Damon: The A'rouk Brothers: A BBW Paranornal Page 15

  “I will kill them.”

  “You already have. But I will be taking their bodies.”

  “No, I want the female thrown into the sea.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, there will be no Created magic working in her favor.”

  “The Created have no magic. If you are certain you wish to have her thrown into the sea, then do it. If not I am willing to take her body off your hands.”

  “Not this time Dante, neither of them will ever live again.”

  He looked at River than he focused on Damon. “It seems you may be right. Dispose of the body so I can leave.”

  Rivers body lifted and was shoved through a rift. She fell into the ocean sinking quickly.

  “Dante, have you had time to consider my offer?”

  “The one where the two of us team up to conquer the galaxy or the one where you have a chance to execute me?”

  “Either would work for me.”

  “I have given some thought to the glory of being the right-hand male of The Darkness, then I laughed myself silly. I’ll pass.”

  “You’ll regret that,” The Darkness screamed as he and Damon disappeared.

  *~*~*~*

  “What, exactly am I supposed to do with him?” Nicolas stared at Dante with wild eyes. He was furious and sad. The Created could die they all knew that, but this was worse than death. This shouldn’t have happened, and he blamed Dante and Aran.

  “Make him well.”

  “Well? There’s nothing here but a shell. I can heal his body, but not his soul or his mind. And do you know why? Because neither are here. He’s an empty shell a replica of who he should be. He’s dead leave him alone maybe he will find his mate and his peace in the next life.” He moved around him to leave the medical wing.

  He caught his arm and threw him against the wall. Nicolas stood slowly weary of Dante. He never lost his cool, because if he did. The sound of thunder made the Earth shake. There would be a storm over every part of the world. Thank you, Dante.

  “You’re going to have to help.” Asshole.

  “It’ll make you feel better if you say it to my face.”

  He frowned, he refused to think that Dante may know what he was thinking.

  “Nicolas, what did you do?” Aran walked into the medical wing as Dante was moving Damon to the exam table.

  “You know he doesn’t need me to set him off.”

  “I know, but you did, just like I knew you would.”

  Damon was his patient. No, he was more than that he was his friend and his brother and now he was a lifeless hunk of flesh. There would be no more casual contest where they tried to one-up each other. He would never proclaim himself the best doctor again. They would never bump heads as the both fought for the best view when they were looking at a slide or a patient. A friendship as old as time was over. What did they expect him to do?

  He started with the scanner that the two of them designed together. Then they turned it over to their brothers to take what they designed and make it functional. His lips curved into a sad smile as he ran it over his body.

  “His skin is already regenerating, but he will need the medbed. There’s a poison running through his system I can’t identify.”

  Dante came closer and looked at the scan before he placed his hand on his chest and closed his eyes.

  “It's an Acarid. They are found in the dark sector. They live on the skin of animals and as a thank you for their lives they leave behind a deadly poison so you won’t live the rest of your life in pain.”

  “Nice of them,” Aran voice was dry as he said it. He was standing by the wall watching Nicolas as he worked.

  Dante went to Damon’s supplies and started searching.

  “We should have stepped in Aran.”

  “What would we have done?”

  “More than feed them and laugh with them in the back yard.”

  “You take another look at him and tell me we shouldn’t have fed him.”

  He took several calming breaths. Aran was right they needed to feed them. When they planned that picnic, Aran came to him saying he needed to find any protection he could for Damon and River. Anything that would protect their organs. Damon would be dead now without that protection, but it hadn’t been enough.

  Dante walked over to him. “He needs injections of this to fight against the poison. Schedule a dose every four hours in the medbed.”

  He nodded they were acting like he was just sleeping or off in some memory and that he would wake up. His anger rose, and he pushed it down. Damon was just a patient that he needed to heal. The detachment was the only way he was getting through this.

  He went over his body two more times to make sure he caught every potential issue before he finally carried him over to the medbed. He placed him inside then set the medbed to give him the injections Dante said he needed. He closed the dome over him his fingers flying over the keys. He watched as fog surrounded his body. He didn’t want his brothers to come in and see him like he was.

  “Is it safe to come in?” Janis’s voice was soft as she stood in the doorway. Dante and Aran were gone, and Nicolas was staring at the medbed with vacant eyes.

  He turned and stretched out his hand. She walked over to him and took it before she placed her arms around him.

  “When I met you I couldn’t believe my good fortune to have found a mate. It felt like I would never find you. The struggle we went through embedded you deeper into my heart. After it was over and the danger was gone, I laughed at the irrational fear that I could lose you.”

  “Now Damon has lost his mate, and I realize no matter what happens that fear of losing you isn’t irrational. Love is special, and not everyone gets it.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “What happens now?” Aran asked Dante as they sat out back in Damon’s house.

  “Nothing, what can happen? Nicolas is right River is dead, and Damon is a vegetable. Why am I fighting so hard for him to be well?”

  “That’s what brother’s do, it’s in our blood.”

