Chapter 67: Chapter 66 - Cody

Friday 1 January

~*Cody’s POV*~

“Somebody help me! Oh, Goddess! Somebody!! Help me! Please!!”

Mum and I were wandering through the dispersing crowd looking for Nat when we heard the screams. The midnight fireworks had finished about half an hour prior, and we had no idea where she was and had become worried. Murph had headed in the other direction with the intention of eventually meeting up with us on the other side of the pack house so we could do a full sweep.

Mum and I turned to the screaming and were on the move immediately, with Takeshi, Kennedy, and Casey hot on our heels. We ran down the hill from the pack house to the source of the noise.

I slid to a stop when I saw Kadin huddled over Nat.

Kadin’s hands were covered in blood; her clothing, too. Nat was bleeding heavily from her nose, her mouth, and several deep cuts on her head and arms. Her clothes were in tatters, ripped wherever there was blood oozing from her wounds. She was crumpled in a heap on the grass, completely unconscious, and Kadin’s hands were shaking, hovering over Nat like she didn’t know what to do.

Kadin was still shouting for help even though Mum had gone immediately to Nat’s side and was already barking orders at Takeshi and Kennedy. Casey stood as still as I was, his hand covering his mouth in shock.

I looked behind me to see a small group of people standing there watching the scene before us. Most people were quiet, their faces in as much shock as Casey’s was; others were talking quietly to their neighbours. Thankfully, none looked happy about what had happened.

I could still hear Kadin screaming, so I moved forward and grabbed her, pulling her backwards from Nat so Mum could work. Kadin stumbled towards me, tripping over the ground. Making sure that she was facing away from Nat, I knelt in front of her and put my palms to her cold, clammy cheeks. Her eyes were wide, so wide that I could see the whites of her eyes surrounding her irises entirely, her pupils almost blowing out all the colour from her irises because they were so enlarged.

She looked terrified and her eyes remained completely unfocused, even though I was right in front of her.

“Kadin!” I desperately tried to reach out to her through mind link. Links between pack members were a learned thing after you shifted for the first time. It took time to learn how to do it and it remained an extreme effort, unless you were part of the pack leadership team, like Takeshi or Kennedy.

Nat had been the only person I knew who could do it with anyone, and so easily. It was trial and error with her until I figured out it was touch that allowed us to communicate. It certainly made things easier with her last night.

With Kadin, however, I threw everything I had at getting her to focus on me, even if that meant I was mentally shouting at her.

“Roux, can you get through to Shae? I need some help here.”

“Kadin’s in deep shock. Shae’s not responding.” Roux sounded rattled by what was going on around us.

“Fuck. Okay, we do this the old-fashioned way, then. Yamparti, if you can hear me, I could really use your help right about now.”

I stared at how pale Kadin was, took a deep breath, and slapped her, letting my hand connect with her cheek hard. The sound ricocheted from the nearby trees; her head flying to the left from the connection.

“Kadin! Snap out of it!”

She stopped screaming, but her mouth and eyes remained open wide like she was. I could hear her panting heavily and rapidly.

“Kadin!” Come on, mind link, work! My hands returned to her cheeks, one of them now feeling very warm under my palm from where I had slapped her, the other still feeling remarkably cold. “Come on, Kadin! Work with me here, damn it!”

Yamparti appeared from behind Kadin, swooping low over Mum and Takeshi, who were still working on Nat, and landing on my outstretched arm between Kadin and me. “Yamparti, can you calm Kadin?” I was desperate to try anything at this point.

Yamparti hopped across to Kadin and jumped up on to her head, nestling into her hair.

“Come on, Kadin. Come back to us.”

Kadin’s breathing slowly, ever so slowly, returned to a more normal pattern, even though it was still too quick for my liking. I needed to get a blanket around Kadin soon, otherwise she was going to start shaking from chills. First, though, I needed to make sure she could move.

“Kadin!”

“Cody?” Kadin blinked once sluggishly, then again.

“Oh, thank Goddess! Kadin, can you move?”

“I think so,” she whispered. “What about Nat?” She registered where she was and went to turn her head behind her.

“No, Kadin. Keep looking at me, okay?” I forcibly held her head, not letting her turn around.

She brought her hands up to my wrists, gripping them like I was her anchor. “There was so much blood. So much…” She trailed off, as her eyes lost focus again.

“Kadin! You stay with me, yeah?” I stared into her eyes, forcing myself into her field of vision.

She shuddered. I needed to get a blanket around her soon.

“Kadin. Can. You. Move?”

She nodded slowly.

“Okay.” I sighed with relief. “We’re going to get up slowly, and we’re going to the hospital, okay?”

She nodded again, tears now streaming down her cheeks around my outstretched fingers.

