Chapter Twenty-Seven
Close Calls
Oliver’s arm jerked out from under his head. Felipe had already accidentally awoken him twice by trying to turn on his side while forgetting he was in a sling and that their wrists were tied together. The idea was brilliant in its simplicity, but it was also stopping Oliver from sleeping more than it was stopping Felipe from sleepwalking. He was about to yank his arm back and force himself to sleep when he heard a stifled sob.
“Felipe?” Oliver called, but there was no answer.
Opening his eyes, Oliver found Felipe’s side of the bed empty, but when he raised his head and followed the string to Felipe’s wrist, his heart nearly stopped. Felipe stood haloed in moonlight with tears streaming down his cheeks and his gun in his hand. His glowing, golden eyes were half-open and unseeing as Oliver called to him again. Beneath the sling, his chest heaved, and Oliver sat in frozen horror as Felipe slowly raised the revolver to his temple with a shaking hand. For a moment, he thought it must be a dream until he heard the hammer slip and struggle to click into place. A strangled cry escaped Oliver’s lips as he dove across the bed and crashed into Felipe’s arm.
Oliver yanked it back, afraid the gun might still go off, but he would rather blow a hole in the ceiling than in his lover. He had expected Felipe to thrash or fight, but when he ripped the weapon from his half-slack grip and dropped it onto the rug, Felipe let out a strangled breath and sank against him. Relief warred with fury in Oliver’s breast as he crushed Felipe to him. His arms shook and his lungs strained against his ribs at the realization of what he had seen. It made no sense. Felipe had been fine hours earlier, yet he had tried to kill himself. He tried to kill himself , his mind screamed. Oliver wanted to shake him or cry or throw up, but all he could do was hold Felipe and fight back angry tears.
“Why?” was all Oliver could stammer, but Felipe didn’t answer. “ Felipe .”
Grabbing his arms, Oliver pulled him back to look in his face, but his expression was wrong, too slack, too flat. “Felipe!”
Beneath his fingernails, Felipe’s body jerked. He blinked, and a dizzying rush of emotion surged across the tether. Felipe touched his temple and then his heart as if he checking to make sure he was still whole, but when he looked up into Oliver’s features, his expression cracked with relief. A stifled sob broke from his lips as he buried his face against Oliver’s robe.
“Why would you do that?” Oliver choked.
Felipe shook his head without looking up. Wave after wave of panic and relief battered the tether as he clung to Oliver. “I didn’t want to. Please believe me, Oliver. I didn’t want to do it, but I couldn’t stop. I tried to wake myself up, but I couldn’t.”
Oliver rubbed his back and tried to calm him. “What do you mean you tried to wake yourself up? Were you sleepwalking again?”
Felipe nodded miserably, sucking in a tremulous breath. “I thought writing the letter today would help, but it still happened. I don’t know how to make it stop.”
“Take a deep breath. It’s hard to understand you.” Sitting back on his heels, Oliver disentangled the string from his wrist and Felipe’s injured arm and tossed it aside. Felipe’s cheeks were wet with tears as he blinked away the burning in his eyes. “What letter are you talking about?”
“The one to my parents,” Felipe said, forcing down the tremor in his voice. “I’ve been trying to write it all week, but I can’t do it. Mr. Allen said writing them a fake letter telling them all the ways they hurt me might help. I thought if I could do that, it might fix the sleepwalking, but it only made it worse.”
Oliver rubbed Felipe’s shoulders and replied slowly, “Darling, I still don’t see how these things are connected.”
“Every time I’ve sleepwalked, it started with a dream about my family. Every single time. But this time it ended differently.” Felipe sucked in a wet, panicked breath. His hand went to his pounding heart as he stared up beseechingly at his partner. “I don’t know what to do, Oliver. Every time I sleep there’s a nightmare waiting for me. What if I try again tomorrow? What if you don’t wake up that time? I can’t—”
Oliver’s heart lurched as the half-sobbed words turned into a panicked suck of breath. Holding Felipe’s gaze, Oliver whispered in his most calm voice, “You’re all right now. You’re safe. I’ve got you. Take a deep breath for me. Nice and slow.”
