Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



'Of course,' said the deep-timbered voice in my head. 'It's not like anyone will miss her if you kill her.'

I only grunted and looked back at the woman that seemed to want to eat my heart for breakfast. "Think about taking away the pain, picture his wound closing in your mind down to the smallest of details. Start with picturing the muscles, the blood vessels, and finally the skin."

I had met only one other healer in my past life, and while we were trapped in an unfortunate circumstance together, she gave me a very detailed approach on how to heal.

The woman, the sweetest, kindest, woman I had ever met, was hoping that because I didn't seem to have any powers, then I was a healer like her. She was so desperate that I didn't want to tell her that there was no way I could be one. As much abuse she took from the others around us, she was still of use to those that held us captive so her treatment was far better than mine. Her hope was that if I was a healer, I could be of use too and therefore get better treatment. She tried for months to help me, but unfortunately, she died before I could get us freed.

But then I had heard stories about how protected the healers were in the safe zones to the point that they had their own guards follow them around. They were considered to be gods and were treated as such. No one dared to go against them, instead, both those in power and those without it worshipped at their feet. And for the most part, the healers love the attention and 'gifts' that came with their status.

After all, no one knew when they would become sick or injured and needed to call on a healer, and to piss one off meant dying a slow, painful death.

I shook my head, banishing the memories of that woman and the horrors of my past life. If I wound up in that situation again, I would deal with it, but for right now, I was not going down that memory lane for anything in the world. And I knew without a doubt that Zhao Jia Li was going to love her new life.

Forcefully pulling myself out of my head, I looked down at Wang Chao's hand which was slowly starting to heal. The white mist, the exact opposite of Liu Yu Zeng's dark mist, flowed out of the woman's hand and into Wang Chao. And I wanted to growl at the idea of any part of her going into my man.

'Kill her,' hissed the voice as I felt my darkness rise at the very thought of this woman touching my man, of her power going into him and healing him in a way that I couldn't.  'Kill her and he is yours,' came the voice again. I started to see a tint of red entering my vision as I watch Wang Chao's hand heal before my very eyes, even the blood disappearing from sight.

'I am hers whether she kills her or not,' said Wang Chao, responding to the hissing voice. I was startled, almost panicked at the idea that he could hear the voice or even sense the darkness that threatened to overflow from me.  Snapping out of my thoughts, my vision going back to normal, I turned to face the man that still held me gently in his arms.

Giving me a gentle kiss on my temple, the man let out a low chuckle inside of my head that completely vanished anything remotely dark and left a completely different emotion in me. 'Trust me, those thoughts are tame compared to what goes on in my head,' he admitted as he focused his whole attention on me. He didn't even flinch when Zhao Jia Li dropped to the floor in a dead faint.

That was the biggest weakness of a healer. The amount of energy that it took to heal even the smallest of wounds was enough to weaken them to such a degree that they either fainted or, the really strong ones, felt lightheaded and dizzy. And the woman on the floor in front of us was clearly not one of the strong ones yet.

Continuing to hold my hand, Wang Chao escorted me away from the passed-out woman that was now classified as a healer, and into the circle of my men. "Everyone's powers have been determined," said Wang Chao to the other three men. "It is time to leave. Do we still have that apartment in the city?" he asked Liu Wei. It took the other man a few seconds before he nodded. "Yes, but I didn't bring the key," he said, trying to remember exactly where the building was.

Shrugging like it wasn't that big of a deal, Wang Chao simply let it go.

"Where do you think you are going?" commanded Zhou Gang Jia as he approached our group and a quick pace.

"Back to our apartment to pack," replied Wang Chao as he turned around to face the Rear Admiral. As much as he truly appreciated everything that the man had done for him and Liu Wei throughout their careers, it was not enough to put up with the way he had been acting lately.

"I don't recall saying that you could leave," said the man, raising an eyebrow at the five of us.

"Actually, you did," pointed out Liu Yu Zeng as he came up on my other side. "In fact, if I remember correctly, you made a huge fuss to get us to leave."  That's my little shit disturber. I looked up at the man with a huge smile on my face.

The Rear Admiral ignored Liu Yu Zeng in favor of Wang Chao. "And what did you do to Zhao Jia Li?" he demanded, not seeming to care about the woman at all.  It was a few of her teammates that had gone over to check on the healer and make sure she was okay.

"She's a healer," I said with a wave of my hand. "They tend to faint a lot," I added as almost an afterthought. "Give her food and rest and she will be fine." As far as I was concerned, that woman could faint and never wake up, but I was not that lucky.

Zhou Gang Jia's eyes widened at the statement that Zhao Jia Li was a healer. "That's fantastic," he breathed looking over at the woman still on the floor. "Someone!" he hollered, "Bring Captain Zhao to her room and make sure that she has everything she could possibly need."

And so it starts. Truth be told, I was happy we were leaving because the last thing I wanted to deal with was Zhao Jia Li after she understood her new life. If I thought she was unbearable now, I could only imagine what she would be like in the future.

One man, that was already beside her, gently picked her up and cradled her close to his body, the look on his face, as he stared at her, spoke volumes.  If Wang Chao was the male lead in her life then this poor sap was clearly the second male lead. Meh, it didn't affect me so I wasn't going to care. Even if she believed that Wang Chao was the male lead, didn't make it so.

Besides, I licked it… I turned my head so fast that I heard the cracking of my neck. I haven't licked him yet. Had I? But since I didn't lick him, does that mean that she can claim him? Did she lick him yet?

A burst of choked laughter interrupted my spiral of thoughts. I looked to see where the sound was coming from and saw Wang Chao trying to hold back his laughter, but the shaking of his shoulders ruined his effort. Rolling my eyes, I looked at the man. "What?" I snapped. It was not my fault that my brain went on weird tangents.

Still chuckling, Wang Chao leaned forward until our faces were millimeters apart. As he looked deep into my eyes, I was able to see my reflection in his. Slowly he turned his head and tapped his cheek. 'If the kisses don't count, then feel free to lick,' he said inside my head, not moving a muscle.

I widened my eyes, not believing what he was saying. I knew that my licking him did not mean anything at the end of the day, and I couldn't say why my brain was going there like a 12-year-old girl's. But it did. And the fact that he was not upset or disgusted or just done dealing with me meant all that much more.

He tapped his cheek again, showing me exactly where he wanted me to lick and I quickly glanced around.  Although we were still in the training hall, surrounded by people I didn't know, the other guys had encompassed us in enough of a circle that no one would be able to see what we were doing.

'Go ahead,' he whispered in my head. 'Just realize that I am going to have to lick you back at some point.' 

That statement caused my brain to wander in a completely different direction and short-circuit a bit.

You know what? Fuck it.

Gathering my courage, I quickly stuck out my tongue and licked the cheek of the man in front of me.