Page 114 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“Kiarra. Kiarra. Damn it!”

“Please baby, please wake up.”

Jax? Kai? Why are they here? Maybe my mind really is broken, and I’d lost it. They couldn’t be here.

“There’s so much fucking blood, how is she not…”

“I don’t know…”

“When I get my hands on him—”

“With how the other guys are going at him, I doubt either of us will get the chance.”

“He deserves to fucking suffer! Look at what that twisted fuck did to her… she’s…”

I want to reach out and tell him, them all, that my body will heal. That everything will be fine.

Eventually.

I just need time.

“Please open your eyes or squeeze my hand, we need… we need you…”

Gradually my body loses the numbness, given way to the soft brush of lips on my forehead and the warmth of someone’s hand in mine.

I feel protected. Like a balm to my soul, the warmth wraps around me to speed up the stagnant process.

“We need you.”

As I settle further into the comforting heat, my body comes alive, and with it, the earth-shattering pain.

I awake with a gasp. The pain is so intense, the darkness threatens to take me under once more.

“Shit. She’s awake.”

My eyes struggle to open against the thick dark-red fluid holding them closed. After a moment of frustration, they finally flutter open.

“Kiarra?” Kai’s worried face comes in and out of view as I fight off the shadows from my vision.

Blood gurgles down my mouth as I attempt to speak.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Kai, do something, she can’t…” Jax’s eyes are wide in terror as he sees me struggle to speak. I want to reach out and tell him that this is just part of the process, but my limbs or mouth no longer obey my commands.

I try again, hoping to ease their worried looks, but all I manage to do is spew and cough up more blood.

Kai looks down at my body, probably seeing a mess. “I know, damn it!”

He shares a panicked look with Jax before he tries to soften his worried gaze at me.

“I’m going to have to try to close off some of these deep wounds and… it’s going to hurt like hell.”

Jax shakes his head vehemently. “No! No! Not if it’s going to hurt her any more than she… Fuck Kai, look at her. We should never have let her go alone.”

Kai pulls Jax to him. “We’re going to help our mate and then destroy those who hurt her. You have my word. But I need to do this, or she won’t… she won’t make it…”

Unlike my eyes, my mouth won’t cooperate. The internal damage is too severe.

But one look at Jax’s heartbroken face and I know I need to try to tell him about my ability. I should have told them before, then they wouldn’t be worried over nothing.

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