and turn off the light on the table. David and Emma still have a light near their bed. Closing my eyes, I let myself finally sleep, knowing that my soulmate is safe in my arms.