Betrayal - The Matlock Pack: Book Two

Chapter 21_Part 2 - Bells

Tuesday 16 February

~*Bells*~

“Oh, for f**k’s sake.” Nat stepped forward and placed her hand on my chest, right above my heart. “Bells. Breathe.”

She pushed me back slightly, and to everyone’s surprise, including my own, I stopped in my tracks and looked at her, the mist still in my eyes, but no longer swirling like a hurricane like it had been.

Owen’s arms didn’t move from me, but he still tried to pull me back and away from Nat. My body refused to go with him, instead leaning slightly towards Nat, still wanting her after all this time.

Even when it knew she was obviously with someone else now.

“Come on, Bells. Breathe with me.” She made her breathing obvious, forcing me to follow her lead. My eyes never left hers as my breathing slowed to match hers. “Good. Keep breathing, just like this.”

I stared into her beautiful eyes while the red mist slowly dissipated from my vision, clearing away like it had never existed. My right hand drifted up to cover hers, still resting on my chest over my heart.

“That’s right, Bells. You’re okay. Just relax,” she said, staring into my eyes.

I took a slow deep breath, letting it out slowly, feeling myself finally relaxing. Just like she wanted me to do, had asked me to do.

Whatever she wanted me to do, I’d do. For her, no-one else. Anything at all.

All she needed to do was ask.

“Nat?” Mac’s cautious voice sounded from behind her.

Nat blinked, breaking the hold she had on me, which caused me to start tensing again. Her eyes widened when she realised she’d lost control of me.

“Mac, stay back!” she ordered, flinging her free hand behind her to stop Mac from whatever he was about to do.

A shock wave erupted from us, sending us all flying backwards.

I laid on the ground for a moment, waiting for the ringing in my ears to stop, watching the clouds drift across the sky above me. Once I realised my lungs weren’t doing what they were supposed to do, I coughed to re-start my breathing. I rolled over to my side with a groan, and the noise finally started filtering through.

I felt like a bus had hit me.

There were popping sounds coming from around me, but I didn’t know what was causing them. I looked up to see if I could pinpoint the cause of them, my eyes ultimately catching sight of my water bottle on the picnic table I’d been sitting at with Owen and Murph. It exploded with a pop, water flying everywhere and soaking Murph, who remained at his seat watching me with his mouth open, absolutely stunned at whatever had just happened.

Nat. I needed to find Nat.

I rolled over to my other side to look for her, pushing myself unsteadily to my knees.

My eyes found Owen first, lying near me, coughing, spluttering, and swearing. I must have thrown him back with me, as he hadn’t let me go while Nat was talking me down from my rage.

I coughed again as I leaned forward to get more air into my lungs, resting my hands on the ground for stability. I shook my head to clear the ringing in my ears more and continued searching for Nat.

There. There she was. Huddled over someone.

Mac.

Another groan ripped from me as pain tore through my heart. What was she doing?

She had her hands on his chest, and she was screaming at him.

I couldn’t make out her words, but she was sobbing. Something had upset her.

I clamped a hand to my ear to stop the incessant noise in my ear. Damn it, let me focus.

CPR. She was performing CPR. She dipped down to press her mouth to his; but where mere moments ago I would have felt rage at the thought of seeing her kiss Mac, now I was only filled with horror.

She was giving him the kiss of life.

“Mac?” I croaked, then coughed again. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t hold my weight. What had I done?

I swung my head around frantically to Murph. “Murph?” I pointed towards Nat and Mac. “Help them.” I coughed again. “Please…” I begged him with my eyes, as well as my words. I couldn’t get to them. He needed to do what I couldn’t. “PLEASE…”

Murph blinked once before shaking himself out of his shock and looked to where I was pointing. “Oh, f**k…” He was out of his seat like a bullet, heading straight to Mac.

I collapsed; my arms unable to hold myself up any longer at all. My head smashed into the ground face first, my nose taking the brunt of the collision. I was definitely going to feel that tomorrow.

“Roll over for me, Bells,” Casey said from behind me. I felt his hands on my shoulders, guiding my movements.

“Mac,” I groaned, spluttering to get the grass out of my mouth. “Help Mac…”

“Emery’s already with them.” He helped me sit up before going over to Owen to help him. “We were both headed over here after Kadin came looking for us.”

From my now seated position, I had an uninterrupted view of Nat hugging Mac, sobbing over his shoulder as she held him. Mac had his arms around her, one of his hands toying with the ends of her hair as he muttered into her ear. Emery was hovering around them, asking them questions, and doing whatever he could to get whichever tests he could have done while Mac had hold of Nat. Murph was leaning against the tree, scratching his head in worry while he alternated his focus from the pair in front of him to me and Owen.

I expected my mind to be filled with the same rage as before, but all I could feel was pure, utter relief that Mac was alive. Letting my head fall forward, I let out a heavy sigh and coughed yet again.

“Come on, Bells. Let’s get you up,” Casey said, wrapping his hands under one of my arms; Owen grabbing the other. They hauled me to my feet and guided me over to the picnic table.

