Chapter 28 ~ Amy:
I began to run with a gun in my hand. The branches of the forest whipped against my pale skin with a greed for my pain. I kept running, despite the man that was chasing me. I tripped over a large branch and let out a small yelp. I struggled to my feet, but I was suddenly kicked in the back by a harsh force. I knew it was the man, and I knew I was going to die. He spun me around with his foot, and when I saw him, a gasp of terror escaped my lips.
Steven was standing above me, knife in hand, about to plunge the weapon into me. My body reacted before I could think, and a gunshot was heard and Steven’s foot left my chest as he fell backwards. He landed in a heap on the forest floor and I quickly scampered backwards, my white dress stained with my blood and his.
“You’re just like him Amy,” Steven began. Blood began to dribble down his chin and I knew that he was dying. “You’re just like your grandfather. A cold blooded bastard.”
A whimper escaped my lips and when I saw Steven’s eyes roll into the back of his head, a harsh cry rebounded off the trees in the forest. I knew that cry was my own. I killed Steven. I killed my lover. I killed my ma –
I sat upright in my hospital bed. My breaths came out in short, erratic pants. The sweat that adorned my face, dribbled down the sides and landed in my lap like raindrops. I began to touch my body, in a desperate attempt to find the gun from my dreams. When all I felt was my own body beneath the hospital gown, a small sigh of relief escaped me.
“Steven,” I whispered. It was him in the dream this time. For the past week since the funeral and my kidnapping, these nightmares have been repeating, with the same person each time. With Steven sleeping beside me in the hospital bed, the dreams have been less frequent. However, whenever they happen, they are always so vivid, so life like. Every time I awoke from my restless slumber, I had to make physical reassurances that I didn’t have the gun in my hand, and that the person I killed, was still alive. Said person would be Steven.
I glanced over at Steven and smiled softly, despite the thing that I woke up from. He has been incredible with me. After I told him about the nightmares, he has slept with me and made sure I received enough sleep to go about the next day. He’d wake up every now and again if I ever woke up from a nightmare, he’d hold me and comfort me. A lock of his dark hair had fallen in front of his face and I pushed it away gently.
There haven’t been any disturbances lately, with disturbances being attacks. Alec and I have been safe since it, and since then Alec has been practicing doing things in his wolf form. He’d come into the hospital room, excited that he learned a new move from Seamus, or if he wanted to show off his snow-white fur. Alec has been living at the Blakewoods house, and it was rather lonely when I was by myself. Even if Steven left for an hour to freshen up and change clothes, or if Josh had another patient to attend to. I still felt lonely.
I was also slowly coming to terms with killing Grandfather. If I hadn’t pulled the trigger, Michael and I would be the ones that were dead. If I didn’t pull the trigger, I would never have seen Steven again. If I didn’t pull the trigger, I would never had the chance to say that I loved him again.
A small groan brought me out of my thoughts and I saw that my hand was in Steven’s silky hair, and that his captivating eyes were fluttering open.
“Amy?” Steven began in a dazed tone that made a small giggle escape me. He sounded adorable when he woke up, albeit as I glanced at the clock on the wall, I could make out that it was almost half past two in the morning.
“I’m here Steven. Just another one was all,” I began quietly.
His emerald orbs were wide with concern and he gently moved my hand from his hair and held in in his own. He sat up and moved me so that I was in his lap. My hand was still in his. “Who was it tonight?”
I knew what he meant. I understood his unasked question. Who did you kill this time in your nightmare?
He still received the same answer he did every other time he asked me. “It was you again.”
When he first found out I was killing him in my nightmares, he was surprised. When I saw his expression, I thought that he hated me. That notion alone was powerful enough to make my tear sac explode. Tears were streaming down my face and when he recovered from his initial shock, he held me in his arms and whispered sweet nothings in my ear in an attempt to calm me down.
“I’m still here Angel Face. I’m still alive, they were just dreams,” Steven whispered, his breath fanned my hair.
“I thought they were going away Stevie. I really thought they were. They’re becoming less frequent, but when they come.” I shuddered at the thought.
Steven’s lips were pressed against my temple and he let go of my hand and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Things will get better Amy. Believe me, they will.”
He sounded so hopeful it hurt to say what I did. “I hope so Steven. I truly hope things will get better.”
I woke up from a dreamless sleep. As I turned over in the hospital bed, I knew something was wrong.
Steven wasn’t in the bed with me.
I sat up in my spot and began to search the room frantically with my eyes. He couldn’t have left me here on my own. He never did anything like this before.
When the door opened, I saw my mate sashay in my room with a paper bag in his hand. A breath of relief escaped my lips, and Steven was quick to acknowledge it.
His smirk spoke the words before the words left his mouth. “I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I left a fair lady after sleeping with her now wouldn’t I?”
Heat crept up and onto my cheeks as his innuendo left me in nothing but shock. His implication, however, sent my body into overdrive in more than one way.
“What do you have in your paper bag?” I asked, trying to divert his attention away from my embarrassment and his sensual thoughts.
His smirk never left his face as he told me the contents of his bag. “Breakfast for two my love.”
He walked over and sat on the chair beside the bed and pulled out a plastic cup of yoghurt and berries. He handed the cup over to me, with a spoon as well, and once in my hands I opened the cup and ate my food.
Steven pulled out a piece of toast and began to eat it, he seemed lost in thought and I didn’t disturb him.
Moments later the door opened and in walked Alec and Sally. Everywhere the duo went they always had their hands interlocked, and it was rather cute whenever Alec would blush about Sally, or visa versa.
