by Dean Murray
Chapter 31
As the normal grogginess of sleep wore off, I realized just how thirsty I was. I reached for a drink, hissing a little as my stitches pulled against the still-healing skin, but the glass of orange juice remained steadfastly just beyond my fingertips.
Alec appeared immediately, paint-speckled and undeniably alive, from where he'd been working in his studio. "I really wish you'd just call for me when you need something. All of this moving around isn't going to help your back heal any more quickly."
"You're not letting your injuries slow you down."
It was a losing argument, but I hated being cooped up in bed all the time, and it was the only argument I had. Alec paused for a second to look down at the long, thick bandage wrapped around his middle. The gash of white cutting across his darkly tanned skin was uncomfortably similar to what I imagined his wound must have looked like just after Brandon had inflicted it.
He sighed, but there wasn't any real frustration to the sound. "Our cases are hardly comparable. You know I heal more quickly than you do."
An upraised finger cut me off before I could latch onto my last remaining point. "The fact that your injury was less severe is really quite immaterial. Even the fact that shape shifter-inflicted wounds don't heal as quickly as normal for me is really a small matter when compared to just how much blood you lost before we got the bleeding staunched."
And there was the real rub. Alec was well on his way to being fully healed, while I still had fits of dizziness every time I tried to stand. I even had to have Jasmin or Dom help me to the bathroom.
There was no good way to know how long I'd lain there with a branch stuck through my back, but it'd been long enough for even a relatively small wound to result in near fatal blood loss. I'd been nearly unconscious from the pain, so I didn't remember any of what had happened next, but Alec had reluctantly filled in most of the details.
Apparently the stress of the fight had finally awakened his potential, and his power was a real humdinger. The metaphysical hurricane that'd knocked me to the ground had actually been Alec pulling power from all of the shape shifters and humans in the area.
The experience had been nearly as overwhelming for Alec as it had been for the rest of us. He'd recovered just in time to find Brandon grimly pulling himself along on all fours. Luckily Alec had recovered more quickly, and once Brandon was deprived of the strength and speed his power had bestowed upon him, Alec had been more than a match for him, even wounded and exhausted.
Brandon's end had been quick, and if Alec hadn't realized my blood was slowly leaking out onto the ground, the rest of Brandon's pack would've likewise been quickly sorted out. Instead, Alec had stumbled over, shifted back to human form, and got the bleeding slowed to a point where I wasn't in imminent danger of death.
Unfortunately that'd been all the delay Brandon's pack had needed to make a run for it. Isaac, James and Jasmin were trying to track down the worst of the lot, the ones who'd taken an active part in Brandon's atrocities, but it was slow going.