They got me positioned before Casey knelt in front of me, his hands on my knees. “Can you tell me what happened?”

I looked up to see Owen looking over at the small group at the tree with a worried expression before I turned back to Casey. “It happened again, Casey. I saw the mist again.”

He nodded slowly. “And I’m assuming Nat talked you out of it again, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking her way. “She almost had me back when Mac interrupted us. She put her hand behind her to stop him from getting any closer and that’s when we all got thrown backwards.”

Casey raised an eyebrow. “Thrown backwards?” He looked at Owen.

“Yup. What he said,” Owen said, his attention still on the quartet under the tree. He brought his attention back to us briefly. “Um, I’m gonna head over there, see if they need any help.” He returned his focus back to them and walked away before Casey or I could say anything further.

I hung my head. “Casey, I’m so sorry. I saw them together, and I saw red before I had any chance of stopping it. I didn’t even have time to start my breathing techniques.”

He patted me on the knee. “It’s okay, Bells. These things are bound to happen. I wasn’t expecting you all to be thrown backwards, though.” He ran his hand through his hair, then behind his ear. “Nothing I’ve read about berserkers has said anything about being thrown backwards.”

“That’s because it wasn’t related to Bells’ berserker rage,” a feminine voice said from behind me.

Casey stood up from his crouched position to look behind me. “It wasn’t?”

“No,” the voice said.

I turned around in my seat to see who was talking. It wasn’t a voice I was familiar with. A short woman with blonde dreadlocks was standing on the other side of the picnic table, with a magpie on her head.

Cody was standing next to her with a young kookaburra on her left shoulder. Cody was looking at me, then Nat, and back again, but there was very little surprise on her face. She took the short woman’s hand for a moment, waited for the woman to nod, then came to sit next to me.

“Casey, I think it’s time we talked,” the blonde woman said.

Casey frowned slightly at her, looked at me, then back at her. “Okay, Nahi. Bells, I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Sure.” I waved my hand in the air with what little energy I had left. I watched him walk around the picnic table and head off with the other woman towards the pack house.

Cody got her phone out. “I’m going to put Yamparti on you for a minute, okay?”

I looked at Cody, wondering what the hell she was on about. She raised her hand to her shoulder and coaxed the kookaburra onto her fingers, then placed the bird on the top of my head.

“Cody?” I almost went cross-eyed as I watched her hand come away from my forehead. The bird’s claws sunk past my hair and into my scalp, making me flinch.

Cody placed her hand on my upper arm to stop me.

“It’s okay. Let her do her thing.”

What the f**k? Cody could talk to me? What the hell was happening here? “Cody?” I felt my eyebrows wrinkle with confusion. “You talk now?”

“It’s easier when I have contact.”

I gave up. I was too tired to have this conversation. “Why do I have a bird on my head?”

“Yamparti is going to help you. You should start feeling the effects soon. Just relax.”

“Okay.” I scratched my forehead, sighed, and shrugged. I mean, there wasn’t much else I could do. There was a juvenile kookaburra sitting on my head. “Who was the woman you were with? Is she new?”

“She’s training me in Building Two. She’ll be around for the rest of this year.”

“Oh, yeah?” I sat up a little straighter. Damn, if I wasn’t starting to feel a little better. Maybe the bird was magical.

“The shock wave wasn’t your fault, Bells. Nat is still getting a handle on things.”

I spun to face her, causing the bird to dig its claws into my scalp. “Nat caused the shock wave?”

“Yeah, but she wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t freaked out. What’s going on with you?”

My shoulders sagged as guilt rushed through me. I was so used to this feeling by now that it was like an old friend. An old, obnoxious friend who didn’t know when it was time to go home. “Casey says I’m a berserker. And when I saw Nat with Mac...”

Cody raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent, letting me continue at my own pace.

“I get these red mists where my rage takes over. I’m sure you can figure out what caused it.”

“It’s from the first attack, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She sighed, then squeezed my arm in comfort. “So, you’re our own resident Hulk?”

“I guess you could say that. Why not?” I chuckled and shrugged. “I put Owen in hospital a couple of weeks ago. Today I nearly attacked Mac for sitting with Nat.” I felt the guilt spread through my system as the scene played over in my mind again. The rage was no longer there at seeing them together like I thought it would be. Instead, an overwhelming feeling of sadness filled me. “Nat talked me out of the mist both times, but what happens if she’s not around? Cody, I feel like I’m going to end up killing someone.” I chewed my bottom lip in worry. “I’m a ticking time-bomb.”

“No, you’re not, Bells. We’ll figure it out. We always do.” She looked up at the kookaburra still sitting on my head. “How are you feeling? Better?”

I stretched my shoulders and took stock of the rest of my body. “Actually, yeah. How’d you do that?”

She grinned. “Magic.” Her eyes twinkled as a huge grin spread over her face. “If I told you more than that, I’d have to kill you.”

I laughed at her joke, then slowly stopped when I realised that as much as I thought she was joking, there was quite a large chance that she wasn’t.

Which, of course, just made her smile grow even wider.