The remaining nurse checks the IV drip, takes Ash’s pressure once more and checks his eyes. She turns as if to go.
A wave of noise from the door makes me glance around.
Someone has walked inside, a tall, broad-shouldered young man, his dark hair tousled from the wind, his expression dark with fury and perhaps fear. Something about him forces me look twice. He’s handsome in a rugged sort of way, but the shape of his eyes, the nose, the mouth...
Weird. He looks a lot like Ash.
So I’m not that surprised when he marches toward the nurse and barks, “How’s my brother?”
Chapter Twenty
Asher
Where’s Audrey? I can’t shake the feeling there’s danger—she’s in danger and I have to warn her, help her. She’s calling my name and I’m running down endless streets, trying to find her. Dark fog swirls around me, and knives glint in the shadows. Eyes are watching me.
I need to reach the water, find the lake, but first of all I need to find her.
Audrey.
I have to talk to her, tell her. I’m a fuck-up. She must know. It’s dangerous for her, being with me. Being anywhere near me is a mistake. I have to warn her to stay away. Have to tell her everything.
“Ash, it’s okay,” a voice says—her voice, soft and reassuring. “I know it all already. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
She knows? I reach for her. Can’t rest until I see she’s okay. Slender fingers tangle with mine and I feel the press of warm lips on my cheek.
“You should go,” I say. I have a feeling I’ve said it many times already.
“I’m not leaving you,” she whispers. “Not ever.”
My eyes open and I see her face over me, hazy. I reach up, touch her mouth. She smiles.
I’m dreaming. Yeah, that has to be it.
“Love you, Auds,” I say, and my throat hurts as if I’d swallowed broken glass. Because this isn’t what I’m supposed to be saying to her, but in the end it all boils down to this. “I want you safe.”
“Love you too,” she says. “I’m safe. Now rest.”
I’m definitely dreaming. But that’s all right. It’s a good dream. One I don’t want to end, even though pain’s winding its way through the haze to stab various parts of me.
Why am I hurting? Flashes of angry faces and glinting blades crisscross my thoughts. I know something bad has happened. But I can’t fathom what as the darkness pulls me down into blissful oblivion once more.
***
Voices. They seem to float over my head, one louder than the other. Male, rumbling voices that are somehow familiar.
Audrey. She was there with me. Right? I talked to her, and she said...
No, scratch that. She most likely wasn’t there. It was probably a dream.
A spasm goes through my body and pain shoots through every nerve. Oh fuck, what happened to me?
“Ash, hey bud.” A rustle, a screech as a chair is pushed back. “I’ll call the nurse.”
Nurse. Hospital. The smell of antiseptic finally registers, but I’m too busy trying to figure out how to relieve the pain burning through my side to ask why I’m here.
“Hold still,” the other voice says, a voice that holds such authority over me I ins
tantly stop struggling. “You’ll pull out the stitches.”