Revelation (The Protectors 7)

White hot rage went through me as I accepted what I was seeing, but the sound of the water turning off in the other room had me quickly rolling Ethan onto his back and covering him with the blanket as I tucked the bloodied underwear beneath the pillow. Lucy appeared at my side a moment later with a large Tupperware container full of water and a hand towel.

“I couldn’t find a washcloth,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

“This is fine,” I acknowledged.

The girl’s hands were shaking violently as she handed the items over. “Is he..is he gonna die?”

“No,” I automatically said, though I had no idea if that were true or not. The bruises on his back and torso meant he could have internal bleeding of some kind and the head wound was potentially a whole other issue. I searched out my phone so I could call Ronan, but I had no signal.

Fuck, we were on our own.

“Is there a phone here?” I asked.

Lucy shook her head.

“What about your cell phone?”

The girl hesitated before saying, “We got rid of them on the way up here.”

Right, so they couldn’t be tracked.

“Ethan…Ethan said he was okay…that nothing was broken and he just had a concussion. He told me to wake him up every couple of hours if he fell asleep and ask him questions like who I was and stuff.”

“How long have you been here?” I asked as I began washing Ethan’s face to get rid of the dried blood.

Lucy didn’t respond and I glanced up to see her eyes filled with fear and confusion. “Who are you?” she whispered and I could hear a mix of terror and hope in her voice.

“My name is Cain. A friend of Ethan’s sent me,” I hedged.

“Ethan doesn’t have any friends,” she automatically responded.

“Someone he worked with at the hospital was worried about him when he didn’t show up for work yesterday or today. He sent me to make sure he was okay.”

“How…how do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked warily.

I sighed, though I couldn’t really fault her for her suspicions. “Because if I’d wanted to hurt you guys, I would have done it already. If I wanted to take you back to whoever did this” – I motioned to Ethan’s battered face – “We’d already be halfway down the mountain.”

Lucy was silent for a long time and I was certain she wasn’t going to answer me when she finally said, “We got here yesterday.”

“Has Ethan been out the whole time?” I asked.

She shook her head. “He sleeps off and on and I wake him up like he told me to. He didn’t want to eat anything, but he’s been drinking water whenever he wakes up.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“Are you hurt anywhere? Did the man who hurt Ethan-”

“No,” she interjected. “Just Ethan.”

I waited for her to say more, but she remained silent.

“You said the heat isn’t working, but there’s power?”

Lucy nodded.

“Okay, stay here with him. I’ll check it out.”

I didn’t wait for Lucy to respond as I left the room and did a quick tour of the small cabin. It was surprisingly modern for its remote location and the fact that it wasn’t running on a generator was both good news and unexpected. Whoever owned the place had had the money to get hooked into the electrical grid. The problem with the heat was an easy fix because it turned out to be nothing more than a blown fuse. Within a minute of me resetting the fuse and turning the switch on the thermostat, the heat kicked in. I did a quick study of the kitchen and saw there were a few things in the fridge that looked like typical gas station convenience food fare. Blessedly, the freezer was full and the pantry next to the fridge was also stocked. If the storm trapped us up here a for a few days, we’d be okay at least.

I returned to the bedroom and saw Lucy kneeling next to the bed, her head resting on Ethan’s chest. Her hands were wrapped around Ethan’s lax fingers.

As I neared her, I realized she’d fallen asleep. I approached her, but stayed near the foot of the bed as I softly called her name. As expected, she jolted awake and her panicked eyes scanned the room before settling on me.

“Lucy, why don’t you go change?” I said as I glanced at her wet pants and shoes. “Maybe lie down for a bit?”

“No…no, I can’t leave him,” Lucy whispered tiredly as she rubbed at her eyes.

I took a chance and stepped closer and was pleased when she didn’t shrink away from me. I suspected she needed a comforting touch, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it so I said, “I promise to stay with him and I can come get you if he wakes up.”