Chapter 6

 

I wasn’t in the hospital for very long, it didn’t take long for Kate to confirm that I had indeed been pregnant and had, had a miscarriage. Lucian had left the minute he dropped me off to make sure that Edward got his medicine. Kate informed me that it looked like Edward would be fine when she told me I was free to go, but to take it easy for a few days.

I couldn’t recall feeling so weak in my life and still be able to walk around, I constantly felt like crying and my limbs felt disconnected as I made my way up to my room in the elevator. I felt like everyone was staring at me, but I’m pretty sure they barely glanced at me. Part of me wanted to just cry and let my tears out, but the more stubborn part refused to let it win so kept them at bay.

After a shower I pulled on some jogging bottoms and a too big t-shirt before heading downstairs knowing I would have to eat something if I wanted to avoid Lucian asking me about it. It proved how bad I was feeling when I didn’t bother to bring any weapons with me, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to move with the extra weight.

A glass of water and a bowl of food later Lucian still hadn’t turned up there, not that I was watching of course. Part of me just hoped that his closeness would help make me feel better. I felt too vulnerable to be bothered at that moment about the bad idea of it being him that would make things seem ok. Giving up I stood up to leave and came face to face with Eric. Now this was something I had really wanted to avoid for at least today. Looking up at the rage on his face I knew it was a smart move to want to avoid this.

“You had a fucking miscarriage.” He hissed shoving my thankfully uninjured shoulder.

I glared at him silently, I mean what was I supposed to say to that?

“You’re a fucking slut.” He hissed, he was still quiet enough that it didn’t draw any attention to us. “So who did you cheat on me with, because I know I wasn’t the fucking father that would actually have involved us fucking, which I seem to recall you saying you weren’t ready for. This incident suggests otherwise though!” His voice slowly got louder as he spoke drawing a few peoples attention.

“I didn’t cheat on you.” I said.

He gave a laugh that sounded way too evil for my liking. “Then, do tell me babe, how the hell did you get pregnant when you refused to fuck me?”

I glared at him and hissed. “Well the fact we didn’t certainly wasn’t for lack of trying on your part was it?”

“That’s your only answer? You cheated on me and you tell me I tried to hard to do you?”

I was pretty sure everyone in the room was watching us now, but I didn’t care he was pissing me off and making me look like I had done something wrong.

“For your information it was conceived four weeks ago! I thought you were dead at the time!”

He laughed again. “Oh, so that’s it? You thought I was dead and went and fucked the first guy you came across? Then when I came back here you still pretended you were an innocent little virgin by claiming you weren’t ready.”

“How could I have possibly gone for the first guy I came across, it’s not like you come across people everyday!” I shouted.

“Well, you certainly came across someone who you liked enough to sleep with didn’t you?”

“I did not like him!” I almost screamed at him. “And I can promise you that there was no sleeping involved.”

He snorted. “Oh right, no sleeping, hence the pregnancy.”

“Fuck you!” I yelled shoving him in the chest. “The only guys I ever saw between you disappearing and me arriving here were soldiers and I can assure you I would never willingly spread my legs for any one of them so figure it out you bastard!”

Realising what I had just revealed to an entire room full of people I clapped my hands over my mouth and took a step away from Eric as if doing so would take the words back, but no such luck. I glanced around hoping that maybe people had left and there was hardly anyone there, but no there was the majority of the hotel including Lucian who had walked in at some point. His gaze was trained on me and he didn’t look away.

If I had thought that revealing to Eric that I had been raped by the soldiers would lessen his anger towards me then I was wrong.

“How dare you let anyone fuck you except me.” He hissed and I didn’t even see his fist coming.

All I knew was that one minute I was standing there and the next my ribs exploded in pain before I stumbled to the floor with tears blurring my vision from the pain. After a few blinks I focused on the form of Lucian pinning Eric against the wall by his neck as he growled. “If you ever lay so much as a finger on her again, I will end you myself. It is not ok to hit a woman under any circumstances you little shit.” He loosened his grip on his neck before shoving him towards the door. “Get out!”

Kate arriving at my side made me jump and I looked at her as if I didn’t even know who she was. I couldn’t believe that he had actually hit me. “Can you get up?” She asked.

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think so.”

With her help I climbed to my feet, when my ribs didn’t object I was glad to realise that he hadn’t done any permanent damage.

