Mine, all Mine (Book 1) (Mature 18+)

Serenity

It had to be a mirage. It had to be. She was hallucinating. Willing it into an existence that didn't exist. She hadn't heard what she'd heard. It couldn't have been him. But then, she heard that unmistakable timbre again. The voice that made all of her senses come alive at once and the world around her seem brighter. More energized and meaningful.

She looked up to see Tristan standing beside his truck. He was weakly leaned against it as he struggled to stand upright. Blood was running down the side of his head and he was holding a compress to it. He was surrounded by officers, firefighters, and the medic team that she had seen running with the stretcher.

Serenity expelled a sharp, loud gasp of surprise and blinked rapidly. Where had he come from? He hadn't just been standing there less than a minute ago.

She couldn't move. She wasn't sure if she was seeing if she was seeing. It was like seeing a ghost. For a moment she thought she'd had a heart attack on the spot and died and Tristan was waiting for her at the gates of heaven. She didn't know if it was safe or smart to run. She didn't care. She needed to run.

Suddenly, she broke away from Katherine and sprinted over to him.

The officers standing by him moved to go to her and Tristan called to them.

"It's okay," he weakly said. "Let her through please."

The officers paused, hesitantly looking back and forth between her and Tristan. They let her through.

Serenity ran over to Tristan and stood in front of him, railing back and forth on her feet. She widely looked at him, breathing hard and loud. She swayed and his hand reached out to grab her. She dazedly looked down at his cold hand on her bare arm and coiled at the blood she saw on it. Looking at him again, she exhaled sharply and grabbed his face in her hands, squeezing and pressing hard, the blood from his hand and the compress seeping into hers and through her fingers. She didn't notice. She had to look into his eyes. Makes sure he was there. Make sure he was alive. Make sure...

Tristan's eyes were dim and almost lifeless as he looked back at her.

"Mr. Knight," she heard one of the officers calling over to him. "Ma'am. Please. He needs to be looked at. The medics..."

Both Serenity and Tristan didn't acknowledge the officer, their eyes hypnotically trained on one another. Sobs tortured her again as she shook her head at him. "What did you do?" she moaned. "What did you do Tristan? I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead!"

His voice was haunted and distant as he spoke. "You came. You really came. I thought..."

"Tristan... Oh my God... Tristan..."

She pulled his head down to her shoulder and tightly embraced him, whispering words of relief and thankfulness to God through her shock. Tristan lightly embraced her back with his free arm, struggling not to fall over. Her embrace was strong and unyielding despite the soft and soothing words of the medics trying to talk her out of her shock and pull her away from him, insisting that they needed to get him to the hospital.

"No," she forcibly protested, holding him tighter. "No. No." She could hear Tristan whimpering and somewhere in the darkness of her soul knew he was in pain but she couldn't let go. She couldn't let go. Not yet. Not yet.

People were grabbing her. Pulling at her. Warning her. Scolding her. Soothing her. They were all lost in the dizzying mental swamp of her shock, grief, and relief. Then, anger. Anger that was so great and magnifying it seemed to come from the pits of the hell.

She started hitting him and swatting at him. "You son of a bitch! You son of a bitch! How could you! What the fuck were you thinking? What the fuck were you thinking?"