Anthony• Book 2 ManxMan

•Hurt•

Chapter 13

Why is my heart hurting so much? Jude knows what's going on. And his quick glance my way tells me he's sorry. Because he knows this is hurting me whether I show it or not.

"Where's your holding cells? This one is going to wake up any minute now." I thank Logan internally for snapping Cedric out of whatever fucking trans he was in.

"Take him inside and lock him up. Tell me when he wakes up." Cedric commands his wolves. They take Grant from Logan.

"I called Wayne. He's on his way here."

"They ambushed us, well Anthony. He took care of them though." Jude tells him. Cedric nods at the information.

This is ridiculously awkward. I can read Cedric loud and clear even if he's putting on his expressionless mask.

I walk past them but Cedric grabs my arm. "I smell blood." Same as Arik.

"It's not mine," I lie and rip my arm away from his grasp. He's stunned for a moment but I don't bother staying. It's not me on his mind, it's Jude.

I walk past everyone in the house. Ignoring their polite greetings. As soon as I arrive to his bedroom, I lock the door. I make my way to his bathroom and I peel my shirt off of my body. A feeling of worry overwhelms me as I see the actual damage the knife wound made. The veins around the wound are pulsating and bulging out of my skin. They're different colors of blue and purple. The wound itself is black, including the skin and blood coming out of it. They poisoned the dagger with something. Times like these I'm grateful for the monks. I can't feel the pain from this, I'm sure if I turned that off I wouldn't be able to withstand it.

I take the dagger out of my pants. I feel stupid for wiping away the blood because I wiped off most of the poison with it. But not all of it.

I take a whiff of it and grimace at the smell. It's not all wolfsbane. There's something else laced with it. I walk over to Cedric's night stand and I dial a number I know by memory.

"Who the fuck is this. How'd you get this number?"

"Chill it's me."

"What the fuck Anthony! I haven't heard from you in a while! I thought someone killed you for good."

"Ghee thanks. I called because I got stabbed. It's wolfsbane but it's laced with something else. I need you to find out what that was."

"Okay what's it look like? The wound?"

"The blood coming out of it is black and the surrounding skin is black too. The veins around it are pUffed up from my skin and they're blue and purple. I haven't stopped bleeding. Anyone else would most likely not be standing from the pain of it."

"What the fuck man. Alright I'll find out even though you didn't give me a lot to work with. Want me to call you back on this number?"

"Yeah if someone else answers just say you're looking for Anthony."

"Alright." He hangs up and I take a seat on Cedric's bed.

Fuck I'm exhausted. Does that have to do with this?

I go back into the bathroom and I use small towels to clean the area. I also take out the first aid kit and I spill the alcohol on my wound. There's a faint sting to it but that's it. The alcohol instead of stopping the bleeding a bit seemed to do the opposite. Either that or it had no effect whatsoever.

Well whatever.

I wrap a gauze around my stomach a few times to layer it up. Mostly because the bleeding isn't stopping at all and I don't want blood to seep through the clean shirt I'm about to slip on. I also take off the insanely balls-suffocating jeans I have on and exchanging them with some baggy Nike sweatpants.

I look in the mirror and frown at the gauze already being tainted black. So I decide on putting on a somewhat baggy black T-shirt so no one notices what's under.

I go back downstairs and to Cedric's office. I figured everyone would be there and I guessed correctly. Wayne is even here and a smile spreads on my face.

"Anthony," Wayne smiles and walks over to hug me. I hug back very tightly.

"So we're discussing this whole thing." Logan speaks up.

"Yeah so my theory is that those rogues from tonight are in league with the ones that attacked the pack a few days ago."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I overheard them talking to their 'alpha' yet they're rogues. Same with the ones from before."

"We'll need to tell the council as soon as possible. If Anthony is correct then this could be an act of war between rogues and packs."

"Okay but we need to keep this on the DL. If other packs find out, our community will go in a frenzy." Jude adds.

"Jude is right. It's late enough as it is, Wayne brother you are free to stay or go home. I'll keep you informed. Same goes to you Jude."

"I'm leaving. My mate is expecting me."

"I'm going to brother. If this is a threat to all packs then I need to protect mine. Let's go Logan."

"Yes alpha." Logan turns to me, "Is your wound healed?" He asks in a low voice. He knows I don't like showing weakness, that's why he's whispering. And I internally thank him for that. I nod and he smiles but it hurts me to lie to him. Well I'll be fine so this lie won't even matter.

They all leave Cedric's office. Leaving just the two of us in awkward silence.

"Were you drinking?" Cedric asks. His eyes finally meet mine for the first time tonight and it pisses me off.

"What's it to you?"

"You got injured. No one would be able to lay a hand on you unless you were drunk."

"Thanks?" Sarcasm seeps through my reply and he gives me a stern look.

Cedric's house phone rings and he picks it up. He looks over to me, "it's for you, were you expecting a call?"

"Yes I was," I walk over and take it from him. "Tell me."

"How are you still alive Anthony! Holy shit show me your ways." He groans through the phone. "That shit is going around in the underground. It's a new synthetic poison meant to kill any supernatural creature in a matter of minutes. It was most likely laced with wolfsbane to disguise the smell of it. It's called XTC2, it's a lame name but shit Anthony. I don't know what to tell you. You're alive so that's all that matters. There's side effects that happen before a person dies from it. Have you been feeling anything off?"

"No nothing at all. Thanks for looking into it." I hang up on him mid-sentence. I don't bother listening to him ramble.

"You heard right?" Cedric doesn't say anything, "well look into the poison. If they're using it that means they'll keep using it on us. I'm going to bed."

I don't bother bringing up what happened before. There's no point. And I'm tired.

-

Anthony is tired...? Ohhh and also!!

I recently published Cedric! First book of this series on amazon kindle! If you've read it please take the time to leave a review! Link is on my profile or just type in the name and my pen name Cecilia C.

Until the next update my loves!