Burning Roses

by Amanda Perry

  I cling to a small bit of hope she may be able to get away, and I shout to her, “Cassie, get up! Run!”

  Adam wraps a firm hand around my throat and holds my back to his front. “I’ll kill you if you don’t shut up right now, bitch.”

  My only focus remains on my need to take the attention away from Cassie, consequences be damned. I use every bit of strength in me to force a harsh gust of wind at the man after my best friend. He stumbles to the ground but, quickly, picks himself back up. He turns in a full circle, searching for the source of the sudden gust. He doesn’t find anything obvious and shakes himself off, taking several more steps in Cassie’s direction. The second time I force the wind at him, he falls to the ground significantly harder, and it takes him longer to gain his bearings. The effort of controlling such harsh winds drains me, but I refuse to give up on Cassie.

  “What the hell, Steve?” Adam yells. “Are you having a bad fucking trip or something? Don’t be a pansy, man. I took the same shit as you, and I’m fine!”

  “Did you not feel that damn wind?” Shocked, Steve blinks repeatedly at his friend.

  Using their distraction to my advantage, I elbow Adam in the stomach as hard as I can. He drops his hold on my neck and gasps in surprise. I spin around and knee him in the same place Cassie did. Adam howls in pain and drops his hold on me completely. He hunches over, clutching himself and gasping for air.

  It’s one of the defensive moves Jaxon taught me, and I know it was necessary. My concern and need to protect Cassie far outweigh the guilt over hurting the men who want to attack her.

  “You fucking bitch!” Steve screeches.

  Ignoring him, I bolt for the door of the mall, hoping to find help. If nothing else, the two men will follow me and leave Cassie alone. My hopes of finding help soar when I manage to make it to the door, but as soon as my hand touches the handle someone grabs a fist full of my hair and pulls me backward, throwing me to the ground.

  My hands shoot out to catch myself, and the concrete digs into my palms, sliding across them when I land. The rest of my weight lands on my hip, and pain radiates down my thigh.

  “You think you can just hit my boy like that and walk away from it alive?” Steve spits, putting his hand around my neck and straddling me to keep me in place.

  Adam comes over and kicks me hard in the side. “That’s payback, stupid whore.”

  Flashes of Samael’s drunken beatings race through my mind, and I no longer have the ability to focus on an escape plan.

  “Please just leave us alone,” I cry, struggling to get out from under him.

  I find myself somewhat relieved that Adam and his accomplice shifted their focus to me. It may give Cassie a chance to run and find help.

  “Not a chance, bitch.” Steve swings his fist, connecting with my temple, and my vision blurs. My head spins, and I stop struggling in an attempt to keep from throwing up or passing out. “You will pay for making us look stupid, and you will pay twice over for trying to get away. See, we were just gonna have a bit of fun and leave you two alone. Now, we’ll have our fun then kill you and your friend.”

  His mention of Cassie brings the fight back to me, and I shove him, wiggling under him and kicking out at Adam. Steve hits me again in the same spot on my temple as Adam kicks at my legs, deeply bruising them and revoking my ability to kick at him.

  “Keep struggling, bitch.” Steve pulls something shiny from his pocket. “I like it when you squirm.”

  He presses the shiny object against my throat, and my panic intensifies when I realize a knife is pressing against my skin. He lets out a maniacal laugh while running the knife down my throat, just hard enough to break the surface of the skin but not hard enough to cause serious damage. The blade cuts through the top of my shirt, and he leans down, his focus fully on exposing my chest. With my legs useless and numb from Adam’s blows, I use the only part of me I have control over and thrust my head forward, hitting him in the nose.

  He shouts in pain and attempts to stab me with his knife while screaming and cursing. He’s too irate to hit his original target of my stomach and slashes my side instead. I gasp in surprise from the pain and wonder how deep he got.

  He draws back in an attempt to stab me again. Fighting through the pain, I force the last of my energy forward and focus on heating the knife to a scorching temperature. The heat comes from the evening air. There isn’t much of it, so pulling it all together takes every bit of my strength I have left. The air around us drops dramatically in temperature, and at the same time, Steve yelps in pain and throws the knife. He tries to jump away from the scalding knife but, instead, trips over his feet and stumbles into Adam, bringing them both to the ground beside me.

