Six
We were quiet for the rest of the trip to the hospital, and when we got there, Reggie and I were directed to a ward instead of the ICU.
I thought since Evan had been moved, that he must have been better, but when we got to the small waiting area where Abel, Narah, Justin, and several other people were, their expressions clearly said that Evan was still in danger.
Justin was the first one to me, putting his hand on my shoulder, telling me how pleased he was that I was there, but I had no time for him. I waved to his mother, who immediately moved to my side.
“Oh, Merritt,” Narah began, taking my hand, “it’s so kind of you to come and—”
“Could you tell me what happened to Evan?” I asked her.
“What do you mean?”
“I need to know what kind of contact he had with the bones.”
“None,” she assured me. “We all went out to watch the recovery team, or whatever they’re called, first dig up and examine the bones and then take them away. Evan wanted to get a closer look, but as soon as he stepped down onto the grass from the stairs, he threw up.”
This was when details were important. “Did he throw up blood, black bile, or something else?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. I wasn’t the first one to him. Cole was.”
Even though Narah was the pack healer, there was no doubt that Cole would have beaten her to his brother. “Okay. Can you tell me where they are?”
“I’ll take you to—”
“Merritt,” Abel said, stepping up beside his wife. “Might I have a quick word with—”
“Actually, no,” I replied, then turned back to Narah. “Just tell me what room.”
Abel took hold of my arm. “I will not allow you to—”
“Mere?”
We all turned, and there was Cole, staring at me. I was his entire focus, no one else. “Did you come to see Evan?”
It was physically painful to see how broken he was.
His eyes were red and puffy, mere slits at the moment, he looked like he hadn’t slept since I saw him last, and his normally golden coloring had become ashen.
He appeared utterly wrung out, and it was easy to understand why.
Evan was his whole life, and he was sick.
“I did, yes.” I pulled my arm from Abel’s grip before walking over to Cole. “Where is he?”
Cole took hold of my hand, gently, and gave a tug to get me moving. “I can’t believe you came, even after how we left things the other day.”
“Yeah, but that was me and you. This is your brother. It’s different.”
Evan’s room was dark. They’d pulled the shades, and the only light came from the one in the bathroom.
He was in the bed, looking nothing like he had on Friday night.
Normally, he had the same golden-tan coloring as Cole, but now he was pale, his face waxen, and he was shivering under a light blanket. His breathing sounded labored.
“Mr. Swann,” the nurse said to Cole as she walked in, “your brother just had another small seizure. I’m going to go get the doctor, because I think he should have lorazepam, as what we’ve been giving him doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Yes.” Cole’s voice cracked, and he tightened his grip on my hand. “Whatever you—please.”
She nodded and excused herself.
As soon as I was certain she was out of hearing distance, I turned to Cole. “Tell me what happened when he had the first seizure. Did he vomit up blood, or was it black bile?”
He shook his head. “It was like…I dunno, mud? I know that sounds insane, and the doctor told me I was wrong and it had to be bile, but I know what—”
“I believe you.” I eased free and went to Evan’s side, taking his hand in mine, squeezing tight, then exhaling slowly.
Instantly, Evan’s hand became the clawed paw of his wolf.
“Keep the nurse out,” I ordered over my shoulder as Cole crowded close to me.
“Merritt, what’s happening?” Justin asked from the doorway as he and both of his parents came into the room, leaving Reggie to run inference with the nurse if she tried to walk back in.
“Shut up,” Cole barked at him. “Everyone be still. He’s trying to save Evan.”
Intuitively, he knew what I was trying to do, which was very helpful, but even more so was his command for silence. Because only then would I be able to lure the spirit to the surface. I would know it was close when I heard the sound.
Hard to do nothing while Evan started choking and whimpering, his eyes widening in fear as his body began to shake. The seizure was violent, and I leaned over him, holding him easily, bending close to him, waiting, waiting, until finally, I heard a low growl.
“No,” I said out loud, my voice edged with warning. It sounded, I knew, more than a bit scary—the same reverberation from something unseen that used to stalk the deepest, darkest part of the forest.
Evan instantly arched up off the bed, his body going rigid, frozen for long moments. He began panting, and blood ran from his eyes like tears.
Moving quickly, I leaned in and whispered in Evan’s ear, “Fear me.”
A wave of power rushed out of me, and everyone in the room dropped to the floor except Cole. He had both hands flat on his brother’s bed, and he was unsteady, but he didn’t go down.
