Chapter Twenty-Three
Harley
In the days following the disastrous outing to the Oh! Club, I'd stubbornly camped out at the hospital. First, in a corner of the tiny emergency room cubicle as the medical staff fought to save Scott's life. After that, I'd sat in the chair by his bed and listened to the machine breathing for him as his body fought to heal the lung that had been punctured by the dagger when Scott jumped between me and the fucker trying to stab me.
To make it worse, the knife had been made of silver and, if I understood the frenzied conversation going on around me as the doctors struggled to stem the blood rushing from his back in the emergency room, Scott was allergic to silver.
It wasn't until much later that it occurred to me to wonder how anyone knew that. After all, I knew he'd only met them after I'd been grabbed six weeks earlier.
Levi had pleaded with me to go back to our guest house and rest. I'd declined.
Zade had ordered me out to the car, insisted that I take a break to eat and sleep. I'd refused.
Other than pick me up and carry me bodily from Scott's side – something I swear he considered for a moment - there hadn't really been anything he could do. The look on the faces of everyone in the room had been priceless; as if they'd never heard anyone refuse to do as he said.
It was the Empath, Trevor, who stepped to my side and supported me. Insisted that they allow me to follow my own path, whatever that meant.
From then on, there was always someone in the room with me – watching, I was sure, to be certain I didn't have a breakdown – but I was allowed to remain by Scott's bed.
The nursing staff brought me a food tray each time they made their rounds and, when I said I wasn't hungry the first time, the threat of making me leave if I didn't eat was enough to ensure I emptied the tray each subsequent time it was placed in front of me.
A few hours before Scott had finally woken, one of the nurses - a large, overly friendly woman with frizzy brown hair named Brenda – had wrinkled her nose dramatically and ordered me to the shower. Again, afraid of being exiled if I didn't cooperate, I rushed through a shower and, when I stepped out of the tiny cubicle, found a neatly folded set of soft hospital scrubs waiting to replace my filthy clothes.
As I slid into the bed beside Scott, I sent a silent prayer of thanks to Brenda for the forced hygiene.
Long after Scott fell asleep, I lay awake, listening for his every breath. Holding my own as his lungs filled and then releasing it along with the faint rattle of his exhalation. Repeating indefinitely as I held his hand to my chest, above my heart.
The gentle sound of Scott's even breaths finally lulled me to sleep.
The air around me was deep and dark, the light from the full moon barely making it through the leaves overhead.
I was sitting on a log, staring into a deep pit in the middle of the path when the sound of leaves crunching under booted feet chased away the silence.
I turned and gasped, a scream freezing in my throat as I stared at the monster lumbering toward me, long fangs dripping with blood and red eyes glowing in the dark.
"The important thing is to remember is the rock, okay?" Trevor's words rushed through my mind. "You can fight back, okay? You just have to focus your energy."
I struggled to my feet, the damp air choking me as I frantically searched the ground around me for anything I could use as a weapon. A low snarl came from behind me and when I turned, it was my wolf, but he wasn't looking at me. He was low to the ground, his body rigid as he walked stiff-legged toward the approaching monster. His beautiful fur stood on end and his lips were drawn back in a ferocious grin, his massive fangs glinting as they caught slivers of moonlight.
I was staring, shocked that the gentle animal I knew could appear so vicious, when he sprang forward, latching onto the throat of the monster in front of me and ripping it out. He spat the flesh to the ground and backed up, his keen eyes locked on his victim.
The monster staggered one step. Then another. Finally falling to its knees and collapsing to the forest floor, dead eyes staring up into the starless sky.
My wolf shook himself, blood from the fur around his mouth spattering the tree trunks around him, before walking over to my side.
"Thank you." When I placed my hand on his back, he whimpered and pulled away, looking at me with sad eyes. My hand was damp, and when I held it out into a ray of moonlight, I could see that it was red with blood.
"Scooter? You're hurt?" I asked, confused. I knew the monster hadn't managed to lay a claw or fang on him. I stared into his eyes. "What can I do for you?"
He nudged me back to the log and I sat. He pressed his way between my legs, sitting with a groan and leaning sideways against me to avoid putting pressure on his wound.
"You want me to hold you?" When he sighed, I wrapped my arms around him as carefully as possible and rested my cheek on the top of his head and we both drifted off to sleep.