Chapter Fifty-three: Burned down

“STOP!” I mind-link, with so much force that all wolves turn to face me, including Lukas who abruptly changed pose to a more defensive one rather than attack.

I run over to Ares and look at him then back down to Elijah. He looks like death. His once perfect hair half burned, half frazzled. Half his face seemed to be black with soot. His clothes in tatters and covered in blood. I struggle to comprehend what had happened to him.

Before I get a chance to examine him, Ares nudges me, still defensive monitoring the surrounding area. “Do you know him? He’s not from our pack and is certainly not a werewolf, looks to be elven. He’s trespassing, and trespassing means death.”

I shoot my head straight at him, unable to believe what he’s just said. “So much for going a bit easier on the borders…..It’s Elijah.” I mind-link him as I look back to him.

I pause, seeing Lukas fight an internal war with himself as his pack warriors look to him for guidance. I look down and notice Elijah hasn’t moved and I start to worry. “Please help him. I need to know what’s happened.” I say looking directly into Ares eyes. He gives me a short nod and I assume he mind-links some of the warriors around him who then start to form a circle around Elijah, picking him up carefully.

They then start heading back, towards the direction of the pack hospital. I decide that he’s in good hands, and I know Ares and Lukas will ensure he makes it there and hopefully Doctor Lowe will be able to help him recover.

I look behind me and see Rue and Faith still with me. “You can both go, I’m going to shift and then speak with Lukas.” I mind-link to them. They both bow in respect, and start heading back the direction we came from.

I turn to Lukas, who is watching my every move. I decide to break the eye contact and start to shift back, aware that everyone around us has left the area and headed back. As I shift, I see Ares shift back as well.

In his human form, Lukas heads towards one of the large trees and seems to pull something out. He heads back to me and gives me what looks like a large t-shirt and a pair of pants.

“Thank you.” I say to him, unsure still on how he’s feeling.

“That was Elijah?” He asks straight away.

I sigh, unsure where this conversation is heading. “Yeah, that was him, although I’ve never seen him like that before…..I’ve got a feeling something bad has happened at the Druida community.”

We start to head back in the direction I came from. We walk in silence for several minutes before he speaks his mind. “What is he doing here? What does he want?”

I look to Lukas who has a frown on, a bit surprised about his question. “I don’t know. I’ve not seen Elijah since I left, before I found you. The elves and their homes, or as we know them, communities are bonded. They’re sacred to them and would never leave them, rather would fight to the death for their homeland. It’s tied to their ancestors and their history. I’m baffled as to why Elijah has ventured out……unless something’s happened.”

My mind starts racing. Was Elijah on his own? Why was he in this state, what caused it? Did he purposely come here or was he trying to go somewhere else?

Lukas pulls me into a hug and strokes my hair, calming my racing thoughts, if only slightly. “I can tell you’re overthinking things just now my love. Let’s just get to the pack hospital and see if Elijah is close to waking after Doctor Lowe has examined him, and if not, we can wait. I know you want to know what’s happened, and quite frankly, so do I. We’ve not had any elven interaction in years.” He says whilst smiling down at me.

I feel a bit of tension I didn’t know I had, being released from my shoulders. I see Lukas is being sincere but from his earlier stance I was unsure how he felt about the whole conversation. He takes my hand and we continue to walk, picking up the pace towards the pack hospital.

We reach it around an hour later and I look to Lukas who stops for a few seconds and I see his onyx eyes overcast as he mind-links.

“They’re on the third floor, let’s go.” He says with a slight grimace on his face. I feel my stomach drop as I begin to worry that his condition is much worse than what I originally thought. I can tell Lukas is not expanding on that and so we head up the hospital steps and through the doors, then up the stairs to the third floor.

I follow Lukas as he already knows where Elijah is, until we reach the second door to the right. The door is already wide open with Doctor Lowe in the room.

