Predator

Chapter 22

Alexandra remained utterly silent as her sons delivered her to the sanctuary of her suites. Dorian could feel her sorrow wrapped around her like a heavy blanket and rested his cheek against her forehead. His tears slid onto her face and mingled with hers before they fell to her chest.

He carried her into her bedchambers and settled her gently in the center of the mattress. He watched her curl on to her side and wrap her arms around her knees. She was despondent and shock was setting in. She did not have time to grieve for her child before and now it appeared as if she was drowning in it.

He knew it was a pointless effort but he tried to engage her in conversation. When he did not get a response, he satisfied himself with trying to make her comfortable. “I will draw you a bath so we can get you cleaned up. Is that alright, mother?” He sighed heavily when she maintained her silence and turned to Jesse.

“You need to stay with her while we get her bath ready.” Tyr’s firstborn turned his desolate eyes to Dorian and nodded his head. “You are the one that shares the same pain that she is experiencing. The two of you can assist each other in the healing process.”

“Dorian, she has NEVER experienced this pain before and neither have I.” His gaze darted to his mother and seeing her in this condition made him clench his eyes. “I do not know how to help her when I cannot ease my own pain.”

“Jesse.” He put his hand on his shoulder and the Nietzchean glanced back at him. “Do what you can. She doesn’t want to see our fathers right now so it is up to us to protect her and care for her. You more than any of us have something to offer her.” He nodded at him before he and the others went into the bathing room.

Jesse sat beside his mother and rested his hand on the bed a couple of inches in front of her. He focused his eyes on the floor and began to mumble almost without thought. “I am so happy that we got you back.” His voice was monotone. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if we lost you. Father’s life and mine would have no meaning without you.” His next sentence came out in an anguished whisper. “We would have no reason to live.”

His head snapped towards her when he felt her hand grasp his. “I know we still have Tamerlane to consider but father holds nothing in higher regard than you.” Her fingers interlaced with his and he watched her tears fall from her face to the pillow beneath her head. “He would end his life if he lost you now.”

Dorian and the others returned to the room and watched mother and son grieve in silence. “Jesse, her bath is ready. Why don’t you take her in there while the rest of us return to our rooms to clean up?” He received a nod from his brother and watched him gather their mother in his arms. “We will be back as soon as possible and be in the sitting area if you need us.” They left the room when Jesse carried their mother into the bathing room without responding.

~*~

When the boys entered their rooms, they all found their respective fathers waiting for them. Each was met with similar questions in regards to Alexandra’s condition and they all responded with the same answer. “I don’t know.”

Riddick brought Tyr to Dorian’s chambers because the man simply did not have anywhere to go. His room was destroyed and Tamerlane’s was empty. Riddick did not trust him to be alone after the ordeal he’d been through and; until Alexandra could comfort him; he took it upon himself to watch over the Nietzchean.

“Dorian, is there anything you can tell me? Who is watching after her while you’re here?”

“Jesse is bathing her and putting her to bed, father.” He stripped off his shirt and got a change of fresh clothes before he went to shower. “Next to Tyr, he has a better chance of helping her through this since this child was his brother.”

“Has she said anything?”

“No. Not a word.” He knew his father was nervous. It was evident in his pacing but he had nothing to offer in the area of assurances. “She is in shock.” He spoke to his father but stared straight into Tyr’s eyes. “Jesse has managed to reach her in the smallest way imaginable by sharing his pain with her.”

“How…” Tyr’s hoarse voice croaked out in a whisper. “If she hasn’t spoken, how did Jesse get her to respond?”

“They are holding hands, Tyr. She reached out to him when he told her that you and he would have nothing to live for if she had died too.” He watched the large man nod his head and start to withdraw into himself again. “If she is going to need anyone of you in there soon, it will be you, Tyr. Please don’t shut yourself off from her before she calls for you.”

“I will try, Dorian, but I don’t know what to do. I have never felt such anguish before.” His own form of shock was setting in and the 2 men present in the room knew he would need her soon. “I am not sure if I am capable of dealing with this agony…alone.”

Riddick walked up to the man seated on his son’s bed and placed his large hands on his shoulders. “Tyr, you are not alone. You have us.”

“No offense, my friend, but you are not enough.” The Nietzchean gave a snort of hysterical laughter with tears welled in his eyes. “I need my mate.”

