Chapter 12

I woke up to someone putting something wet on my forehead. I tried to open my eyes but the moment I did I shut them as a wave of nausea and pain hit me. I screamed. I never screamed, but the pain was so intense. It felt like someone was driving burning stakes into my head and eyes. I grabbed my head to try and stop it.

Someone strong grabbed my shoulders and tried to hold me steady while saying something quietly. I screamed as another stake drove into my head. I was crying now and trembling. I had never felt this kind of pain before.

I heard a door slam open and the hands were yanked off of my shoulders. I heard a growl. Then another stake bore right into my eye and I screamed in agony. I felt someone grab me, and pull me into a hug. I tried to scramble away but then I smelled a familiar minty scent and I relaxed. I rested my head against his chest. It was firm and warm.

I felt exhausted but I couldn't sleep with this pain. I covered my ears, because I kept hearing voices, but my hands didn't stop them. I clutched at my stomach as the nausea hadn't stopped.

Throughout it all I felt Raphael's comforting arms around me, rubbing my back or playing with my hair. He tried to give me water a couple times, but the idea of drinking or even eating made my nausea unbearable.

He would whisper things to me. Little things like, "You're going to be fine." Or, "Shh, it's okay." He kissed me on the forehead a couple times, which brought back memories of our kiss. 'What had happened?' I wondered. 'It had been going well when all of a sudden this pain hit me, then I blacked out.' I recalled. Then pushed it to the back of my head. So I could focus on handling the pain.

I noticed that if I took quick breaths of Raph's scent, it helped the pain to subside. I still hadn't opened my eyes, afraid of another wave of pain to hit me.

I was still trembling and every once in awhile another stake would drive its way to my skull. But for the most part it had quelled.

At one point a man came in. He had a deep voice, and seemed to be someone important.

He said something about me having a gift. And how about four hundred years ago, a young Lycan had been like me; in constant pain. I inhaled sharply as another spike drove through my head. He kept going, said something about tapping mind links.

But I stopped short when I heard Raphael's voice, "You're saying that Brooke. Can tap into mind links?"

The deep voiced guy answered. But my mind was preoccupied with what Raph had said.

"How? She's not a Lycan." 'No. I'm not.' I thought to myself.

"Lilla, who is recovering by the way." I didn't know what that meant. "Had taken a blood sample and had someone test it for a virus or anything of the sort. Apparently your mate has a strain of Lycan blood in her." He said.

'What! I what! How can I? Unless my parents? No, no! How do I have Lycan blood in me?' The guy said something else but I didn't pay attention to it. My mind was to focused with what he had said about me. 'Lycan blood' his words echoed in my mind, as another stake drove through my head, and another voice went through my mind. I caught the word strategy. Then I moved my hand and covered my ears again.

Raph kissed me on the forehead then pulled me in closer. I rested my head on his firm chest, again. Trying to breathe through another brutal attack.

Eventually I dozed off. I wasn't really sleeping though. I could tell what was happening around me; I felt when Raphael's warm and strong embrace left me. I heard the voices again, but they sounded familiar. It was Raph's voice. Right the deep voiced guy had said that I could tap into mind links. Was I doing that? Was that what the voices were? Mind links?

I listened to the rest of his mind link, apparently he was placing two guards outside the room, and one female guard inside. 'Wait. Where was I? It didn't seem like I was in the hospital back home, my family hadn't come to see me. And I hadn't heard my family doctor's voice once. Did Raph have me transferred to Nanaimo, or even Victoria?' I questioned in my mind.

Once he stopped his mind link I attempted to mind link him, but then a wave of nausea hit me, and a dozen more scalding spikes impaled themselves in my head.

I made a strangled choking sound while trying to hold in my scream. I heard the female guard scoff at me, -Oh yeah, well how well would you do if you felt like your head was on fire, and it felt like you had red hot spikes stuck in it every couple minutes, huh.- I asked her in my head.

I heard her walk closer to me, 'Was she gonna smother me?' I thought, wondering why she would walk toward me.

"Did you just mind link me, human?" She spat the word human, like it was a disease. Her question caught me off guard. -What do you mean mind link you? I tried to mind link Raph, and all I got was pain.- I asked her figmentally.

"Yes, you mind linked me. And you did again just now."

I opened my eyes in shock, but the pain returned more intense than last time. I whimpered and grabbed at the blankets then I blacked out.

~~~~~~~~~

I came to in Raphael's arms again and nuzzled in closer, I felt so cold. He chuckled and the sound reverberated in his his chest, it made my heart flutter, I smiled. I dared not open my eyes, afraid the same thing would happen again.

After a awhile of sitting like this, I noticed something. It felt like we were moving. It may have been the nausea, but, no. We were in a car. I could feel the hum of the engine. 'Where was I?' I asked myself again. I opened my mouth to ask Raphael, but just then I experienced a new pain. It felt like a saw was cutting its way out of my head. 'And I had been doing so well.' I thought. I clutched onto Raph's shirt, screaming my head off. Then I let the darkness take me.