Starting Over

Chapter 6

Clayton's POV:

I stood outside her apartment complex and waited. It was well past midnight by this time and I was really starting to think that maybe I was wrong in the way I thought Azariah felt about coming back here. In a car, it would take several hours to get here but with our speed and without stopping for anything, we can get here in just a couple of short hours. Considering it's been over three hours already and he hasn't shown up, really made me think that he wasn't going to at all.

I highly doubt anything happened to him. Any supernatural would be stupid to go after a royal of any species even if that royal was by themselves. Of course, that doesn't mean it's never happened which is why I'm starting to get a little worried that something did happen to him.

Just when I was about ready to go back into the apartment to check on Cameron, I happened to glance over in the distance across the street and saw a pair of glowing red eyes. I can tell by the scent that they are not Azariah or a rogue, but the vampire that attacked Cameron after her class. I felt my own eyes start to darken into a black as night color as my anger started to rise but before I could take off after him, he disappeared. Seconds after, I see Azariah walking calmly and collectively on the sidewalk towards where I was standing. I see now, why that other vampire took off.

"What the hell took you so long to get here?" I practically shouted at him and he just tilted his head down a little more and glared at me.

"I'm not in the mood Clayton James. You're lucky I haven't killed you yet " He almost growled at me while releasing his royal aura which caused the little hairs all over my body to stand up and cause a chill to run down my body.

Our relationship hasn't exactly been the same since that one night six months ago but at least we aren't enemies as of yet.

"You're always in a mood," I grumbled under my breath but he still heard me.

The low deep growl was heard deep in his throat as he walked past me and into the building telling me that he heard me more than well enough. I know I shouldn't be testing his patience, he doesn't have any to start with! I almost got myself killed numerous times in the past and I really don't think he would think twice about killing me now, not anymore. He took off up the stairs as if he knew exactly where he was going. He didn't have to have ever been here to know, we can smell her scent easily, him more than me, and it would lead us straight to her.

He stopped in front of her door and just stood there. I walked up beside him and I could tell he was feeling nervous, something he never is or shows. He didn't show it in his expression, I could just feel it. A royal has so many different auras that they can produce and they do for a reason and sometimes they don't realize they are releasing them. Most of the time they are just warnings so you know how thin of ice you are treading on. Then they all have one that will cause their species to bow down to them and basically force them to do as they are told. All supernaturals can feel it but only their species are forced to listen. They can even direct it to a specific supernatural of their species or to a group. The only ones that aren't affected by it are the rogues and that would be the same for any of the supernatural species.

"Does she remember anything?" He asked after a moment of silence.

"Not that I can tell so far. She's mentioned a few things that seem familiar like my eye color but I don't believe it's a strong enough feeling for her to think anything more of it other than a feeling." I told him.

"She's in a lot of pain." He said softly and I just nodded my head, not saying anything more.

I reached in front of him and turned the knob of the door, slowly opening it. I took the liberty of walking into the apartment first. I honestly wasn't sure what she will do when she sees him. Would he bring back some memories? Will he scare her? He's not exactly that great with humans and sometimes he portrays it unintentionally. He has also killed so many accidently that I'm still surprised to this day that he never killed Cameron.

"Clay?" I heard her say softly and she slowly opened her eyes towards me as she lay on the couch.

"Yeah, it's me," I told her, giving her a smile but she didn't return the smile.

Instead, her eyes darted behind me and widened just a little. I turned and looked behind me and there stood Azariah. The look on his face told it all. The way he felt for her hasn't left him. He will never admit it but he loves her. I know he does but in his mind, loving a human isn't natural or normal. He was taught that they were good for only one thing, food. Of course, that's the way we all look at humans as but her case is different. Cameron is different in so many ways.

"Who is he?" She asked with uncertainty.

I couldn't be more than glad to hear that she had no idea who he was. I was worried that he would cause a memory to appear and maybe that was another reason why he hesitated outside of her door. He may have had the same thought that he would cause her to remember, something that we just can't let happen.

"He's the doctor I told you I had called. He's here to take a look at you." I told her and she looked back over at him and then back at me with a look of disbelief.

"Where's his medical bag?" She asked and my head snapped in his direction.