“I know. We all need her but she needs…wants some space. I can’t believe we did this to her.” Riddick sat beside his friend and held his head in his hands. “We let her down. Promised to protect her and failed within moments of making the fucking promise. It goes against her nature to let anyone fight her battles for her. She trusted us to do it for the first time in history and we blew it!”

“I know. It is worse for me.” Tyr began to respond to Riddick’s conversation and Dorian left them to talk while he went to shower so he could return to his mother’s side. “I failed my wife and son.”

“Hey man, you busted your ass to save my son as if he was your own. I failed your son too.”

Tyr nodded at Riddick. “Thank you.” He stared back at the floor and clenched his eyes. “Riddick, I need my wife. I can’t do this without her.”

“I need her too and I suspect she needs us just as much.”

~*~

Jesse was about to set his mother down on the table to remove her clothing but; after a brief flash of light; he found her nude and himself dressed in a pair of black boxer briefs. “That is a very handy power, mom. You can be dressed and ready to go for anything in a heartbeat.” He tried for levity even though it wasn’t in his heart or tone.

He walked down into the pool and set her on the step below the one he sat on in between his legs. She wrapped her arms around her midsection and began to rock slightly back and forth. He could hear muffled sobs and sniffling from the broken-hearted woman before him. It killed him to see such a strong and proud being stricken with such profound sadness.

“Mom.” He leaned forward, wrapped his arms around her chest, and pulled her back into a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry.” His voice and body shook with his own sobs. “I wish with every ounce of my being that this had not happened. I wish we were able to protect you. He was my baby brother…”

Their bodies were both wracked with the power of her shuddering sobs and she began to give voice to them. “Mom, I am so sorry we weren’t enough. Please forgive us.” She grasped his forearms that held her and buried her face into his flesh. “I know it hurts like hell right now but I promise it will get better someday. Mom…just let it go. Don’t hold it in and don’t try to fight it. You can’t win this time.”

~*~

An agonized wail ripped through the palace that garnered every living being’s attention. It was the tortured scream of an injured animal that had its heart torn out of its chest and the pain it carried pierced the soul of everyone who heard it. Her cries of agony lasted for several minutes and drove her mates to their knees with tears of pain and guilt.

Tyr clutched his chest and shook his head back and forth trying to ward off the sound of her wailing until he couldn’t take it any longer. He threw his head back and joined his mate’s screams.

~*~

Jesse held his mother’s thrashing body in his arms until her voice and energy finally gave out. He could hear his father’s cry from down the hall and; as much as he wanted to comfort him; he knew his place was with the woman wrapped in his embrace. It would always be with her.

She stilled her movements and her cries were reduced to whimpers as she collapsed back against her son’s chest. She didn’t think it was possible to assimilate his heartfelt words with all the chaos that existed within her but she heard them and they proved to be her undoing. Once Jesse opened the floodgates on her grief, she didn’t think she would ever stop screaming but her cursed body gave out on her.

Through the haze of madness that threatened to close down her mind, she heard one of her mate’s screams and focused her tired mind on him. “Tyr…” She whispered in a torn voice. She entered her hysterical husband’s mind and was met with the twin of her own pain.

“Mom…”

“Your father…is in…agony. He…needs me.”

Jesse closed his eyes for a moment completely amazed with his mother’s overwhelming desire to heal and protect her family. She couldn’t resist it and he was sure she wouldn’t; considering she left that responsibility to her mates and they failed. She probably would never entrust the well being of her family to another being as long as she lived.

“Mom, I know Dad is hurting but you have to worry about yourself right now. He is in no physical danger but you just went through two major battles and need to rest.” He gathered some scented water in a large crystal goblet and poured it over her head wetting her hair. “He is feeling your pain as well as his own. The best thing you can do for him right now is heal.” He grabbed a soft sponge floating in the water and ran it over her body washing the grime and blood from her skin.

“Tyr…” She kept whispering his name over and over as Jesse carried her from the pool. Her mate’s pain was feeding her own and she could not allow him to continue to suffer. “Tyr!” A second later, her son found his arms empty when she teleported away.

~*~

He was sitting on the floor in the corner of Dorian’s room holding his head between his large hands and crying out in despair when she found him. Riddick started towards her but his son caught him by his arm and shook his head no. “Father, do not interfere. She isn’t all there right now. The only thing driving her is the need to heal her loved ones.” They looked at her naked and wet body standing 10 feet away from the Nietzchean.

