Chapter Eleven~
Her lips were sweet and loving, even though my action had not awoken her from her unconscious sleep. I realized, after I lifted my head away that I had thought that it would, as though we were characters in some dark fairy tale. She was the beautiful princess and I the daring knight who had come to save her.
If only...
She remained unmoving, and as far as I knew she wouldn't be able to tell my touch from any other's. She was probably imagining that I was Zachary, her new love, and not Zane, her old love.
For a moment I had completely forgotten about the footsteps and guards approaching from down the hall. All I could hear was the sound of my own beating heart and what it had felt like to be beating side by side with hers once more, the rhythm intoxicating as it once had been. They might just pass us by, I thought for a moment, but I knew that they wouldn't. Their boot heals became louder and louder, as they were drawing nearer. It was in that moment that I knew I had to make a choice. My hands were burning into her cheeks and I didn't want to leaver her side; the thought of just taking my hands away was unbearable. However, I knew that if the guards came in and found me here, I would be taken back into the room that Theron had placed me in or a room of equal horrors and then I would be of no help to Danica. I had no idea how much longer she would remain alive, if she would live through this at all.
I glanced down at her once more, my eyes burning her image within me; I bent down and kissed her again but only on the cheek. The feel of her soft skin healed me of whatever wound I was faced with. Letting go of her, I sprinted to the other side of the unusual room. Every lamp and light bulb was pointed at Danica, making the room seem small, but every corner was hidden by lengthy shadows that shielded me from sight now that I wanted to be hidden. I straightened my back until the outline of my body formed to the same shape as that of the wall and I watched her, the even movement of her chest as it rose and depleted with each breath, all while listening for the footsteps outside. The noise of movement seemed to stop once I was really listening and ready for it. In my mind I pictured several of the vampire and shapshifting guards alerted to my absence from the other room and waiting outside the door to make their entrance. For a moment I thought that I heard whispers.
I waited, like a runner at a marathon, anticipating the shot that would begin my journey, but nothing came. Were they trying to psyche me out of their presence? Were they really on the other side of that door? My eyes narrowed as I scanned the room for any escape roots, but there were none, no windows, and the only door was the one that I had come in through, and the same one that the guards were standing outside of now. My eyes brought me back to Danica, for so long I had thought that she was dead I never imagined that I would find her alive, none of it seemed real to me now. I silently pinched myself to make sure that it wasn't a dream that I had slipped in to.
My eyes narrowed around the room again. How was I going to get her out of here? I couldn't exactly just walk out with her and give the sentinels who were guarding this place a "thanks a lot, boys" handshake and expect to get on my merry way. I needed a weapon, but I knew that I wouldn't find one in here, and I doubted that there would be one just lying around for me to take. I swallowed hard, my throat moistened from the water that Katie had given me, but the action hurt just the same.
There was still no noise or movement from the guards. Were they really out there? There was no way to be sure, so all that I could do was wait...
I waited for what seemed like hours. I didn't move, and as far as I could tell, they didn't move. Finally I heard something, but I was sure that it was no noise that the guards could have made. It was an earsplitting crash that was unlike the thunder roaring outside or the footsteps just behind the wall. It was as if thousands of hands were hitting the wall down the corridor, and the entire structure seemed to shake with the velocity of it. I wondered if this was a trap set by the guards, but only seconds after it I heard footsteps again, this time moving loudly down the hall beyond us. I pressed my ear to the wall, my black hair curling against my face, and I listened but was sure now that they were gone. They must have not caused the noise, and perhaps they thought that I had made that noise and was now somewhere else in the building. I waited a few more seconds, just to be sure that they were gone, and then I moved out of the shadows.
I ran to her, a pace that I didn't know that I had. I knew that she was still breathing. I had constantly kept watch over her raising and falling chest out of the corner of my eye as I waited for the guards to make their appearance, but I needed to be sure. I placed my hand on her throat, and felt for a pulse, then I put my other hand on the underside of her wrist and tried to feel one out their as well, but something stopped me. As I reached my hand down her arm I felt a warm sticky liquid against my fingertips. I looked down and her arms and the sides of her white tank top were covered in blood, and the wound I recognized quickly, was from the tubes and wires that had been attached to her arms, and that I had pulled from her when I came in. How could the wounds be so deep? I didn't have time to question, the rapidly spewing blood unnerved me, and I quickly reached for the nearest thing to a bandage that I could find.
I found, underneath the makeshift surgical table that she was lying on, an unused white pillowcase. I grabbed the pure white material with both hands and tore it into long strips quickly. I rolled the ripped material onto each of the wounds on her arms, going more for efficiency than outstanding looks. What was left of the pillowcase - which was a few more unused strips - I placed into the back pocket of my jeans. Those dressings would need to be changed soon, and I could already see blood begin to soak through the thin cloth.
"Za-," I heard, as I hastily placed the rest of the cloth into my back pocket. My eyes lifted immediately.
"Danica?" I begged, clasping my hands onto her cheeks and feeling her slightly lean into one of them. Her eyes were narrow, only half open and glazed over slightly, as though she were about to pass out again. I lifted her head up slightly to try and wake her further, but I felt her head roll back and her eyes shut again. "Danica?" I said, louder and more forceful this time, shaking her head remotely as I spoke. She came back in a few seconds and she tried to say my name again, but failed. All she got out was "Za-" like before, and I wondered if she were trying to say my name at all or if she was really calling out to Zachary, though the names sounded so familiar that I really couldn't tell which of us she was referring to. "Come on, Danica, we have to go!" I said, holding her torso up to mine and helping her to get off the table. She was so weak and sedated that I didn't think that she would be able to stand, but she had to, seeing as moving was the only way to wear off whatever she was given, and I needed her to wake up. I couldn't fight my way out of here - which I knew I would have to do - with her half out-of-it and hanging off of me. "Come on, Danica, you have to wake up."
I tapped my hand against her cheek a few times as her head dropped back and she faded out again. "Come on, come on, I need you on this," I whispered, trying to reason with the stronger side of her I knew was in there somewhere. "Come on, we've been through worse things than this, and we're not going to quit now." My words seemed to rouse her slightly, and I was glad of it. I knew that I had gotten through when she tried to lift herself off of the table and walk, but being so weak her legs collapsed the moment that they straightened and stood on their own and I had to hold her up, and have her lean on me as we began to make our way to the door.
We were half way there when I heard the footsteps again, lighter this time, but ominous just the same. We were so close to the door we would be seen immediately after whoever it was on the other side came in. The doorknob began to turn. We needed to get back into the shadows on the other side of the room, but there was no time to get us both over there before the door opened. With all of my strength I propped Danica against me and prepared myself for what was to come. I knew that we wouldn't get through this fight alive.
The door opened...