  Steve’s eyes widen as they dart from the knife on the ground to his hand and back again. From the conversation about ‘bad trips’ he had with Adam earlier, I know he’s on some kind of drug, and my hope is he assumes it’s the influence of the drug making him hallucinate.

  With Steve and his friend in a tangled mess, I attempt to get up and run. My body doesn’t react as quickly as I want it to, and the two men are running on drugs, adrenaline, and fury. They get to me before I can do anything but roll myself onto my stomach. Their fists and feet come into contact with any part of my body they can reach, and I curl into myself in a feeble attempt to block their blows.

  One of them, I’m not sure which, grabs my hair and slams the side of my head onto the pavement. My vision turns dark, and I fade in and out of consciousness.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” an unfamiliar man shouts through my foggy brain. “Get away from her! I called the cops, and they’ll be here any second!”

  The blows to my body stop immediately, and I hear the two of them run away, yelling profanities and promises of retribution.

  I don’t know how much time passes while I drift in and out, but Cassie eventually brings me back.

  “Riley!” Her voice is one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard, even if the volume kills my already throbbing head. “Son of a bitch, Ri. You’re bleeding really bad. Hang on, the ambulance is on its way. You’ll be fine, okay? Can you hear me? Open your eyes for me, Riley, please.”

  “Cassie, please say you’re okay.” I open one eye enough to see she’s fine. Relief floods through me to find her in one piece.

  “Shut it, Ri,” she sobs, which alarms me because Cassie never cries.

  Fear hits hard. Did she really get hurt? Maybe they hit her head harder than I thought.

  “I’m not the one who got hurt. You’re in so much trouble.”

  “Why?” I mumble, my eye closes on its own again.

  She could be referring to my use of the elements as a means to escape. More likely, she’s pissed off I let the whole thing happen in the first place. I mean, she was knocked out, and it’s my fault. Before Cassie can answer, the sound of squealing tires fills the parking lot. The car never shuts off, but I hear doors open and footsteps pounding in our direction.

  “Jax!” Cassie’s hands leave mine as she goes to Jaxon.

  Caleb shouts for me, but it sounds like he’s in a tunnel. I want to answer, but my eyes won’t open anymore. My mouth won’t form the words I so desperately want to say. The last thing I remember before the darkness overtakes me is hoping Caleb and Jaxon aren’t too angry with me about all of this.

  Chapter 20

  Consciousness slowly creeps in, and I notice only the small things at first—the beep of the monitors around me, the sound of doctors and nurses talking about my injuries, and the pain. The brutal pain radiates throughout my entire body. Several hands are on me, touching my burning palms with gravel embedded in the cuts, stitching up the wound on my side, and cleaning the cut on my neck. With all the people around me, I can’t hear anyone familiar. The realization I’m in a hospital and I can’t hear Cassie causes my heart to race and my eyes pop wide open.

  “Cassie!” I cry out, struggling against the nurses and doctors while I try to sit up.
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  “I’m here, Ri.” Cassie’s voice is thick with unshed tears as she comes into my line of sight. “I’m right here. Calm down.”

  I sob with relief to see her. “You’re okay? You’re really okay?”

  She runs a hand over my hair, smoothing it down. “Your parents are on their way. Caleb and Jaxon are with the doctor outside. I’m so sorry, Riley.”

  “Why would you be sorry?” I whimper when one of the nurses urges me to lay back down. “I tried to protect you, Cassie. I did everything I could. I—”

  “Don’t,” Cassie pleads, putting a hand up. “Just calm down, and we can talk about this later. You need rest.”

  My panic levels rise as I wonder what she may be thinking, but I try to relax while the nurses and doctors finish taking care of my injuries. They wheel me out of the room, explaining that I need X-rays. Cassie refuses to let me go alone, and for that, I’m grateful. I can’t handle being alone right now, even if the process doesn’t take long at all.

