Chapter 20: Damion

"Where is Amri?" I look around the cafeteria for about the hundredth time since we got here almost an hour ago.

Zain looks over at me before I see him sweep the room with his eyes as well. "I don't know. She went to talk to Vincent but he knows we have training so he shouldn't be keeping her this long."

Unless they're up to something else – something like what her and Zain were up to last night. Speaking of…

"While she's not here, I actually want to talk to you about something."

Zain drops his fork and stares at me. "I think this is a conversation for Callyx."

"Is Callyx the one who bruised her and cut her up?"

He nods.

"Then, yes. I would like to talk to Callyx."

His subtle grin slowly turns into a smirk as he straightens in his chair. It's weird to watch the change come over him now that I know his signs. His shoulders go back and out, his smile turns dangerous with no teeth showing, and his eyes automatically narrow. It's like he's always angry.

"Yes, Mr. Nurse Man? "

"You hurt her."

He leans back in his chair. "No more than she wanted me to."

"Did she know you were planning on hurting her?"

He lets out a soft laugh. "Of course, she did. We had a safe word, well, a safe action, and she was too busy moaning and screaming my name to do it."

My first instinct is to get angry – territorial – and hit him for having sex with my woman. The instinct is even harder to fight knowing he hurt her. Then I remember how happy she looked while training with Zain, how close they were. She didn't seem mad. She actually ran to him when Royce was harassing her this morning.

"Royce." I look around the room and my body freezes when I realize he isn't here, either.

"What?"

"Royce isn't here."

Callyx shoots up out of his chair and looks around, and I swear I hear him growl. "I didn't like how he was looking at her earlier, or how he said he wasn't done. We need to find her."

I nod, standing up out of my seat and taking one final look around, but grinding my teeth when I don't see my redhead or the damn Viking around anywhere.

"I'm going to go see what I can figure out. In the meantime, I'm taking you to your room so you can talk to the Reaper and see what he knows. There's a possibility she's still with him."

Callyx follows behind me as I leave the cafeteria and head to the men's wing. "You know you can call him Vincent, right? After all, your part of this thing now, too."

Sighing, I look over my shoulder and find him watching me. "I know, but it's hard to call him anything when I've never met him."

He stays silent behind me as we walk to his room. I don't know which one is Royce's or I would have looked in there to see if he was in his room skipping lunch.

As soon as I lock Callyx in his room, I rush over to the camera room. I don't know what time Jyl comes in today but I'm hoping she's here.

I shove the door open and breathe a sigh of relief when I see my sister sitting behind the security desk.

She holds her hands up in surprise. "Woah, woah there, buddy. Where's the fire?"

I wave her off. "Amri, she's missing."

"Missing?" Jyl looks confused. "I just checked her room when I got in a few minutes ago and she was in there asleep."

"What?" I walk up to the desk. "Show me."

Jyl sighs and spins toward the cameras, muttering under her breath. "A please would be nice."

I roll my eyes. "Please, Jyl."

She taps a few buttons and I see Amri's sleeping form pop up on the screen.

"See? She's perfectly fine."

I let out a deep breath, relieved that my worst fears were wrong. Sleeping, she's sleeping. She's probably calming Callyx down at this very minute.

"Thank you. She never came to lunch, and she had a weird run in with the new patient this morning, so I guess I got worried."

"Based on your reaction, I'm going to take a guess and say that you made a decision."

I smile and take a seat in the empty chair next to her. "I did."

"And?"

"And I told her yes, I would be with her."

Jyl stays silent, looking me over before nodding her head. "Then I'm happy for you, little bro."

"I'm going to check on Amri." I get up and walk to the door. "And two minutes, Jyl. Two minutes."

I leave her laughing behind me as I walk out and head to Amri's room. It looks like she was sleeping, but my gut tells me something more is going on. Something bad.

I open her door and immediately smell bleach and antiseptic. I call her name and rush to her bed, looking her over for injuries; my eyes quickly find a gash on her forehead that's been glued together, but the bruising around it looks rough. It's the only injury I can see but I know it's not the only one, the smell of antiseptic is too strong.

