Her Mortal Mate

Chapter Fifty One: Fragile Lives

Adam

I heard the earth collapsing in on itself. The sound was deafening. Yet, even as the devastation happened, all I could really hear was a high pitched ringing in my ears. My heart was pounding out a frantic rhythm, unsure if we would make it out alive as we lay out on the pavement. My cheek was pressed uncomfortably against the asphalt and I could feel it imprinting into my skin as Jadea’s chest pressed firmly against my other cheek.

I was reeling from everything that had happened.

I never knew such monsters, like Leviathan, existed. How many unexplained tragedies or “natural disasters” had been the result of such instances like today?

While I was scared out of my mind over this new development, it didn’t deter me from pursuing a life with Jadea. Hell! I think it solidified it more. I got an intimate glimpse as to the kind of individual she was at her core as we fought our way out of the underground city. Not that I didn’t already know her character, it was just different when we faced death.

She’d believed she had blocked me out from her immediate thoughts. I’m assuming due to her physical state, she hadn’t been able to keep up the wall as well as she’d imagined. At least with me. Her pack she’d completely blocked out, but with me she hadn’t been able to keep me from seeing the emotional toil she was spiraling in.

I was still confused over how it all worked with telepathy and mind merging, though I was sure I would understand it over time.

And then there was Leila… That was a whole different set of uncomfortable emotions I wasn’t ready to unpack yet. However, seeing her—knowing I had been the one to shoot her—had instantly ripped open the bad relationship I once had with her and revealed some unfinished healing I still needed to do.

A rather rough jolt drew my attention back to the terror at hand, Through the gaps in Jadea’s arms, I saw the wall of dust and debris as it burst forth and rained down. The dust was choking. Blinding. My eyes stung , my lungs burned. I coughed, momentarily panicking because I couldn’t breathe due to all the dust I was inhaling. Above me, I heard Jadea’s coughs too.

Oh my strong Jadea… I felt her wince at every jerk of her body. Each cough had to be agonizing with the injury she had. I desperately wanted to take away her pain, but I didn’t know how.

I think that was the hardest part about today, though, was having seen the sword driven straight through her. If I had been a wolf, an immortal, could things have turned out differently?

I knew Jadea and her pack didn’t care that I was a human. But it had hindered them in ways they weren’t used to. It could have cost Jadea her life. Hell! It could have cost us all our lives!

I didn’t necessarily feel bad about my mortality, I just understood better now how fragile I was compared to them. Heck! Jadea had been cognizant enough to coherently give orders and had ran out of the damn death trap injured! I know I wouldn’t have been able to do that! There weren’t many badass humans who could, but I was not one of them. Perhaps being a wolf would help with that?

I had already been prepared to fully embrace her world. I’d already made the decision to become a wolf when I’d made my choice to be with her. This just made me want to make that change sooner rather than later.

Jadea had only allowed me to come to fight for my children when we had been against Hans. If she would have known about Leviathan, I doubt she would have let me be within the city limits.

I had been prepared to do whatever I’d needed to do in order to make sure my children were protected. What I hadn’t been prepared for was the overwhelming urge and need to protect Jadea too. She had always seemed infallible to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d seen her with injuries before. Possibly even worse ones than this back when she had been hunting Valdis. But seeing it happen versus just seeing the outcome of such injuries was different somehow.

There was this deep rooted, primal urge and instinct to protect her—even though I knew she was a warrior princess who could whip my ass—along with a dozen or so other at the same time—in a heartbeat.

All I knew was that I never wanted to feel that helpless and hopeless again when it came to her. I was sure I would have nightmares for years to come about her getting stuck with a sword and bleeding out right in front of me while I was powerless to do anything about it.

Suddenly, I noticed the ground wasn’t shaking anymore.

Jadea rolled off of me and as I sat up, I blinked several times and stared in overwhelming heartache at the leveled city. Where skyscrapers and multi-story buildings once stood, it was all gone. It had collapsed into the underground city, along with the several thousand occupants.

Even though I couldn’t even begin to estimate the total number of losses, it was astronomical. A debilitating sadness clenched my chest and tears stained my cheeks.

How was this okay?

There was no way to come out of this unchanged, unmarked.

I did a double take as Jadea moved by me. I hadn’t seen her gain her feet. She slowly, gingerly walked to the edge and I felt it overtake her. The pain, the fear, the loss of innocent lives. She could feel them, all of the lost souls as they rose above the remains.

I heard her screams of agony, her cries of anguish as she slowly sank to her hands and knees before pressing her forehead into the ground. The bile was thick in her throat as she continued to mourn the fragile lives of those who had perished.

As I went to stand, to go to her and hold her, to mourn with her, Garret’s hand landed heavily on my shoulder. “Give her a moment, Adam,” he whispered. “She’s not ready yet.”

And in the back of her mind, hiding behind the fractured pieces of her wall, I understood her sudden outburst. I understood why he told me to wait. This… the loss of so many souls, was like being back in Dante’s cavern of death. All of the mindless lives lost, the debilitating taste of pain staining her tongue, the black marks each innocent soul left on her. She was being drawn back to that time and was fighting her body’s survival response.

My heart broke a little more for her as I realized she had survived one hell, only to be cast right into another one…