Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) by Kathi S. Barton Page B

hurt her again. I couldn’t protect her before. It is imperative that I protect her at all costs. I cannot fail her again. Then there’s the baby. Babies are all we have in the world, you know?”
    While her babbling was disjointed, it wasn’t very helpful either. He? He who? Baby? Christ, she was pregnant too?
    “You’re pregnant? Who is he? Your husband, is he the one who beat you? I’ll kill the bastard.” Some people, he decided, should not be allow to live.
    “What? No, I’ve never even had sex. No, April’s baby. I want you to let me go.” She was crying harder now.
    Aaron would think about all she’d said later. For now, all he could think about was that she was hurting. He finally got her to come out of the bathroom with the promise that he would not make her bare herself to him. He went to his room to get her the softest shirt he owned for her to put on. She had explained to him how she had trouble pulling a shirt over her head, and that was when she realized just how much pain she was in. He helped her into the shirt, not looking at anything but her eyes. She managed to drop the towel only twice, leaving him with the briefest idea that the beatings had not been done only to her back and legs.
    By the time Thomas got there, she was lying in the now clean bed and crying softly. Aaron stood at the door to the bedroom and waited, clenching and unclenching his fists. He could not remember being so angry in all of his considerable years. Nor had he ever felt so useless.
    “Sara’s hurting. I demand that you make it stop,” he said in way of a greeting.
    “Can I see her first? It might make things easier that way.”
    Aaron could only glare at him. He had been Thomas’s friend for two hundred years but at that moment, he thought he might gladly stake him.
    Aaron took a deep breath before he spoke again. “I would very much appreciate it if you could please examine her. Then I’d like for you to see if you can take away her pain. Please, Thomas. She’s hurting.”
    Aaron felt Thomas’s stare. Aaron could not imagine what he was thinking.
    “All right,” Thomas finally said. “Go downstairs and I’ll see what I can do.”
    “I’ll be right out here. Yell if you need me, or if she doesn’t cooperate. She’s...she can be stubborn at times,” Aaron told him.
    Aaron thought that was a bit of an understatement. She was frustratingly stubborn and infuriatingly obstinate.
    As Aaron shut the door behind him, he heard Thomas say to Sara, “Come now, child, let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

~CHAPTER FIVE~
     
    Aaron nervously paced the hallway just outside Sara’s room, waiting for Doctor Thomas Reilly to bring him word of her condition. Aaron and Thomas had fought in the first Great War together and had become fast friends.
    Nearly an hour had passed when the doctor stepped out of the room. He seemed upset and pale, even for a vampire.
    “I have never seen anyone beaten that badly and remain conscious. That poor girl…that poor, poor girl.”
    They silently headed down the wide staircase toward the living room, where the others were awaiting word. As Aaron entered the room, everyone rose as one, concern in their eyes and on their faces. Aaron turned to Thomas and nodded, giving permission to explain the situation.
    “I know without a doubt,” Thomas said bluntly, “that Aaron did not cause this woman’s pain. But someone has. This is not the first time this has happened, nor, according to the young lady, will it be the last. I’ve given her something for the pain, so she’s resting now. She has been beaten at least four times over the past two weeks, I would say. By the bruising, I can assume he’s a large man, strong, and a mean son of a bitch. This monster isn’t only using his fists, although that’s bad enough, but I believe he’s using a bat as well. She said she has been thrown against a couple of walls too. She told me not to fuss overly much. I found this very curious, but