“I-I’m just going to go to bed.” I whispered.

She nodded and grabbed my elbow. “I’ll walk you up.”

“It’s ok Kate, I’ll do it.” Lucian said taking her place next to me.

I let him lead me from the room, he didn’t say anything during the walk or the elevator ride. In fact he kept completely silent until I spoke when we reached my room and he closed the door behind us.

“I can’t believe he hit me.” I whispered as I sat on my bed.

“I’m sorry.” He said sitting next to me. “I shouldn’t have even let him have the chance to hit you.”

I gave a slight laugh. “It’s not your responsibility to make sure no one hurts me Lucian. I know that you made a promise and everything, but it’s fine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Anyone would think that you didn’t want me protecting you.”

I didn’t look at him, I didn’t need him somehow figuring out that it scared me how much I wanted him to protect me. “I just don’t think it’s right to spend so much time trying to save someone because you were made to promise it.”

He touched my shoulder. “Maybe I’m not just protecting you because I promised I would.”

I turned on him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

The soft look he had in his eyes suddenly disappeared and turned into indifference before he smirked. “Nothing Mckenzie, I was just trying to make you feel better.”

“Oh.” I muttered not really surprised. “Well, if it’s ok, I just want to get some sleep.”

He nodded and stood up before stretching. I had to pull my eyes away from where they had focused onto his muscles flexing beneath his t-shirt. “I’ll see you later then Blondie.”

I nodded absently as he left me alone in the room. Slowly I crawled under my covers and wished that the whole day had never happened apart from the part where Edward was getting better of course. I told myself I would go and see him the next day, but try as I might I couldn’t sleep and when morning came I just didn’t feel like getting out of bed so I stayed there.

 

The next thing I knew three days had passed with no showers, no food, no change of clothes and every hour spent in bed. I actually wanted to cry for once, but I just couldn’t force myself to let go of the hold I taught my body to keep on the tears.

That afternoon the sound of the door banging open sounded way too loud compared to the silence that had enveloped my room for days.

“Right Tinkerbell, I’m done, get up, shower, get dressed and get something to eat.”

Lucian marched into the room and pulled my curtains open letting the sunlight in, I groaned and pulled the covers up over my head.

“Go away.”

“No, this isn’t good for you, you can’t spend forever in this room.”

“I can.” I insisted.

“Dammit, we’ve been through this before, you always end up out of bed.” He said pulling the covers away from me.

“Leave me alone Adams.” I hissed losing my temper.

He smirked grabbed me around the waist, threw me over his shoulder and walked to the bathroom.

“Put me down!” I screamed pummelling his back.

He chuckled. “Wow, you stink.” He put my feet on the bathroom floor and closed the door before I could respond. “Now shower, I’m waiting. Hurry up.”

“I hate you.” I muttered.

“You too Blondie, you too.” He answered clearly recalling the same memory I was.

I stuck my tongue out at the closed door and turned the shower on before taking my clothes off. It actually felt good to take a shower, I didn’t feel so groggy and it was good to be clean. My hair was still dripping wet when I wrapped a towel around me and walked out of the bathroom to get some clothes.

“You’re such an asshole.” I said to Lucian ignoring his shocked expression as I walked passed him in a towel.

He shook his head seeming to clear it. “And you’re stubborn.”

“And I wanted to stay in here, but you just couldn’t leave it alone.” I growled as I grabbed a pair of jeans and a vest top.

“I actually thought three days was a generous amount of time to let you stay in here.” He disagreed as I went back into the bathroom, closed the door and pulled my clothes on.

“Well I wanted more time.” I shouted through the door.

“You’re not getting more time, so suck it up Tinkerbell.”

“My name isn’t Tinkerbell.” I hissed pulling the bathroom door open so hard that it banged off of the wall. When we were arguing it always pissed me off even more when he would call me Tinkerbell.

He smirked. “Whatever Tinkerbell.”

“Shut up!” I shouted poking his chest with each word. “Or I’m going to use you as a target for target practice.”

He raised his eyebrows with a grin. “I’ll be more worried if you were aiming for the person next to me.”

“Really? Well I’ll have you know that I’m actually very good at aiming.” I hissed poking his chest harder.

