This penthouse had two storeys and two out of three rooms in here were upstairs, while one bedroom was downstairs, which was occupied by Chaos. Zuri didn’t know how he got this place, but he didn’t lack money, so she thought he wouldn’t stoop to fraudality.
It had been two days since Chaos had gone. He disappeared with only a warning for her to stay inside the penthouse, to not step out of this place, no matter what happened.
He emphasized every word he said, almost growling at her. His dark eyes were so gloomy and Zuri could feel his dark mood, as if he was trying to hold back the monster that prowled at the back of his head.
Even now, Zuri couldn’t understand why Chaos had done what he did when they went to roam around the city the other day. He knew exactly what effect it had on her.
Zuri was startled awake in the middle of the night because her throat felt sore and she wanted to drink something cold, therefore she decided to go to the kitchen downstairs.
However, halfway to the kitchen, she smelled it. It was his scent and it was coming from the living room. She was sure that Chaos just appeared there, like he usually did, hence Zuri walked there and found him, sitting on a chair with his eyes closed.
Maybe it was just overthinking on her part, but for a moment, the thought of him being dead crossed her mind, since he was so still and pale under the soft light of the moon.
Zuri was sure when that thought crossed her frantic mind, her heart stopped beating for a moment.
“Chaos?” Zuri approached him. He was sitting on the single sofa, with his head tilted to the side. His long, black hair scattered around his face and shoulders, hiding half of his face. “Chaos, don’t sleep here.”
.....
Zuri wanted to say that he could catch a cold, but she wasn’t sure if he could get sick.
Chaos didn’t give any reaction, it was only the gentle movements of his chest that indicated he was still breathing.
In the end, Zuri knelt down beside him and took his hand that was perched on the armrest of the sofa into hers.
She felt his skin was unusually callous. And when she turned his hand to look at his palm, Zuri gasped in shock. His hand was blistered. It was so red, it almost looked like he had just dug out a burning furnace with his bare hands.
“What happened?” She muttered under her breath in panic, as she moved to grab his other hand, which looked almost the same. Only his right hand looked even worse, as its skin was a few shades darker, not just red.
Zuri raised her head to find Chaos had opened his eyes, which were dark blue, the color she loved. He didn’t even flinch when she traced her finger on his burned skin. Chaos just kept staring at her and stretched out his other hand, before wiping the tears from her cheeks. She didn’t even realize shedding them.
Zuri was not aware since when she was crying.
“Your hand,” she said in a whisper. She felt someone just stabbed her with a dull knife before twisting it viciously. “What happened to your hands?”
Yet, Chaos didn’t say anything, he only grew quieter and quieter. Zuri worried that he would stop talking altogether.
However, he kept caressing her cheek and ran his fingers through her long hair, though his wounds looked painful enough.
======================
“You useless bitch.” A warrior walked out of the bedroom, but not before he took the time to insult the little girl, after he checked on Eros’ condition first. He was still unconscious after the fight with Damon. “You better go die.”
Emily sniveled, as she pressed herself against the wall behind her. She wished she could just disappear, so she wouldn’t have to deal with these insults any longer.
“Don’t go die now, she will ripe in a few years,” one of the warriors said, while running a salacious gaze over Emily’s body.
Both of them snickered and slammed the door behind them, leaving the room in silence. Emily prefered this silence more.
Every day, there would be a warrior or two to check on Eros’ condition to give a report to alpha Liam, so he could overlook his progress, since he was too busy to come by himself.
And every time, those people would make such nasty remarks about Emily, one of them even went as far as slapping her bum, which made Emily cry for hours. She wanted Eros to wake up. Those people wouldn’t treat her that way if he was around.
Once it was only Emily and Eros again in this room, she approached him and sat down beside the bed, holding his cold hand, as she blew her warm breath on it, to keep him warm. Even Ariana, the healer, didn’t know why his body kept getting cold.
Emily was hungry, but she didn’t dare to go to the dining hall. There were a lot of people there. The last time she was there, it was not pleasant and she didn’t want to go alone again.
All she could do was wait for Ariana to come and give her some cold and hard bread for her to eat, but today, Ariana didn’t come.
Emily felt like she was going back to the time when she was stuck in that tiny apartment, living with her ‘parents’ and they didn’t even care whether she was eating or not.
It was the same feeling and everything was happening on a repeat mode.
Chaos pulled out the black sweater that he was wearing, so Zuri could clean his wound.
At first, when Chaos said that he needed her to clean the wound on his back, Zuri thought it would only be some scratches, but who would have thought it would be like this.
There were three nasty, long gashes running from his left shoulder to his right hip, with blood still dripping from the wounds.
Chaos threw away his sweater and now he was only wearing his black pants, sitting on a chair with his back facing her, while his hair was pulled into a bun on top of his head.
“Is it that bad?” Chaos tilted his head when Zuri didn’t start and kept staring at his back.
“Hm.” Zuri swallowed down the lump in her throat hard when she started cleaning his wounds.
It was a pin drop silence when she tried to clean the wounds and fortunately, they had stopped bleeding when Zuri changed the towel. On the basket, there were two towels that were drenched in a deep, dark red color.
She couldn’t even start to imagine what had happened, what thing, or what creature that could inflict such wounds on him.
“Gael said that you are not supposed to bleed.” Zuri remembered what that man said years ago. He was confused when he learned that Chaos was hurt. She remembered everything that he said. “You’re looking more like a human.”
Was that what happened? Chaos was becoming more like humans? If that was the case, what could it mean?
He would bleed and die?
“Chaos?” Zuri prodded while she applied some ointment on his back and took the gauge. “Will you tell me what happened?”
Silence.
Because of the wound, she needed to wrap the gauge around his body. She started to move from his front, rounded it to his back and then moved back to the front.
During this time, Zuri ignored the way Chaos looked at her. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. He stared at her blatantly, as if he wanted to devour her soul.
It took Zuri a little bit longer to finally finish it up and clip it.
“Okay, I am done, do you need anything else?” she asked. She had been asking him about what had happened to him, but it seemed he was determined not to say a single word to her.
“Can you stay?” Chaos asked her softly. “I want you to stay with me.”
Honestly, the question completely caught Zuri off guard, since she wouldn’t have thought him to ask something like that after him trying to avoid her for these past two days.
Chaos lifted his head, since Zuri was standing in front of him and he was still sitting on the chair. He didn’t touch her. He didn’t dare to do so after her breaking down, which he witnessed the other day when he lost his control.
But now, he really needed her and Zuri couldn’t understand Chaos at all. He was surrounded by a mystery that Zuri found hard to figure out.
“Will you tell me what happened?” She needed to know. She wanted to know what had hurt him, yet he didn’t let her come closer to him.
“Later.”
That was the only promise that Chaos could give her and later could be meant forever, as their time was abundant.
=====================
Jasmine stripped off her uniform, to put on her gear, so she could go to the Shadow Moon pack and kill as many shifters as she could. If she was lucky enough, she would get the head of the alpha.
They needed to try their new weapons and that pack was the best choice.
Jasmine then looked at her body, which was reflected in a mirror nearby. She knew that she was beautiful, but time came to her very fast and there would be some parts of her that changed. And she hated that.