Winter's Wrath: Sacrifice (Winter's Saga #3) (36 page)

He watched the lines of pain smooth across her torn brow and her clinched fist relaxed, though she didn’t let go.  Whatever was hurting her, it seemed to be letting up.

Time stood still as he held the beauty
that
held his heart.

Theo and Margo were pacing the room, cell phones to their ears.  They’d taken to calling hospitals.  Gavil, Slider, Farrow, Alik and Evan were debating going to look for Cole.

“He could be anywhere,” Evan offered logically.

“If Meg were awake would she be able to find him?” Slider asked.

“She’s in no condition to help any more than she already has,” Alik frowned at the metasoldier.

“What happened to her?” Farrow was looking across the room at Creed and Meg still on the sofa.

“I have a theory,” Evan began, “but until she wakes and can tell us what she experienced, it would just be a guess.”

Evan and Alik exchanged worried looks. 

Theo’s voice rose above the rest of the voices in the room.   “Greenbriar General is about to receive a patient via Life Flight who fits Cole’s description.”  His face was the same color as the white wall behind him.  His eyes darted, terrified as he ran his hands through his thinning hair. 

“Oh, dear God, no!” Margo breathed, hand held to her lips.

“I have to get to the hospital.”  Theo looked more and more disconnected with each passing moment.

“I’ll drive you.”  Margo was already yanking the keys out of her purse and walking to the front door. 

The others in the room stared, feeling helplessness.

Margo was dragging Theo by the arm toward
the front door
when she looked over her shoulder and said, “Keep your cell phones on.  I’ll call you once we know his condition.  Pray for him.  Pray for all of us.”  The door slammed shut behind Theo’s stunned face.

“Holy shit,” Gavil said, breaking the silence left in their wake.

“
That’s
what was happening to Meg?” Farrow asked the room.  “Was she experiencing Cole’s accident?”

The Winter brothers looked at each other, but said nothing aloud.

Farrow continued as she moved closer to the sofa. “I didn’t even know she could do that.  That must have been terrifying for her.”  She wanted to reach out and touch the poor girl who had just suffered through so much, but Creed tensed, and glared daggers at her. 

Farrow stepped back, surprised by her fellow soldier’s reaction.

“I’m not going to hurt her, Creed.”  Farrow whispered softly across the distance she maintained.  “I care about her, too.” 

Creed forced himself to relax his shoulders.  He knew Farrow had changed and was even a friend of Meg’s now, but something inside him couldn’t back down off the overwhelming need to protect her. 

“I’m going to get some cotton swabs and peroxide.  We need to clean her cuts so they heal faster.”  Evan left the room without waiting for a response and returned with the supplies in hand.

Creed hadn’t moved.  Evan frowned at the angle of his sister’s face mostly buried into Creed’s chest.  “I cannot treat her unless you move her face away from you.”

“I’ll do it,” Creed offered a large hand.  He still wasn’t able to let her go.

Evan looked into Creed’s earnest blue eyes and appreciated the concern he saw there.  “Sure,” he said with a nod, handing the man holding his sister the peroxide soaked cotton balls.

Creed started with the first gashes he could reach without moving her.  He dabbed each carefully and blew on the bubbling cuts to help ease the sting he imagined she felt. 

Evan moved away from his sister but kept watch over her from the corner of his eye.  He smiled to himself at the tenderness Creed showed.   The soldier might not remember his time with Meg, but the connection they had was still very much there—maybe even stronger than before, Evan mused.

The youngest brother pushed his hands into his pockets and wandered toward the other metas in the room.

Alik slowly pressed “end call” on the touch screen of his cell phone.

Everyone in the room heard his side of the conversation and was trying to digest the news.  Cole was in critical condition.  His heart had stopped beating twice en route to the hospital
but
the Care Flight paramedics were able to bring him back. 

He had suffered major head and neck trauma when he hit the windshield.  He wasn’t wearing his seat belt, and worse, there was alcohol found in the car.  They were checking his blood-alcohol levels. 

The fact that Cole’s blood was about to be exposed to the humans was a whole other level of worry for everyone, but at this point, their friend was draped across death’s door.  There were more important things to worry about.

Evan got right to work collecting units of blood from Alik, Creed and Gavil to take to the hospital, as their mother requested.  He worked with steady hands, completely in his element now that he was back to medical tasks. 

Alik, Farrow, Gavil, Slider and Evan took the van and drove to the hospital in silence, the bags of meta blood hidden in Farrow’s large purse.

Creed stayed at the house with Meg.

The doors to the emergency room swooshed open as the metahumans walked in a tight pack unfazed by the glaring white lights and sterile lobby.

The charge nurse happened to glance from her paperwork to see the four muscular young men and one beautiful girl walk into her emergency room.  Her first thought was that they were the most strikingly handsome group she had ever seen outside a magazine advertisement.  The second thought was that they had an intensity about the way they carried themselves.  They moved with confidence and grace.  She watched the pretty middle-aged woman leap from her plastic waiting room chair and rush to them.

Oh,
the nurse thought. 
It makes sense that these beautiful people would belong to the patient in room 1A.
  She looked away as the tears started to spill, wanting to give them their moment without her intrusive eyes.  So the nurse didn’t notice the beautiful young girl pass her purse to the woman.  Nor did she think anything of the big consoling hug the woman gave one of the young men and she certainly didn’t catch her slip Alik the four vials of Theo’s human blood into his large fist. 

She did see the woman hurrying back to room 1A with a large purse draped over her shoulder, but thought nothing of it.  This sort of thing happened daily in her hospital.

The
charge
nurse got called to another patient’s room and by the time she returned
,
she only saw three of the original five young adults sitting uncomfortably in the orange chairs, flipping through year-old magazines. 

