Qhuinn let the door swing shut to the gym as he wiped his face on the towel hanging around his neck.
He'd ran. Non-stop for two whole hours, until his legs had given out on him. Then Qhuinn had barely managed to drag himself into the locker room for a much-needed shower.
As he walked down the hallway, making his way towards the stairs, he thought a lot about what he'd said to Melody. And came to a conclusion.
He was a piece of shit.
There was no reason for him to have been intentionally cruel to her. His fierce jealousy didn't count.
At his words, the light that had twinkled happily in Melody's eyes, had died.
And it was all his fault.
He had to apologize, though even if he did, Qhuinn didn't think his words would easily leave her mind.
Heavy footfalls coming from the opposite direction had Qhuinn's head lifting.
John was hurrying towards him, a look of worry on his face.
"What's doing, my man?"
John's fingers flew as he approached, It's Melody.
Qhuinn froze, dread curling in his stomach, "What's happened?"
His friend shook his head, Not sure, but it's not good whatever it is.
Oh shit! What if what he'd said had put unneeded stress on Melody and because of that had done something to her young. "Where is she?"
In the infirmary, Jane thinks she's going to have to operate.
Qhuinn cursed and thanked his friend, "Thanks for coming to tell me, man."
John met his friend's eyes with a knowing look, I've seen how you act around her. I thought you'd like to know.
Qhuinn wiped a hand across his face, "Has anyone told Tohr?"
John shrugged in reply.
Qhuinn had a bad feeling about all of this, if Tohr had been notified then the male would've already been here. Melody had probably asked that he not be told after all that bull that Qhuinn had said to her.
Clapping John on the shoulder he thanked his mute friend again and hauled ass down the hall, pulling his cell phone out of his shorts as he went.
Tohr was covered in lesser blood, the sickly sweet smell of it made him sick.
He'd taken five of the suckers out tonight and it felt damn good to rid the streets of those bastards.
Checking his watch, Tohr saw that there was still three hours till dawn, enough time to find more lessers.
The chiming of his cell phone had him digging into his pocket, frowning in confusion when he saw who it was on the caller ID.
For a moment, Tohr thought about letting it go to voicemail, but decided he wasn't going to be childish just because Qhuinn had a crush on Melody.
He flipped open the phone, "Yeah? What do you want?"
Okay, maybe he was going to be a little childish.
"Something's wrong with, Mel."
Qhuinn's words had Tohr's blood running cold. Slamming on the breaks, Tohr pulled off on the side of the road.
"What wrong with her?"
Qhuinn let out a breath, "She's being taken into surgery. Havers has just arrived."
If Havers was there that could only mean one thing, "Something's wrong with the young."
"I think so, yes."
Tohr growled, "Why wasn't I contacted? I should've been called as soon as they found something was wrong with her."
Silence met his growled question on the other end of the line.
Clearing his throat, Qhuinn answered, "Um, that's most likely because of me."
Tohr frowned, processing Qhuinn's response. Then it hit him, "What the hell did you do, you bastard?!"
Qhuinn then went on to explain what he exactly told Melody and how much he now regretted it.
Tohr's blood was boiling with rage, "Why on earth would you tell her something like that?"
"I was jealous and I wanted her to turn away from you and come to me."
Letting out a stream of vicious curses, Tohr put the Mercedes in drive and gunned the accelerator while making a U-turn. "I'll deal with you later," Tohr growled into the phone.
Hanging up, Tohr threw the phone into the passenger seat and pushed the petal to the metal.
As he sped down the highway at one-hundred miles an hour back towards the compound, he prayed to the Scribe Virgin that he would make it there in time.
The pain had only escalated since she'd been brought down to the mansion's make-shift surgery room.
She watched through her veil of pain and tears as Jane and Vishous suited up for surgery.
On the table, Melody quaked with fear under the sheet Jane had covered her in once her clothes had been removed.
A few minutes ago, not long after Jane and Vishous had helped her up on the surgery slab, her water broke, increasing Melody's panic as, what Jane had told her were contractions, coursed through her body.
Through her swimming vision, Melody saw the door to the infirmary burst open as Havers scurried in, immediately going to the closet that held the scrubs. Once he was dressed, he came over to the table and looked at Jane, "What have we got?"
Jane shook her head and spoke from behind the surgical mask, "Not sure yet. She's bleeding and cramping, that's all I know."
Havers frowned and went to Melody's side. Pulling out a stethoscope from his bag, he put it in his ears and listened to her heart. He frowned, and with a growing look of worry on his face, he put the end to her swollen middle.
Taking the ends out of his ears, he said, "Elevated heart rate. The young inside's is barely audible. This is a common pregnancy problem in females, where they start bleeding and progress into labor." His voice was grave as he continued, "Usually, in these cases either the young or the female dies, sometimes both. I'm afraid if we do not do something fast, neither she or the young will survive."
Melody's eyes widened in terror. She reached out and clasped the doctor's arm, Please...I don't care what happens to me, just save my babies.
Havers studied her with solemn eyes, nodding he gently took his arm away, "If she's dilated enough we'll go ahead and let her give birth naturally, but if not we'll need to do a C-section."
Putting on gloves, Havers lifted the sheet. His eyes widened, "Looks like we're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way after all."
The Mercedes came to a screeching halt in the Brotherhood's garage.
Jumping out of the car, Tohr ran like a bat out of hell towards the infirmary. As he drew nearer, he saw Qhuinn and John sitting a couple of chairs outside the doors. Anger sprang to life in Tohr's veins, causing a ferocious growl to rise from his throat.
Seeing him approach, Qhuinn got to his feet.
He took the punch square in the nose.
Cursing, the younger male grabbed for his broken snozzer, "I deserved that one."
Rubbing his knuckles, Tohr glared at him not even bothering to try to hide the disgust and anger in his voice, "Yup, you sure did, kid." Turning away, Tohr went to the infirmary doors and peered inside the small window.
Melody sat on the table, a white sheet around her body, knees up, face was pouring sweat. Vishous, Jane, and Havers surrounding her in their green scrubs.
The absolute fear and pain in her eyes tore at his heart.
He started to push open the door, but two hands grabbed at his shoulders and hauled him back.
Whirling around, he bared his fangs at Qhuinn and John, "Why the fuck did you do that?"
John leveled his calm gaze at Tohr and signed, You'll just be in the way if you go in there.
"I need to be in there. She needs me!" he snarled back at the male that was as like a son to him.
Qhuinn replied, "What she needs right now is to concentrate on getting out of there in alive, Tohr. And if, God forbid, something does happen you'll be the first in there."
Tohr clamped down on the desperation that was clawing at him and spun back to stare through the glass. They were right, no matter how much he disliked it, the best thing he could do for Melody was to stay out here and let the doctors do their thing.
But at the first sign of trouble he was going in. No matter what anyone else said.