I didn’t drop my hands from her face as we both stood, nor did she let her hands drop from my wrists. Yamparti remained on Kadin’s head as we moved. I kept Kadin facing me and away from Nat the entire time. My focus was on Kadin so much that I could only just make out the blurred figures of my Mum and Takeshi frantically moving around Nat behind Kadin.

Ever so slowly, I walked backwards, up the hill towards the pack house. At one point, I barely registered Kennedy passing us with a gurney, heading straight for Nat. Casey snapped out of his daze when Kennedy went by him. He noticed what I was doing with Kadin and joined me, placing his hand on my lower back to lead me through the small number of people still staring at the spectacle at the bottom of the hill, then through the doors towards the elevator.

Once we got to the hospital, I led Kadin to the gurney furthest away from the emergency area where I knew Mum would bring Nat once she was stable enough to move. Only once she was settled did I remove my hands from her face.

She didn’t let my wrists go as I moved them to the blanket at the base of the bed.

“Kadin, I need to get a blanket around you. Can you please give me back one of my hands?” I smiled at her kindly. “I swear you can have it back once you’ve got the blanket.”

“Oh,” she murmured, then let both of my wrists go. She held her hands where they were, not dropping them, but keeping them up near her jawline, like she was still holding my hands to her face. “Sorry.” She looked so startled, completely opposite to what I knew she was like normally.

I quickly grabbed the blanket and threw it around her before I brought my hands to her cheeks again. She immediately took my wrists in her hands, gripping them like they were the only thing keeping her tethered to the here and now.

“It’s okay, Kadin. Everything is okay.”

She stared at me, her eyes still as wide as saucers. “She was on the ground. I thought she was asleep, so I went to wake her up, but when I got to her…” She shuddered. “I didn’t know what to do. There was so much blood.”

I could sense Casey taking in everything Kadin was saying. His stance shifted slightly towards her as she spoke, not that she noticed.

“I didn’t hear anything. There was no-one around. She was all alone.” Her eyes welled with tears, yet she kept them on me, not once glancing anywhere else. “Who would do something like that?”

“I’m sure Nat will tell us who it was when she wakes up.”

The hospital doors swung open, and there was an explosion of noise as they wheeled Nat in on the gurney. As I had expected, they headed straight for the emergency section; Mum, Takeshi, and Kennedy at Nat’s side, all pushing the trolley along.

An unusually dishevelled Emery followed, hot on their heels, through the swinging entry doors, and paused slightly to look around. As soon as he spotted us, he made a beeline straight for us, quickly going into doctor mode with Kadin. He looked like he’d just woken up, his hair sticking up everywhere, but his cap was still firmly in place, as it always was.

“Hi Kadin, Kennedy linked me to come and tend to you. How are you doing?” His voice was calm, soothing, and completely in control. He initially worked around my hands that were still plastered to her cheeks, then gently pulled one away, only to notice Kadin’s death-grip on my wrist.

“She’s in shock, Emery,” said Casey, the first words I’d heard him speak the entire time. “She was the one who found Nat.” His tone was exceptionally soft and quiet, almost apologetic.

Emery glanced at Casey, nodded, then returned his attention to Kadin. “Kadin, I’m going to need you to let Cody go, okay?”

Kadin’s eyes were still unblinkingly locked on mine, ignoring Emery entirely.

“It’s okay, Kadin. He’s here to help. I’ll be right here.” I smiled at her, trying to convey how everything was fine.

She nodded and slowly released her grip on my wrists. As I pulled away from her, I cracked my knuckles to get the blood flowing into my hands again.

“Why is there a kookaburra on her head?” Emery asked absently, his focus still on making sure Kadin was his top priority. He was flashing a torch in Kadin’s eyes as he shuffled me to the side.

I let out a breath of air through my nose as I silently laughed. I’d completely forgotten about Yamparti. Bringing my hand up to Kadin’s head, she hopped off Kadin’s head and onto my outstretched fingers. As soon as Yamparti stopped touching Kadin, Kadin’s body went rigid.

I put Yamparti on my head, then snaked a hand past Emery and placed it on Kadin’s knee. She relaxed once more. “We’re right here, Kadin. Everything’s okay.”

She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, but raggedly.

Emery looked over at me quizzically, then back at Kadin. “All right. Cody, if you’re the one keeping her calm, you can stay, but I need you to move.” He moved to the side. “Get up on the gurney and sit next to her. That way you can be here, but out of my way.”

I nodded and jumped up to sit next to Kadin. She immediately grabbed my hand and held it in the same death-grip she used on me earlier. I noticed her breathing settling the longer I had hold of her. Could Yamparti’s calming method be flowing through me to Kadin?

