AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jorik
“Dumbfuck,”Imuttered,mostly under my breath as I closed the bedroom door, having carried Zane to the bed so he could sleep off his cantankerous mood and start to heal from his gunshot.
“He’ll heal way faster if I can give him a full vial,” Haina said, cleaning up the first aid kit, then taking the bloody forceps and suture kit to the kitchen to clean. The stove was gas, and the drum at the back of the house wasn’t empty when we checked, so she turned on the burner after filling up a sauce pot with water.
“He’ll also kill us if he finds out we gave him a full vial,” Rix replied, wiping up the blood from the floor. “Says the withdrawals are unlike any torture we’ve ever experienced.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to have to go through the withdrawals eventually,” I added. “And if it can save our brother and help him heal faster, then I’m all for it. Whatever the symptoms are, we can get through them.”
Rix nodded. “I agree. Right now, he’s useless. And if we get attacked again, he’s not going to be able to fight. He’s as good as dead, which means we’re all dead. Add in the possibility of infection, sepsis, I’d rather deal with the withdrawals than all of us possibly fucking dying because Zane is a stubborn motherfucker who refuses to tell us what a withdrawal actually feels like.”
“Wait…” Haina turned around from where she’d been standing, warming her hands over the pot of water that was starting to steam. “He’s been through a withdrawal, but you guys haven’t? How’s that possible?”
Seeing that my girl was cold, I grabbed one of the unbloody blankets that we’d brought in with us from the boat and draped it around her shoulders. Then I stood there and rubbed the sides of her arms.
“Thank you,” she said, kissing my jaw as she tilted her head over her shoulder.
Warmth spun through me from her affection and I kissed the top of her head in return. “Zane and Chance are a few years older than us, so they started going on missions sooner. I don’t know if Zane got stuck somewhere and was without a top-up vial or couldn’t make it back to the compound in time. Maybe he was captured … again, he won’t talk about it, but he went through a full detox, and all he’ll say is that he’d rather die than go through that again.”
“But we’re going to have to go through the detox at some point,” Rix pointed out again. “We only have two vials left, and they only get us three days. So it’s either three days or six days from now we’re going to start feeling the effects of being without that serum. But if it means we can save our brother … which also saves us …” He shrugged. “Seems like we have no other option.”
“He’s not thinking clearly.” I nodded at Rix, then stepped away from Haina so she could pour the now boiling water into three mugs. Then she dropped the surgical instruments into the remaining boiled water to sterilize them.
I grabbed the tin of fresh mint leaves that we’d gathered a few days ago and dropped two into each of the mugs before passing one to Rix who was already chewing on mint leaves as was his new usual.
Cupping the warm mug in both my hands, I leaned back against the counter. “I say we just give him the vial and deal with his foul mood when it happens.”
“So … just your average day then?” Haina quipped with a smirk, sipping her mint tea and catching my eye over the rim of her mug. Mischief twinkled in her bright blue gaze, enough to make my breath catch in my chest. Fuck, she was stunning. Even with a smudge of Zane’s blood on her cheek and worry creases on the sides of her eyes, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Daylight is breaking,” Rix chimed in, peering out the window. “I say we head down and check the tide, see if we have enough clearance with the keel and the dock to roll the boat.”
I nodded, setting my mug down on the counter and grabbing the small canvas pouch that contained the last two vials of the blood serum. “We should shoot up, though. I can already feel my strength waning, and although the sailboat isn’t big, it’s going to take superhuman strength to roll that fucker up onto the dock.”
“Fair enough,” Rix agreed. Then I went about filling up the syringe.
“Would you like to go first?” I offered, handing him the syringe with two-thirds of the serum.
All he did was shrug, then grab the elastic band we used as a tourniquet.
We had this down to a science now, so in seconds, he found a vein and shoved in the bevel.
“Should you guys maybesplitthis last vial and take half each?” Haina interrupted before Rix pushed down the plunger. “You know, since we’ve agreed to give Zane a full one, and he’s already had another full one. Either way, really, you only get three more days, right?”
Rix and I locked eyes. He just shrugged again, then grabbed the vial I’d drawn from and emptied it into the syringe before stabbing the bevel back into his vein and pushing down the plunger at the same time he released the tourniquet.
His reaction was something I knew all too well. Something I’d felt thousands of times and would feel again in a moment. But even so, watching him go through the motions of having the serum enter his bloodstream had me getting itchy and eager for my own dose. I scratched absentmindedly at my chest, not truly itchy but feeling the craving and need for my own dose like a hungry rumble in my belly.
His eyes slammed shut, his body stiffened, and his face flooded with color.
I glanced at Haina. She was watching him with equal parts fascination and horror. Her big blue doll eyes were saucer-wide, and her lips were slightly parted.
“He’s okay,” I said to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Believe it or not, that feeling is addictive. It’s why people take source blood recreationally if they can get it. Scorching, as fucked up as it sounds, is something your body begins to crave.”
Rix’s color faded to his natural tanned complexion, and he shook his head violently before rolling his shoulders to loosen the knots after having gone stiff as a fucking board. His eyes landed on Haina. “You okay, baby?”
She nodded quickly, but even I could tell that was a lie. Her heartbeat was going apeshit, and she still hadn’t lost that deer-in-the-headlights look.
