Fever by Selina Brinkmann (readict TXT) 📕

“You won’t achieve anything besides arouse fear among us and all the others who need our help if you keep on shutting the gates!”, exclaimed Thomas and took a step towards Roan.

“Please Roan! Just because Riaz helped the mors to gain access to our security network and defenses does not mean that everybody out there would do the same! We cannot turn our back to the ones who need our help!”, pleaded Moria and grasped Roan’s hand. His dark eyes turned towards her and he softened.

“But I cannot endanger the ones who already put their trust into my hands! You saw how far they would go in order to get their hands at us again. I simply cannot allow that!”

Moria nodded and Roxanne could see that she had tears in her eyes. She had lost her children in the fever and for her it was hard to understand why Roan would simply turn his back on the ones who pleaded for help.

Thomas had turned around and had seen her standing behind their small assembly.

“We will have to discuss what to do in the future and we will have to do it soon! But for now, Roxanne is here and I am sure that neither our talk nor yours should be open for everyone to listen to!”, he nodded kindly at Roxanne, took his wife’s hand and left Roxanne and Roan alone.

“Hi Roan, Liam told me that you wanted to talk to me about something? How can I help you!”, she smiled at him and noted that he looked more powerful and colder since the last time they had met. The attack and being let down by one of their own kind had made him suspicious and harder.

“As Thomas said, this is not the place to discuss that. Please follow me!”, he took her arm thus giving her no choice but to follow his demand.
“You know that I am perfectly able to follow you on my own?”, Roxanne joked but one look at his black eyes made her realize that now was not the time and place for jokes.

Arriving at the door to his office he released her arm and invited her in. The dark brown table at the end of the room dominated the room and made her shiver. Roxanne had known Roan for a long time now but reading his feelings had never been possible. His power and control over them had erased every trace of them so even her healing and enhanced senses could not pick anything up.

“What do you want?”, she was impatient now. Only four months after the attack there were still a lot of them who could not cope with what they had seen and Evy was a totally different story.

Standing with his back to her, he exhaled than turned around and stared at her.
“I know about the incident at the border. I know that somebody who does not belong here is staying with us. And I know that if this person is injured as bad as some of my people described than there is only one person who could have helped her. You!”, his voice had grown quieter with each word he spoke. The black of his eyes was swirling and Roxanne lowered her view.

“But she was hurt. I am the healer of our group and I could never turn someone down who is in need of help and treatment!”

“Roxanne, I need to trust my people. If everybody is going around and opening the gate to let people in how can I know that we are still safe? How can the other know it, the children?”

Roxanne knew that she had made a terrible mistake by not telling him. But Evy had been in need and for a fast recovery it would have been the worst to confront her with Roan and his suspicious ways.

“I trust her! They had planted a pace maker into her in case she breaks free. They thought that she was important. Nobody of the others who escaped had been chased as badly or had anything transplanted.”

Roan rubbed his forehead when he heard the determination in Roxanne’s voice. She would not give up without a fight. Since the accident his sensed had known that something was wrong. Nobody had wanted to tell him what exactly happened but they all said that Roxanne would know. Of course she would, she had the kindest soul of the lot of them. He would not be surprised to find her helping and caring for a shot down soldier of the mors.

Grabbing her at the shoulders so she would look up he growled: “Do what you have to do so she is up again but I swear to god if she leaves that room without permission from me, you will not like my reaction! Do you understand?”

Roxanne nodded hastily and whispered: “Yes, not allowed to leave the room and see you as soon as she is able to be up for longer than a few minutes! Noted and understood!” and with that she turned around and left his office as fast as she could.

Roan sank down onto his chair as soon as Roxanne had left the room. He would make sure that whoever was treated by Roxanne would stay where he told her to stay. Never again would he make the mistake to trust someone just because he seemed in need. It had cost him dearly. After the break out from the camps he and the other prisoners had wasted no time but searched for help and freedom. They built up the sanctuary and gave assistance to those who needed it. More than once the mors had found them but they had the power and experience to keep them at bay. However the attacks never stopped and this spring it had been fatal. They had broken through and laid their hands on the innocent of them. More than one life had been lost. After recovering from the loss Roan had realized that there must have been a traitor. All the codes had been hacked and in such a speed that they must have known the key information. Never giving up it had taken him and Liam two months to find the traitor and end his games. Riaz would never send a message to the mors again. But they could not restore the lives lost to them. Ian or Shauna might still be alive but if it was anyhow similar to the camps he did not want them to be alive.

