The Gift of Cursed Blood

Chapter 5: The Wait

“What happened?” whispered Hilde. She had awoken a few seconds ago but couldn’t get her bearings. Her head ached and her and she felt as if she was underwater and her ears were going to pop because of the pressure. She rubbed her eyes. In a rush the memories of what had happened came back and she sat up quickly despite the protests of her body. She ached all over. She looked around the room half-crazed.

“Duo?” she called. “Duo? Answer me! Please!” she yelled. She struggled to get on her hands and knees. She knew nothing physical had happened to her but she felt as if she’d been beaten.

She crawled around the room. Looking for something, somebody. She crawled around the table in the room and saw a black boot. As she got closer she saw the boot led to a leg and the leg belong to Duo.

Duo lay sprawled on the floor in a pool of his own blood. His long braid was black from all the blood it had absorbed. Hilde closed in on him in horror. His eyes were open and his hands were limp at his sides. Hilde chocked back a sob. She shook his shoulders gently and urged him to respond to her. “Duo? Duo what happened? Where are Lucas and Claire?” She touched his cheek gently. She started to cry. She shook him again and spoke to him quietly. She placed his head on her lap and touched his cheek with her hand gently. He was in really bad shape but he was alive.

“Hilde?” he said almost inaudibly. His eyes fluttered and he finally closed them. He was losing too much blood too fast. He had multiple cuts and scrapes from a sword, she guessed. She looked at where the most of the blood was coming from. It as a wound on his abdomen; it was a mortal wound.

“Duo, please wake up! I can’t help you if you don’t wake up!” she cried brokenly. “Just open your eyes!” she ordered. She didn’t like this it was too quiet. There was no noise anywhere. After a battle there should be some kind of noise. What the hell happened? She shook Duo again. He was too weak but she couldn’t use her full powers on him. She was too weak and it would help if he would just open his eyes.

He’s not going to wake up. I have do something.

She looked over Duo, gauging the multiple wounds he had and the one that would kill him if she didn’t do something. “Duo, there’s too much for me right now. I can’t heal you,” she whispered. Her hands were covered with his blood, her clothes had been stained also. She had no choice. She place her hands on the wound. Her power poured through but it wasn’t enough to heal him completely. She couldn’t heal any of his other wounds but she’d be damned if she was going to let him die.

She gasped and struggled for breath when she was done. She felt lightheaded and nauseous. She had only enough power to heal the organs the enemy’s sword had penetrated and the exit wound. The long cut, the one the swordsman had delivered as a killing blow, was still open along with all the other gashes on his body but none of them threatened his life anymore. If she didn’t get her strength back it would take him more than a few days to heal.

Hilde started to cry in earnest and slumped over. She sobbed on Duo’s chest asking him to wake up. She felt a pair of arms come around her shoulders and hold her close. Her eyes widened as she realized Duo was awake and hugging her. She pushed herself up and forced him to let her go. “What happened, Duo? Where are Lucas and Claire?”

Duo closed his eyes and shook his head. “I… I tried to fight them but they kept coming, Hilde. There were too many of them and I couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry…”

Hilde wiped her tears and fixed her eyes on him. “What happened? Tell me where they are, Duo!”

“They took them…” he whispered.

She let out a long, piercing, primal scream. She felt electricity course through her veins. Heat built up in her body and her hands started to shake. “No!” she screamed. It was the middle of the day but the sky darkened to pitch black. The thunder was deafening and lighting struck the barren trees outside.

Hilde’s eyes darkened from their original cornflower to black. A strong wind picked up all the furniture and everything else it could carry.

Duo looked at her in horror. She’d started a whirlwind in the tower!

Hilde kneeled on the floor next to Duo. The wind made her hair fly all over the place and picked up the sleeves of the black gown she worse.

If no one had ever seen her or her mother display this kind of power before they could have sworn they were looking at a goddess. She was breathing hard and her hands were starting to go numb. It was too much power.

Duo struggled to his feet. He had to stop her before she lost the little control she had over her powers. He picked up his forgotten sword by its jeweled hilt. His bloody hand gripped it until his knuckles turned white. He raised the sword and brought the hilt down on Hilde’s skull.

The clouds and rain were gone as quickly as they had come. The furniture in the tower came crashing down and Duo winced. Hilde lay unconscious at Duo’s feet as he labored to keep himself up.

*~*~*~*

“I don’t see why we can’t go now, Duo!” yelled Hilde. “It’s been three days already!” She was pacing in front of Duo, who was sitting in an armchair in his bedroom.

He sighed and tried to argue his point. “Well, first: it’s the middle of the night. Second--”

“Don’t be cute, Duo! Just tell me your excuse so we can move on!”

He shook his head. “We need a plan, Hilde. Plain and simple,” he said through gritted teeth. “And, we don’t need you going in a rampage with your powers. Control yourself, Hilde! Look at you know! You’re depressed and you’re making all of use miserable with this damn heat!”

“Well, maybe if my children hadn’t been kidnapped I wouldn’t be depressed and I could get a hold of my powers. Or maybe that bitch that was in my head did something to me!” She paused for a second. “I just want Claire and Lucas with me, Duo. That’s all I want. I can’t live without them! You just don’t understand how I feel.”

He got up and walked to her. He reached out and took her chin in his hand. Her raised her face so he could look into her eyes. “Of course I do, Hilde, they’re my children too,” he whispered.

She shook her head and pulled out of his arms. “You’re children too?” she scoffed. “You abandoned them, Duo. You gave them up. You may have spawned them but you’re not their father. It‘s being there that would make you their father and you‘ve never been there!”

Duo backed off. “I love them too, Hilde. Don’t you think I’m worried about them?”

Hilde hugged herself. “Let’s get back to what’s really important, Duo and that is when are we going to get my children back?”

“Fine, Hilde. I’ll call my captain to me and we’ll come up with something.”

Tbc…

AN: Yeah, I know nothing happened here. I changed the title too. Hopefully the next chapter will be: The Blood.