Alik and Evan had slipped away, to find the blood samples they’d taken from Cole and exchange them for the plain human blood.  It didn’t take them long.  Evan knew his way around hospitals as if he owned the place.  Alik distracted the female technician with his charming smile and story about being lost looking for the gift shop while Evan wrapped the proper labels onto the new vials and slipped away unnoticed.

The brothers met back in the apricot corridor and proceeded to the waiting room without the need to exchange a word.  Evan texted his mother about their success and wished her luck switching the bag of O-Neg with the real blood Cole’s body needed.

Back in the van, Alik felt compelled to get some things out on the table.  “Listen, this wasn’t part of the plan at all.  Cole is like a brother to me.  I have no idea what caused him to…do what he did, but I know one thing:  He would want us to go through with our plan.  He spent the last year being hunted by Williams, too.  He wouldn’t want us to stop on his account.”

Farrow had been nodding in the passenger seat.  “I agree.  We need to proceed with the plan.”

“How do you all feel about it?” Alik asked the others.

“Well, we’d have to change a few things, but I think it’s just as doable without Cole as it was with him,” Gavil said pragmatically.

“I’m in,” Slider shrugged, obviously the least fazed by current events.

“You know I’m ready to finish this, brother,” Evan caught Alik’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.

Alik nodded.  “Now let’s just hope to God Meg
wakes up
.  Her part in this is too important; we need her.”  He gripped the steering wheel and pointed the van down the road heading back to the house.

After much deliberation, Creed decided to stay right where he was with the girl from his dreams in his lap.  Everyone had left an hour ago for the hospital.  He felt so content now that Meg slept peacefully in his arms.  He couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be than right there with her.  He let his head fall back against the cushion and closed his eyes deep in thought when he felt the girl stir. 

She took a slow, deep breath before her eyelids fluttered open. 

Creed watched her every move, half afraid she would jump from his lap and run away, never to let him hold her again.

Meg looked into Creed’s worried eyes in a daze for a moment before she realized she was lying in his arms, curled against his chest, and from the stiffness in her body, she’d been like this for quite awhile. Her brows furrowed. 

“What happened?” She asked softly, as though afraid of the answer.

“We’re not sure.  You were in the kitchen when we heard you scream.  I found you on the floor; your face all scratched up apparently by your own hands.”  He was worried this was too much for her, but how was he supposed to protect her from herself?

Meg reached up and gingerly felt the gouges trying to heal on her face.  She grimaced; eyes shut tight as the memories came flooding back.

“Cole was in a horrible accident,” Meg tensed into fetal position at the body memories.

“Yes,” Creed continued to watch the girl he both loved and feared.  “He is in critical condition after being Care Flighted to the hospital.  Your mom and Theo went first.  Your brothers and the other metas left about an hour ago to take him some of our blood.”

Meg listened, nodding almost imperceptivity.  “I felt everything he felt.”

Creed had suspected as much all along, but still felt as though she just slapped him with her words.  He swallowed hard.  He knew Cole and Meg had history, but he didn’t know how deeply she felt for him. 

Now, he had to accept that Meg was completely connected to Cole.   It was the only explanation he could imagine.  He cleared his throat.  “I’m so sorry you had to go through that with him.  How do you feel now?”

Meg moved to sit up.  Creed helped ease her upright, his arms already missing her warmth.  Tentatively, she stretched her long, lean legs, then her toned arms before nodding to Creed.  He helped her stand, his hand on her elbow, ready to catch her if her legs gave out.  She was a little wobbly at first, but seemed to find her strength even in the effort.  She put her hand over Creed’s on her arm and didn’t let go.

Her eyes were downcast when she said, “It wasn’t an accident.”

“What?”

“What happened to Cole.  It wasn’t an accident.  He intentionally drove into the cement barricade.” 

“Why would he do that?”

“He saw us together this morning—in the barn,” Meg’s cheeks blushed as she looked away.

Creed’s eyes widened.  He was stunned silent.

Then a different emotion boiled to the surface as he watched Meg’s scratched face grimace with guilt.

“That selfish son of a bitch!”

Her dark eyes flashed with surprise at his reaction.

“You mean to tell me he would put you though this hell, terrify his family and risk his life because he was hurt and jealous?”  Creed’s face reddened with anger.  “That’s the most selfish, stupid, messed-up logic I’ve ever heard!”  He was so mad he let go of Meg’s arm to pace the room, rolling his shoulders.  He looked like a caged lion, muscles twitching with adrenaline, eyes flashing with a predatory fury.

“Creed, he was hurt.  He’s always had this…well, he and I had gotten closer over the past couple of months.  He helped me work through the depression I felt when we thought you were killed.”  Meg’s mouth worked faster than her mind. 

Creed stopped pacing and looked as if he was about to roar, king-of-the-jungle-like.

“If he were half the man you deserve, he would have come to me himself,” he roared. 

Meg narrowed her eyes at Creed feeling defensive of her friend.  “Not everyone handles issues with their fists.”

“Better his fists against my face than the SUV against a cement wall!” Creed’s eyes flashed with fury before they softened—his expression morphing into anguish.  “He didn’t hear you scream in agony.  He didn’t watch you crumple to the hard floor ripping at your own face.”  His voice broke with emotion.

“Cole wasn’t thinking.” Meg shivered at the memory of the icy hot glass.

“Damn right he wasn’t!” Creed roared.

“Don’t be angry with him, Creed,” Meg moved across the room to stand near him.  She felt too weak to fight.  She just wanted to be held by his strong, safe arms again.  She reached out and touched his chest, willing him to feel her fears and just hold her.