Counting for him, Oliver watched as Felipe gulped a breath and then exhaled slower. Across the tether, Felipe’s pulse raced, and in time with his breathing, Oliver carefully synchronized his partner’s body with his own. He brushed the sweat-dampened curls from his partner’s forehead and kissed his cheek. His skin was hot from sleeping and crying, but soon, the chill of the room would catch up with him. When he was certain Felipe was safe and stable, Oliver set the revolver on the nightstand and pulled the blanket off the bed. He draped it around Felipe’s shoulders and sat on the rug beside him. For a long moment, they merely leaned against each other in the darkened room. Felipe was safe, Oliver reminded himself.
“If you ever felt like you wanted to do that…,” Oliver be gan slowly.
“I would tell you. I haven’t wanted to, not in a very long time, but I know if I asked you to let me go, you would,” Felipe replied with a sniff. He eyed the gun wearily. “I wouldn’t do it like that. I couldn’t leave you with that.”
Oliver nodded, slipping his fingers between Felipe’s. As he listened to Felipe’s breathing even out, he replayed what he had said, though it still didn’t make sense. “The dream you mentioned. How did it end differently?”
“You mean besides trying to shoot myself?” When Oliver nodded, he sighed and let his head fall against the bed. “The dream wasn’t right. They’ve all been memories so far, like I’m reliving my worst moments, but this time the ending wasn’t what really happened. This time I was sixteen or seventeen standing in my grandfather’s study after he named me as his successor. At the end, he tells me I can go. I should have left the room, but in the dream, I picked up his gun. I never once touched that gun. I—”
Felipe’s whole body clenched as he hissed and bit back a groan of pain.
“Is it your stitches?”
“No, my leg feels like it’s on fire.”
Pulling up the leg of his long johns, Felipe inspected his calf with a grimace. Oliver couldn’t see much in the dark, but when he lit the lamp from the bedside table, he gasped. On the back of Felipe’s calf was a red, shiny welt the size of a sand dollar.
“How long has this been here?” Oliver asked when Felipe didn’t look nearly as concerned or surprised as he ought to be.
“Since the day we got here. It was just a bug bite, Oliver,” he said pleadingly. “I didn’t think it was going to turn into this.”
“You said you weren’t going to hide things from me!”
“I would have shown you yesterday, but my intestines hanging out distracted me.”
Oliver’s lips thinned, but he said nothing. Kneeling beside Felipe, he lightly prodded the lump. It was hot to the touch and hard beneath the skin. It could have been a bite from a spider or a tick, but it didn’t look right. Felipe hissed through his teeth and curled his toes when he gave it a squeeze. Whatever it was must have hurt like hell because Felipe complained less about the stitches.
“When did this happen?”
“The little bastard bit me as I was carrying Gwen away from the corpse bugs. It’s gotten progressively itchier and sorer ever since.”
Oliver’s hands froze over the wound. “The bugs from Ridder’s corpse?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason.” Grabbing his bag off the dresser, Oliver pulled out the carbolic acid he had bought along with the alcohol. He pictured Felipe’s hand as he struggled to pull back the hammer of the gun, and a cold chill washed over him. The bugs in the church had scurried away from him just like the dead investigators had. Forcing his voice steady, Oliver asked, “Felipe, when did you start having weird dreams?”
“The day we got here, so Tuesday night?”
“That was the same day we went to the church to examine the bodies.”
Felipe’s eyes went wide, and his heart kicked on the other end of the tether as he met Oliver’s gaze. “Oliver, what is inside me?”
“I don’t know but hold still.”