I take one look at Elijah and I can’t help but gasp at the sight of him. There are lots of cables running around him and a monitor to the side of the bed he’s in. From what I can tell, he’s been put into a sort of hospital gown, his clothes were ruined but now in that gown he looks like he’s not eaten, drank or slept properly in weeks. He’s no longer as muscular as he was when I last saw him and has lost weight…too much weight from what I can tell. His Black hair is half singed from what I’m assuming is fire. The brave elf I last saw not too long ago looking much different and it worried me.

I let go of Lukas’ hand at that moment and move towards the bed. I suspect he’s still cautious of the relationship I have with Elijah, but I brush it off. Elijah to me is still my best friend and always will be, and I can’t stand the condition he’s in. I look to Doctor Lowe who gives me a brief nod giving me the go ahead to move a chair next to the bed and sit next to Elijah. Lukas comes up behind me on the chair and says nothing, but stays close as I sit there staring at my dear friend.

I sit and listen to what I assume is the heartbeat monitor, hearing the slow but steady pace of the beeps. The atmosphere in the room is dire, and I need to know what we’re looking at in terms of recovery.

I look at Doctor Lowe, who has returned to looking over some paperwork on her clipboard. “Is it bad?” Is all I can say, not wanting to choke up looking at Elijah who is unconscious in the hospital bed.

I pick up on her delay of responding, understanding right away it’s not good news. She sighs slightly and turns to me, giving me her full attention. “Luna, I’m sorry but it’s not good. It doesn’t help that he’s an Elf and from what I could find they don’t heal as easily as we do. Their anatomy is not much different from our human form though which is good. He’s lucky he’s got away with minimal burns on his arms and not much of anywhere else. He’s got a few broken ribs, and some fractures on his legs….saying this though he will pull through, we just need to give him time to heal and come back to consciousness…..I’ve been made aware that he’s here and not turned away because you know who he is?”

I feel Lukas’ grip tighten very slightly on the chair but ignore it and answer the Doctors question. “Yes, I spent a bit of time at one of the elven communities, Elijah was the one who found me and took me in. He’s a dear friend of mine, and I would request you to reach out to me as soon as he’s awake so I can be sure he doesn’t panic.”

“Doctor Lowe has been asked to reach out to me when he wakes.” Lukas states before anything else can be said.

I swivel round in the chair and look up to him. “Is that you alone or can I also be involved?”

Lukas looks down at me as I ask and I can tell he’s evaluating what to say next. Before he gets a chance I respond. “Lukas, please don’t leave me out of this. He’s my friend and without him I wouldn’t be here. I have to be here when he wakes or as close to so I can know what happened.”

Lukas sighs before slumping his shoulders slightly in defeat. “Ok little one. Usually we go through an interrogation of any unknown contacts but as you vouch for him, we can bend the rules a little.” He then turns to Doctor Lowe. “Reach out to myself and Aliana when he wakes.”

“Yes Alpha” She says, and bows her head.

“Let’s go, time to get some food I think.” Lukas says to me and I get up and follow him out the room.

As I get up however, I hear a slight, very slight movement come from the bed. I instantly turn round to see Elijah stirring in the bed. Doctor Lowe seemed to notice this also and puts down whatever it was she was looking at, and hurriedly goes over to Elijah and checks him over.

I move back beside the bed. “Elijah? Elijah it’s Aliana.” I don’t need to say anything further as he opens his eyes, a bit bewildered.

He looked around a bit round the room, but made no move to get up. He blinked a few times and then seemed to squint towards me to focus.

“Ali…Aliana?” He stutters, starting to look a bit panicked. He starts to shake his head a bit, and I could tell he was starting to panic as his heart rate goes up on the monitor.

He looks at me desperately. “They burned it Aliana….Druida, the Elders….everyone. Burned. I barely got out after the Elders helped me. He’s coming Aliana. He’s coming for us all.”

Elijah started to try and push himself up, but everyone in the room knew he was too weak to do so. He started thrashing slightly and the cables coming from his arms were starting to rip out.

I see in the corner of my eye Lukas giving Doctor Lowe a small nod and whilst Elijah continued to panic, she pushed some liquid from a syringe into one of the tubes. Elijah started dropping his eyes and he went back to sleep.

The Druida community and everyone along with it was gone…