“Is that right?” He asked grabbing my hand to stop me poking somehow pulling me closer. “Enough poking Tink, I might think you’re just making excuses to touch me.”

I snorted. “Yeah right, like I would do that.”

He gave a mock shocked look and I couldn’t help but notice how close his face was to mine. “Are you saying you wouldn’t want to touch me?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.” I told him, quite proud of myself for how steady my voice was delivering the outright lie.

“That could be very hurtful Blondie.” He said.

“It could be, but it’s a good thing you don’t want me to touch you, so we have no problems.” I said with a glare.

“Exactly.” He said his black eyes staring into mine seeming to hold me prisoner so that I couldn’t look away. “It’s a very good thing that I definitely don’t want you to touch me.”

“S-so, wh-why did you c-come up h-here?” I stuttered under his stare.

“To piss you off and remind you how much I hate you.” He said calmly.

Was his face closer now or was it just my imagination and what look was it that I could see in his eyes?

I gulped and tried to keep my voice steady. “Well, mission accomplished, I definitely hate you and I’m really pissed off.” Although my voice sounded way too breathy to be pissed off and it definitely didn’t reflect hate.

His face was definitely closer, I could practically feel his nose touching mine as I took steady breaths.

“I really hate you too Blondie.” He whispered his voice husky and his breath mixing with mine.

I wasn’t even sure who moved first and I definitely had no idea who decided to initiate it first, but we were almost touching noses at one moment and suddenly our lips were locked together in a kiss. It felt nothing like my kiss with Eric and he tasted nothing like him either. No, it was nothing like Eric at all, it was a hundred times better, it couldn’t even compare. His hands felt good on my waist, I didn’t want him to take them away whereas I had wanted Eric to remove his the moment his hands touched me.

I wanted to touch him everywhere, I moved my hands up over his muscled chest, across his shoulders, against the back of his neck and finally tangled his black locks in my fingers. His kisses were just as desperate as mine, I felt like I needed to kiss him to breath. He pried my lips apart with his tongue before pushing it inside forcing a moan out of me simultaneously. A groan vibrated up from his throat as he stroked my tongue with his and ran his palms over my ass before grabbing it and forcing me closer to him. He tasted so good as we explored each others mouths before he nipped on my lip gently making me moan. His hands moved up from my ass sliding up my back before fisting them in my blonde waves.

The sound of a door slamming somewhere in the hallway outside was like a flip of a switch in our heads. We jumped apart like we had electrocuted each other, Lucain rubbed at the back of his neck and avoided looking at me with an uncomfortable expression on his face. I took note of his swollen lips, glad I had been the one responsible for them and glad I probably had a pair to match because of Lucian. This was insane though, we hated each other. Why had we kissed each other, it must have just been the heat of the moment. I mean arguments often lead to kisses right? Did they or was I just grabbing at straws here?

After a few moments of silence I figured I’d say something to brush it off so that we wouldn’t have to talk about it again, but what could I possibly say?

“S-sorry, I guess I’ve just had an emotional few days.” Yeah, that sounded completely lame right?

It was lucky that Lucian wanted to forget about it as much as I did though because he was all too eager to agree. “Yep, everything’s just been a little crazy lately.” He still refused to look at me.

“So, I guess I should go and get something to eat?” I said when the silence began to get longer.

“Oh right, yeah. You do that I just have to go do some…..you know.”

I really didn’t know and I was pretty sure that he didn’t even know, but hey avoidance was inevitable right now. He headed to the door, but paused with his hand on the handle.

“Make sure you put your weapons on ok?”

I frowned at his back. “You were always telling me I didn’t need them around here.”

“I know, but it’s better to have a way to defend yourself at all times.”

“Ok.” I murmured not telling him I had planned to put them on anyway.

He opened the door and walked out. “I’ll see you later Taylor.” Then he closed the door.

It took me a moment to realise the major word he had said at that point. He had called me Taylor! I was sure that was the first time he had ever called me by my name to my face. It was always Blondie, Tink, Tinkerbell or Mckenzie, it was never ever Taylor. It was officially the weirdest day ever, two people who hated each other had made out and Lucian had called me Taylor. At least I knew nothing crazier than that could happen today anyway, it had all happened within an hour of waking up. I was free to get through the day without fear of anything else extreme happening. At least I thought I was, but I guess it was my fault for not being prepared.

