Undone by a Broken Angel

10.) Unannounced

"Then I passed by and saw you squirming in your own blood.  You were covered with blood, but I wouldn't let you die."

-Ezekiel 16:6

She passes out on their descent.  He feels her go limp in his hands and her wings hang behind her as they fall.  He opens his wings to slow them down and he yells out in agony at the straining it does to his muscles.  He’s never carried this much weight before and it's almost too overwhelming.  Luckily, he’s able to angle his body in such a way to position her in his arms in a princess hold and land- a little roughly- on his feet with a loud thump.  

Nathaniel must have seen his airborne struggle and comes out into the rain- as quickly as an old man can- to demand answers from an unannounced cursed man. “What is going on?!” he yells, his face red from the sudden excitement.

There’s a crack of thunder.  “I found her, Nathaniel, and I’ve brought her safely to you.  I’ve found her: Katrina’s only daughter,” he shouts over the pouring rain as it runs down his soaked through clothes, the relief of getting her to Eden crashing down on him in both elation and worry.  She’s not out of the rain yet and he notices fresh blood still flowing from her knees.

“Get her inside!” Nathaniel demands, taking one look at the poor girl.

He carries her into the closest building, which happens to be his own house.  He climbs up the stairs and lays her down on his bed, panting from his day of continuous motion.  He stands by her side, waiting for Nathaniel to chew him out.

“Tell me what’s going on!” he screams, his wrinkles deepening with the stress.  Jack has known Nathaniel all his life, so reading his body language is as easy as reading the weather.  Right now, he can’t be any angrier.  He should have sent him a letter, but sending a letter to the others who are trekking across the world in search of her seemed to be the better recipients.  Besides, he couldn't find enough ravens.

“I stopped at Dianna’s and found this in my room,” he hands him the old letter he has stashed in his cloak pocket.

Nathaniel reads it: “My dear boy, Abraham,  I’m writing this letter in secret, hoping that it will reach you.  At this time, you are a few years old, and the moment I saw you, I knew you were the one.  I can see into your soul, young man, and I see that you are the strongest falcone I’ve ever met in my life.  When I die, and females are gone, I want you to find my daughter.  She’ll be with a couple in Venice, Italy.  Find them, and you’ll find her, then bring her safely to Eden.  I’m leaving this very important task to you because I’ve chosen you to be her husband and our future king.  Find her, and bring back our hope.  Your queen, Katrina Grace.”  He drops his arms, letting the letter fall to his side.  “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen the Queen’s handwriting.”  Then his eyes flash up to Jack.  “And you, you know you can’t follow her last request, correct?”

“Yes, I know,” he sadly replies.

“Good.  Now, tell me how she came to be in this condition!”

“We had a run in with a pack of reapers,” he replies without batting an eyelash.  Instead, he rushes into the bathroom and searches for bandages and disinfectant he knows he left somewhere.  Nathaniel is close on his heels demanding answers.

”What do you mean,” he shouts, struggling to get Jack’s attention.

“They caught up with us.  We were running for a break in the forest canopy when she fell and cut her hands and knees.”  He desperately opens the cupboards, shoving stuff to the floor in desperation.  “There must have been some broken glass that we didn’t see,” he muses.

“And she never stopped bleeding?  Do you realize that you could have killed her?”

Jack nods, “I do, but she refused to stop.”

“And you listened to her?”

He finally finds what he’s looking for and rushes back into the bedroom, slamming shut all the cupboards he opened.  He lifts her dress up to reveal her bloody knees.  He finds sharp rocks buried in her skin and his stomach twists up as he imagines her pain.  “Who am I to tell her what to do?  She’s the future queen.”

“So you’ve been giving her choices the entire time?” he wonders aghast.

“Yes, of course.”  He dabs the blood away from the wound on her left knee and sees what caused her to bleed so badly.  Apparently,  a glass bottle had broken where she fell as he had assumed. 

“Hey, can’t you just use your magic to heal her?  David taught you how, right?” the old man wonders with a crease between his brows.  Abe doesn't like it when people compare him to his brother, but Abe was never able to duplicate his brother’s skills, much to many people’s disappointment.

Jack wasn’t really listening to the old man at this point, but he answers the question anyway.  “He did, but I don’t have enough energy in me to do it.  I’ll have to wait until I’m fully rested to heal her.”

“Should we contact Dianna?”

“It’s not necessary.  They aren’t large wounds.  I’m more worried about her blood loss.  None of us are pure-bloods, so we can’t donate to her.”  He wraps the wound up and attends to the right knee.  It’s open like the other is, split open to the bone, but thankfully the rain water washed out all chances of infection.  Unfortunately, she’s suffered tremendous blood loss because of it.  She won’t die, but she’ll be on bed rest for a long while.  Nathaniel does not have the stomach to stick around and watch, so he leaves the room in silence.  Nathaniel is not an expert in magic, so healing Abigail himself would be impossible.  If David were here, he could do it, but he’s searching for her.  Hopefully, they are on their way home now.

Abigail starts to shiver.

If Jack leaves her like she is, she’ll get sick and then her condition will become life threatening.  He has no choice but to dry her off, and that means to get her into dry clothes.  He nudges her, “Abby, get up.  You need to change.  Abby!”

She groans but doesn’t wake up.  He tries again, but she’s trapped in a deep sleep.  He sighs and goes to his closet and pulls out some pants and a tunic.  He picks up a towel from one of his shelves and runs back to her. He carefully flips her over onto her stomach so he can undo her corset.  Once he has it off, he unbuttons her under dress and pulls her skirt over her head.

Tare open her flesh... Rip her to pieces...

He doesn’t have time to listen to the voice, he’s too busy trying to save her life.  His heart is beating fast- on the cusp of diving into a full on panic.  He can’t lose her, not like this.

Then, trying not to think about it too much, his heart hammers in his chest for another reason.  Heat rises to his cheeks yet again, and he vaguely wonders if she’ll always do this to him.  He tries not to look at her, but her perfect skin and sleeping face are hard to ignore.  She’s beautiful, the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.  Perhaps the most beautiful woman to step foot on Earth.

Once he has her dressed in his clothes and the wounds on her hands are wrapped, he builds a fire in his small fireplace.  He attends to her needs.  He makes her broth and spoon feeds her, piles blankets on her, and wipes away sweat that accumulates on her brow.  He can't explain his behavior- she'll be fine with rest, so why all the fussing?  What is it about her that makes his heart race, his face flush with heat, and his body fill with an electric charge?  Is it her beauty?  Is it her energy from being a pure-blood?  That could be.  The curse he carries could be having a reaction to the purity she embodies, but that doesn't seem to fit.  It feels deeper, ingrained in the very marrow of his bones. At the state he is in now, he can't put the focus he'd like to on the puzzle.  The curse keeps getting in the way.  He stops every once in a while to concentrate on the voice.  Silencing it is harder when he’s tired and it’s on full rampage.  He pauses a moment to compose himself and bring him back to normal.  He stays awake for the second night in a row and lets Nathaniel take over in the morning.  He writes a letter to his brother and to Dianna before he finally lays his head down to sleep- the sun rising over the horizon.  It rises on Eden, God’s first paradise.