"Amri. Amri, baby, can you wake up for me?"

Nothing, nothing at all.

I gently reach down and shake her, careful not to move her too much in case something is really wrong. "Amri. Wake up."

Still nothing.

After a few minutes of trying to wake her with no luck, I'm officially back in panic mode.

"Fuck." I get up from the bed and run out her door. "I knew something was wrong."

I quickly find my way to the med room and see Nurse Patty doing a checkup on a guard. He's new, so I don't know him very well, but I know him enough to recognize that he is not happy to see me.

"Hey there, Damion. How nice to see you, dear." Patty shoots me a soft smile before going back to wrapping a bandage around the guard's abdomen.

"What happened?" I look to the guard for clarification, but it's Patty who answers me.

"There was a little scuffle earlier and a few of the patients were involved. Mason here got into a fight with the big one but he's okay." She pats him on the shoulder before turning and walking back over to her medical cabinet.

"The big one…do you mean Royce?"

The guard, Mason, looks sheepish as he nods at me. "He, um, attacked Miss Glass. We heard her screaming for help and found them in the hallway. He was trying to…" Mason looks down at his lap.

I feel my blood starting to boil. I clench my fists, taking a deep breath and seething between my teeth, "Trying to what?"

"H-he was trying to take advantage of her."

I feel Patty lay a hand on my back and I shrug her touch off. I know she means well, but the only thing I want to touch right now is Royce's face as I smash it in.

"And then what happened? Because I just went to check on Amri and she's out cold. The room smells like bleach."

Patty grabs my arm and tries to pull me to the side, "Damion, dear, why don't you sit down?"

"I don't need to sit down, Patty! I need to know what happened!"

Her face falls and my eyes widen. "Patty…I didn't mean to. I'm just…I..."

She pats my hand and sends me a knowing look. "I know."

I turn back to Mason. "What happened next?"

"He wouldn't put her down. One of the other guards… "

"Which one?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know, I'm sorry. I've only been here a few days, and this is the first time I've seen him."

He waits for me to say something, but I wave him on.

"Anyway, this other guard had a tranquilizer gun on him and tried to shoot, um, Royce," He looks to me for confirmation, continuing when I give him a nod, "He tried to shoot Royce with it, but…he accidentally shot the woman instead."

My eyes widen and I press my hand to my forehead. No wonder she wouldn't fucking wake up. Those tranqs are strong and she may be tall but she's still a small woman. Fuck.

I look to Patty, "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. At some point during the scuffle, the back of her head was injured, just a small laceration, but I bandaged it up. That was probably what you smelled when you went to check in on her. And her forehead is busted open, probably from fighting back based on the matching injury on Mr. Odin, but that was fixed with a little medical glue. The tranquilizer will wear off."

I chew my lip, worry for Amri shooting through my body almost overtaking the anger I feel toward Royce for touching her. For touching what isn't his – for what's mine.

"And Royce?"

Patty shrugs and looks toward Mason, but he reacts the same way.

"I'm going to go talk to Marissa."

I walk out the door with a quick ‘thank you' and head toward Marissa's office, not even bothering to knock when I get there and instead immediately opening the door and interrupting her phone conversation.

"I'm sorry, David, you'll have to excuse me. Could I call you back? Something came up."

I hear her trying to end the conversation as politely as possible while I stand in front of her desk trying to control myself by counting my breaths.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

Four Mississippi.

By the time I get to eleven Mississippi's, she's staring at me with a knowing and amused look on her face.

"How did I know you would be the next person to walk through that door?"

I don't respond, instead cutting straight to the point. "I want to know what's going to happen to Mr. Odin and the guard that shot Miss Glass."

She crosses her arms on her desk and levels me with a look. "And why do you want to know these things?"

How do I approach this? I can't tell her about the real situation between Amri and I, because then I would get fired. Possibly arrested.