Drawing in a long, slow breath, Oliver exhaled and let his powers expand out. He inched along the tether’s length, but it felt reassuringly strong and stable. As he crept across Felipe’s body, his magic snagged against whisps of something, but none of it was strong enough to catch. The whiffs of pine tar grew stronger the closer he got to Felipe’s leg. The moment Oliver’s powers touched it, the lump jerked. Felipe cursed and covered his mouth as if he might be sick, but when Oliver shut his eyes, he saw the nodule glowing brightly against his eyelids. This time there was no network of hyphae as he had seen in the dead investigators, but Felipe’s whole body glowed faintly as if traces of the Dysterwood’s magic had spread.
“The thing in your leg looks a lot like what was in the dead investigators. ”
“Please get it out.”
“I will. Just lie on your right side and stick your leg out straight, please.”
As Felipe laid down, Oliver grabbed a few handkerchiefs from his valise and arranged them under Felipe’s calf. Going through his gladstone, he gathered tins of gauze, tweezers, alcohol, and anything else he might possibly need. He quickly disinfected the skin around the wound before wiping down his tools with carbolic acid. Turning back to Felipe, Oliver tried not to let his emotions show.
“I know what you’re going to say, Oliver,” Felipe said when Oliver swallowed hard, “but I don’t care about the pain right now. Just get that thing out of me.”
Nodding, Oliver steeled himself. Holding Felipe’s leg in his lap, Oliver carefully lanced the wound. Felipe screwed his eyes shut and bit back a half-choked groan as blood welled from the incision. Oliver had expected pus to come gushing out, but when he gently probed the wound with his finger, he found a pearl of tissue the size of a large marble at the center of the lump. Leaning closer, Oliver could see something green sloshing on the other side of the thin wall of tissue. Green residue leaked from the ball as Oliver carefully pried it away from Felipe’s flesh. His partner curled his toes and winced before forcing his leg still.
“It’s burning again,” Felipe said between clenched teeth.
“Sorry, there’s… seepage. It looks like your body tried to seal off the creature. That might be why your healing has been so slow; your body was constantly trying to keep this thing at bay. I’ll have it out in a second.”
With a final swish of his finger, the ball of tissue popped out and rolled across the carpet. Felipe made a disgusted noise and twitched as Oliver rinsed the wound with alcohol, but when he reached for his needle and thread, Oliver noticed the edges of the wound slowly knitting shut. As he wrapped the gauze around his calf, Felipe stared at the thing that had come out of his leg. His throat worked, and his skin had gone a sickly grey .
“Felipe?”
“I’m fine,” he replied tightly as Oliver finished wrapping the wound.
“Let me get rid of that.”
Grabbing his tweezers, Oliver picked up the pearl of flesh and was about to drop it into a piece of gauze when the creature within thrashed. Green gunk showered onto the carpet as the tissue tore and a long, flat, flesh-colored worm slithered out. Felipe ripped his leg from Oliver’s lap and scrambled away as the worm writhed between them.
“Christ almighty, what is that thing?” Felipe cried.
Oliver shook his head in wonder. It looked far too big to have ever fit inside the welt in Felipe’s leg, but Oliver had seen it with his own eyes. When Felipe stifled a gag, the worm turned toward him and shot out a web-like proboscis. It trailed along the carpet like green lightning, leaving behind a halo of ichor. Before Oliver could move, the worm bolted toward Felipe. His eyes widened as he yelped and leapt onto the bed out of the way. Scrambling to his feet, Oliver dove in front of him. The worm reared back, and Oliver grabbed its head with his tweezers.
“Felipe, get the alcohol!” he whisper-yelled as the worm writhed and thrashed like a caught snake.
Grabbing the bottle of alcohol, Felipe set it at Oliver’s feet, uncapped it, and backed out of the way.
“When I get it in, put the stopper on. Quick.”
When Felipe nodded, Oliver silently counted to three and stuffed the worm’s head into the alcohol as far as it would go. As it struggled, he shoved the rest of it in with his tweezers inch by inch. Dark green venom plumed out of it, but by the time Felipe got the lid on, the creature had fallen still. The only sounds in the room were their huffed breaths as they stared at the bottle, waiting to see if the worm would come back to life. A small laugh escaped Felipe’s lips followed by another, and in seconds, he and Oliver were pressed close, stifling laughter at the absurdity of their night.
