Chapter Thirteen
COLD.
Overwhelming cold continued to flow through me, fading from the mind-breaking intensity of Rook hugging me. Her presence had always been calming and cool, but this time...it’d felt like I’d sunk into a snowdrift. Silent and heavy—a blanket of ice snuffing the flames inside me.
And when she’d collapsed on top of me...I’d felt her.
Her pain.
Her chill—
Whisper launched himself at me.
“Oof,” I grunted as he landed on me with the grace of a collapsing building. His weight pinned me as he huffed and chuffed and proceeded to headbutt me as if I’d just returned from the dead.
“Hey.” I tried to fight him off which only made him purr as loud as a malfunctioning engine. “You’re going to kill me.” His affection turned lethal as he rubbed his entire snout into my face. “I’m not a fucking scratching post!”
“Can someone please get that germ-filled animal off my patient!” A man’s voice cut through Whisper’s emotional attack. “He has stitches for crying out loud. Animal dander—especially feline saliva—can cause a fatal infection!”
“Eh, Whisper?” Rook’s voice came from somewhere by the side of the bed. “Come here, tiny kitty. Lucien’s alive but he might not stay that way if you keep mauling him.”
“Listen to her.” I coughed as the panther whimpered and dragged his sandpaper tongue over my hairline. “Ugh, you dumb beast, stop that.”
He ignored me completely, his claws kneaded the bedding, his out-of-control purr rattling straight through my bandaging and bones.
My eyes met Rook’s over the panther’s bulk.
She stiffened, looking just as confused as I was about what was happening between us. The level of connection that was building.
I knew next to nothing about her but...
It was her.
The girl who’d gotten me out.
The girl who’d stood by my side when no one else ever had.
Whisper grumbled, pissed off I wasn’t appreciating his affection even though he did his best to kill me with it.
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed his whiskered cheeks, and smacked a kiss right on his cold, wet nose. “You crazy creature. I’m alive. I’m fine. Now will you get off me?”
I swore he grinned, his whiskers flaring as he gave me another lick before vaulting off. The heavy thud of his paws landed just before he threw a warning growl at the two doctors.
I had no idea how I was here, where here was, or why they’d agreed to help me but...that was irrelevant.
This room wasn’t in Cinderkeep, which was good, but it looked like just another cage, which was bad.
Glancing around the space, I tried to get my bearings as the older doctor crossed his arms, his white smock meticulously clean, apart from a few streaks of blood on the cuffs.
“Harry’s right,” he muttered. “If you get an infection from that cat—”
“I won’t.” Sitting upright, my fingers strayed to the bandage and prickly stitches beneath. The room didn’t stay in one place, but I didn’t feel like I was dying anymore.
I glowered at the men, usual suspicion filling me.
I had a lifelong distrust of everyone, but...if they were going to harm me, they would’ve done it while I was unconscious. Therefore...I would be nice. Or at least try. “Thank you.” The words stuck in my throat. “For sewing me up.”
The younger doctor rolled his eyes; his face caught between professional outrage and sheer disbelief.
“You think saying thank you makes all of this okay? Who the fuck are you? How are you even awake, let alone sitting upright? We gave you a local and a sedative. You’re hypovolaemic. You should be unconscious.”
Whisper punctuated the doctor’s anger with a hiss.
But apparently, the doctor wasn’t done. “We’ve done our duty and saved your life.
We’ve ignored the fact that your cells had already started to knit together—which is impossible.
Pretended that your unnaturally hot body temperature—that’s three degrees higher than a normal person, by the way—somehow doesn’t give you a life-threatening fever.
Your heart rate doesn’t follow the usual cardiac pattern, your coagulation markers are different, and your oxygen saturation is a mess. ”
“Harry,” the older doctor warned. “Enough.”
Harry completely ignored him. “I keep telling myself I don’t want to know.
I agree with Roger that the more we know, the more danger we’ll be in, but your body isn’t normal.
You aren’t normal. That cat isn’t normal.
That device inserted in your chest isn’t normal.
And I want to leave. Right the fuck now. ”
The older doctor, Roger, pinched the bridge of his nose.
“This is all getting a bit much. I was able to ignore the zoo animal but...” He used his hand to wave at me as if I was the problem.
“Harry does have a point. There’s no logical explanation to how you’re awake and talking. ..or why your temperature is so high.”
My gaze shot to Rook’s, craving the cold energy of her company.
Rook gulped and looked at my chest, locking onto the piece of metal that made my life a living hell.
Even away from Cinderkeep, I was still a prisoner.
Still at the mercy of Marcus’s little remote.
I could run to the other side of the planet, and he would still be able to kill me with a flick of a switch.
Rook moved closer. “Lucien...if you’re strong enough. We need to stop wasting time and go.”
“Go?” Harry barked. “Go where?”
Whisper hissed again, throwing his vote into the ring that he was ready to leave, too.
“And just how are you proposing to go?” Harry continued. “We’ve already told you the B&B is surrounded by guards. When I went to the kitchen to get some alcohol for sterilisation, there were men everywhere.” He pointed at the door. “There are two outside right now.”
Roger stepped forward, his glasses catching the light. “I’ve already promised to call the police the moment we leave here. Just...don’t do anything stupid and I’ll send someone to help you, alright?”
I wasn’t used to other men.
