26
“Can we see him?” Chris asked as Stella closed the door behind her. She had been busy for six hours.
“I wouldn’t advise it, not yet,” she said.
“How bad is it?” Rev asked her.
“His arms and legs are broken, in total eight broken ribs, both of his shoulders were dislocated but I pushed them back, his back is ripped open almost everywhere and he has a multitude of stab wounds all over his body,” Stella said.
“Holy fuck,” Preston whispered.
“That’s not all. His cheekbones were shattered, his nose broken, his jaw dislocated and I struggled to keep the internal bleeding at bay. I’ve placed him in a medically induced coma so that he can start to heal but with the amount of dragon venom in his body it’s going to take a while,” she added.
“Who would do this to him?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know who’d have the balls,” Jax said as he shook his head.
“I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Rev said.
“Has anyone tried asking Baz?” Hannah asked.
“I’ll go ask him,” Rylee said and turned to leave.
She made her way outside and around the house to the right. She could hear Baz grumbling and saw the foliage of the trees move. She took a deep breath before confronting the dragon but Lucas’s life was at stake and she felt fear deep inside.
“Baz?” she called out.
“Yes female,” Baz’s deep voice came from the line of trees.
“Who did this to Lucas?” she asked him.
“Do you really care woman or are you asking because you feel guilty?” he asked.
“I do care about him, Hannah sent me to ask you,” she said.
“Well for Hannah we’d do anything,” Baz mused and Rylee looked down.
“I know I’m not your favourite person Baz, things are complicated,” she said.
“You halflings like complicated. Either you are bonded or not, he cares, why can’t you?” he asked.
“I’m trying to care, he makes it really hard to care but I don’t want him to die,” she said emotionally.
“I know female. He went with them willingly and suppressed me from the pain so I could bring him home,” Baz said.
“He knew this would happen?” she asked him.
“Yes, he was prepared and he made me proud. They had twenty-four hours with him and none of you thought to look for him,” he said with disgust as he looked at her.
“He doesn’t always come home,” Rylee said in a small voice.
“McIntyre Lair asked for retribution after Lucas defended your name in New York. They got it,” he said.
“Oh my god,” Rylee said with hands covering her mouth.
“Don’t look so shocked female, what they did was worse,” Baz said.
Before Rylee could blink Baz had grabbed her around her waist in his claw and his eyes glowed yellow as he stared into her blue ones. He projected the last twenty-four hours into her mind and she saw a movie loop of what I had gone through.
Rylee was screaming at this point and her heart was pounding erratically by the time Baz let go of her. She fell to the ground still screaming and Baz lowered his head.
“Now you know,” he said and turned his back on her. He needed to sleep as he couldn’t merge with me and risk killing me in the process.
Preston found Rylee outside where she clutched her head and kept her eyes shut tightly. She was whimpering and he carried her inside, wondering what Baz had done to her. Rev was in my office going through my emails and logging onto my phone to check my messages and calls.
On day three Rev pieced the retribution together and Rylee had still not emerged from my bedroom. I could feel all her emotions subconsciously as my body healed slowly because Baz wasn’t with me. Stella didn’t want to risk him merging now.
On day seven I opened my eyes and heard the collective sighs of relief as they all sat around the hospital bed. My head pounded and my body felt as if a truck had driven over me a few times. Baz stumbled through the door and poked his head inside the room.
“Halfling,” he said and dove straight into me. I felt slightly better once he settled down and merged with me and the tingling sensation faded slowly.
“You’re a fucking idiot!” Jax yelled at me.
“Had no choice,” I said. My voice was raspy and my throat hurt.
“You’ve been in a coma for six days and today is day seven. Rylee hasn’t left the bedroom because Baz did something to her, she’s not speaking to anyone, other than that everything in the territory’s fine,” Hannah said as she grabbed my hand.
“I’ll heal faster now that Baz is back,” I croaked and closed my eyes again.
Baz and I slept another few hours although I was still aware of all the sounds and movement in the room. It was pitch dark outside when I woke up again and I felt much better. My body was physically still weak but the broken limbs had healed and I could walk if I steadied myself against a wall or the stairs railing.