Emery finished his exam and told Kadin to lie down so he could monitor her. I moved a chair over to the side of the gurney and kept hold of her hand until she fell asleep. Deciding Yamparti needed to get outside for some food and rest, I left Emery to look after Kadin while I was away and headed downstairs.

It was still dark when I got to the pack house entry doors, but Yamparti took flight as soon as we were clear of the porch.

“Thanks, Yamparti.” I watched her head for the forest, a short laugh coming back to me in response.

Grabbing my phone to check the time, I headed back upstairs. It was almost three AM. It felt later.

Mum saw me when I re-entered the hospital. I raised an eyebrow at her to ask about Nat.

“She’s still unconscious, but she’s stable,” Mum said, wiping her hands on her bloodied scrubs. “Takeshi tells me that the bird that’s with her is her familiar?”

I nodded and tapped away at my phone. “Currawong called Tyipa. She’ll keep Nat calm.”

Mum pursed her lips but nodded. “Damnedest thing. Every time we tried to get the bird to fly away, she kept coming back to land on Nat.”

I grinned. Sounded about right. I already knew Yamparti was protective of me. I could only imagine Tyipa would be similar. “Let Tyipa be. If you move Nat next to an open window, Tyipa will come and go as she pleases, but the more she’s with Nat, the easier Nat’s recovery will be.”

Mum shrugged. “The sunlight will do her good, anyway. Okay.” She placed her hands on my shoulders affectionately. “You did well with Kadin. Casey told me what you did with her.”

I smiled at her, placing my hands on hers. “How bad is Nat?”

Mum pulled back from me in shock. “You can mind link? This early?”

I chuckled silently and shrugged.

“Remarkable,” she murmured, before shaking her head in disbelief. “Nat’s covered in cuts and bruises. We’ve stitched the worst cuts but can’t do much about the smaller ones. I put her through imaging, and it looks like any internal bleeding she had has thankfully stopped on its own.” She paused. “We’ve reset her broken nose and a couple of broken fingers, but nothing else is broken. She’s going to be sore for a while, though. The bruising is deep.”

I winced at her description and grabbed my phone. “How long will she be unconscious for?”

Mum sighed. “I don’t know, Cody. I’ve hooked her up to almost every machine we have to keep her comfortable, but I can’t predict when she’ll wake up. It’s nothing but a waiting game now.”

“Can I see her?”

“Yes, but I have to warn you, she looks pretty bad.” She patted my shoulder and turned back into the emergency section.

I followed her and gasped when I saw Nat, my hand lifting to my mouth in shock. Mum was right, they had hooked her up to every machine known to man. For once, she looked tiny; dwarfed by the number of beeping devices surrounding her. A blanket covered her, but her bare arms were placed on top of it, deep purple bruising and stitched wounds dotted her pale skin everywhere.

Her nose had been splinted, and just like her arms, her face had deep bruises everywhere. Both cheeks were a kaleidoscope of reds, purples, and yellows that stretched from her eye sockets to her jawline. Her bottom lip had been split and was now very swollen. Her right eye was so swollen, her closed eyelid was nothing but a thin line drawn across a lump the size of a golf ball.

There was a deep gash in her forehead that had been taped shut, and blood matted her hair that seemed to stem from just behind her right ear up to the top of her skull.

“The swelling should go down over the next couple of days,” Mum said quietly to my left. “It sounds terrible, but the best thing for her right now is to stay unconscious. The longer she stays out, the more time her system has to recover.”

