Page 49 of Bound By Fate
I closed the door and went into Katie’s room. The chair in the corner was a recliner, and I took that. A small groan left me as I sat and saw my girl fast asleep. The moonlight came in through the blinds, illuminating her hair.
The soft inhales and exhales were a rhythm all their own. Listening to them, I fell asleep.
Stop! No! Don’t touch me!
The words woke me up instantly. Thinking they were from me at first, I quickly realized they were not.
Katie was thrashing in the bed. Her body turning this way and that. Her arms attempting to protect her. “Stop!” she screamed, and it was the scariest sound I’d heard in my life. And I’d seen a lot of shit in my day. It was because it was her.
I leaped out of the recliner, not bothering to put the footrest down, and made my way over to her. Knowing not to sit on the bed, I kneeled on the floor next to her and reached out to touch her face.
She tried desperately to move.
“Shhh…. It’s Dryerson, baby. You’re okay, Katie. You’re safe here with me.”
Her body jolted in a weird way, and I kept reassuring her.
“You’re having a dream. Can you wake up for me, Wild Kat?”
Katie’s eyes fluttered open as she bolted upright in the bed, her hand going to her hair to push it back. She looked around the room in a panic, and I reached over and turned on the side lamp so she could see. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t in that hellhole.
“Dry?” she asked, looking down at me still sitting on the floor.
“Yeah, Wild Kat. It’s me. You were having a nightmare.”
She rubbed her hands over her face. The dream still had ahold of her, so I gave her a few minutes to come back to me.
“Sorry,” she whispered so softly, if I weren’t this close to her I wouldn’t have heard it.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I reached over and pulled her hands away from her face and clasped them in mine. She didn’t protest. “Can you breathe in and out deep for me?”
She appeared to be coming down from a panic attack, and breathing sometimes helped. It helped in the Marines when my time there became too much at times.
Slowly, she inhaled and then exhaled.
Inhaled. Exhaled.
She did this for a bit, and I could feel the tension in her hands begin to relax, but I didn’t let her go.
“Thanks. I’m better.” She didn’t make eye contact with me, telling me she was embarrassed. Well. fuck that shit.
“Eyes on me,” I ordered gently. It took her a few beats to reply, but when she did her beautiful blue orbs looked back at me. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about here, Katie. Seen this shit more times than I can count. Even had it after a few missions that didn’t end so well. You have to remember that you’re a survivor. Whatever those fuckers did to you, you survived. You fought. You didn’t give up.”
She shook her head slightly. “I wanted to give up. I wanted them to cut my throat and end it all.”
Her confession hit me so hard in the chest it took my breath away. A life without Katie in it? What would Remy do? Or Ensley? Or fuck, me?
“But you didn’t. You’re here, and they are frying in Hell.”
Her head fell. “We were always told that if you’re burned you go to Hell, but do you really think they did?”
“Fuck yeah they are. Don’t ever think differently.”
She exhaled deep. “I need to go wash my face and get the sweat off.” Her legs swung over the mattress. “You’ll be here when I get back?” she asked.
A smile graced my lips. “Nowhere I’d rather be.” On a nod, she went into the attached bathroom.
Fuck, it was worse than I’d thought. Her demons were coming at her in the light of day and in her nightmares. I wondered if she ever had a break from them. Demons had a way of holding on to the soul sometimes, and I didn’t want that for Katie.