  After settling me in my room with Cassie still by my side, the doctor leaves to put in an order for pain medication. A few seconds after he leaves, a commotion comes from the hallway outside my door. I tense up, worried the two men from the mall are back to finish their job.

  My door bangs open revealing a frantic Caleb, and I breathe a sigh of relief. He rushes over to me as Jaxon hurries to Cassie, scooping her in a hug.

  “Baby girl.” Caleb sighs heavily as he buries his face in my hair. “Are you okay? One of the doctors pulled me out to talk to me for three minutes, and when I came back, you were gone. They said they took you to X-ray, but when I got there, you were already finished.”

  “I’m fine,” I mutter.

  “You are not fucking fine!” His harsh tone causes me to flinch. Caleb pulls back and narrows his eyes. “You’re far from fucking fine.”

  “Caleb,” Cassie warns, giving him a hard stare. “Not now.”

  Caleb snaps his mouth shut, stepping away from me as Dad and Leanne enter the room and rush to my side. They pepper me with questions. I tell them the same thing I told Caleb, but they don’t get upset over my answer like he did. They simply ask me what happened. I go into as much detail as I can about the guys at the mall, and from the corner of my eye, I notice Caleb getting more and more furious. I’ve never witnessed him in such a state and especially not with his anger directed at me.

  “Honey, we’re going to go grab some coffee and get a few things for you.” Leanne rubs her tired eyes and stretches. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Cassie, can you come with us and tell us what you remember? The police are going to want to know, too.”

  Cassie nods as Dad gives me a kiss on the forehead. Cassie and Jaxon follow Dad and Leanne out of the room. No one says a word about Caleb staying behind with me. At first, I assume he wants to stay and comfort me, hold me, and tell me everything will be okay.

  Instead, he completely explodes the second the door shuts. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  I flinch violently at the anger in his tone.

  “You could have been killed! Do you realize what could have happened tonight?”

  “C-Caleb—” I whisper, not knowing what to say or how to handle the situation.

  “No!” he cuts me off. “Don’t ‘Caleb’ me. This is not fucking okay. Jaxon was right, we can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this shit anymore. I’m done.”

  I let out a strangled gasp, and Caleb glances at me. His eyes widen for a second before he lets out a growl of frustration. He runs his hands through his already messy hair, pulling on the ends. He curses under his breath, then walks out of the room without another word.

  When the door to my hospital room closes, it feels like Steve’s knife slicing right through my heart.

  I’m done. Caleb’s words ring through my head over and over as I lie in the hospital bed, desperate to catch my breath. He’s done with me. He finally saw what everyone else has seen my whole life, and he wants nothing to do with me. I knew this day would come, but a deep, naïve part of me hoped he spoke the truth when he said he wanted me.

  My throat closes, and I can’t suck in enough air. My mind blanks, and I can only think of getting out of here—away from the painful tightness in my chest, away from the person who no longer wants me. I drag myself out of the bed, pulling the IV out of my hand, and the monitors off my chest. The blood rushes from the puncture wound from the IV, but I’m able to use some gauze on the counter to apply pressure and slow it down. I wrap the thin blanket over the backless gown and hurry out of the room.

  The alarm for my monitors beeps rapidly, but the nursing staff is occupied with a crazy patient who’s yelling and screaming. The distraction allows me to easily sneak past them and out the side door. I don’t stop when I step outside, though. I keep going until I reach the tree line, then farther still into the dense forest that surrounds the hospital.

  When the pain in my body catches up to me and I can’t take another step, I collapse onto the forest ground and wrap my arms around my middle, trying to hold myself together. My effort to run from the agony in my heart fails. As soon as one tear escapes, a million others follow. I cry until I can’t feel my body anymore. I cry until my mind and heart are as numb as the rest of me. The person I love most in the world is done with me. I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to survive without him. I don’t know if I even want to survive anymore.

  After a while of lying on the ground, unable to do anything but sob and gasp for air, my eyes grow heavy. I close them for a few moments, needing the bliss of darkness for a little while.

