“It was an accident.” I whispered. “I never meant for it to happen.”
“Do you think that makes it ok?” He growled.
Tears stung my eyes. “No, it’s not ok, it will never be ok and there isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t wish it had been me instead of him.” Tears ran down my face. “Killing me would only be doing me a favour, if you don’t I have to live with the guilt for the rest of my life.”
“Then you can live knowing this too. I will never ever forgive you for what you did to my son.”
I felt my heart shatter into millions of pieces with those two sentences. The grip of his arms holding me in place disappeared and the pain of the knife slicing across my stomach before he ran off was nothing compared to the despair building in my chest. My body was numb when my knees hit the ground and I let the emptiness envelope me.
I was surprised I could still feel the warmth of Dom’s hands when he reached me, but they were unmistakable.
“Cayla, can you hear me?” He asked desperately.
I barely felt the other pair of hands touch me, but I couldn’t help the flinch when they pressed against my stomach.
“We need to get her home son; she’s losing a lot of blood.”
“Come on, we’ll get her in the car.” Matt said.
I shook my head and whispered. “No car, cars are bad.” Almost immediately after that I passed out.
When I woke up I felt something soft against my cheek so I buried my face against it only to hear a purring sound. I blinked a few times before I managed to force my eyes all the way open. Slowly I sat up wincing at the various pains in my midsection. The purring turned out to be coming from the same cat that had followed me home. I had no idea how the hell he was in here and no idea where I was for that matter. Looking down at my clothes I noticed that I was in a too big t-shirt, but this one wasn’t the one I had put on and I realised it smelt of Dom as I pulled the collar up to my nose and inhaled deeply.
I smiled at the cat. “Hmm do you think he’ll realise if I keep this?” I said my voice coming out raspy.
He just purred at me and I glanced around at the simple furnishings guessing that I must be in a guest bedroom. The cat gazed at me intently as I swung my legs over the bed and struggled to my feet.
“So, I don’t suppose you know where the bathroom is? I don’t really want to bother anyone.” I asked him.
He meowed at me once and before I even had a chance to follow it, it ran out of the door.
“Traitor.” I mumbled shuffling my feet along the floor towards the door. I leant against the door frame and closed my eyes trying to build up the energy to get any further.
Someone grabbed my shoulder then and I let out a shriek before my eyes snapped open.
“Cayla, it’s me, your ok.” Dom said trying to calm me.
I managed to slow my breathing before nodding. “Can I use the bathroom please?”
“Of course.” He slid an arm around my back. “Lean on me, you’re still weak.”
I didn’t even bother denying it, I really did feel exhausted so I leant against him and let him lead me to the bathroom.
“Thank you.” I murmured trying to make my voice sound as normal as possible when he stood me up in the bathroom before backing out and closing the door.
The moment it was closed I went to the toilet before my bladder burst. After washing my hands I pulled my t-shirt up to find bruises still on my ribs and a bandage wrapped around my waist. I vaguely remembered my Uncle cutting me so that must be what was under it, dropping my shirt back down I looked in the mirror to see my throat circled with bruises, which explained the problem with my voice right now.
A knock on the door made me jump before Dom’s voice drifted through. “You ok in there Cayla?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I assured him before opening the door and giving him a smile.
“Why was that cat that follows me in here?” I asked him when he slid his arm around my back.
He shrugged. “Maybe he came in through the window.”
He led me back towards the bedroom and I groaned. “Do I have to go back to bed?”
“Do you really feel up to moving around?” He asked me.
“I’d rather that than stay in bed.”
He shrugged. “Ok then.” Before I could do anything he bent down and slid his arms under my legs before picking me up.
I let out a squeak of surprise and he smirked before carrying me down the stairs as if I weighed nothing. When we reached the bottom of the stairs he kept me in his arms.
“I can walk you know.” I mumbled.
He just grunted in response before taking me into the lounge and depositing me onto the couch gently. I tucked my feet up under my legs and watched him walk out of the room.
Suddenly feeling embarrassed that I was only in a t-shirt I tucked the bottom of it under my knees. I yawned and felt a dull ache starting in my forehead so I closed my eyes while I waited for Dom to return.
“I thought you said she was awake.” I heard Andrew’s voice from the doorway.
My eyes snapped open to find Matt, Andrew and Dom standing just inside the door. I gave them a smile before Dom asked.
“Do you want to go back to bed?”
I shook my head. “No, I was just resting my eyes; I have a bit of a headache.”
Andrew suddenly ran towards me and wrapped me in his arms. “We were so worried about you, don’t ever scare us like that again girl.”
I chuckled. “I’ll try not to.” He tightened his grip on me and I gasped. “Ow, ow, ow!”
He let go of me quickly. “Sorry!”
“It’s ok.” I assured him patting his shoulder gently.
Moments later Matt was giving me a hug, but after Andrew had hugged me too tightly he was careful not to squeeze to tight. I smiled at him when he let me go and Dom quickly claimed the seat next to me. The three of them were silent for a minute before Andrew asked me.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
I sighed and shook my head. “There’s nothing to talk about. I tried to give him a chance, but it was hopeless. It’s not his fault, but I can’t do anything for someone who wants to kill me.” Everyone was silent before I asked. “Does anyone know where he went that night, speaking of which how long was I out for?!