As requested I put on all of my weapons before heading down for something to eat. To my disgust Eric was there and to my surprise I wasn’t scared I just wanted to punch him. He looked up when I walked in and gave me a smile that would have made any other girl fall for him, I mean hell I had almost been victim to it until the other night.

“What’s up babe?”

I glared at him. “Don’t call me babe again.”

Everyone was just looking at us.

“Oh, come on babe, I think I had a right to be angry when you were carrying someone else’s baby even if you were raped.”

Everyone started looking wary, I think they thought there might be another huge argument, but I decided to end it there and then before it built up to one. Faster than he could notice I pulled my dagger out of my boot and held it up in front of his face.

“Call me babe again and I’ll remove the appendage that enables you to make babies do you understand me?”

There were actually a few chuckles around the table, but I was waiting for Eric’s response after he swallowed and turned pale while staring at the dagger.

“O-Ok Taylor.”

“I’m glad we understand each other.” I said sliding my dagger back into my boot and heading over to get something to eat.

Danielle grinned at me as she handed me over two bowls of food. “Have extra, you haven’t eaten for a few days.” I smiled at her and leant against the counter to eat one bowl as she said. “You’re a good girl for putting him in his place.”

“Someone had to.” I said realising how hungry I was after one mouthful of food.

She nodded. “Where did Lucian get off to, he said he would bring you down for some food.”

I shrugged looking away and pulling the bowl up closer to my face to hide the blush as I thought about our kiss. “He woke me up, told me to get dressed, but then said he had some other things to do, but I had to come down here and eat.”

I noticed when I swapped my empty bowl for the other one that she grinned in a way that made her look like she had knowledge that there was no way she could have. No one knew about that kiss except Lucian and I and it had been a mistake so it didn’t even really count as a real kiss.

“Here’s a glass of water too love, go and sit down I think Cora and Edward want to catch up.”

My eyes lit up at hearing that Edward was well enough to be eating in here and I looked around until I found them not sitting far from Eric. With a wave to Danielle I went over there and sat with my bowl of food and water.

“Hello you two.”

They both gave me big grins and Cora said. “Taylor, you’re here.”

I smiled. “I am, how you feeling Edward?”

“I’m better.” He said. “Peter said that you went to get my medicine, thank you.”

I patted him on the head. “No problem little guy.”

“I’m not little, I’m twelve years old.” He grumbled.

I chuckled. “Sorry Ed, my mistake.”

Cora giggled. “He’s just upset because I’m taller than he is now.”

“Am not.” Edward denied.

“So, where’s your brother today?” I asked stopping them from bickering.

“Oh, he went scouting again.” Cora said.

“He said you weren’t going though because you didn’t feel up to it, are you better now?”

I nodded. “I’m fine thanks.”

The sound of my name made me look over in Eric’s direction questioningly. “Isn’t that right Taylor?”

“Is what right?” I asked.

“I was just telling some stories about stuff that happened at camp.”

“Ok, well there aren’t a lot of cheerful ones there and a lot aren’t the sort of thing to talk about while you’re eating so what could you possibly be saying?”

“There were those good times though, when there were still a lot of animals and we would hunt and have meat. I miss meat, you remember that deer we had, and that wild pig and then there was that stag on our last night.”

I had just been nodding along in agreement, but when he said about the stag my head shot round so fast I heard my neck crack. He didn’t seem to realise what he had said though, he was still talking. He had made a mistake when he said about the stag, he had been out scouting and according to him he didn’t arrive until after the attack. The stag had been caught when he was meant to be out, there was no way he could possibly know about it because I certainly hadn’t said anything. How could he have known about it? I tried to think back to that night. The crazyness of it made it seem like a blur and unless I really thought about it there wasn’t much I could remember at all. One image that did come to mind though was Eric standing at the edge of the camp, that was ok though because he had been standing at the edge when I had shot the others.

The memory didn’t have bodies lying on the ground while he was watching though, no everyone was happy, he had been standing at the edge before the zombie attack, while we had been having the stag. What the hell did that mean? I wasn’t sure because it was seconds after that, that the zombies had attacked so why didn’t Eric die? There was only one reason that a group of zombies would leave a particular person alive and that was if they were ordered to attack in that area and not kill that person and there was only one reason they would be ordered to do that and that would be because they were working for them.