  I lie in the same place for a long time, drifting in and out of consciousness. I should pull myself up and go back to the hospital. I don’t want to scare Dad or Leanne, assuming they still care if I’m all right. After hearing what I did and how I let Cassie down, they’re more than likely as angry as Caleb is, as done with me as Caleb is.

  Logically, I know it’s not smart to be out in the cold with only a thin sheet to keep me from freezing. The cold doesn’t bother me, though; it helps keep me numb. The sensible part of me knows it can’t be good to be out here like this for so long, but I can’t bring myself to care. Caleb’s shouts of being done with me echo through my mind as I slip back into the darkness.

  Someone yelling my name brings me out of a deep sleep. I blink my eyes open and wonder why the earth is shaking violently under me. I try to sit up, but quickly realize it’s not the earth but my body shaking uncontrollably.

  I try to yell back or call to the person, but my voice comes out in a quiet huff. When I try to push myself up, my body collapses back to the soft ground. Tears of frustration and heartache fall—and I idly wonder how it’s possible I have any tears left. The voice calling my name grows closer, and I realize it’s my dad.

  “Riley!” he shouts, and by his tone, he’s found me. “Oh, Riley, what happened?”

  I don’t say anything, simply lying there and trying to pry my eyes open. I sense him checking me over, and when he asks if I’m all right, I give him a tiny nod.

  “Yeah, I found her,” Dad’s voice registers closer to my ear. “She’s really pale, almost blue. She’s freezing, but I don’t think she is hurt any more than she already was. I’m going to bring her back now. She’s shaking pretty hard.”

  I know my dad is talking to someone on his phone, but I can’t bring myself to care who it is. After a second or two, he lifts me into his arms.

  “Damn, kiddo.” Dad shutters. “You’re freezing.”

  I don’t respond as he walks us back into the hospital. They assess me and hook me back up to the IV and monitors. A bunch of heated blankets are placed on and around me to warm my body up. They tell my father I have a moderate case of hypothermia, but I should be fine. I don’t listen to anything else they have to say, I just don’t care.

  I know I could use my Fire affinity to warm myself quicker—my dad even suggested it—but the numbness of my body helps to keep me from falling apart again. I wa
nt to forget Caleb’s words. I want to forget everything. Instead, Caleb’s voice continues on a loop through my mind. I can’t do this shit anymore. I’m done.

  “Not now,” my dad whispers to someone as I drift in and out. “Give her some time.”

  I hear the soft click of the door closing as I fall into a fitful sleep full of nightmares that are now my reality.

  I can’t do this shit anymore. I’m done.

  Chapter 21

  The next time I wake, sunlight filters through the partially opened curtains. No one else is in the room with me. The only sounds around me are the beeping of the heart monitor and the drip of the IV. I sit up slightly and scan the room, tears filling my eyes as the hole in my heart grows. It shouldn’t hurt to be on my own—after all, I grew up that way. I hoped this whole situation was simply a bad dream, but seeing such an empty room brings back the flood of memories from the previous day. The pain in my chest grows quickly, and I have to gasp for air as my throat constricts.

  The tears pour down my face as I recall Caleb’s harsh words and the expression on his face. I should have protected Cassie better. I failed him by not protecting her like I’m sure he and everyone else expected me to. It’s obvious he hates me for letting her down. He probably considers this the last straw. He can’t handle being with someone like me, especially if I can’t protect his family or myself.

  Flopping back onto the bed, I let go of my emotions. The pain inside claws its way to the surface, ready to break free and leave me broken and bleeding. I curl into a ball and close my eyes, shutting out the world. It doesn’t help, though. Nothing helps when all I can see flashing behind my closed eyes is his angry face. I can’t stop hearing those awful words in my ears. Any hope he would change his mind once he had time to calm down is obliterated by the knowledge that he’s not here beside me. No one is here beside me.

  Cassie must hate me, too, and Jaxon—especially Jaxon. I didn’t do what I should have to protect his soul mate. Dad and Leanne will probably make me move out. I’m not sure what I’ll do when that happens. I briefly toy with the idea of letting Samael and his army of Fallen take me. At least then I won’t be a burden on my family anymore.