I saw the faint orange glow in the windows from the top of the driveway and every cell in my body solidified with horror. What the fuck? She was in my house while I was not there! While that dangerous stalker was still running around?

“The lights are on in your place, man,” Billy said.

The road was pure ice and I could run faster than the car could drive up. “Stop the car,” I shouted as I pulled the handle, and jumping onto thick snow ran as quickly as I could to the house. The wolves were on the porch, gathered around something. My heart was pounding like crazy.

In one horrified glance I saw the marks in the snow my wolves had made when they dragged whatever they were guarding along the driveway and up the steps onto the porch.

I put my boot on the first step and even before I saw her, I saw the arrow. My wolves did not come to me, lick my hands, or show their usual greetings. They stood up and slunk away nervously to the edges of the porch.

I dropped in front of her. The warmth of the animals had permeated the whole area, creating a little oasis of heat in the dead of winter. She looked pale, but just the way she did when she was asleep. I touched her neck. Her skin was cold, and her pulse weak, but she was still alive. I touched the area around the arrow. She made no sound.

I shook the shaft very gently and I knew that it was not lodged in bone. Fortunately, the arrow had missed her scapula. An arrow that powerful would have shattered her scapula like a commemorative Elvis plate and damaged it forever, but it was unlikely that she had been lucky enough that it passed through the only safe place it could in that area, a triangle smaller than the size of her open mouth.

Even if there weren’t any serious internal injuries, the arrow head would have to be located and removed. I yanked the arrow out of Chepi’s dead body, but I couldn’t pull it out of Lara. It would have ripped the head off and left it in her body.

A smooth bullet could be safely allowed to remain encased in bone or tissue, but an arrow head was sharp and rough, and would continue to injure and inflame the tissue around it, ultimately resulting in infection and death.

The local hospital had closed its doors three years earlier, and the nearest one was nearly an hour away. In these road conditions it was an hour and a half journey at least, but there were no other options.

I could hear Billy running up the driveway. Carefully, I lifted her up in my arms, and hoisted her up.

“What the fuck happened?” he said behind me.

“We need to take her to the doctor.” My voice was shockingly calm.

We got her into the car and I wrapped her in my coat and held her close to me. She moaned a few times, but I spoke softly to her and she drifted off to sleep. I was afraid. I was very afraid of what was happening inside her body. That hour and half turned out to be the longest hour and half of my life. I thought it would never end. I felt so helpless I wanted to smash something or scream.

As soon as we arrived at the emergency doors, my buddies had to disappear. They couldn’t even be seen in that location. I carried her in and yelled for help. They were quick to respond and she was wheeled away from me. I went to the waiting room and stood gazing blankly out of the window. A small girl was waiting with her mother. She skipped up to me. I could see her reflection in the glass. She was blonde with pigtails. Her dress was pink with little blue and white boats on the front.

“Are you here to repair your face?” she asked me.

“Holly, come here and stop bothering everyone,” her mother scolded.

She skipped away.

I looked at my hands. They were full of dried blood. I could cry for Chepi and Roger, but I couldn’t cry for Lara. The pain was too great. The thought of losing her was incomprehensible, intolerable. The thought that I had left her in danger made me so angry I wanted to hurt myself by punching the walls.

I went to a chair and sat down. The little girl was playing with blocks. She didn’t approach me again. Someone came to call the mother and they left the room. I was alone. I didn’t move. I just sat there as if I was stoned until the doctor came. He was an overweight, middle-aged, balding man. He wore steel-rimmed glasses. Behind them his eyes were a watery blue.

“Mr. Carson?”

“Yes,” I replied standing up. My legs felt like jelly; they felt as if they could barely hold me upright.

He smiled. “She’s going to be all right.”

That was when tears filled my eyes. Tears of pure happiness. “Can I see her?” I asked.

“You can, but she’s still unconscious.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. It was one of those moments. If he had asked me to get on my knees and suck his dick, I would have. I felt so grateful, I wanted to kiss him.

“She’s one lucky girl. The arrow broke her third rib and passed right through, nicking her lung, and causing it to fill up with blood. We sorted that out. It also broke her fourth rib on the left side on its way out.”

“I thought you said she was lucky,” I croaked. I had prayed her lungs would not be touched.

“The arrowhead was millimeters away from scraping her brachial artery. If it had it would have been like pulling the drain on a bathtub. She would have bled out into her body cavity and been dead in minutes.

My heart felt as if it was on fire. To think she had come that close! Silently, I followed the doctor into the little room she was in. She looked small, white, and pitiful. There were bleeping machines all around her.

A nurse came in and I asked if I could sit and wait for her to wake up, because I wanted the first thing she felt when she woke up to be my hand.

She smiled kindly. “I don’t see why not.”

That was what Lara felt when she came around a few hours later: Me sitting up on a chair holding her hand.

“Kit,” she mumbled.

“I’m here. I’m never leaving you again.”

“My heart and chest hurts,” she whispered.

“I know, baby. I know. I’m sorry.”

“What happened to me?”

“Shh … Rest now. We’ll talk about it later.”

I stood up and kissed her forehead, and waited for her to drift back to sleep. I watched the even movement of her chest, then I walked out of her room. It was already light outside.

In the car park I found my pickup. As we had agreed, the guys drove my pickup here and left the key behind the visor. I got into it and drove into town where I found a diner and went in for breakfast.

I ordered a big breakfast, the whole works, and I ate it like a starving man. I drank two cups of black coffee, then I went to the phone box at the side of the restaurant and called Sheriff Bradley. I told him what had happened and asked him if he could tell Elaine about the incident.

“Was there any evidence left behind?” Sheriff Bradley asked.

“Nope. None at all. You don’t have any clues, do you?”

“Not off the top of my head. Must be kids foolin’ around your place again. I’ll have to send out a stern warning.”

“I’d appreciate that, Sheriff. Mighty good of you to do that. I’ll be right here in Tapley for the next few days,” I said. “I saw a motel as I was passing, I’ll probably check in there.”

“What’s it called?”

“The Big Blue.”

“Yeah, I know it. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know.”

“Much appreciated, Sheriff. Much appreciated.”