"I am her nurse. I need to know if Mr. Odin will continue to be an issue. And as her nurse I feel like anyone who causes her harm needs to take responsibility."

Marissa chuckles softly. "As her nurse."

"Yes."

She sighs and stands up, walking around her desk and to the window overlooking the forest on the far side of Melford. "Mr. Odin is in solitary. The guard who accidentally shot Miss Glass is on leave until an investigation is done."

"Solitary? He tried to force himself upon another patient! He needs to be discharged!"

Marissa shakes her head and turns toward me. "He will not be discharged, Damion. Not for this one incident. If he were, then we would also have to discharge Mr. Vaviri for attacking you his first day here."

"That's completely different."

She shrugs, "Different but both extreme. Mr. Odin has friends in high places, friends that have put a lot of money into this facility. He cannot, and will not, be discharged."

"That's bullshit! What's going to stop him from doing it again?"

Marissa sits back down and threads her fingers together on top of the desk. "There will be precautions in place. He is no longer allowed in the same rooms as Miss Glass. He will have breakfast and lunch after the scheduled time so that he is never there at the same time as her, and if you see him around her then you immediately call for backup, and he will be escorted back to his room."

I slam my hand down on the desk, the deep thud echoing across the office. "That's not enough!"

"Mr. Blide, are you going to get back to work or do I need to send you home with no pay?"

I grit my teeth, standing up and turning around to walk out the door.

I need to talk to Amri, I need to make sure she's okay, and if she's not waking up for me then there is one other way to reach her.

I get to Callyx's room and let myself in, gently closing the door behind me and walking over to his bed.

"Callyx, wak – "

He shoots up out of bed, grabbing me by my throat and swinging me over him until my body lands with a thud on the bed and he's straddling my hips. My eyes widen as I see his other hand pulled back and tightened into a fist.

"Callyx, wait!" I try to yell, but it comes out as more of a harsh whisper because of the force he's using to hold me down.

I see his eyes relax as he recognizes me, but his hold stays tight on my throat.

"Can you let me go?" I feel the blood rushing to my face as he holds me down, but surprisingly, the blood is also rushing somewhere a lot further south.

Shock consumes me as I realize that I like what he's doing, but fear of the unknown makes me reach up and grab him around the throat as well. "Let. Me. Go."

He releases my neck with a laugh, sitting back on his legs as he takes in my heaving form on his bed.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Nurse Man?"

I sit up, hand around my throat to try and ease some of the discomfort. "Was Amri in the dream with you?"

My body deflates as he shakes his head no. "No, why?"

"I found her in her bedroom sleeping but I couldn't wake her up. I went asking around and found out that that she was attacked by Royce."

Callyx lets out a deep breath, and I watch as his fists curl and uncurl multiple times before he speaks. "I'm going to kill him."

I shake my head, "You can't, Callyx, or you'll be stuck in solitary and then there will be a path wide open to her. You need to keep your cool and keep training her so she can learn how to defend herself against pricks like him."

"Was she hurt during the attack? Is that why she didn't wake up?"

"Royce had her thrown up against the wall…and he br oke skin on the back of her head."

Before I can continue, Callyx stands up and starts pacing the room, breathing hard and cursing as he mutters to himself – well, most likely muttering to Zain.

"Guards showed up to help and they tried to shoot Royce with a tranquilizer but accidentally shot her instead."

"Fuck!" He yells and slams his fist into the wall. I shoot up from the bed and walk over to him, taking his hand in mine and checking it over. Somehow, his punch didn't break the skin.

"She's going to be fine; she just needs to sleep it off."

He straightens up and walks back over to the bed, quickly climbing in, not bothering with blankets. "I'm going to go find her."

I walk over to the bed and look down at him, "I want to come with you."

He stares at me, looking me over before sighing and scooting over. "Climb in and go to sleep."

I climb in beside him and immediately close my eyes. Usually, it takes me a few minutes to go to sleep, but for some reason, in the bed beside Callyx, listening to his breathing even out as he falls asleep beside me, lulls me right to bed.