Chapter 136 - You’re one of them

EMMA

Consciousness slowly pulls me out of my nightmare. The terror in my dreams is filled with piercing screams, oppressing silver and a darker-than-night werewolf. The nightmare is a familiar one, the fear has taunted me for weeks.

My throat is dry and my eyelids seem to have glued shut. I try to turn but my head feels heavy and there’s a throbbing pain in my body. I groan when every movement takes strenuous effort.

“She’s waking up.” A voice says through the fog. The voice is familiar and also appeared in my nightmare.

My heart starts to beat faster and the pain intensifies. It spreads through my chest and back, but eventually, all flows to my shoulder.

“Emma, can you hear me?” Another voice asks. The voice is older and also familiar. I rake my brain for the people I know. *Doctor Harold? Where am I?*

I force my eyes to open and bright light blinds me. They pull me from the dark bowels of my nightmare. I groan as the light stabs the heaviness in my head. There’s a strong familiar scent of disinfectant itching in my nose.

“How do you feel?” Doctor Harold murmurs. My vision sharpens after a handful of seconds and reveals the scowl of the doctor. He’s standing over me as he checks my breathing and heart rate.

Doctor Harold is wearing his white coat. The stethoscope is hanging around his neck. *I’m not in my bed, I’m in the infirmary.*

I try to remember what happened, but my mind comes up blank. The fog in my brain is slow to disappear and even remembering my own name is hard.

“It hurts.” I whimper and my voice croaks with the dryness. The pain in my body is sharp and ragged.

“The anesthesia is wearing off.” The doctor hums in understanding and scribbles some things down. “I’ll get you some painkillers.”

Doctor Harold walks away without another word and I’m left with even more questions. *Anesthesia?*

A biting cold covers my hand and I flinch. I try to pull away, but the cold grabs onto me like frostbite. It travels up my arm all the way to my shoulder. I turn to the source and that’s when I notice Dex sitting beside my bed.

Dex has my hand cradled between both of his. His hair is messier than usual and there are shadows under his eyes. It seems that he didn’t have much sleep last night.

“I was so scared yesterday.” He says. He’s wearing a white button-down shirt and it triggers something in my mind. I think I’ve seen him wearing it before. The top buttons are open and he has the sleeves rolled up.

I frown when I fail to recall where I’ve seen him wearing it. “You were?”

I look around the room in the infirmary. The sterile white chamber is empty except for us. If I got injured, shouldn’t there be other people? But I couldn’t have gotten injured, I have supernatural healing blood. My head starts to hurt more as I strain it.

“Yeah, it had me shaking all night,” Dex says and I can see his sincerity.

“What happened?” I whisper. I’m afraid to hear the answer.

Dex releases a deep exhale as if he’s been dreading this moment. “I’ve heard stories of how they brainwash their women with their poison.” There’s disgust in his voice.

I try to remember harder and flashes of hidden memories come through. White lilies, primrose and honeysuckle. People dancing on the square. Boisterous music is being replaced by ear-splitting screams.

“I’m so glad we found a way,” Dex says through the flashes of memories. The fatigue is clear in his eyes as he runs a hand through his hair.

He’s there in my memories too. His crooked tie and sleek white shirt. His outstretched hand and his dimpled smile. His lead as he spun me into a dance. His frigid touch and how my words were silenced by his cold lips.

Dex grimaces as if something has him in physical pain. “I don’t want to kill the prince right now, but I would if I had to.”

The drowsiness I feel disappears with the thought of Hadrian being killed. “Kill?”

Memories of Hadrian fill more of the gaps and they make my heart thunder in my rib cage. His roaring growl as he charged for Dex. The silver wire nets trapping him to the ground. His blistering burns through his fur.

“It’s another way to break the spell he had you under,” Dex explains.

The memory of what happened resurfaces and I realize that it wasn’t a nightmare. It really happened. Dex kissed me and Hadrian shifted in the middle of town. He was trapped.

“Where’s Hadrian?” My voice is rough and my throat scrapes like sandpaper.

“You don’t have to worry.” Dex removes a lock of hair from my face and the touch of his fingertips leaves cold shivers over my spine. “He cannot hurt you anymore.”

“Is he…” I cannot finish my sentence. My lips start trembling and tears blur my vision when things start to catch up to me. Hadrian shifted and was trapped in silver wire nets. One silver arrow to his heart would be all it takes.

“No,” Dex says after a long stretch of silence. “We might need him for the mission.”

“I’m so sorry that you had to go through this,” Dex whispers and cradles my hand in both of his. He leans forward and I can feel his breath blowing over my skin. “But everything will be better now, I promise.”

I pull my hand away and the movement shoots to my shoulder. I wince and the brimming tears spill over my cheeks. I move a hand to the source of pain, but I’m met with bandages beneath my fingertips. There’s pain in my shoulder and there shouldn’t be. “What did you do?”

“They removed your mark.” He says.

His previous words start to register. Killing Hadrian would be another way to break the spell. Is the bond really broken when a fated mate dies? Or does it kill a part of the surviving mate too? What would happen to me if Hadrian was killed? Could removing a mark really break the bond?

“What?” His words take away the drowsiness completely.

Doctor Harold enters back into the room. “Dex is correct.” His face is stoic. He’s holding a glass of water and a little cup with what I assume holds the medicine. “We performed the procedure last night and we successfully removed your marking.”

Doctor Harold locks his jaw, his features turn into their usual scowl. “The rapture was deep so it will take a while to heal completely of course.”

Dex nods along to what the doctor is saying. “Of course, thank you, doctor.”

I refuse to look at Dex and keep my gaze on the ceiling. I can feel his presence lingering beside my bed.

“I should probably let Kelsey know that you’re awake,” Dex says with a forced chuckle. “She was so worried, I’ve never seen her that frantic.”

I listen to his steps to the doorway, but they hesitate. “I was really worried too.” His voice is sincere but I can’t handle it right now.

I always knew that Hadrian being here was a great risk. My worst nightmare has come true.

I listen to his footsteps as they fade away in the distance. My body feels sluggish and my movements are slow as I try to sit up. The pain in my shoulder is nagging, but not sharp like an open wound. More like something stabbed in my soul, like the pain shouldn’t exist.

I sit on the edge of the bed and move my shoulder. I have to find Hadrian. Something tells me that the pain and sluggishness is not all mine.

“You have a lot of people fooled, but I know your secret.” The nasal voice of the doctor comes up behind me.

“Dex believes cutting out the mark will remove the poison.” Doctor Harold places the cup with the three pills and the glass of water on the table next to the bed.

“But it cannot be removed.” His eyes are sharp and his scowl is unrelenting. “You're one of them. You are the poison.” He concludes.

I swallow when I realize that it’s not a guess. He knows. The doctor operated on my shoulder. I’m sure that when I remove the bandage there will not be a wound anymore. Doctor Harold must’ve seen my unnatural healing too. Maybe he already suspected it before, he never seemed to like me.