Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 96: Chapter 96

Heather

Dr. Gonzales jabbed a shot into Serena’s arm. She waited a second, but when the convulsions didn’t stop, Dr. Gonzales reached back into her bag. Another shot of meds slowed the convulsions, but they didn’t stop. One more shot and Dr. Gonzales waited as Serena’s movements slowed.

Two more shots and Serena was finally sedated again. It seemed to take forever for her twitching to stop completely while drug worked its way through her body.

When she was finally still, the doctor picked up the discarded pile of shots with shaking hands. "I need to get more meds. I’m not sure how long this will hold her. Let’s get her back to the infirmary."

Max gathered Serena up in his arms again. No one said anything as they left.

I met Adrian’s gaze. "I did something wrong. I messed up."

"No, I don’t think you did."

No matter what the guys said, I had to have done something wrong. "I fucked it up. That’s the only answer." I hugged myself as I shivered.

"Maybe we had it wrong from the beginning." Adrian cursed.

"How? What did we miss?" I felt lightheaded, and swayed on my feet.

Brent’s scent hit me before he wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned into him as I looked out over the edge of the building. The whole roof smelled like burnt candles, potion, and Serena’s blood and puke, but I didn’t care.

I stared out into the night, and wondered how I’d messed up so badly. I’d followed the spell exactly like it was written, but something had gone wrong.

The hardest part to swallow was that I’d hurt Serena, and that made me ill. I shivered in the night.

"It wasn’t your fault," Brent said.

"Yes, it was. I meddled in something I know nothing about, and now Serena is paying the price." It wasn’t fair. "I should’ve taken the deal. I should’ve agreed to what Luciana wanted."

"You really trust that she’d follow through with her end of the bargain?"

If I was being honest with myself, no, but Serena’s life was on the line. Wasn’t it worth the gamble?

"It’s not yours to fix this problem. It never was," Brent said. "This happened before you got here and it had nothing to do with you. You tried to help, and Serena’s still hanging on. We might think of something else..."

We were quiet for a second.

"It might not have been my problem to solve before, but it is now." My mother didn’t call me stubborn for nothing. I didn’t care what I had to do. This curse wasn’t killing my friend. I’d never let that happen.

Serena’s breath rattled in and out as I sat in the leather chair. I watched her sleep, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong.

My eyes felt heavy after doing the witchcraft, but I didn’t care. Even with the lights off, I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to stay awake in case something happened with Serena.

I hugged my knees into my chest as I thought back on the past twenty-four hours. This day had sucked. Right up there with the day that I woke up in this same room seven weeks ago.

The newly replaced door opened, letting in just enough light to blind me, before it closed again. I couldn’t see him, but I could smell Brent’s scent as he soundlessly made his way to my side.

He crouched in front of me, grabbing my ankle and rubbing his thumb up and down it. "Where’s Max?"

"Their parents called for an update. He was upset, so he went for a walk."

He’d been really nice about everything, saying I hadn’t made it any worse, but I wasn’t so sure that was true. I couldn’t get the image of Serena convulsing on the roof out of my head.

"How about I take you back to your room?"

That sounded like a terrible idea. Being alone in my room when Serena’s side was empty? "No. I want to stay here. Just in case she wakes up or something."

"Cherie. She’s not going to wake up tonight."

A tear rolled down my cheek. Would she ever wake up again?

My heart was breaking, making it hard to breathe. "I need to go back to my cousin’s first thing in the morning."

"No."

"It’s all we’ve got now. I tried...I really tried. Maybe I didn’t believe in the spell enough to make it work. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough." It didn’t matter. I’d failed and that was all that I could think about. God. If I couldn’t fix this with spells and potions, then I had to try bargaining.

"Non. Cherie. Non. S’il vous plaît." His hand tightened around my ankle. "This morning I...you can’t. I don’t trust them. You can’t go back there."

I wiped my eyes. "What else am I supposed to do? Let Serena die?"

Brent stood and picked me up from the chair. I was about to protest, but he sat back down with me in his lap. I curled up against him as I watched Serena. "What did she do to deserve this?"

"All I know is that she was off campus at a field party with some of the coven a few years ago. Apparently Luciana found out about it and broke up the party."

"So other people were cursed?"

"No. Only Serena."

Why Serena and no one else? "What did she do?" A part of me thought it’d be easier to swallow this if I knew why it was happening. The other part of me knew that nothing would make me understand.

"Nothing to deserve this." He set me on my feet as he stood. "Come on. Let’s get you to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning."

"I’m scared that if I leave, she’ll be gone when I wake up."

"If she gets any worse, Dr. Gonzales will come get us. Okay?"

He had a point. "Okay." I leaned down to Serena. In the dark, her skin was so ghostly it nearly glowed. "I’m so sorry. I’ll fix this. I swear. Just hang in." She was like ice. I pulled up the extra blanket that was folded at the foot of her bed, and tucked it under her chin.

"Come on, cherie. Let’s go." His hands squeezed my shoulders as he steered me toward the door. I let him lead me out of the room.

The farther down the hallway we got, the heavier my feet were. My limbs felt like lead. "I’m exhausted," I said as I leaned into his side.

"It’s been a long day."

"It feels like a million years since I woke up." It was nuts how quickly things could go wrong. My luck had always been a little on the shitty side, but this was pushing ridiculous. If it was anyone but Serena... I wanted to stomp my foot and curse the fates.