4. Never
This is not happening.Pain pulsed from my back. Hot blood seeped from the wound, no doubt getting all over Leo. I’d only made two more steps before he’d grabbed me again, and now I was trapped against his chest, his big arms wrapped tight around me in a suffocating bear hug.
“Let me go,” I said, fighting a hopeless battle to break free. “I can’t let that thing have him.” I tried to twist, leading with my hips, but with every aching move, the pain siphoned off more of my strength. “Goddammit, Leo. Let me fucking go!”
Lily hovered nearby, watching but not making a move in any direction.
“Come on, Lily. We can’t let him get away.” I hit her with my most pleading look.
She hesitated for a moment, glanced down at herself, shook her head, and stalked back to my bedroom.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I stopped trying to break free of Leo’s hold. “I’ll never forgive you for this,” I said quietly.
He let out a grunt that could have been a laugh, but that was it.
The urge to sink to the floor was riding me hard by the time Lily came back down the hallway wearing my workout clothes and a pair of Matty’s old running shoes. She pinned her deep brown gaze on Leo. “Don’t let her leave.” Then she turned her attention to me. “You…” She glanced at the door and back at me. “If you try to follow me, I will stop looking for him to drag you back here.”
“Where are you going?” Leo asked, his voice gruff.
She gave me one last stern look. “Hunting.” Then she slipped out of the apartment.
Despite her warning, I still tried to go after her.
“Stop,” Leo said. His arms tightened around me. “You’re going to hurt yourself even more if you don’t stop fighting.”
Hot tears sprung to my eyes. Whether they were from the pain, or what had just happened with my brother, or just the collective shitshow the last few days had been, I didn’t know. I didn’t care.
“What will hurt is losing my brother,” I said, silently cursing everything in my world.
I wanted to fight my way free and go after him, but I also wanted to crumple to the ground and sink into the defeat welling up inside me. As long as this stubborn as fuck golden god was holding me hostage, I couldn’t do either.
“Lily should be able to track him easily enough.”
“You can’t know that.” I mean, maybe the dog version of Lily could have done that, but she wasn’t a dog anymore.
“In the meantime,” he said, deliberately ignoring my comment. “We need to do something about that wound.”
“I’m pretty sure step one is letting me go.” I was still chock full of snark, but my energy was fading fast.
“I will, but only if you promise you won’t try to go after them.”
“Scout’s honor.”
“Does that mean yes?” When I didn’t answer, he added, “Lily is my cousin. She was my best friend growing up, and I have spent most of my adult life searching for her. I walked away from my clan and spent decades working for that monster in the hopes that something, anything, would lead me to her. I just found her, Never, and now she’s out there by herself, in a world I know nothing about, searching for your brother. If you think that isn’t eating me alive right now, you’re dead wrong.”
Well, his guilt trip game was on point.
“I won’t try to go after them.” Until I’m bandaged up, I added silently.
His arms loosened and fell away. “You should lie down.”
I scanned the living room and kitchen. The place was trashed. Every piece of furniture I owned was either overturned or broken. Shards of glass glittered in the carpet, and there was blood everywhere.
Is that all from me?I didn’t think so. Some of those stains looked suspiciously like footprints. With my eyes, I followed their path crisscrossing the living room until I turned and spotted Leo’s bare feet.
“You’re hurt?”
He picked up one bloody foot. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s my line.” My voice sounded strange in my head, and when I blinked, Leo was standing right in front of me. “Whoa, buddy.”
“Look at me,” he said, with a gentleness in the command that left me with a warm feeling in my chest.
When I tried to focus on him, black spots dotted my vision. I felt my knees give out, but Leo was there, guiding me gently to the floor.
“Couch,” I said, pointing to the overturned hunk of secondhand furniture.
In no time, he had the couch flipped right side up, and the cushions brushed off and in place. He guided me over and helped me lay face down so he could get a look at the damage.
He rucked my shirt up a few inches and tugged at the waistband of my jeans before prodding gently around the cut. “This looks like a lot of blood, but it’s not life threatening. Yet.”
It might be if he keeps poking at it.If I’d had a breath to spare, I would have shared that threat with him, along with a few colorful phrases for tacking that “yet” on his observation. Instead, I sucked air in shallow puffs and tried to focus my watery vision on the front door.
