Broken
AUTHOR: Trace
*Disclaimer and all the other nifties in the prologue.
Chapter Seven:
I dimly heard Asher's voice asking what had
happened and then the vague
sensation of being passed to someone else.
Jean-Claude had to pry my fingers off of his
shirt. "Ma petite, you are
safe. Relax."
I couldn't make my eyes open,I was so tired. I
didn't have a clue who was
carrying me now, just that they smelled good. Familiar.
"Where do you want her?" Asher asked.
I realized he was the one carrying me.
"She is covered in blood,take her to the
bathroom. I will have Jason draw
a bath," Jean-Claude said.
I felt Asher's hair brush my face as he nodded,
then we were moving
again.
I heard Jason turn on the tub as Asher carried
me into the bathroom.
He tried to put me down, and I clung to him.
God, but I was embarrassing
the hell out of myself. What's worse, I didn't give a shit.
If the entire pard came to touchie-feelie me
to death right then, I
wouldn't have minded. I needed to be held.
Asher sat on the edge of the tub and just held
me in his lap without
saying anything. I was grateful for that. I didn't need words. I
needed a
teddy bear, and all my stuffed penguins were at home.
"Is she okay?" Jason asked.
"She will be," Asher told him.
I wasn't as confident as Asher sounded. I had
a feeling something inside
me had broken that couldn't be fixed.
I had finally burned out, and it wasn't in the
middle of a case for the
RPIT, or a zombie-raising gone haywire, or an illegal vampire
execution. It
was in the middle of having my workplace violated and my
coworkers
slaughtered like insignificant ants on a sidewalk.
For the first time since I'd graduated college,
I wanted out. I wanted a
normal life. Or as normal as I could get being Lupa to the Lukoi
and Namir-Ra
to the pard, and Jean-Claude's Human Servant. Didn't look like it
was going
to happen. Shit. But, anything's possible.