  Dante flashed him a smile with the hint of fangs. Aran ignored him and watched the waterfall.

  “What would you do if it was your brother?”

  “Not fair since our brothers are so different, I’d chase him no matter where he went.”

  “You always were a good brother.”

  The both stood Nicolas was calling for them to come to the medical wing. Damon had been out for six weeks and no one knew if his body would survive even with all Nicolas was doing.

  Dante walked in with Aran following.

  The dome to the medbed was open, and Damon looked like he was sleeping.

  “Damon,” Nicolas placed his hand on his shoulder. “Wake up. Open your eyes.”

  They stared at him for over five minutes until finally his eyelids opened what stared back at them were totally white eyes. He wasn’t in his body.

  “I know you’re not in there, but we’ll take care of you until you’re ready to die.”

  Dante took one look at him and willed himself out of the room.

  *~*~*~*

  She loved this place, but there was somewhere she’d rather be. The problem was she couldn’t remember where. Bits and pieces would show up in her thoughts, and then she would forget them. She shrugged her shoulders it must not matter. Her feet took her a little further across the path and again her head was fuzzy.

  When she first came here, her body didn’t work. She had laid silently while the water surrounded her cocooning her. It had moved her body until she lay on a pyre deep within the ocean. She knew it was for her, where she would lie for the rest of eternity because she was dead.

  Then one day she moved, and it didn’t make sense. There wasn’t enough of her to remember anything. She was separated from reality. Separated from who she was meant to be. Only a fragment of her remained in this body, that’s why she cried. Who would be able to tell she was crying when her world was nothing but water? She walked back to h
er pyre and climbed on board. Her hands folded over her chest and her eyes closed. Maybe she could sleep for a few centuries.

  “River.”

  The voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t the voice she wanted to hear. Who was River?

  “I can see you. You’re not invisible.”

  She opened her eyes to see someone she thought she should know but didn’t.

  “Go away I don’t know you.” She closed her eyes shutting him out.

  “I’m your big brother.”

  “I have a family?” She was suspicious, but she cracked an eye to look at him.

  “Not just family you have a mate.”

  She closed her eye again. He was lying no one loved her, she remembered that much. She caught a glimpse of herself dancing and a voice saying the words of acceptance. The voice was so warm and firm she wanted to get lost in it. She was cold, had been that way since she woke up.

  “If I had a mate why would he leave me all alone?”

  “He couldn’t come and get you. He wanted to, that’s why he asked me to come. You must be willing to go to him. It means giving up this.”

  “I can never come back again?”

  “You can come and stay but not forever. If you leave, you will become what you were always meant to be.”

  “I see a male, but then he’s gone. I get vivid flashes of red and black or blue and black. Is that the male? Is he my mate?”

  “Yes.”

  She stood leaving her pyre and looked around. The sea creatures were her friends. Now she knew what they were saying to her. Leaving meant leaving them. A part of her resisted even as she opened her mouth and sang a song of sadness. The whales would hear it and pass it on. She didn’t want to leave, but she couldn’t stay, not now that she knew he was waiting for her.

  “I want to go.”

  He held his hand out, and she placed her hand in his. Her body went from feeling nothing but cold to extreme pain. She screamed as they disappeared.

  Dante walked into the medical wing with River in his arms. He laid her on the exam table. Nicolas ran over to her.

  “She’s dying.”

  “Do we need to exchange words before you help her?”

  He already had his scanner out.

  “Her heart is shredded. Prepare the medbed.” He called out the sequence for Dante to input while he was still scanning her. Her heart pumped even though it was almost in two pieces.

  “What was in those mints you gave her?”

  “Something to keep her heart pumping.”

  Nicolas shook his head and picked her up. He would never be one step ahead of Dante no matter how he tried. He placed her in the medbed double checked the sequence and closed the dome. He laid his hand on it and hoped like hell that this worked.

  He turned to look at Dante as if he were seeing him for the first time. The power he carried with him was more obvious today. He was walking a fine line between life and death with both Damon and River, but he could see what he hadn’t allowed himself to see when he brought Damon in. He loved his family, and he would do anything for them. He hoped Dante wouldn’t be the ultimate sacrifice so his family could live.

  “I’ll take care of her. Aran’s in the kitchen, he wants you to join him and Rena if you’re not busy. There’s nothing to do here but watch and wait.”

  He turned to leave the room and for the first time Nicolas wondered if Dante was taking care of Aran or was Aran taking care of Dante. As the two most powerful leaders in the universe maybe they were taking care of each other.

  It took four weeks for her heart to mend and he got very little sleep during that time. He was planning on sleeping a month when this crisis was over. He watched as the dome lifted, she wasn’t awake yet. Dante had asked him not to wake her until he was in the room.

  “How is she?” He asked as he walked into the room.

  “The medbed says she fine. I ran a scanner over her and did a physical on her. She is well or as well as I can tell without waking her.”