That was my goal. All I needed to do was get patched up, and then we could head out and find my brother.
“Do you know how to stitch up a wound?” I asked.
He cast me a quizzical look.
“Are you seriously telling me you’ve never had a cut bad enough to warrant stitches?”
He was silent for a moment. “I heal quickly.”
Right. Of course. He was from Hook’s realm, and those lucky mother fuckers just healed up all magical like.
“Well, we mortals don’t, and when we get a bad cut or gash, we have to clean it out and bandage it up,” I said. “In the bathroom—down the hall, first door on the left—I have a first aid kit under the sink. It’s an olive-green canvas bag. Will you grab it? And a couple of towels.”
He stood without answering and stalked across the room.
“This should be fun,” I muttered under my breath. Over the years, I’d gotten pretty good at stitching myself up. When I couldn’t do it on my own, I had Matty to lend a hand. But there was no way I was going to train a new guy on the job when I couldn’t even see the wound.
He came back out with the bag and set it beside the couch where I could dig through it. I pulled out everything we needed, including a fresh new package of butterfly closures.
“These will have to do,” I said, handing them off to him.
Leo examined them closely. “What am I supposed to do with these?”
I walked him through the steps, but when he was getting ready to place the first butterfly closure, a loud knock at the door made us both jump.
The sudden movement pulled a wince out of me. My muscles were already tensing up, which meant the full effects of the coming adrenaline crash were right around the corner.
“Never? I know you’re in there.” I recognized the voice coming through the door, though it felt like I hadn’t heard it in ages. “Come on, Never. Just open the door and talk to me.” Clint’s whiny, pleading voice took me right back to the park and the night this whole adventure started.
“Go away, Clint!” I yelled, as best as I could, anyway.
Leo’s lip curled up in a sneer. “Is that the guy you told us about?”
I narrowed my eyes. That wasn’t the part of the story I’d figured anyone would pay attention to when I’d regaled him and Hook with the tale of how I’d ended up in their realm. “You remember that?”
This time a fist pounded on the door. “Never, come on! I’m not going anywhere until—”
Leo was on his feet and across the room before I could protest. He opened the door just far enough so Clint could get a good look at his six-foot-plus shirtless frame, which also gave my cheating ex an up close and personal view of the stacks of muscle layering Leo’s body.
“Leave.” His voice was a low, warning rumble that raised a wave of gooseflesh across my arms. “Now.”
“I, uh... who the fuck are you?” Clint asked, slurring his words a little.
Was he drunk again? He might not be the best person in the world, but he usually saved the drinking for parties.
“Trick or treat!” The cheery, juvenile greeting echoed in from the hallway.
“What the fuck?” I asked aloud, though the question was really directed at the universe. How long was I gone?
If I’d had any idea where my cell phone was, I would have checked that. The television was a hunk of broken glass and plastic. That left, what? My laptop, which was hopefully still on my desk in my room. But that felt like it was about a million miles away.
How the hell did people figure out what day it was before electronics?
At the door, Leo was saying something to Clint in a tone that would have made me shudder if it had been pointed at me. There was a small scuffle. Not even enough action for Leo to losehis grip on the door.
He reached out with his free hand. I heard a muffled yelp followed by a thunk that shook the wall. Then he closed the door, shaking his head as he did. “He shouldn’t bother you again.”
“Thanks?” It felt a little strange to have the guy who’d hauled me to a demon over his very muscular shoulder defending my honor. “Um, weird question, what was he wearing?”
He gave me a quick description of Clint’s cheap pirate costume while he applied the butterfly sutures. When he was done, with a thick pad of gauze taped over the wound, I tried to sit up.
Leo’s heavy grip on the middle of my back held me down. “You need to rest.”
“I need to go find my brother.”
“You gave me your word.”
If I’d been just a shade less mature, I would have given in to the urge to punch the pillow. “I can’t just lay here. I will drive myself insane and probably take you with me.”
The front door swung open, and Lily came in wearing a scowl. “Did you know Clint is passed out in the hallway?”
The second Leo took his hand off me, I wrenched myself up, and instantly regretted it. “Damn,” I breathed. It was like a variety pack of misery up in my body. Aches and pains were coming from everywhere, but they all seemed to resonate in my lower back. “Did you find Matty?”
She shook her head. “There are too many people out there. I managed to catch up with him, but when he spotted me, he disappeared into the crowd. I tried to follow, but there were too many competing scents to follow.”
