[email protected]
Prologue, continued
"Ch-Chail. . ." It was all she could get out, but the flash of pain across her mother's face, and the tired way she slowly closed her eyes told Mara that her mother understood perfectly. Mara watched as she took a deep ragged breath, her shoulders shaking slightly.
"Chailyn's. . ." She trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words. Mara gasped and her head erupted again,
"De-de. . .?" She couldn't have finished if she'd wanted to. Kate looked up, her eyebrows drawn together, her voice grim.
"No. She's not dead. She's in a coma. . . Like you were." Mara's sharp intake of breath threw her into a fit of coughing, the stinging taste of blood tingeing her mouth before she regained control. She'd been in a coma? How long? How was that even possible? She'd only fainted. . .
Her mother seemed to sense the questions bursting inside her, and let out a slow constrained sigh. "It's been a week. Chailyn hasn't been awake at all. She's smaller than you and the doctors say that the bastard hit her harder, too." Her mom seemed to hold something back for a moment, and then gave a shake of her head, as though it was just as good this moment as the next. "Juji's gone, too. I'm sorry sweetie." Even without the throb in her head, Mara didn't think she could have made sense of the situation. She wasn't hit. . . neither was Chailyn. And Juji. . . obviously they'd have put her down. . . the bite marks. . . It didn't make any sense. There hadn't been anyone but Mara, and Chay. . .and that voice, that wasn't Chailyn. But Mara had probably imagined it, and it any case, it hadn't belonged to some attacker. At least not any human attacker. . . her thought trailed into incomprehensible mush among the pounding and the ringing. What was the ringing coming from anyway? Mara attempted to sit up and fell back, dizzy at the effort. She looked at her mom, who was moving in slow motion, sort of like an old movie or like she was swimming. Mara laughed, 'why are you doing that?' she tried to ask, but instead she hit her head against the bed frame. A flash of pain bit into her skull and everything began to go black again, only this time a whisper sang along with the pain, "Give up," it whispered, "Go back." But Mara couldn't go back. . . everything was already fading. . .
[email protected]