He had absolutely nothing in his hands. s**t! I never gave that a thought! We're so f****d!

"I left it in my car. I wanted to look you over first and see what I may be dealing with so I knew what all to bring up here." Azariah suddenly said as I had a mental breakdown.

"Okay," She said slowly, still a little unsure about him or if he was telling her the truth.

"What all hurts?" He asked her even though we already can smell what is causing her pain and where.

"My shoulder and wrist. I can't move either of my arm or hand." She said with a shaky voice as he knelt down beside her.

He took his hands and carefully touched her shoulder and she let out a whimper of pain which just made my chest feel tighter. I couldn't stand seeing or hearing her in pain. I wanted her healed as soon as possible. I wanted to be the one to remove the pain but I knew that I wouldn't be able to control myself. I have great control around blood but hers has always been difficult. The only problem is, hers isn't the same as it was over a year ago and it has me scared, extremely scared.

"It's dislocated." He said and reached over and carefully looked at her other wrist.

She cried out even more in pain as he moved it just slightly. I could tell just by the way it smelled and how she reacted when he touched her that her wrist was broken. It was so swollen and black and blue. I had no idea how he was going to handle this. Either of us could seriously injure her more than she already is. My strength is already so much stronger than the strongest human, Azariah's is more than double my strength. This whole thing has me on edge and I don't know how well I'm going to handle this.

"Looks to be a severe sprain." He said as he carefully set her wrist back down.

He looked back over at her and her eyes were full of tears as several already had fallen down her cheeks. It was breaking my dead heart to see her like this.

"How did this happen?" He asked her as he carefully moved some of her wild curls out of her face that was stuck to her tears.

My blood was boiling in jealousy as he touched her. I know that he knows that what he is doing is going to affect me and he's probably loving it! I was clenching my jaw and closing my fists tightly, trying to keep myself under control. The fact that he now knows that she is my mate just makes this whole thing so much worse than what it was when he didn't know.

"A guy from..." She started to say and then sniffled back a few tears.

"From my class, he...he attacked me." She said and breathed in deep as she continued to try to calm herself down.

He just turned and gave me a glare along with a silent warning when he released a hint of his aura. He did it on purpose to show me how pissed off he was at me for letting this happen to her. It's not like I'm not kicking myself in the ass already for letting this happen, I don't need him to scold me silently for it too.

"I'm not going to try to put your shoulder back in while you're awake. Do you have anything here that will help you sleep?" He asked as he looked back over at her.

"Yeah, in the cupboard above the sink in the bathroom." She told him and he stood up and walked into the bathroom.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her to try to calm my jealousy.

"No worse than before." She told me and looked back over at Azariah as he walked back into the room.

He had a pill bottle along with a glass of water in his hand and knelt down beside her on the couch.

"Here, take this and once you fall asleep, I will set everything." He told her and she just nodded as he helped her to take the medicine and drink the water.

---

It took about 30 minutes before she finally started to doze off. Once she was fully asleep and her heart had gone to a slow steady rhythm, we walked back into the room. I was walking over to her when he grabbed my shoulder and turned me around harshly.

"Why does she have sleeping pills and antidepressants in her f*****g cabinet!" He whisper yelled at me in pure rage.

Even his eyes started to turn black the angrier he was getting and that is never a good sign in a vampire, especially with him.

"I don't know," I told him honestly.

"She kicked me out of her life, remember?" I told him and he just shoved me with his hand that was on my shoulder.

Even though he hardly used any strength at all, I still stumbled back a few steps from the force of his push.

"Well, if you wouldn't have f****d up..." He started to say but stopped as he just stood there and looked at her.

"Do you smell that?" He asked as he took a deeper breath.

"It's her blood," I told him and he looked over at me.

"No, it's not. This isn't what her blood smells like." He told me and he breathed in deeply again.

"Yeah, it is. That's the problem. Something isn't right." I told him.

"She didn't smell like this when she was with me." He commented.

"This is why I called you. The scent, it's changed, it's so compelling." I commented and he took another deep breath.

"It smells so fragrant." He said softly as he exhaled.

"Maybe you need to hurry up and heal her so the smell isn't so strong and before she wakes up," I told him and he looked over at me.