Dom shook his head. “No one has seen him since and it was three days ago.”
“Shouldn’t you guys be at school?” I asked.
“We should be, but we weren’t going to leave you.”
I smiled. “I would have been fine, but thanks for the thought.” I groaned and leant on the arm of the chair. “God, I’ve never felt so weak.”
“Dad said it would take a while to make up for the blood you lost.” Dom said.
I sighed. “Well as soon as I’m better I’ll find an apartment and hopefully my Uncle still won’t be back so I can get my stuff.”
Matt frowned. “How are you going to get an apartment?”
“The money my parents left me should be enough.”
“You’re seventeen; you can’t just live on your own.” Andrew said.
I shrugged. “I lived on my own for a month when I was waiting for my parent’s house to sell.”
“You’re not living on your own, you can stay here.” Dom said.
I sighed and shook my head. “Your parents have already helped me enough Dom.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but I interrupted him. “I mean it Dom, you might as well give up on this.”
He sighed and leant back against the couch.
I shivered as cool air hit my arms from somewhere and I started to wish I had some actual clothes here. Dom raised his eyebrows at me.
“Cold?”
“A bit.” I admitted.
“We can light the fire.” Mark said walking into the room, when had he turned up?
“I’ll do it.” Dom volunteered getting up off of the couch and walking over to the open fireplace.
“How are you feeling Cayla?” Mark asked me.
“Not bad.” I muttered my eyes following Dom of their own accord as he walked. “Just a little weak.”
“You should feel stronger in a week or so.” He added.
“That’s good.” I answered not even remembering what he had said as I watched Dom’s arse when he bent down in front of the fireplace.
“Hey, Cayla you’re going to stay with me when you’re better.” Andrew said suddenly.
My brain was still a little preoccupied with Dom’s rather fine behind so I just mumbled. “Sure.”
“We are going to put tarantulas in your apartment when you get one.” Matt stated, but I detected the hint of amusement in his voice that I had failed to notice in Andrews.
Shaking my head I pulled my gaze away from Dom to find Matt, Andrew, Mark and Denise who had apparently come in at some point all staring at me looking highly amused. My cheeks lit up red and my eyes widened as I realised I had probably just spent the last ten minutes ogling Dom’s ass in front of them.
“Oh God.” I groaned before lifting the collar of the shirt over my face so that none of them could see me.
I heard all of them chuckling before I heard Dom’s voice.
“What’s so funny?”
I kept my face covered; I couldn’t even look at him right now as if afraid he might some how know what I had been doing.
“Nothing dear.” Denise answered.
“What’s she doing?” He must have just looked back at us and I still had the t-shirt over my face.
“Oh, I think she’s seeing if her whole body can fit in one of your shirts.” Matt said before snorting. “I think she succeeded.”
“Come give me a hand with dinner Matt.” Denise said, they seemed to treat him more like a son than one of their son’s friends I noticed, but I was more concerned about an escape route so I pulled my face from under the shirt and volunteered to help only to have everyone look at me as if it was the stupidest suggestion ever.
“What? It’s not like I’m helpless.” I objected.
“You need to rest Cayla.” Mark said and just like that end of discussion.
Despite Dom lighting the fire I seemed to get colder and colder until I was shivering. I tried to curl into a ball, but it was too painful so after I flinched I kept my feet tucked under me and wrapped my arms around myself as if to hold in the warmth.
“Why is it so cold?” I mumbled.
“You don’t have enough energy to heat your body right now so you’re feeling the cold more than the rest of us.” Mark explained.
Denise bought in some blankets and between Andrew and Dom they wrapped them around me making sure to tuck them around my body. I smiled and thanked them as my violent shivers began to slow. A few minutes later they left the room to eat dinner while I was bought in some soup, which was easy for me to swallow with my tender throat and ribs. It didn’t take me long to finish it, but when I did I pulled the blankets around myself again and started dozing.
When they returned I tried to keep my eyes open, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I felt my head leaning sideways onto Dominic’s shoulder of its own accord before I could stop it. My body was out of my control then refusing to let me open my eyes so I didn’t have any choice, but to let it stay there. All of my senses shut down then and I fell into a deep sleep without any nightmares for the third time.
Chapter 6
I struggled to wake up as the same weakness from the day before plagued my entire body. I felt warm and I could feel the blankets still wrapped around me tightly, but the material against my cheek felt rough and it took me a moment to identify it as denim. Yawning as I opened my eyes I realised my head was in someone’s lap. Rolling over I looked up into Dom’s face before sitting up suddenly as my cheeks warmed up.
“Sorry.” I mumbled.
“Don’t be.” He smiled. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged. “Still weak, but ok.”
“Are you warm enough?” He asked and I glanced at the open fire, which was still alight before nodding.
“Is it ok if I take a shower?” I asked him. He looked hesitant for a moment before adding. “I’ll be fine, I feel stronger than I did yesterday.”
