Chapter 27 #2
“I know.” He held me tight to him. “They’re doing everything they can.”
“Well, it’s not enough,” I snapped.
“Maggie, there’s nothing we can do right now.”
I pushed back, offended. “There has to be. I can’t just let him die there.” I stuffed my bloody hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone, quickly dialing the Aunts.
“Ruby, Graham’s been shot. Is there anything we can do to help him survive? You know, magically?”
“We’ll be right there,” she said. Her voice was calm but frantic.
I hung up and felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun fast, eyes wide, shaking.
It was Bishop.
“Maggie, he’s lost a lot of blood.” His voice was steady, practiced, solemn. “We did manage to get him back after that first code…”
I let out the jagged breath that was seconds away from shattering me.
“…but it’s really touch and go right now,” Bishop continued. “Once he’s stable, we will take him into surgery to see about the placement of the bullets if there are any fragments, but from what we can tell there’s at least one lodged in his spine.”
“Oh, my god.” I brought my hand to my mouth, my stomach flipping as I tried to process what that meant.
“It will be hard to know until he wakes…” Bishop cleared his throat.
“If he wakes… but there is a good chance he’s going to be paralyzed.
But like I said we won’t know for sure. Once he’s back from surgery, we’ll run some tests.
Hopefully, we’re all wrong… he’s a big guy, and he’s strong, but right now, you’re going to have to do the heavy lifting. Be strong for him too.”
Was this karma again? Giving me what I deserved?
If it was, it wasn’t fair. Taking Graham out for collateral wasn’t part of the deal.
He didn’t deserve this. I wished it was me on that table.
I was the one who caused this whole mess…
the one who brought Hunter into our lives.
If the karmic balance was real, it sure as hell didn’t follow the rules.
And if that was true, what good were the rules anyway?
My insides twisted. Nausea washed over every cell of my being and before I could stop it, I retched in a nearby trash can. Derek rubbed my back, but it didn’t help. All I could do was wipe the vomit from the corners of my mouth and weep.
I was a mess. Every fiber of my being was fading away at the thought of Graham dying.
And I knew it didn’t help the situation, but it was the only thing I knew how to do without him—fall apart.
He was the one thing that kept me from falling.
The one reason I didn’t end it on those nights where I promised Derek I wouldn’t eat a bullet.
It was him. It was always the hope he’d come back for me that held me here.
And when he did… the breath inside my lungs woke up.
The blood in my veins started moving again.
Because he came back for me on his own, not because of some stupid spell.
But of course it couldn’t stay that way forever, because now that we finally had each other—a moment to catch up—let everything fall into place…
he slipped away again, and my heart went distant, dark—invisible.
Only this time, there wasn’t a hope that he’d come back.
Fear was the only thing consuming me, because this time, Graham didn’t get to choose.
Death was different than deciding to stay.
Sure, I’d heard of people occasionally making deals with Death, coming back from the brink of crossing over.
But more often than not… Death won. Death didn’t care if you’d just started a new relationship, just had a baby, or if you were too fucking busy.
Death made you stop just so it could take whatever it wanted from you.
Sometimes it didn’t take you, even if you were literally fighting to stay alive.
Sometimes it took those you loved the most. And it took them in the most inopportune and selfish times.
Death was greedy and worked on its own timeline.
I couldn’t tell anyone what happened to Hunter.
I couldn’t even let them know to stop looking for girls that looked like me, to stop looking for the man who killed them all.
If I did, they’d put me away for life. And worst of all, if there was any evidence leading to Graham, it would strip his reputation.
It would make him a bad cop, a dishonorable officer, and the town would probably think he deserved getting shot in the back.
Goddamn it!
I turned back to Bishop, just as the Aunts arrived.
“Isn’t there anything you can do?!” I asked, pulling Bishop to the side. “You have to.”
“Maggie, I’ve done all I can.”
“NO. You haven’t. I know what you are,” I lied, trying to get a confession out of him. His eyes still had that yellow glow, just like the first time I’d seen it.
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t play that shit with me—not now.”
“Yes, Bishop.” Ruby grabbed mine and Bishop’s hands and pulled us into an empty room nearby. Clover followed close behind. “No games. You can save him.”
“What is he, Ruby?” I asked.
She stared at Bishop, her eyes heated with what she knew he could do. “Well, if you aren’t going to tell her… we sure as hell are.”
