"Rex!"
Panic claws at my throat as I scramble to my knees, but the room spins and I drop, reaching out to grab the comforter, eyes slamming shut as I vomit onto the floor.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The added pressure in my head is making everything go dark. No. I can’t pass out. Something is wrong with Rex.
After a few seconds, the feeling passes and I look at him. His body is thrashing, all jerky and wild, his eyes rolling back, jaw locked like a vise.
Just as I climb onto the bed, he goes still but breathes like he's been running for miles.
"Rex, wake up." I shove him, trying to get him to open his eyes. "Wake the hell up!"
His breathing gets shallower, and I slap his chest, some of the blood from my hand wiping off on his shirt. “Wake up, please!”
I’ll beg him for the rest of my life if he’d just open those mossy green eyes.
Tears flow down my cheeks, and my throat tightens. I’m going to lose him.
He’s going to die.
“Please! Wake up.”
But nothing changes. What do I do?
“Fuck!”
I curl up into him, hand resting on his chest. His heart’s still beating, and it gives me a small sense of relief. But it might still stop, and even if it doesn’t now, one day it will.
One day, he’ll be gone.
It hits me then like a comet, and my voice breaks as I say what I’ve never told another soul.
"I love you, Rex. Please, don’t leave me.”
Chapter 10
I’mnotsurewhenI drifted off, but rays of sunlight filter through the windows, hurting my eyes even though they’re shut. The pain is everywhere, sharp and relentless.
Rex.
My body tenses, both wanting to turn over and check on him, yet also terrified he might be gone.
But before I move, he shuffles, and I nearly cry from relief.
"Feel like I got hit by a truck. Fuckin’ Ambien. I had the weirdest fever drea– Dev, why is there blood on my shirt?"
I stifle a groan. It’s bad enough falling asleep being afraid he was going to die, but I’m not sure I’m ready for his wrath when he finds out what happened when I went “hunting.”
I’ve never lied to him before, at least not about something like this. And fuck if my gut twists at the thought of seeing him disappointed rather than angry.
So I stare at the wall through my good eye, keeping my back to him.
“What the fuck. It’s. . . everywhere.” Sharp panic cuts through the hoarseness of his voice. “I know you’re awake. Talk right fuckin’ now.”
My muscles tense and I swallow hard, not moving. But then he’s tugging me flat onto my back. My head throbs at the wild movement.
"Devon!" He looms over me, color draining from his face, panic brewing in those hazel eyes. “You’re covered in blood! Your eye—”