My eyes trailed over her sadly. Oh, Nat. Who did this to you?

~~~

Monday 4 January

I sat at Nat’s bedside for the fourth day in a row, holding her hand like I always did. She hadn’t yet regained consciousness.

Mum assured me that this was fine. Nat’s swelling had gone down and the bruising on her face had faded into yellows and greens, letting us all know that she was healing. Nat was still connected to an IV to keep her fluids up, plus the usual blood pressure and heart rate monitor, but most of the machinery had been unhooked and moved elsewhere.

True to her word, Mum had moved Nat to a window spot and had left the window open for Tyipa to make her way in whenever she wanted. Tyipa and Yamparti had taken turns to visit Nat, each nesting on her abdomen every time they dropped by. Mum had long ago given up on trying to shoo them away from her.

Murph had come by at least once every day, usually around lunch and always with food. He’d stay for about an hour chatting to me, then head off.

Strangely, Kadin had visited every day as well once Emery had given her the all-clear to leave the hospital. She never said much, usually standing at the base of Nat’s bed with her hands on the frame. It was like she fought some internal battle every time she was here, before leaving a half hour later with a deep frown on her face.

Takeshi, Kennedy, and Casey had all dropped by at various times to check on her, Takeshi especially. I heard about Kennedy and Casey becoming the new pack Beta and Gamma respectively during Takeshi’s visit yesterday, when he had been talking to Mum before they headed to the council meeting.

Mum and Emery had taken turns checking in on Nat each day, but there wasn’t much they needed to do after the first twenty-four hours. They both said that we just had to wait for Nat to wake up on her own.

Bells never visited once.

The first time I had gone back to the apartment, all his things had been removed. The only reason I had noticed was because he had left Nat’s bedroom door closed when she usually left it open. I had gone in to investigate, only to discover he had removed all his clothes from the closet. I didn’t know where he was staying, and I didn’t have the heart to ask Takeshi if Bells had approached him for a new apartment.

Most of my days sitting next to Nat, I talked to her. Or Roux did. We both tried to contact Alex, but he was just as unconscious as Nat was. No amount of pleading with either Nat or Alex to wake up did any good. After the second day, I had shifted my focus from begging her to wake up, to reading whatever I found lying around. I figured I could try to annoy her so much that she’d wake up.

It didn’t seem to make any difference.

With Tyipa still perched on Nat’s stomach, I was packing up to go back to the apartment to sleep when blue lines started appearing and glowing on Nat’s skin like traditional Celtic warrior tattoos. I dropped my things and stared at her in shock. It took me a minute to remember that she’d glowed like this when Nahi touched her, but this time Nahi was nowhere to be seen and no-one was touching Nat.

“Mum! Nat’s glowing!” I sent Mum a mind link to get her to come. Less than thirty seconds later, Mum came crashing through the door.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, before her eyes glowed for a moment while Kenzie sent a message, presumably to Takeshi. She quickly checked Nat’s vitals, only to confirm that nothing else had changed, although every time Mum touched Nat, Nat’s lines glowed that little more brightly, before fading when Mum released her.

I took a step forward and reached out to her.

“Cody, no!” warned Mum, just as my hand touched Nat’s shoulder. A jolt of what felt like static electricity ran through my hand and up my arm before disappearing somewhere around my shoulder. My own white lines appeared in its wake, but didn’t disappear until I let Nat go.

I placed my hand on her forehead again to see if the same thing would happen, but this time there was no electricity, just the white lines appearing. Each time I touched Nat, her blue lines would pulse brighter, then dull when I let her go, while mine appeared and disappeared.

I left my palm on Nat’s forehead and reached out with my other hand to touch Tyipa, just to see if that would make any difference. Tyipa leaned in to nuzzle my fingers and, as soon as she made contact, Nat’s blue lines started moving on her body.

Designs that had been static started rotating around her upper arm, her head, her torso. Everywhere I looked, her lines were changing.

“Cody, look at your arms,” Takeshi said in awe from the doorway. I looked down at my arm that was above Nat’s head and noticed that my white lines were on the move too, travelling down my arm towards Nat.

It was almost like I was charging her or something, but I didn’t feel drained at all. In fact, I felt energised the more I held both her and Tyipa.

Tyipa let out a whistle that echoed in the small room we were in, then another. I focused on Nat, willing her to wake up.

“Come on, you little shit. Wake the fuck up!”

Almost like she heard me, Nat bolted upright with a loud gasp, the blanket that had been covering her falling to her waist. Tyipa jumped back, making me lose contact with her, and instantly both Nat’s lines and mine stopped moving, although it wasn’t until I removed my hand from Nat’s head that my lines stopped glowing.

Nat’s blue lines continued to shine vibrantly as she sat there panting heavily, her hands gripping the sheets on either side of her, before turning to me with a glare. “Who are you calling a little shit?”

I laughed silently with relief, letting my hand fall on her shoulder. My lines reappeared. “You had us worried. What the hell, man?”

She let out a chuckle, placing her hand on mine. “Where’s the fun in that, Cody?”

Mum rushed forward to conduct her exam, pushing me away from Nat’s bed. My lines disappeared as soon as I broke contact with her. Tyipa hopped back to Nat, who held her fingers out for Tyipa to nuzzle.

Takeshi stood at the end of the bed and crossed his arms with a smile on his face a mile wide. “How are you feeling, Nat?”

Nat tilted her head as she contemplated the question, the soft blue lines never fading. “A bit sore, but I assume that’s normal.” She froze, then frowned. “No way…”

Takeshi’s smile dropped immediately. “What?”

“Oh… Oh no…” What little colour left in Nat’s complexion drained from her face, leaving the glowing blue lines a stark contrast to her now ashen skin. “Oh, my Goddess…”

Takeshi frowned in concern, but waited for Nat to continue.

“I remember…” She focused on Takeshi. “I remember everything…”