Clover shut the door and let out a breath. “Maggie, Bishop is a werewolf—”
“—and frankly he’s quite the selfish one,” Ruby butted in.
“What do you expect me to do, ma’am?” Bishop’s voice lowered. “I can’t go in there… wolf-out in the middle of the triage and have my team witness the chief of the ER take a big ole bite out of the man, now can I?”
“No. But you will do it.” Ruby stared Bishop down like she had control of him, like if he disobeyed, there’d be hell to pay.
He nodded once. “If he makes it out of his second surgery. I’ll do it tonight when the ER calms down. When I’m alone.”
“Hold on, hold on! What do you mean ‘take a bite’?” I asked, stepping between the two. “What good would adding another injury to an already fragile body be?”
“Maggie, sit with me, dear.” Clover took me by the arm and led me to a set of chairs near the window.
We sat and she held my hands in hers. I watched the color in her stones swirl in circles, mesmerizing me with their perfection.
“Bishop is a werewolf, yes?” she said. “Therefore, he’s a carrier of lycanthropic DNA.
While yes… it’s a disease of sorts, it also comes with extreme benefits—such as rapid healing.
If we are lucky, Graham will come out of this mostly unfazed—maybe a little hairier. ”
“And… this will work?”
“It’s our only option,” said Ruby as she spun her ring on her finger.
I locked eyes with Bishop. “Will it work?”
“In theory.” Bishop didn’t break our gaze, but his face shifted into a version of concern I’d never seen before—like whiskey mixed with milk, you’d think it’d curdle but it stayed smooth, composed, impossibly stable.
“Every person responds differently to the initial infection, some handle it well. Some become a completely different person. But Maggie, you must know, being a werewolf will be one of the biggest challenges Graham will face—especially if he is going to remain in the public eye. He cannot let the world know about what he has become.”
“I don’t care. He’ll be alive, won’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Then fucking do it.”
Time ticked by. I stared at the clock, convinced the hands hadn’t moved.
It had been a week of doctors filling our ears with empty promises, visitors from town showing up with flowers and chocolates and gifts that filled the room, and would probably rot before he woke up.
It hurt to see them come, not because of the concern in their eyes but because none of it meant anything…
no one knew him… not like I did. No one actually cared about him, just what they could get from him through the donations he brought in…
the cases he solved… the horny wives he calmed.
I couldn’t stand the broken hearts from people who only knew him from the way he shook his ass or the one fuck he gave them. The anger boiled inside, until it came out in one sharp burst. “I want everyone out!” I yelled and collapsed to my knees, gripping his hand in mine.
Then Katie’s hand found my back and lifted me to my feet.
Katie and Derek had taken turns bringing me food and clothes. And everyday, at least twice they’d offer to take me home. But no matter what they did, they couldn’t pry me away from him.
“I’ve been pulling cards on you everyday girl,” Katie said, directing me to the sad attempt at a couch and snuggling in next to me. “You’ve gotta come home, even if it’s just for a few hours.”
“What if he never wakes up?” I asked, my vision cloudy and eyes burning. “What if what Bishop did to him doesn’t work? What if we’re too late?”
“Hey, let’s not what if our way through this. We’re going to take it one day at a time. Why don’t you come home with me? Bishop’s shift starts in fifteen minutes. We’ll get updates and leave when he gets here. He’ll keep us posted. Plus, Derek and Trixi will be here soon too. It will be okay.”
“Katie, it’s not going to be okay. Everyone is already moving on without him.”
“What Derek and Trixi? I’d hardly call that moving on.
A little more than platonic fucking, sure…
but not moving on. Besides…” she put her hands on her hips, “you know as well as I do that Officer McTrampstamp doesn’t want anyone wallowing over him.
Especially you, Mags. Let’s go home. Get some fresh clothes, good food…
a shower.” She wrapped her arms around me and I collapsed into her, sobbing.
I stepped out of the hospital, and the smell of disinfectant gave way to the cool air and caught in my lungs, almost making me cough.
A sickening dread lurked inside my gut the closer we got to the Gremlin. I had to tell her what happened to Hunter.
I slid into the passenger seat. “Kates…” I said, my voice quiet but filled with so much apprehension I doubted she even heard me, but she turned to me with an expression that said she was trying to remain upbeat, for me. “I killed him.”