Page 283 of Caelum

TWENTY-TWO

DRE

“What’s wrong with her, dammit?” I ground out, refusing to relinquish my hold on her as Samuel tried to get her to wake up.

The bear that had clung to her, carrying her away from the mayhem of Raum’s death site, was clinging to her, and was pissed off as hell at the sight of Samuel smacking her in an attempt to wake her up.

Even though I understood, every time he did something to try to stir her, I wanted to smack him back.

Fuck, the bear wanted to maul him, so my punishment would be nothing in comparison.

“She fell!” Reed growled, and my bear recognized his Hell Hound. We were two beasts in a far too small space, and that never boded well.

“Calm down! Now!”

Eren.

His Lorelei made the words a command, and we all instantly obeyed because the fucker was powerful like that.

“We’re not helping Eve by fighting. Let’s take this rationally. We have to get out of Hidalgo and back to Mexico City. God only knows where we have to go next, but once we’re there, at least we’ll be close to an international airport.”

Though his words were brusque, with the punch of the Lorelei behind them, it was incredibly difficult not to comply. Difficult to the point that I twisted my head from side to side as I tried to evade his command.

“Fucker,” I growled when his compulsion diedoff.

“Focus on what matters,” he retorted, totally unapologetic at using his creature to make us do his bidding.

Reed grunted. “I agree we should head back to Mexico City. But I’m not sure if we shouldn’t go to a clinic first.”

“Look at this place,” I grumbled, staring around the town that was so like my hometown I wanted to puke. “It’s a shithole. The clinic will be useless. It probably won’t even have a functioning X-ray machine. What use will that be to her? Get to the city, then we can take her to a hospital when she wakes up.”

I refused to contemplate that there was an ‘if’ in that sentence.

This woman made me so fucking angry. When she wasn’t pissing me off by being an ingénue, she was ripping my world apart by Choosing me when I’d never wanted to be Chosen. Now she was unconscious, a ragged pile of bones in my arms, and I wanted her to wake the fuck up.

Now.

Of course, she didn’t comply and that made me want to shake her. To shake her and shake her until she grumbled at me, those beautiful amber eyes of hers glowering at me from under heavy lashes.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. “She’ll be well, brother.”

As I stared back at Stefan, I groused, “She has no choice.”

Another quake had the ground rumbling beneath us, and Frazer, who was at the wheel, swerved to avoid a sudden fissure that appeared in the already shitty tarmac.

“Jesus Christ,” he hollered then sped up as fissures appeared all around us, breaking off into great crevices that could swallow our SUV whole.

Of course, Eve began to stir at that moment.

Once upon a time, I’d called her Trouble, but I thought Chaos fit better now.

It was only as she began to move in my arms, though, that I realized the more she did, the more fissures and cracks appeared in the road.

“Do you see this?” I demanded of Stefan, who was hanging over the back of my seat staring down at us both.

“Yeah. I am.”

“What is it?” Samuel hollered. “What’s going on?”

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