I was losing my fucking mind.
To put it mildly.
In the hour since I’d found Elle standing in a sea of glass, she’d barely said a word. She’d let me set her on my bathroom counter and pull the slivers of glass from her feet and legs with a face of stone.
Libby had freaked out for her.
Johnny had come storming into the bathroom, demanding to know why she’d been in the kitchen and what she’d heard before I’d been able to shove him out. But Elle hadn’t so much as flinched or looked at him.
She hadn’t touched the food I’d given her.
And when I’d put her in my bed, she’d tried to stand, saying she had to leave.
But that was it.
She hadn’t fought when I’d told her to rest instead. She’d just lain down and had been staring blankly ahead ever since.
“Let me try talking to her alone,” Libby offered from where she sat on the end of my bed.
“Because that went so great last time,” Einstein said with a snort from where she stood, leaning against the wall next to Johnny. As always, her face was buried in her phone. “You took one look at her feet and started screaming. Since when are you afraid of blood?”
“I’m not leaving her alone with you,” I said before Libby could snap back. “She was fine. I leave and this happens. I need to know what happened to her while I was gone.”
My accusing stare darted to my sister.
“I was getting my nails done,” Libby shot back, annoyed that I would blame her for having anything to do with this.
“I was in the middle of a computer crisis, still—”
“Or maybe,” Johnny said, cutting off Einstein, “it’s like I said. She was listening when she shouldn’t have been. Maybe she heard something she shouldn’t have.”
“She is right here,” Elle mumbled.
I turned to look at her. Eyes and face still blank.
“Newbie,” Maverick shouted, running into the room just before Diggs barreled in behind him. “Nerd. Dude, what happened?”
“Out,” I said through clenched teeth. “Everyone out.”
“We just got here,” Diggs complained, but immediately put his hands up in surrender as he stepped back. “But we’re leaving.”
Johnny slanted a glare at Elle as he stepped toward the door, then gave me a look as he slipped out.
I knew what it meant . . . I knew what he wanted.
He wanted to interrogate her.
He was fucking insane if he thought I’d let him near her.
Biting back a groan, I rubbed my hands over my face and turned back to Elle just as she pulled herself into a sitting position.
I studied every movement, looking for any indication she was going to faint like I’d been waiting for all hour, but there was nothing.
“Elle . . .”
“I’m sorry,” she said immediately, the emotion finally back in her tone even if there was no life in her eyes.
“Sorry? Why are you sorry? I just want to know what happened and what I can do to help you.”
She blinked before meeting my gaze, the action slow, like it was taking all her strength. “I don’t know what happened,” she said honestly. “I was standing there about to get water. I could hear you talking in the other room, and then everything went dark and it was so loud. Then suddenly you were there.”
True.
Every word.
“Has this ever happened before?”
Her head tilted as though she was about to start shaking it, but then she paused. “Yes,” she whispered. “A long time ago.” She swallowed, then dropped her head like she was ashamed. “But I passed out for nearly an hour that time.”
“Jesus, Elle.”
The corners of her mouth curved up before falling, the first sign of life on her beautiful face. “Progress, I guess.”
Pressing my knuckles under her chin, I lifted her head to look into her eyes. “Not funny,” I told her as I pushed up her slipping glasses.
She swatted at my hand, another hint of a grin flashing across her face. “No, it’s not.” She dragged her fingers through her long hair as she sucked in a deep breath, then released it. “Dare, I have to go.”
“Are you kidding? You just—I don’t even know how to describe what happened to you. You’ve been a zombie for the last hour. I’m not letting you go.”
“I need to go before this gets worse. And I promise you it is going to get worse.”
“Then stay,” I urged. “Let me take care of you.”
“Remember what I said?” she asked, her voice calm and eyes filled with sadness. “If I don’t go soon, I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to get back to you.” She slid her hands into my hair, then let her fingers slowly drag down until they were intertwined around the back of my neck. “Let me go so I can come back to you.”
“Do you have any idea how frustrating you are?” I asked as I gripped her waist, pulling her closer to me. “If you never left, you wouldn’t have to worry about when you’d be able to come back. I wouldn’t have to wander through the dark, waiting for you to light up the night. You’d already be here.”
She sat up, crushing her mouth to mine. “Until the very end.”
Before I could try to stop her, she was slipping out of my arms and off the bed.
“Let me do what has to be done, Dare,” she begged when I started to follow her. “I would’ve stayed that first night if things were different. I hate that they’re not. I hate that I can’t change them. And I hate that I put you in a position where you only know so much. But let what you do know be enough, because that’s all I can give you.”
Once she was in her own clothes and had her purse slung over her shoulder, she took a step toward the door, but stopped, rocking back on her heels.
Turning toward where I stood with my arms crossed over my chest so I wouldn’t reach for her and keep her with me, she walked up to me and leaned up on her toes to whisper in my ear, “It shreds my soul walking away from you.”
I love you. Stay.
The words were there, begging to be freed, but the fear of what would happen to her kept them choked back like a rock in my throat.
I watched her go, my jaw ticking and muscles twitching as she did.
She got a foot from the door before I ate up the distance and grabbed her, turning and pressing her against the wall to claim her mouth one last time.
Her body immediately relaxed beneath mine, her hands gripping at my shirt to pull me closer. I teased the seam of her lips, begging entrance and groaning when she opened for me.
My fingers curled against the wall, wanting to grab her and pull her back to the bed, but knowing I couldn’t keep her there forever.
A whimper scraped up her throat when I nipped at her lip, and I knew I was seconds from forgetting what she needed.
“Five seconds before I remind you why you shouldn’t go,” I warned, leaning back just enough to give her space to get away.
Her chest moved roughly with her heavy breaths as she looked up at me with indecision in her eyes. But just before I grabbed her and hauled her back to bed, she kissed the tattoo on my bicep, then ducked from under my arm to slip out of the room.