Zed.

I heard a girl's scream ring out, followed by the word 'SKY!' I didn't hesitate. I ran in the direction of the scream, despite my brothers and father calling out for me to stop. Sky was my soulfinder, if something happened to her then my life wouldn't be worth living.

As I came closer, I found a petite red head girl, sat crying, leaning on ...

'SKY!' I called out in horror. She laid on the ground in front of me, unconscious, with cuts on her beautiful face and blood seeping through a makeshift bandage on her leg.

'GET BACK!' The girl growled, shielding Sky's body in defense.

'You don't understand... I'm Zed... Sky's soulfinder.' I collapsed on my knees beside her, tears filling my eyes. 'Baby, please wake up.' Her face was pale

'Zed!' My family called out, rushing towards me.

'Oh god!' Crystal cried out. Xav pushed his way towards me.

'I can fix this.'

'She's in pretty bad shape.' The red head looked up at me, her eyes fiilled with tears.

'Maybe, but I'm sure as hell going to try.'

Xav was exhausted when we reached the hospital that evening. He had helped Sky's wound as much as he could, but she had lost a lot of blood. I felt sick, tired and shaken up, but I was not leaving her bedside.

'Hon, you should go home and get some rest. It could be a while before anything changes.' The nurse told me when Sky returned from the operating theatre, having had the bullet removed from her leg. They had repaired some muscle, as it had been torn by the bullet.

'I'm not leaving.' I told her, sternly.

'Well your friend Ruby is doing good. She's had stitches for a cut on her foot, but she'll be heading home after the police have spoken to her.' She smiled with sympathy.

'Good.' I replied. I was glad Sky's rescuer was doing well, but right now I couldn't think of anyone but my soulfinder.

I squeezed her hand, before reaching into my pocket. I pulled out the black velvet box and sighed.

'Please wake up beautiful.' My eyebrows furrowed as I looked at the diamond and sapphire ring in front of me.

'Oh, hon, it's lovely.' The nurse sighed, putting away Sky's notes.

'Just like the girl I want to give it to.'

'Well, I'm pretty sure she's a fighter. You'll be able to give it to her soon.'

'I hope so.' I gave her a half-smile as she left the room, giving us some privacy. I leant forwards to kiss her forehead before whispering, 'I love you so much Sky Bright.'

I had only fallen asleep for a second. But when I woke up, the alarms were going off. Shit, Sky. I opened my eyes and looked over at the machines- her heart had stopped. The crash trolleys came in with all the doctors and nurses. Oh god. NO SKY! I wanted to shout but nothing could come out. My throat was swollen from crying and blocked off by a lump I was sure was my heart.

'I'm sorry, Mr Benedict. She's gone.' The sweet nurse looked at me with sympathy, a sympathy I knew was genuine.

'She can't be!' I looked down at the box in my hand. 'She's supposed to be my wife!'

'I'm sorry. We'll need you to say your goodbyes so we can take her to the morgue.'

I jumped up in my seat feeling sweaty, and recognising the hot wet tears on my cheeks. I looked over at Sky, and sighed with relief when I saw the monitors were showing a good heart rate. I calmed my breathing down and sat back in my chair, the velvet box safely in my pocket.

'How is she?' Phoenix whispered, walking into Sky's private room (paid for by Yves, who had wanted her to be as comfortable as possible- I thanked him for that).

'Still unconscious.' I replied. 'So I guess there's no need to whisper.'

'Sorry.' She shuffled awkwardly.

'Sit down, pregnant girls aren't supposed to be standing much are they?'

'No.' She replied, doing as she was told. 'Yves told me about the proposal.'

'Ugh, that idiot.'

She laughed, knowing what my relationships with my brothers were like. 'She'd say yes, you know?'

'I hope so.' I sat back in the chair and looked over at my soulfinder, plugged into machines and tubes sticking in her body. 'It was supposed to be perfect. I was going to pour my heart out about how much I missed her and how much I love her.'

'I know.' She rubbed my hand, sympathetically. 'Have you spoken to Sally and Simon yet?'

'They're on their way. Pretty sure Simon will regret giving me his permission now, huh?'

'Probably.' She laughed. 'Well I'll leave you to it. I brought her some flowers.' She placed the daisies in a vase on the end table. 'Make sure you give them some water.'

'I might not know much about flowers, but I do know that much.'

'Sure, bro.' She playfully punched my shoulder. 'Call me if you need anything.'

I nodded. 'Thanks, Phee.'

Simon and Sally turned up about an hour later, dark rings under their eyes and blotchy faces from crying; not that I was going to say anything, as I was pretty sure I looked shit right now too.

'Oh Sky, how could this happen again?' Sally whimpered, sitting down beside her daughter. 'We never should have moved here. It's just been hell.'

'We should move back to England, when she's feeling better.' Simon nodded in agreement.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.

'I know you were going to propose Zed, but maybe you could take her back to England where it's safe.' Sally reached out to touch my hand sympathetically. Why was everyone doing that today?

'It's supposed to be safe here.' I frowned.

There was a knock at the door and Victor walked in, with one of his FBI friends- not a girl, as usual though.

'Hey bro. Mr and Mrs Bright.' Vick nodded in the direction of Sky's parents, who looked even more uncomfortable with FBI agents in the room.

'Any news?' I asked, turning to face them.

'Zed, Mr and Mrs Bright, this is Agent Ryan Lawson. He was involved in bringing down the guys that kidnapped Sky.'

The Ryan dude smiled at all of us. 'I'm pleased to let you know that they've been arrested and are in a secure unit. All of the men at the dinner party were wanted by FBI, so we've taken them all and sent the other girls off to start new lives.'

'If they're all wanted, why couldn't you get them sooner?' I felt angry that they had been allowed to roam about and kidnap the love of my life. If they'd been locked up, it never would have happened.

'Well we didn't know where the Kellys were at first. They have a number of properties across the United States. When we found out about the dinner party, I went undercover and then it just so happened that there were plenty of other bad guys there too.'

'Well thank you for arresting them.' Sally half-smiled. 'I just hope those Kellys won't cause my daughter anymore harm.

'They won't m'am.' Ryan leaned against the wall of the room. 'We'd like you to be part of our witness protection programme. We're not saying you have to change your names, as that's who you are, but we would like to relocate you so you're somewhere totally new.'

'What?!' I gasped.

'Perhaps it is for the best, Zed. We were thinking of sending Sky back to England.' Sally was actually considering this. I couldn't believe it. What would I do? And my family? Where would we go?

'Where you thinking of?' Simon asked, surprising me too. Two against one. Brilliant. Not.

'Canada. I know it's out of our state, but it's a beautiful country and the government are very good with witness protection over there.' Ryan smiled. 'I think you should consider it. Here's my card, give me a call when you've made a decision. Obviously moving your belongings and things is all paid for and we can help with employment.'

'Thank you.' Sally smiled, talking the card.

I sat there in disbelief. I'd never been to Canada. I knew there were mountains, the falls, some of it spoke French... it sounded a beautiful place, but it wasn't even in the same country as my family. What was I going to do? I looked at Sky in the bed in front of me and corrected myself' what were we going to do?

We were soulfinders. We were going to have to make a decision... together.