Page 48 of Echoes of War

“Don’t touch him,” Moe snapped, coming out of her vision.

Reina jumped back from her position, her hands clasped together, ready to pump life back into him. A gasp from beneath me pried my attention back down and away from Moe. Alexiares shot up, a confused expression on his face.

“What … what’s going on? Where am I? What happened?” he asked, rubbing the reddening injection site on his arm.

“Oh no. Oh man, oh no. I messed up real bad, guys,” Reina said in horror.

My heart sank. I peered up, looking to Moe for answers only to find a morbid smirk on her face. “This is funny to you? He’s lost his memory!”

“I don’t know, it’s kind of funny,” Sloan said. “Maybe he’ll be a better person with a second chance.”

She may have cracked a joke at his expense, but the display of genuine concern on her face said otherwise. Abel rolled his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest as he bit down a smile. I narrowed my eyes at him,what on earth is going on?

“This would be my third chance, Sloan, but I doubt I’ll take advantage of that,” Alexiares said, pushing himself off the ground.

I pinched his arm, right over the bruising skin that had been the cause of it all. “This is not a joke, Alexiares. You scared the crap out of me.”

“Yeah! Me too, that wasn’t nice.” Reina pouted, hands on her hips. They were still shaking from the pressure.

“Come on, it was too good a joke to play out. I mean did you see the worry lines on Sloan’s forehead? One hundred percent worth it.”

Sloan leaned forward, smacking him in the chest in response, “We aren’t here to play games, Bloodhound. If you died, then we’d have to do this all over again. I personally didn’t want to volunteer to go next.”

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry. But seriously, what happened? My arm feels like you hacksawed it. One minute I’m waiting for Reina to finish the injection, the next you’re all circling me …”

His words became muffled background noise. Losing him had been my fear, and it had almost come true.

I wasn’t sure how to move forward with my day, pretending that my heart hadn’t stopped in utter fear that his had taken its last beat. I found his irritation to match my own as he stalked behind me on the way back to our rooms to rest.Doctor’s orders,Reina had chided.

Our experiences had not been the same. There was still no change in my veins now that the adrenaline had worn off, just tired. He had almost died, his system shocked from the invasion.

My fingers trembled as I stared down at them. I stumbled in my steps a bit, my head spinning, body shaking. Focusing on taking deep inhales, I grounded myself in the cold.

“Get off,” I grumbled, shrugging him off. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, okay,” he bit out, his voice was hoarse, likely a side effect from almost fucking dying.

I kept walking, my back still to him. “This isn’t from the damn bite.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really,” I said, “It’s called a panic attack, and it’s your fault!”

A tense laugh erupted behind me, his distaste clear. “My fault? Oh, princess, on a long list of things that may be my fault, this isn’t one of them.”

“Leave me alone,” I pressed.

“Gladly.”

He didn’t leave me alone, though. His stupid presence hulked behind me the entire way up the steps. The walls rattled as I slammed my door in his face. After waiting there for a moment, I glanced around the messy room. The couch was tipped over near the kitchen island, the coffee table on its side, the contents that sat atop it scattered around the room.

When I heard nothing, I walked over to the bedroom door, taking a minute to heat the hinges back into place. I leaned against the door frame, my fingers massaged my temples, trying to relieve the stress headache he so happily provided.

The front door burst open, rebounding off the wall where a small hole from the doorknob that had rammed into it one too many times now formed. I jumped to my feet in defense. Clearly, he didn’t understand what a door closed in your face meant.

“Get out!” I yelled as viciously as possible, but my voice betrayed me. The welling of tears building up in the center of my throat.

“Make me,” he ground out. Alexiares stood in the door frame, rage radiated off him. His face had completely reddened and his brown eyes were nearly black. I glanced down, watching his fingers open and close as he tried to calm himself by squeezing a fist.

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