Tall, Silent & Lethal

“I think I’m dying,” Ephraim said from his spot on the floor.

“Wimp,” Madison playfully teased as she walked in the large training room with her two baby boys in her arms and her oldest son bringing up the rear with baby CJ in his arms.

As soon as little Jessica spotted Marc, she released her hold on Chris’ nose and went for the little boy. With a patient smile, he handed CJ over to Christofer and picked up the little girl who was known to throw screaming tantrums in order to gain Marc’s attention. Sighing, Marc carried the little girl, who now had a firm grip on his nose, over to the section Chris had set up for the babies and sat down with her in his lap.

“I thought I’d go into town tonight. Does anyone want to come?” Madison asked, walking over to Danni and handed one of the babies to her.

“I think we’re going to stay in tonight,” Danni said, smiling down at the baby in her arms, which didn’t exactly surprise him since she didn’t seem to be able to do much more than sit on the sidelines when she wasn’t sleeping the day away. The woman was sick and getting sicker each day. He wondered just how long it would be before even coming downstairs to sit became too much.

“I need to patrol, but after that I can take you out if you want,” Ephraim offered, rolling over onto his side with a pained grunt.

“Will you be able to walk by then?” Madison asked, sounding thoughtful as she looked her husband over.

“Probably not,” he said, chuckling as rolled over onto his back.

“I promised Izzy that I’d watch an X-File marathon with her,” Chris said with a pained sigh that probably had more to do with the night Izzy had planned for him than the actual damage that Christofer had done to him.

“What about you, Christofer?” Madison asked as the baby boy in his arms smiled sleepily as he nodded off.

“We’ll probably just stay in,” he said, carrying the sleeping baby boy to one of the bassinets lined up against the wall and placed the baby carefully on the small bed.

“Are you sure?” Madison asked, sounding like she wanted to say more, but thankfully she kept the questions to a minimum.

That was one thing that he liked about this group, they didn’t ask too many questions. They didn’t harp on him or demand answers. They left him alone to do whatever he wanted. He could train, draw, walk the grounds or sit in the nursery with a baby in each arm in peace and enjoy the quiet-

Screams for help.

Chapter 51

“Stop!” Izzy screamed as she tried to slap Cloe’s hands away, but she’d been doing this long enough now to know that stopping was the last thing that she should do.

“She’s trying to kill me!” Izzy yelled, continuing to slap at her hands until she finally accepted the fact that Cloe wasn’t going to stop and decided that it was time to make her escape. Unfortunately for Izzy, that large belly of hers and the agonizing pain that had twisted her muscles and forced her to drop to the floor stopped her from moving more than a few inches.

“What the hell is going on?” Christofer demanded, dropping to his knees across from them.

“What the hell are you doing to her?” Chris snapped as he dropped by Christofer’s side on the foyer floor and moved to pull Izzy into his arms, but Cloe took him by surprise by taking a firm grip of his hand and placing it on Izzy’s ruined hip.

“Keep your hand here while I work the tension out of her muscles,” Cloe ordered, returning her focus to the tense muscles cramping up in the smaller woman’s back, hip and leg.

“What are you doing?” Christofer asked, watching them with a frown.

“What does it look like she’s doing?” Izzy snapped, once again trying to shove Cloe’s hands away. “She’s trying to-ooohhhhhh, oh God, yes!” she ended on loud moan as her eyes slid shut and she smiled.

“What exactly are we doing?” Chris asked, looking amused as Izzy let out another small sigh of pleasure while Cloe continued to work the knots out of her muscles.

“We’re helping to stretch Izzy’s muscles so that she can function without pain,” she explained, carefully massaging Izzy’s back and hip, knowing that the wrong amount of pressure could trigger a muscle spasm.

She honestly didn’t know how Izzy had managed to go all these months like this. It was crazy. She’d understood, after she’d made them explain everything to her a few times to make sure that she understood correctly, that medication didn’t work on Sentinels. She also knew that they hadn’t wanted to risk surgery, but that didn’t necessarily mean that the situation was hopeless. There was absolutely no reason for this woman to be in constant pain and while she was here, she was going to do what she could to help her.

“Please don’t stop,” Izzy moaned, a smile of pure bliss lighting up her face as her body finally relaxed.

“I won’t,” Cloe promised, happy to see a real smile on Izzy’s face instead of that fake smile that she wore in the hopes of making everyone around her believe that she was fine.

She wasn’t sure if anyone else had bought it, but she certainly hadn’t. A few times over the past week she’d offered to look at Izzy’s injury and see if there was anything that she could do to help her, but every time she’d asked, Izzy would simply give her another one of those aggravating smiles, thank her and lie her adorable little ass off and tell her that she was fine. Even though she’d wanted to argue with the stubborn woman, Cloe had bitten her tongue.

She didn’t want to ruin things by offending anyone. She liked being here, liked living here, learning how to control her abilities, liked learning how to fight, and even though she felt like she was dying a little inside each time she saw Christofer holding one of the babies, she liked being around the Williams family. She probably should have kept her mouth shut and pretended that she didn’t notice how much pain Izzy was in and if she hadn’t walked in the foyer just as Izzy had stumbled and dropped unsteadily to the floor, obviously holding back a scream, she would have continued to feign ignorance.

Before Izzy could move, Cloe had her lying on her side, her shirt pulled up and her skirt pushed down. As soon as she’d placed her hands on Izzy’s hip and back she’d realized just how tight her muscles were. Working the muscles wouldn’t take all of her pain and discomfort away, but over time it should loosen the muscles and allow her to walk without much difficulty. She would need physical therapy every day for a while. Eventually she should be able to function with just a rubdown every day, which was something that her mate could learn to do for her.

“Get your hands off her,” the bastard that never stopped seething, growled, earning a collective sigh from their little group and a growl of warning from Izzy as she slapped her hand over Cloe’s to keep her hand right where it was.

“She’s helping her,” Chris said, a look of deep concentration on his face as he slowly moved his hand over Izzy’s damaged hip.

Refusing to listen, big surprise there, Kale moved closer and reached down, but she’d moved before he could remove her hand. She grabbed his and placed it just below Izzy’s ribcage.

“Gently rub,” she ordered absently as she focused on working the tension out of Izzy’s back.

“What?” Kale asked after a slight hesitation, sounding confused as he knelt there, his hand remaining still on Izzy’s side.