I made my way upstairs to my room even though it took me almost an hour to do it but the curtains and windows were open and the lamp on my side was on. Rylee didn’t even react when I opened the door and I went over to her.
She had dark smudges beneath her eyes and her face was gaunt. She had lost weight and she didn’t even look like Rylee. I went over to the windows and closed them pulling the curtains closed. I felt like shit and all I wanted was a shower but I was too tired.
I fell into bed and immediately closed my eyes as exhaustion took over again and my back started throbbing. I slept like the dead and thankfully no dreams plagued me and when I woke up in the morning I felt like a new person. I had more energy and I didn’t feel so weak.
“Rylee,” I said as I shook her lightly. She didn’t respond or react but I knew she was awake.
I stood up and opened the curtains and window and the brisk air felt good as I took a deep breath. Sunshine filtered into the room and I looked back at Rylee. She was still in the same position as last night and now I started to worry.
I went to the bathroom and filled the tub with water. I pulled Rylee out of the bed and carried her to the bathroom. I sat her down on the toilet and pulled her clothes off and then I deposited her into the tub. Her eyes widened slightly but then settled back to her ghost like state.
I showered and got dressed and Rylee still hadn’t moved. I sighed as I pulled the plug and then I lifted her out of the tub. I dried her and pulled one of my shirts over her head. I handed her clean underwear and thankfully she pulled those on herself.
A knock on my bedroom door interrupted me and it opened as I came walking out of the bathroom with Rylee in my arms. It was Hannah and she looked disapprovingly at me.
“You shouldn’t be exerting yourself,” she said.
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” I said to her, “can anyone explain why the hell Rylee is like this?”
“Preston found her in the garden that night Baz brought you home, she went to go ask him what had happened to you,” she said.
“I see," I said disapprovingly.
“A package arrived for you a few days ago, it's in your office,” Hannah said and turned to leave.
“Rylee, you have to go downstairs and eat, do you hear me?” I said.
“I’m not hungry,” she whispered.
“Ah so you can speak,” I joked as tears made their way over her cheeks.
“I was beginning to think you had died and nobody had noticed by the way you smelled,” I said as I stood up and got dressed. She ignored my last statement and closed her eyes and I felt helpless watching her.
I saw the wooden crate on my desk as I passed my office and smiled. I would phone Marcus later and apologize for my silence. First I had to face the firing squad that was my family waiting for me downstairs in the dining room.
“What have you managed to find out?” I asked as I sat down after being assaulted by Martha crying into my chest for ten minutes.
“Carson and JD filed a retribution for your assault on them in New York,” Jax began.
“Then you chose not to tell any of us and had Andre drop you off at the border, leaving your car and phone at The Drake,” Preston continued.
“You spent twenty-four hours being tortured by them and Baz brought you home,” Rev ended.
“See, so there’s nothing for me to tell you guys,” I said and started to eat.
“Are you even aware of what they did to you?” Chris asked angrily.
“Very aware Chris, I was awake for it all,” I said and glared at her.
“I found a retribution application on your laptop, why haven’t you sent it to them?” Jax asked me.
“I did,” I answered him.
“Then I don’t understand. How can they claim retribution for you breaking Carson’s nose but you can’t claim retribution for them leaving Rylee for dead in the forest,” he said to me.
“You don’t have to understand why I do anything, as long as this lair is functioning and our dragonkin are safe you’ve got nothing to worry about,” I said.
“Hmm,” Rev said and continued eating.
“Yes,” Hannah said as she and Rev looked at each other and she turned her attention back to her food.
“Stop doing that freaky thing where you two talk like that,” Preston said.
“Lucas, I wanted to ask if I could speak to you privately when you have a chance,” Jennifer said. She had been silent throughout the entire conversation.
“Sure, come to my office later,” I said as Preston frowned at her.
“Do you really expect us to carry on as if this retribution never happened?” Jax continued.
“Yes Jax, there’s nothing we can do. They filed for it, they got it, it’s over now,” I said as I poured more coffee for myself.
“This is not acceptable, you had to hand yourself over for retribution all because Rylee refused to testify to her assault of six years ago,” Hannah said as she glared at me.
“Just leave it Hannah,” I said to her.
“Not in a million years,” she said as she stood up.
“Hannah!” I yelled and stood up as Rev blocked me.
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