“I hate this fucking place,” Felipe whispered as he sank onto the edge of the bed.
“I promise I will never ask to go to a murder town ever again. In all fairness, necromantic ribbon worms were not something I had anticipated.”
“Is that what it was? Christ almighty.” At Oliver’s nod, Felipe sighed and stared at the green stains on the carpet. “I think we may owe Mr. Allen a new rug as well. At this rate, the Paranormal Society may as well renovate the whole inn.”
Rinsing his bloodied hands at the ewer and basin on the dresser, Oliver replied, “After last night, I think he earned it. Well, now that the thing is out, the nightmares and sleepwalking will hopefully stop. We should still be cautious tomorrow just in case.”
From the corner of his eye, Oliver watched Felipe as he dried his hands. There were so many things about his partner’s past that he didn’t know. The things he had heard about the Galvans seemed to be the opposite of everything he knew to be true about Felipe, but after what he had seen this past week, things were starting to click into place. Sitting beside Felipe, Oliver interlaced their fingers again and brought Felipe’s hand to his lips. The tether pulled tight beneath their hearts as Felipe’s eyes met his. He stared into their amber depths and thought of all the warmth and life Felipe had brought into his life since their lives intertwined that fateful night.
“I hope you know that I love you more than anything or anyone,” Oliver said softly. “I love you so much that sometimes it overwhelms me. There are times when I wake up and see you lying next to me, and I wonder how I got so lucky to have you in my life.” Taking a fortifying breath, Oliver squeezed Felipe’s hand. “When I told you about what happened to me when I was in medical school, you were so kind and understanding. I want to be that for you, Felipe, whenever you’re ready to talk about your parents or the demon or anything else. I just want you to know that I will always be here to listen to you and love you no matter what.”
Felipe gave him a watery smile and swallowed hard. “I love you too, Oliver. It’s not you. It’s just hard for me to talk about them for many reasons. I— I still worry you’ll find out more about my family or my past, and you’ll see me differently or love me less for it.”
“Considering my family made a deal with a devil, I don’t think I have much room to talk.” At Felipe’s mirthless laugh, Oliver cupped his cheek and swept his fingers into Felipe’s curls. “I love you , the man you are now and the man you’ll become as we grow together. You . I didn’t know the young man you were in your nightmares, but I think I would love him too. I love all of you.”
Felipe’s eyes glistened with tears, but Oliver drew him in for a kiss before they could flow. He held him close and listened to the steady tattoo of his heart. There had been too many close calls.
“Tomorrow, let’s have a picnic in the morning. It was going to be a surprise, but after all this, I would rather you look forward to it.”
“That sounds lovely, Oliver. Does Gwen know?”
“It was her idea. We’ll finish planning after, but the morning will be ours.”
Wiping his eyes against his shoulder, Felipe stood and shoved the gun into the drawer of the nightstand. “Here, let me help you clean up.”
“Leave it. As long as the worm is dead, I would rather deal with the mess in the morning. I think we could both use the sleep.”
Felipe looked like he wanted to object, but he nodded and shut off the lamp. Oliver tidied Felipe’s stack of pillows, and when the other man laid down, Oliver hunkered close to his elbow. While they couldn’t lie intertwined like they did at home until his collarbone healed a bit more, Oliver could at least sleep with his arm around Felipe’s waist. A hum of contentment vibrated across the tether as Felipe rubbed his thumb across Oliver’s skin and shut his eyes. Focusing on the tether, Oliver stoked his love for Felipe in hopes that his partner could feel it as he drifted off to sleep. He held him close, relishing the solid warmth of the other man’s body. No matter what monsters lurked in Felipe’s past, Oliver vowed to stand beside him and face them.