She looked confused about what to do as she stared with glassy eyes at her mate. She cocked her head and scanned his form for injuries. Finding none she let his emotions and thoughts filter into her mind. His pain made her legs buckle beneath her and she crumbled to the ground. “Tyr…”

He heard her gasp his name and his head snapped up to see his beloved sprawled across the floor. ‘I’m hurting her.’ His eyes focused on his wife and he crawled to her side. “Alexandra.” He gathered her in his arms and pulled her into his lap. “Baby…I love you.” He cradled her to his chest and held her so tightly it appeared he was afraid to let go. “Please forgive me. Don’t…leave me again.”

She looked up into his soulful eyes searching for a means to end his pain. She couldn’t think straight but she knew that she had to make him better. “Tyr…” She placed her palm on his tear-streaked cheek and her eyes began to shimmer with a golden glow.

“Dorian, what is she doing?”

Ian appeared beside them and answered Riddick’s question. “She is healing his spirit.”

“What about hers?”

“Riddick, your son was correct in his declaration that she is not all there mentally. I am afraid that her loss was more than she could handle because she has never faced anything she could not overcome before.” He took a deep breath as he watched Alexandra heal Tyr and turned to her other distraught husband. “She did not even allow Ares’ death to stand in her way of saving him. This is another matter entirely. She cannot save this child and she cannot cope with the concept of her failure.”

“Why is she doing this?” He pointed at the exchange of power going on before them. “You’re saying she isn’t right in the head right now but she came here to heal Tyr.”

“Dad, all she has left in her right now is her primary function in life. She just wants to keep her family safe.”

“Because we couldn’t, right?” Riddick whirled around to face his son and Ian. “She is a blank slate stuck on safe mode because we failed her! Is that what you’re fucking saying?”

“Riddick, I failed her too! I have the same power she has and I couldn’t do a fucking thing to stop what happened!” Ian uncharacteristically lost his temper and his eyes flashed with his anger. “I am the guiltiest one here!”

“Ian.” Dorian touched the male Phoenix’s arm and smiled at him. “You need to calm down. She can feel everything we feel and it won’t do her a bit of good to run around here fixing us all.”

Ian nodded his head curtly and leveled out his breathing. “I do not sense anything within her that reminds me of my mate other than her intense need to keep us safe. It is like she shut herself off and is running some programmed instinct to maintain our welfare.”

“Alexandra…” Tyr opened his eyes and stared at his wife’s dead eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on her lips when she suddenly tensed up and drew back. “My love…” He broke off his sentence when he saw the confusion in her eyes and felt her body shaking in his arms.

“You…are…better, yes?” Her words were forced and barely audible with her scratchy throat. She moved from his arms and slowly rose to her feet. Her stance was hesitant and on the verge of panicky.

“Alex, baby, come here to me.” Riddick held out his hands towards her and watched as she scanned his body with her unique sight.

“Are…you…hurt, Richard?”

“No. Not physically but I need you.” She shuffled back a couple of feet when he took a step towards her. “It’s okay, baby. I’m not gonna hurt you…ever again.”

“Stay back…please. You…are all…hurting…me. Duncan. My heart. Ares. My mind. Tyr. My body. You. My everything.” Her eyes met Ian’s for a split second and he heard an apology whisper through his mind. “Dorian…”

Her son came forward and took her in his arms. “I’ve got you, Mother.”

“Home…”

“Alex…”

“Father, please be patient and let us help her. I know it is not in your nature to sit on the sidelines while she needs your help but you need to leave this to me and my brothers.” His son had a commanding voice that he inherited from his parents and Riddick took notice of it when Dorian protected his mother by positioning her closer to his chest. “Ian, you need to teach them all not to project their emotions before they all destroy what she gave them dominion over.” He vanished with her wrapped securely in his arms.

“He is right. Your son is indeed quite amazing, Riddick.” Ian turned to Tyr and tilted his head at him. “What did she do?”

“She let me feel his light. It was so beautiful…”

“She absorbed your pain.” Ian narrowed his eyes as he looked into Tyr’s heart and shook his head in frustration. “Well gentlemen, we have more work to do and the population is about to return to the planet so let’s get busy.”