"I didn't have her take the sleeping pills so I could heal her. We would run the risk of her waking up in the middle of setting her shoulder or her broken wrist. Can't exactly have that now can we?" He asked and I felt nervous about what he was going to say.

"Then what were you going to do?" I asked when he didn't continue.

"Well, how else are we going to ensure that she won't wake up for a few hours?" He asked confirming what I thought he was referring to.

"Do you want to do it?" He asked and moved his hand towards her.

Just the thought of biting into her was causing my mouth to water. The thought of tasting her blood was almost too much for me so I shook my head.

"No, I feel that I won't control myself. Something about the way her blood smells. I, I can't risk it." I told him.

He didn't ask a second time. He just turned her head away from us and he opened his mouth, allowing his fangs to elongate completely before he sunk his fangs deep into her neck. The smell of her blood as it leaked out around his fangs and down the side of her neck was causing my own fangs to grow to their full length. I had to turn and take a few steps away from him. I put my hands in my hair and I pulled, trying to keep myself under control as my eyes turned red and my thirst started to increase at a rapid speed.

When I finally came to my senses, noticing that the smell of her blood was still strong and the sound of her heart was weakening, I turned around quickly only to see Azariah still drinking heavily from her neck.

"f**k!" I shouted and leaped over at him and pulled him back as hard as I could, ripping his fangs from her neck.

That was enough to distract me and lose my concentration. The blood rushing out of her neck caused me to shoot towards her and bite down in the exact spot he had already bit, taking in the most delectable taste I had ever had! I was pulled away from her at great speeds and force, throwing me across the room.

"Dammit Clayton! You f**k!" He shouted as my eyes slowly returned back to their normal gray color and he leaned forward and licked all around the wound to heal it.

"What was that?" I asked as I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I had just done and what I had just tasted.

"I don't know." I heard him say in complete confusion.

"That was so amazing I didn't want to stop," I told him as I hit the palm of my hand on my forehead to try to clear my head some more.

"I know, I couldn't either. It was worse than when I had her marked." He commented as he took a washcloth and cleaned up all of the blood off of her skin.

"It's like a drug, I feel as if I'm having my first high!" I told him and he looked over at me.

"Not a human type of drug, but almost like a vampire drug." I continued and he continued to stare at me.

"What do you think that is? What caused it?" I asked him when he continued not to say anything to me.

He just looked back over at her, not saying a word.

"Go to a store or somewhere and get a sling and an arm brace. We need to make it look like she is healing so I'm not going to fully heal her. Besides, her natural hybrid blood should heal her faster than normal anyway." He told me, completely ignoring what all I had said and I nodded even though he wasn't looking over at me.

He placed his hands on her shoulder and he closed his eyes. I could tell that he was concentrating, hoping that he doesn't snap her arm right off of her body I'm sure. He did it quick, quicker than the human eye, and snapped her shoulder back into place. The popping sound was loud to our ears but at least he didn't break it in the process. He took a deep breath of relief and moved over to the wrist of her other arm.

I watched him as he placed his hands along the bones and felt the area. Almost as if he was checking what kind of break that it was.

"It's just a fracture. Her arm isn't very big here so I should be able to hopefully get my saliva in there far enough. Be prepared to pull me away if I can't stop. I have to get some of my saliva down to the break to help it heal faster but at the same time, not continue to drink from her." He told me without looking at me.

I took a few steps closer to him and I stood there and waited. He bit into her wrist and just as I was about ready to pull him away because he appeared to be drinking instead of healing, he pulled himself away just before I could grab him. He placed his mouth over the puncture wounds and pushed his saliva in as deep as he could get it to go. I knew he would be able to control himself once he knew what he was dealing with.

"Put her arm in a sling and her wrist in a brace. This will help ensure that she believes our doctor story." He said as he stood up and started to walk towards the door.

"Azariah!" I called to him and he stopped and looked over at me.

"Thank you," I told him but he didn't say anything back and started to walk away again.

"What about her blood?" I asked.

"Simple, don't drink it." He replied as he opened the door.

"What if I can't control myself? What if others find out about her?" I quickly added and he looked over his shoulder at me.

"Then, turn her."