Stretching his arms Roan tried to get a grip on the urge burning inside him to find out who Roxanne was tending to and if she meant them harm. Since her arrival he had fought the need to sought her out as he knew that by forcing Roxanne he might get to his goal but her patient would suffer and retreat. The reason why Roxanne was such a good healer was that her patient felt safe around her. She could calm anyone down and fasten the healing process but she also needed to concentrate on the health of her patient. Disturbing her would mean that he would have to wait longer to get the information he sought. Roan groaned and hit his table with so much force that a small crack appeared on the sturdy surface of his oak table.

“Of course! Why not. As though I do not have enough problems already!”, his fingers combed through his hair and he shut is eyes to reign his desire to just tick off. Maybe he would not feel the need to destroy anything if he could not see it. Destroying his office wouldn’t do any good. It would not solve the problems with the mors and it certainly would not help to get rid of the urge to go to that female! Damn her.

A few floors above the raging Roan Evy was in deep slumber. His anger and fury stirred something in her that had been buried a long time ago.

“Get up!”, she did not move. “Get up you animal and get ready! The doc wants to see you today and you know that he doesn’t like it if you are not ready. So get moving.”, the guard of her cell yelled and hit the grid hard. Evy jolted awake and felt fear soaring through her body. The doctor meant pain. It meant humiliation and days of no real memories. She hated the drugs he gave her, hated how it made her weak. Having only had the time to stand up from the floor, she squinted when the door to the laboratory was opened and hit the wall hard.

“Well if that isn’t my favorite toy!”, Rick leaned against the grid and she could see how he licked his lips with his tongue. Disgusted Evy turned her head and retreated to the furthest corner in her cage.

A thin and tall man came down the stairs just before she hit her wall. “Nah, nah. Don’t be frightened girl! You know that we don’t want you anything bad. But you are the key to our survival, to our future!”

“If I am the key, you should keep him on a leash. I doubt I will cooperate anytime soon if he puts his hands on me ever again!”

Rick sneered and the man chuckled. “I could but I am afraid that I won’t do it. You are just not cooperative enough!”, than he nodded to the guard, “open the door and get her!”

The guard took out his keys and slowly opened the door as though Evy was a wild animal that could attack him at any time. The truth was that she was hungry, starving and had no will left to fight anymore. She did not know how long she had been in this cage. How often they had asked her all these questions. But as she was forced out of her cage and Rick gripped her arm and grinned at her, Evy swore that she would find a way to leave this cave. And it did not matter if this meant her death.

When the two men carried her up the stairs and into the laboratory Evy screamed. The moment she saw the injection on the table she knew that pain would come. The two nurses who were waiting next to the table lowered their view when they saw her struggling.

“Please. Do not let them hurt me!”, Evy sobbed when she was bound to the table. Her fingers were cramped and you could see the white in her eyes. With every step the doctor took, she cried louder. “Please, please, just help me. I don’t want to hurt anymore!”

The injection hurt, it burned and she flinched away from the cold touch. The veins on her neck were hard as steel and she feared that her teeth might burst with the pressure she put onto it. Evy could taste blood where she had bitten herself in her rage and her cries were muffled now, the throat sore and she could not feel her legs or arms as the ropes dug deep into her skin. Tears were slowly running down her cheek and the faces of the nurses turned into blurred forms. They would not help her. She was alone and all she could do was survive.

“Keep an eye on her. Every flinch, every twist. I want to know!”, the doctor bellowed orders and she could feel how the ropes were lifted and she was taken back into her cage. Evy moaned when her back hit the ground where the guard dropped her and pulled her legs as close to her body as possible. Just a second later Rick was kneeling at her side and touching her leg. She shuddered but could not move away as a wave of pain hit her. The injection started to work and she feared what might happen to her after this one or