No. We couldn’t let him get away. What if we couldn’t find him again?
My head pounded, and a fresh dose of adrenaline seeped into my system. “Then we’ll go back out.” I tried to get up, but the pain was even worse now. In a matter of seconds, my pulse was racing so fast it felt like it might vibrate into a little pool of goo.
“Stubborn as always,” Lily said. “You know, she’s been like this since she was a kid.”
I shot her a look. It was hard enough to reconcile the fact that the woman had been my family dog for my entire life. Hearing her say something like that, put a whole different spin on it. She’d been there, sentient, conscious, understanding.
The realization was a little horrifying.
“I’m. Sorry.” I huffed out, still struggling to get my body to calm the fuck down.
She helped me shift around until I was sitting hunched on the edge of the cushion and took my hand. “You have nothing to apologize for, but you do need to listen to me. I know you’re in a lot of pain, and I know you’re worried about your brother, but you can’t help him in the state you’re in.”
No shit.I tried to shut down the snarky voice in my head, but that bitch said what she wanted to say when she wanted to say it. Even so, it didn’t mean I had to give those thoughts a voice.
“What I was trying to say is that I’m sorry I didn’t give you more table food,” I finally said.
She laughed, the warm sound filling the apartment in a way that made me miss my childhood. That was a special skill, considering I’d spent a good chunk of my adult life trying to forget it.
“The way I was, human food could really do a number on my stomach. Besides, you’d be surprised how good that stuff you fed me actually tastes. It’s no match for fresh rabbit or deer, but it wasn’t as bad as you’re imagining.” She patted my hand and leaned back, tossing a glance at Leo. “And then there’s you. I’m guessing you had something to do with the asshole passed out in the hallway?”
He ticked his head to one side. “Just set him straight on something.”
“Good. He’s a dick.”
I chuckled and instantly regretted it, biting back the wince that followed. “He told me you didn’t like him. I just figured he wasn’t much of a dog person.”
Another muffled round of kids yelling “Trick or Treat!” filtered in from the hallway, reminding me of one of my other pressing concerns.
“How long were we gone?” I asked.
She glanced at the clock hanging askew on the wall. “A couple of hours. I was surprised you made it back so soon.”
But it wasn’t soon. It was three damned days.
“Well, since I’m all patched up, why don’t the three of us head out there and see if we can get a lead on where the shadow might be heading?” I tried to stand, only to end up right back where I’d started when Lily grabbed me by the shoulders.
“What we need to do is get you to a hospital,” she said with a stern look.
“I’m fine,” said the big, fat liar. I motioned to the first aid kit. “Leo bandaged me up. Good as new.”
“What do you think, cousin?” Lily asked, turning her attention to Leo. “Should we take her to a healer?”
“I won’t go,” I said firmly.
He pressed his lips together, though I couldn’t tell if he was irritated or amused. “Looks like no healer.”
She glared at me, then rolled her eyes. “Idiot,” she muttered under her breath. The jab was clearly aimed at me, but a note of affection softened the blow.
“All right, furball, what would you do in my shoes?”
Leo barked a laugh so loud it made me flinch, which reignited the flame of agony burning up my back.
Lily, on the other hand, was not amused. She leveled me with a look that brought back memories of my mom. You know, back when she still gave a shit about her kids.
“I’m a shifter. I can heal myself. But you, little girl, are human, through and through.” She motioned to the bloody towels spread out on the couch. “Humans need healers. Even humans who are too thickheaded for their own good. And don’t call me furball.”
I swallowed down my retort. I’d called her that a million times over the years, always fondly. “It never seemed to bother you before.”
“I’m serious. If you won’t go for your own well-being, then at least do it for your brother. What good will you be to him if you die of an infection in three or four days?”
Ouch.Hitting me in the tender bits with her blunt logic stung, but it didn’t change the fact that I hated hospitals. Or that in three to four days, I intended to have my brother back home, sans the evil shadow companion.
I tipped my head from side to side. “Fine. If it looks like I’m developing an infection, I will go to the hospital. Until then...” I glared down at the floor. “I would love it if someone would help me stand up.”
Leo was at my side in a second, offering his hand like a gentleman. With a grunt and a weak groan, and more than a little help from him, I made it all the way to my feet.