“Ok.” He nodded before getting up and then despite my protests he picked me up, carried me upstairs and put me down outside the bathroom. “There are towels in there and I’ll find you some clean clothes and leave them just inside the door.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you for everything.”
He smiled back before running a finger down my jaw leaving a trail of warmth. “No problem.”
I stood up on my tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek before sliding into the bathroom quickly so that he couldn’t see the blush now colouring my cheeks. It took me a moment to find the end of the bandage, when I did I unwrapped it from around my waist revealing an ugly cut that had been stitched up across my stomach. The skin looked red and sore around it, but hopefully a cold shower would sooth it.
It felt good to have a clean body and hair again after going a few days without a shower. When I climbed out of the shower I wrapped one of the folded towels around me before finding another one of Dom’s t-shirts by the door and what I guessed to be some of his jogging bottoms. Not having any choice except to use my already worn underwear I pulled them back on before pulling Dom’s clean t-shirt over my head and then pulling his way too big jogging bottoms on. Even after tightening the strings on them as much as I could they were still too big and I was sure once I let them go they would just fall down.
I opened the bathroom door to tell him, but before I could even get a word out he had already scooped me into his arms, he seemed to move down the stairs ridiculously fast, but I guessed it was just my imagination. When we entered the lounge Andrew, Matt, Mark and Denise were now in there. He finally put me down by the door and the moment he let me go the jogging bottoms fell down bunching up at my feet. Andrew and Matt laughed and I mumbled as my face went red.
“Yeah, about that, the jogging bottoms are a little big.”
I quickly bent down and pulled them back up holding them there as Dom chuckled.
“Oh, come on boys, don’t laugh at her.” Denise said glaring at each of them in turn.
Andrew picked up his backpack he had next to his feet and pulled out some jogging bottoms I had seen him wear in kick boxing before.
“Try those.” He said throwing them at me.
The jogging bottoms fell down again when I lifted my hands up to catch them. As soon as I did I stepped out of Dom’s and pulled on Andrew’s. When I had tightened the string on them as much as I could my hips just about stopped them from falling down so I gave Andrew a smile.
“Thank you.”
I moved over to the chair and sat in it before leaning my back against one arm and swinging my legs over the other arm.
“I left some more work on your desk son.” Mark said.
Dom groaned and dropped into the other chair.
“Don’t give me that, you agreed to do the work if you were allowed to stay here until Cayla got better.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t have to do that, you can go to school.”
He just shrugged and Andrew mumbled. “Not like missing school is a loss.”
“Boys, school is not that bad.” Mark stated.
Matt chuckled. “That’s because you get paid for going.”
I rolled my eyes and kept quiet as they all began arguing about if school was really that bad or not, personally I agreed with Matt, Dom and Andrew, but I wasn’t going to argue with Denise and Mark when they had taken me in and looked after me.
I leaned my head back and stared up at the ceiling before I zoned out completely trying not to think about my Uncle and the fact I was completely alone in this world now. When I was all better I would start my life over with the new friends I had made, I would buy an apartment and I would have to get an after school job to pay the b
ills so that I wouldn’t end up with nothing when my parent’s money ran out. It would all work out fine; at least I hoped it would. I still felt responsible for Toby’s death and I didn’t think I deserved a good life, but I was certainly going to try and have one.
I jumped when my name was called in a slightly raised voice before looking towards Dom who I had identified as the one who was calling my name, but I noted that everyone was looking at me.
“We were calling you for like five minutes.” Andrew said seeming to note the confusion on my face.
“Oh, sorry. I was….” I trailed off unsure what to say.
“In your own world?” Matt asked.
I shrugged. “Pretty much.” I looked at the ceiling again before returning my gaze to them. “Wait, why were you calling me?”
“I was just asking how you were feeling today.” Mark said.
“Oh.” I smiled. “A little better than yesterday thank you.”
“Have you seen the cut yet, are you going to have a nice manly scar?” Andrew asked sounding excited.
I stared at him and frowned. “I don’t want a manly scar, I’m a girl!”
He rolled his eyes. “That’s beside the point.”
I snorted. “Well, if you have to know, it looks disgusting.”
“I didn’t think I made a bad job of those stitches.” Mark said sounding offended.
I sighed. “Ok then, the stitches are wonderful and the cut looks disgusting.”
Dom who had been taking a mouthful of drink snorted water out of his nose and I raised an eyebrow at him before we all started laughing.
“That was very attractive son.” Denise gasped out in between laughs.
We kept laughing until we were all clutching our sides before I rolled over and fell straight onto the floor.
“Cayla!” Dom exclaimed.
I sat up and kept giggling as I tried to regain control of myself. Eventually I struggled back onto the chair and we all sat there panting. My hand was against my stomach as it itched a little, but the laughing had felt good enough to be able to ignore it.
“God, I haven’t laughed like that since….” I trailed off and they all knew what I was talking about so instead I said. “Well for over a month.”
One Of The Enemy (Hidden Descendant Series, Book 1) Page 6