“How are you Amy?” Alec asked with a smile. He seemed to be doing that a lot whenever he as around Sally. He would smile.
I quickly glanced at Steven, who stopped eating his toast to look at me, and I looked back at Alec and wore a soft smile. “I’m fine. How have you both been?”
“Sandra’s food I amazing Amy! I can’t wait till you’re out of the hospital so you can try some,” Alec beamed with another real smile.
Albeit my smile faltered. I began to think of a memory of Mum. I was seven, and we were cooking something together in our small kitchen. Cookies, cupcakes or both. It was some type of baking. I held a small fistful of flour and threw it at her. She pretended to be angry with me, but we ended up in song of laughter.
“Where is Mum Sally?” Steven asked, bringing me out of my memory.
“She just dropped us off. Alec wanted to see Amy. She’s waiting in the car for us. We should – “
Sally was cut off by the door opening, and my eyes were wide as the monster known as the social worker, came in wearing a pencil skirt, her blood red lips curving into a dangerous smile.
“I think things will be easier with both of the Cruz’s here,” she said. Josh followed in and looked at me apologetically. Steven however, just growled.
“Steven,” I began. He looked at me with a harsh glare, but then his eyes softened slightly. He stood up, toast now forgotten, and walked over to the side of my bed and placed his hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry Amy. I couldn’t stop her,” Josh apologised with pleading eyes.
“I understand Josh. It’s okay,” I reassured.
I placed my hand over Steven’s as he barked at the woman. “What do you want with us?”
She didn’t have any shame when she ran her eyes over Steven, over my mate. I glared at her, willing for my eyes to vanquish her on the spot. My grip on Steven’s hand tightened dramatically out of rage. Rage at this poor excuse for a woman, who dared to look at my mate in the way she was.
Her eyes found mine and when she smirked, she knew she had crawled under my skin. “Once you are out of the hospital Amy, you and your brother will be under my care. You will both be orphans, despite the fact that you already are orphans now, and as a result you will continue to be orphans unless someone adopts you both. There is a very high chance that you will both be separated, this happens with most siblings.”
I looked at Alec, whose face had paled dramatically, then I glared at the women. When her words sunk in, my glare faltered. She was right. Alec and I will be orphans unless someone adopts us. Anyone would adopt Alec, he was still young. No one would want to adopt someone like me, a seventeen year old girl. I was too old. We would be separated, and would never see each other again, unless someone adopts us both beforehand.
“What do we have to do before we’re the property of an orphanage?” I asked defeatedly. I dropped my hand from Steven’s as I realised that it’s over for Alec and I.
I saw the women open her mouth to speak, but Steven was suddenly in my vision. I felt his hands cradling my face as he was speaking. I would miss the way his hands held my face in times like these. “What are you doing Angel Face?”
“I hate to admit it Stevie, but she’s right. No one over the age of eighteen would want to adopt two orphaned children, especially if one of those children are nearing eighteen,” I explained, my face dropping instantly.
“Let me clarify,” Josh’s voice echoed in the room. Steven looked at me one last time, before moving off to where he stood before, as we both watched on.
“You have to be a legal adult, eighteen years or over, to adopt Amy and Alec?”
The social worker confirmed what Josh had said with wary eyes. Josh let out a groan of annoyance and gripped his blonde hair in his hands and kept muttering the word stupid over and over.
“Why was I so stupid? How could I have not think of this before?” he berated to himself more so than anyone else.
“What are you thinking about Josh?” I asked hesitantly, afraid of what his answer might be.
“I’m twenty-four years old Amy. I’m over eighteen,” Josh began with excited eyes as he glanced between Alec, myself and the social worker.
“I thought we established that already Josh. May you please get to the point?” I asked, a hint of annoyance biting the end of my words.
“Can’t I adopt you two?” was Josh’s blunt answer that stunned everyone into silence.
I began to consider it. He was over eighteen after all and has been with Alec and I since we first arrived, but he has already done so much for us that I can’t repay him. If he did adopt Alec and I, we would still be here, in Kampfer, with Steven and the Blakewoods.
“What do you think of this Alec?” I asked my baby brother.
Alec looked at me with a grin that implied what he was about to say before he said it. “Josh is like an older brother to me already Amy. When he has children of his own, he’d be a professional at it!”
Josh laughed and he looked at me with a soft smile. “What do you think Amy?”
A grin adorned my face as I said a few small words that would change my life. “I would love it if you adopted Alec and I.”
The social worker was stunned, but an angry look clouded her features as she turned at Josh. She dug through her purse and pulled out a card and handed it to him. “Call me for the paperwork.”
When the social worker left with Josh, there was a change in the air. A good change in the air. As if a heavy weight had rose from everyone’s shoulders.
Alec’s voice was the one to break the silence. “I’m happy Josh is adopting us.”
Sally’s smile was contagious as I stared at the young couple. “I’m happy he adopted you too Alec. Now you’ll be staying here forever!”
Sally reached up and pressed her lips to Alec’s cheek, causing Alec to blush and for Steven and myself to laugh.
I felt Steven’s lips kiss the sweet spot below my ear, and his lips never left my ears as he spoke. His breath tickled my ear and sent my hormones into overdrive. “I’m very glad you’re staying Angel Face. I haven’t had the sweet pleasure of marking you yet.”
I felt a blush creep onto my neck and that didn't stop Steven from kissing down to where he left the hicky from the previous week, despite teh young audience that we had acquired.
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Not long now!!! If I keep writing each night, I should have this ifnished by the end of the year :3 Not edited as always.