Fourth a Lie

The doctor’s shock spoke loudly: Wow, you don’t look so good. Holy shit, how are you still breathing? But he wisely kept his lips clamped together and leaped into a medical professional who hopefully knew how to reverse the process of death.

Rushing toward Sully, he gathered Jealousy into his arms. The two men glared at each other. The awkward manoeuvre of transferring a girl from one embrace to the other made Sully clench his jaw and murder glow in his eyes.

The doctor swallowed hard and looked away, his body tensing as he took Jealousy’s weight. The second Campbell held her securely, he rushed toward the door and pushed through it. Looking over his shoulder, he commanded, “Follow me.”

Sully turned his head, catching my gaze. He shrugged wearily and held out his hand. “Can you walk a little farther?” The pride echoing in his tone made my heart kick with a healthy kind of joy.

Tripping to him, I slid my fingers through his. We used each other as crutches, our bodies kissing and skin singeing where we touched. “I can manage.”

He shook his head as we slowly made our way to the door and pushed through it. “You’ve surprised me once again.”

I shook away the cobwebs in my mind. “How so?”

He pulled me into a room reeking of potent antiseptic just as Dr Campbell placed Jealousy on a bed by a cabinet full of vials and concoctions. “You’re still awake. After everything you went through. After your heart almost gave out—”

“Don’t look at me as if I’m a miracle for staying awake. Not when you’ve endured days of torture and God knows what else. You’re the one who’s the miracle, Sully. Not me.”

He scowled, guiding me to a second bed pushed on the opposite wall. “Tritec helped. You didn’t have anything to boost you.”

“Tritec better not hurt you any more than you already are,” I muttered, sitting down gratefully, dangling my heavy legs off the edge of the bed.

Sully grunted and stayed standing, leaning against the bed, staying in touching distance while our attention fell on the doctor and his rapid work on Jealousy. “It should still be helping me. The drug is supposed to have a stacking effect. Energy is supposed to compound until the injected adrenaline overpowers the natural biochemistry.” He shrugged. “It feels as if it’s faded. Perhaps the dose Campbell gave me wasn’t strong enough.”

Campbell whipped his head to us as he cocooned Jealousy in blankets. “I gave you a full syringe, Sinclair. Any more and it would’ve been an overdose almost certain to kill you.”

Sully crossed his arms. “If I’m to clean up the mess you made, I need another hit.”

“You’ll get nothing of the sort from me.” The doctor pierced Jess’s hand with an IV, grabbed a bottle of who knew what from the cupboard, and injected her with a few needles and their contents. “Where’s your brother?” He gently removed Jess’s earbuds and eye lenses.

Sully yawned, clamping a hand over his mouth before answering sluggishly. “Out cold in Euphoria. He has three guards watching over him.”

“Only three?”

Sully grinned cruelly. “Four are dead and three have been sent away.”

“Are there any more?” Campbell continued to fuss as he treated Jealousy.

“Not that I should give you any information, you traitor, but according to one of their team, there was ten of them. Whether or not that can be trusted is another matter.” Sully stroked my thigh, his touch bringing comfort and affection. “Whether or not I trust you is also a topic to be discussed.”

“You need my help currently, so trust doesn’t matter.” The doctor peered into Jealousy’s eyes, shining a torch over her pupils.

“When you cease to be useful, I will make a decision about your ability to breathe.” Sully’s tone was deadly as a shark. “Don’t think this truce of ours will remain once I’m back in power.”

Campbell flinched but nodded. “I’m aware I betrayed you but remember my aid when you make your final decision. If you come back into power.”

“Drake is as good as dead.” Sully’s fingers latched around my knee with sudden violence. “His three guards are nothing.”

“You are a force to be reckoned with, I will not deny that.” The doctor continued working on Jealousy. “But even the strongest of us have failures.”

Leaning forward a little, I caressed my fingers over the back of Sully’s hand, reminding him that it was okay to rest...just for a little while. That here, in this surgery, we could try to regroup and heal.

Campbell wasn’t our enemy...for now.

Drake would remain passed out for hours and, seeing as Jess had given him elixir too, his system would not only be exhausted but severely depleted.

Sully could easily overthrow him...if he regained a little strength.

“Sully...” I smiled tiredly, wishing I could snuggle into him and sleep. “Come here.”

He came nearer, cupping my cheek with tender fingers. “Sleep, Jinx. Go to sleep. I’ll stand guard.”

My eyelids closed.

I wrenched them awake.

How dare he have the magic to send me under when I needed to stay coherent for him. “Sit with me.”

He ran his thumb over my bottom lip, making me tingle. “I will. Soon.”

My eyelids closed again.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted them up.

If I had to glue them open, I would. I refused to sleep until I knew Jealousy was okay and Sully wasn’t about to die on me.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry again, Sinclair,” Campbell muttered, adding a different solution to Jess’s IV.

Sully grumbled, “Help Jealousy and Eleanor, and maybe I’ll think about accepting your apology.”

Campbell wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, the muggy island refusing to abate even with the air conditioner cooling the space. “At least that was the last of elixir.” Measuring out yet another injection, he tapped the syringe for air bubbles. “Drake came asking if I had any spare. I’m glad you only had a few left.”

Sully stretched out his back, sighing heavily. “I have four hundred vials ready to go.”

The doctor spun to face him, fury pinking his wrinkled face. “What? Where? Get rid of it.” He waved his hand at me and Jealousy. “I’m guessing you saw the effects first-hand after last night. I heard the guards saying that Jealousy had a seizure while serving in the hallucination, yet Drake just kept right on fucking her.”

“Shit.” Sully hung his head, raking a hand through his tangled hair. “Will she be okay?”

“She’ll die if she has another dose.”

My heart flurried. “Is the damage reversible?”

The doctor made eye contact with me, his anger subsiding a little. “I don’t know yet. Only time will tell. Time and detox from that heinous drug.” His gaze narrowed, locking back on Sully. “What do you plan on doing with the four hundred vials you have? Tell me you’re going to use them on those poor goddesses, and I’ll march out of here and get a gun to shoot you myself.”

Sully stiffened, sucking up the shadows of the room, wearing a cape of authority and dominion. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but I’m destroying them.”