“No wandering spirit, no matter how ancient, how powerful, can stand before me,” I breathed out, seeing the green glow of my eyes illuminating Evan’s face.
“Not…spirit.” The entity inside of the boy barely got the words out. “Ghost.”
But how could that be? Ghosts were tied to the places where their remains were. They didn’t move. They couldn’t.
“Need him to…know.”
“Evan?” I asked.
“Cole,” the ghost replied.
“Need him to know what?”
“Unnatural.”
“Your death?”
“Yes.”
“He will know,” I promised.
“You must…truth.”
“I will find out. Weigh my words, feel my heart.”
Instantly, Evan dropped back onto the bed, his limbs going lax as the tension left him. A black cloud rose out of his body for a second before it turned first to gray smoke, then white, and finally to ash that fell all over the room, dusting all of us and every surface.
“Mere,” Cole murmured, stepping into me, his chest pressed to my back, and wrapping his arms around my waist. He nuzzled my hair, then my cheek, giving me no choice but to tip my head sideways so he could push his nose into the space between my neck and shoulder.
He had to be close to me. It was the animal in him that wanted to protect me, mark me, make me submit, but most importantly, offer me comfort after I’d used my power.
It made sense that he would think I would be depleted after a healing, but my energy didn’t work like that.
It never waned. It couldn’t. I had been made, specifically, to hold an infinite amount.
Evan sucked in a breath and then turned his head fast, with the preternatural speed that scared those unfamiliar with shifters, and looked up at me with wide eyes. “Merritt?”
I smiled at him, holding his human hand now, no longer a paw. “Hey, buddy.”
“Cole?”
Letting go of me, Cole leaned over and wrapped Evan in his arms, holding tight. I moved out of the way so the others could reach them as well.
There was lots of hugging, and Narah kissed him, and then Evan started shaking, but this time from relief and happiness.
“Merritt?”
I was almost to the door, craving a bit of breathing room, but when I looked up, Evan was holding out his hand for me. Instantly, I made my way back to the bed and took his hand in both of mine, smiling down at him. He needed me; that was more important than anything else.
“Merritt, I was so cold and…it was so dark. And I could hear Cole calling me but I couldn’t see him and it felt like I was walking in…in…”
“Mud?” I offered.
“Yes,” he choked out. “Mud. So much mud.”
I nodded and turned to Narah, who was staring at us, eyes like saucers. “Could you draw the blinds, please?”
“What about all the—oh shit.” Justin gasped, watching as the ashes got lighter and lighter until they disappeared.
When Narah opened the curtains, light filled the room, and everyone could see how exhausted Evan appeared.
He looked utterly wrung out, with dark bags under his eyes, as though he’d been awake for days…
But his color was closer to normal, and though he was still sweaty and sticky, the smile was good.
Cole leaned over to hug him again as the nurse and a doctor walked into the room.
They checked his vitals and the displays on the machines, and the doctor, an older woman with great cat-eyed bifocal glasses, even gave Evan a gentle whack on the shoulder before she got on the computer and looked at more things.
“You seem happy.” Evan sighed.
“Because you look so much better. Your glucose level has evened out, so it looks like everything we did finally kicked in, as it were.”
“That’s good, right?”
“It’s very good, if not a bit surprising. But I’ve seen far more amazing recoveries than yours in my many years providing care.”
Which was fortunate for us.
“You’re still a mystery, though.”
“I like that,” he told her. “It sounds cool.”
“Only on TV,” she apprised him. “In real life, knowing what triggered the seizures to begin with would be preferable.”
“Yeah, but,” he said with a shrug, “being well is better no matter what.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed. “You’re a very perceptive young man.”
He gave her a sheepish grin before she turned to Cole.
“So it looks as though your brother is out of the woods, and I’m confident, with how all his stats look, that the symptoms, specifically the seizures, won’t reoccur.”
“It was your excellent care that saved him, I’m sure of that.”
“I see both brothers are charming.” She smiled at him.
“She thinks we’re charming,” Evan told Cole, bumping him with the back of his hand.
“That’s because she barely knows you,” Cole grumbled in return.
“I am enjoying this banter,” she said softly, “but regardless, we’ll need to keep Evan for a couple of days of observation to make certain his—”
“Actually, we think he’d do much better at home,” I countered, holding her gaze. “And I have a friend I’ll ask to come over and check on him. Diane Gershin, she’s an APRN, so she’s certainly more than qualified to watch over him.”
“I’m sorry, did you say Diane Gershin?”
I nodded.