  “Wake her

  He gave her an injection to counteract the serum that was keeping her asleep. In a matter of minutes, her eyelids started moving, and she raised her hand to her mouth in a wide yawn.

  “River.”

  There was that voice again, but not the one she wanted to hear. Her eyes felt like they were glued shut. She took her time and concentrated on one at a time until she opened it and then she started with the other. The room was interesting from a one eye view. The walls were yellow. The color was important for some reason, but she couldn’t remember why. It didn’t matter she liked the yellow walls.

  Her other eye opened, and she saw the male who came for her. There was another standing with him, she felt like she should know him but couldn’t find the memory.

  “River,” the unknown male said. “I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better.”

  “Ah, thanks.” Where was her mate? Wasn’t that what the other male promised her. This couldn’t be him, please don’t let it be him. Immediately she felt bad, but something about him just wasn’t calling her name.

  “Umm,” she licked her lips a nervous gesture she couldn’t control. “You said my mate was here.”

  “He is would you like to see him?”

  “Yes.” He came over and picked her up and took her to a big bed and laid her down.

  There was a body on the bed that wasn’t moving. She turned over and was met with red hair with black streaks. The streaks were still and her heart beat faster. Why weren’t they moving? With painstaking slowness, she raised her hand to touch his cheek, fear that he was dead choked her. He was hot. She remembered the heat of his body. They had slept in each other arms so many times.

  She looked up when she heard the unknown male say, “Come back to us Damon.” The other male led him out the room, and now she was left alone with him.

  She got closer until she could lay her head on his chest. There was sadness inside of her. He wasn’t here, and she knew it but where was he and was he with her somewhere? Tears dripped down her face and onto his chest. She was willing to spend the rest of her life right here if that was the only way she could have him. Her eyes closed in slumber.

  It was the feeling of a warm nose and a wet tongue against her arm that woke her. The tattoo that was on his arm now laid on his belly, and it was touching her licking her. Maybe she was crazy, and this was a dream. She reached out and petted the tattoo it seemed to growl in pleasure before it jumped off the male’s body and stood on its own.

  At least they had given her the good drugs. It was staring at her, and she stood almost as if he was beckoning her to follow. He prowled through the house like he owned the place. Her heart beat fast because she was leaving her mate lying on the bed, but she couldn’t stop making her feet follow. They walked until they entered the living room.

  She had a brief memory of this place before he led her out the door. They were standing in a field of flowers. She followed him to the lake before he pushed her in. Her head broke the surface, and she had a sense of having done this before. She dived down and swam until she came up behind a waterfall.

  Closing her eyes, she wiped them and opened them again. Nothing had changed she was sitting there with the male with red hair.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Hi.” The copy of herself smiled at her. “We’ve been waiting on you.”

  The copy of herself slid into the water and swam towards her even as she backed up.

  “I’m sorry I left you to die, but it was the only way we could live.”

  “No, you’re not real, and he’s mine.”

  “He’s ours and yeah I owe you a lot, but I’ll make it up to you.” She turned around and looked at him. “Go find your body. We’ll be coming soon.”

  The male shimmered out of existence.

  “River this was the only way we could save both ourself and our mate. We had to make the ultimate sacrifice and die.”

  “I died you stayed in his arms.”


  “No, we died at the last-minute I went to him. He pulled me to him. Then he died. It wasn’t easy leaving our bodies to become nothing but a shell. It’s taken us months to pull ourselves back together so we could be here to greet you.”

  “How did you know I would come here?”

  “I didn’t, but our mate believes in his family.”

  She nodded his family had brought her to them. When the other River extended her hand, she took it they merged becoming one.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  She ran through the hallway following warrior, she knew he would lead her back to Damon. When she busted through the doors of the medical wing, she skidded to a halt. He was sitting up in bed looking for her. Warrior rubbed his body against hers before he leaped at Damon. He settled on his arm and shoulder.

  “River, Love.” Now she was running she threw herself at him, and he caught her.

  “Damon!” She remembered everything and all that mattered was she loved him.

  He pressed kisses on her as his hands tried to touch her everywhere at once.

  “You’re alive. I’m alive. How are we alive?”

  He pulled her into his lap and didn’t say a word until they were wrapped around each other.

  “Elandra was going to kill you. It was his mission, he didn’t care about my soul as long as you were dead. I could join you, but I couldn’t live with you. As I burned the lessons I learned when I was young kept playing over in my mind.”

  “Tell me.” Her head was resting on his chest, and she was tracing little patterns on it as well as kissing him.

  “Dante used to say to me all the time, Damon you have to learn to hide in plain sight. When I was younger, I used to think he was crazy. He whispered that in my ear when we went to the large family picnic. How was I supposed to hide in plain sight?”

  He reclined against the headboard. His fingers played in her hair.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Tired. You would think with all the sleep I got that I would be ready to go. I have a feeling that once Nicolas comes in, we won’t be moving for a while.”