For the past twenty years, the only strangers I met were women. And after a lifetime of conditioning, my system commanded me to kill before I could be betrayed.
But...they’d saved my life.
They’d been dragged into my mess and if they called the police, Marcus would kill them.
Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I swallowed against the rush of lightheadedness. Whisper came to my side, offering his aid like he’d done so many times in the past. Resting a hand on his shoulder blades, I used him as a crutch as I hid my discomfort and stood.
Rook darted forward, going to my other side. Her slim, small fingers latched onto my bare forearm, holding onto me rather than giving me someone to hold onto.
She didn’t push me back down again. Didn’t try to convince me I was too weak. Instead, she gave me an encouraging smile and tugged me toward the door. “You can stand which is great. Can you walk?”
“He shouldn’t be walking anywhere,” one of the doctors huffed. “He should be in bed. Asleep.”
Rook ignored him, pulling me faster. “If you can manage to walk, then perhaps you can climb down the drainpipe and we can sneak out.” She glanced at the night sky outside the window. “It’s dark out and everyone saw you unconscious. I doubt they’ll be expecting you to escape tonight, so...let’s go.”
Whisper padded toward the door without any further encouragement, and I let her drag me. I let her think I would obey before slamming on the brakes next to the desk where I assumed they’d stitched me up, thanks to the bloody towels.
Prying her fingers off me, I turned to face the doctors again.
“To put your minds at rest...as long as Marcus believes he can trust you, he won’t kill you.
Not because he’s kind but because you’ve proven yourselves valuable in keeping me alive.
You can go about your life as normal. Your families won’t be hurt because he’ll keep you in mind next time he needs you.
However...the moment you even think about dialling an emergency number, you won’t live to see morning.
Your bodies will vanish into a very well-used incinerator.
Your families will never know where you’ve gone, and they might even become collateral damage to his temper. ”
The doctors shared a horrified look. “Then...what do you suggest we do?”
Leaning against the desk—trying to look nonchalant but really needing the support—I crossed my arms and shrugged. “I suggest you play by his rules and forget you ever saw us. Pretend we never existed.”
Rook sucked in a sharp breath. “Lucien...what are you doing?”
“But...won’t you be taken back to wherever you’re being held?” the older doctor asked, his silvering hair catching the chandelier. “Aren’t we just condemning you to whatever you’re trying to escape from?”
“Not if you do me one last favour.”
“What’s the favour?” Harry asked suspiciously.
I couldn’t stop my hand going to the vitalsync core, exposing my plan—
“You can’t,” Rook gasped. “There’s no way they can do that here. You’ll die.”
Our eyes locked and the room dropped away.
It was just her.
And me.
And that damned electrifying awareness.
“Don’t.” Rook shook her head, tears welling. “You can’t ask them to do this.”
My fingers found Whisper’s ear out of habit, seeking comfort as a question I wasn’t going to ask spilled free.
“You didn’t leave when you had the chance.
” I shook my head, still unable to believe that a girl who’d meant nothing to me seven weeks ago had somehow become the most important person in my life.
“I was unconscious and you didn’t run away. ”
“Do you truly think I’m the sort of person who would do that?” Hurt flashed in her stare.
“You told Marcus that you weren’t pregnant—”
“To keep you alive! If I hadn’t, he might’ve taken your life right there.”
“He might.” I nodded. “But that was the gamble I was prepared to take. By revealing you’re not carrying an Ashfall, you’ve just given up the only protection I could give you.”
The doctors shuffled on the spot, awkward at being our unwanted audience but...fuck it.
I needed to say this because Rook was right. I might die tonight, and I didn’t want to have regrets.
“Leave.” I clutched Whisper’s ear, making the poor panther flinch.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I hated the sudden tightness in my chest at the thought of never seeing her again. “Go.”
I’d used her to get this far.
She was the first and only to help me.
The least I could do was set her free.
“Go with the doctors once they’ve finished.” I narrowed my eyes. “The guards won’t question it and by the time Marcus figures it out, it will be too late. You’ll be gone.”
“Do you really think I’d leave you?” Her face turned white.
“Do you really want to stay?”
“Of course I don’t.”
I froze as her words punched me in the heart. Words I’d expected yet—
“I want to leave with every fibre of my being,” she continued. “But...I want to leave with you.”
I froze.
Why?
Why was she willing to put her life on the line for me?
There had to be a logical explanation why we affected each other so much. Why she made my entire system turn haywire with a single look.
The air grew so thick with unspoken things, I struggled to breathe.
A throat cleared loudly as one of the doctors interrupted our staring competition. “In that case, we’ll get going then.”
My gaze snapped to the eldest doctor. “Not yet, you’re not. You’re not dismissed.”
“Listen here, you can’t just—”
“I can and I am.” Letting go of Whisper’s ear, I crossed my arms. “I have one more task before you can leave.”
“Look, I think we’ve been extremely accommodating,” Harry muttered. “We’re leaving—”
“Remove these cuffs from my wrists.” I held up my arms and the silver bondage trapping me. “And yank this torture device out of my heart.” I tapped the vitalsync core. “Do that and I won’t just let you leave, I’ll ensure you’ll never have to work again if you don’t want to.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Harry asked.
“It means get these fucking things out of me and I’ll give you whatever you want.”