ColeI left the room.Not walked. Not stepped out. Left. The kind of leaving where you know you're abandoning something that needs you, but you do it anyway because staying would break you.The scary part wasn't hearing Susan say "Help me" through that destroyed mouth. It was what came after."Cole."My name. She'd said my name, gurgled and wet but unmistakable. I'd stood there for three seconds—I counted them—while she tried to lift what was left of her head to look at me. One working eye had found mine, bloodshot and leaking fluid, but aware. Fully aware.And I'd turned around and walked out.All I could picture now was Susan lying there, staring at the door I'd closed, probably in agony beyond anything I could understand, unable to move, unable to help herself. All she could do was beg. And she'd watched me leave her there to suffer.In my defense, there was nothing I could do to save her. The transformation had gone too far. Her body was breaking down and rebuilding itself wrong o
Cole"What the fuck!"Marina stood frozen in the doorway, her eyes wide, mouth open. She couldn't look away. Neither of us could.Hours had passed since I'd first discovered this, and Susan was still making that sound. A wet, rattling wheeze that came in irregular intervals. Still alive. Somehow, impossibly, still alive."I... I can't—" Marina spun and ran from the room.I heard her footsteps pounding down the hallway, then the sound of retching. I couldn't blame her. I'd done the same thing when I first saw it. Thrown up until there was nothing left, then dry heaved for another five minutes. How had I thought she'd have the stomach for this? Because she was a healer? Because she'd seen death?This wasn't death. This was worse.I forced myself to look again at what used to be Susan.You could only tell it was her from the clothes—the silk nightgown she'd been wearing, now stretched and torn in places where her body had... changed. Parts of her were still recognizably human. A section
ColeThe infirmary was too quiet for a place with so many dying children. Nurses moved between beds, their faces blank the way medical staff got when they'd seen too much death. White sheets covered small bodies on stretchers. Six in the last hour. I counted them as they wheeled past—one, two, three, four, five, six—each one lighter than they should have been, each one somebody's entire world.I stood in the center of it all, watching the controlled panic. A nurse with blood under her fingernails guided a stretcher toward the back rooms. Another adjusted an IV drip for a child whose breathing rattled like stones in a tin can. The smell was everywhere: antiseptic fighting against sickness, sweat, and that specific scent that preceded death. My wolf recognized it, wanted to either fight it or flee from it.Outside those doors, parents waited. Some paced. Some sat frozen. Some already knew their children were gone—I could hear the muffled sobs through the walls, that specific pitch of gr
Evelyn"Just please, get her out of there."I stood watching Hilda on her knees, and all the fight drained from me. How was I supposed to lash out at someone completely broken?Her shoulders shook with each sob, her face streaked with tears. The fierce woman who had slaughtered what could have easily been an army of rogues was gone. In her place was someone shattered, vulnerable.It didn't make me feel any better. I turned away, my eyes landing on Ava's form on the bed. One thought crashed into my mind with brutal clarity: She’s dead.I came undone.Tears flowed freely down my face. I tried to stifle them, but my chest heaved with the effort. I placed my hand on Ava's cold, stiff fingers. Her skin was terribly pale, almost translucent in the harsh infirmary light."I'm sorry," I said quietly, the words barely audible.The door to the room opened with a soft click. I smelled him before I saw him. I blinked slowly, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. My breath came in shaky pulls
EvelynI sat at Ava's bedside, unable to look away from her still form. Her small chest didn't rise or fall. Her skin had taken on that gray tone that followed death. But it was her eyes that hurt the most—still open, staring at nothing.My fingers hovered over her face. I should close them. That's what you do, isn't it? Close the eyes of the dead. But I couldn't bring myself to touch her. To admit this was real."Why you?" I whispered, my voice scraping my throat. "Why did it have to be you?"The monitors had been turned off, their screens black and silent. The medical equipment pushed to the side. Useless now. Everything useless. All my knowledge, all my skills—none of it had saved her.I reached for her hand instead. It was cool to the touch, not yet cold. I wrapped my fingers around hers, so small in my grasp."I'm sorry." The words caught in my throat. "I should have done better. I should have protected you."Damon should have protected her. Isn't that what fathers did? But he'd
ColeThe last time I tried Damon's number, the call didn't even go through. Just straight to that automated voice telling me the person I was trying to reach wasn't available. I threw my backup phone against the wall of the infirmary's back office. The plastic cracked, the screen went dark, and I didn't feel any better.Three hours. That's how long I'd been waiting for Damon to call back after our connection dropped. Three hours of children dying while I tried to hold our pack together with my bare hands."Beta Cole." Marina stood in the doorway, blood smeared across her scrubs. "We need you out here."I nodded, pushing myself up from the desk.The main ward had quieted since earlier. Not because things were better, but because there were fewer children left to scream. The stench of disinfectant couldn't hide the underlying smell of death."We've completed the separation," Marina said, leading me toward the far end of the room. "Group A is in the isolation ward." She gestured to a set