“I need to look at the back of her neck, would it be okay to move her on her side?” Bas asked.
“What does her neck have to do with it?” John demanded.
Bridget made a frustrated sound. “Do you want our help or not? Because we are wasting time.”
John seemed to pull himself together, but Bas could tell he didn’t like her tone. He would have waited a bit longer before going in forceful, but Bridget didn’t have his patience.
With John’s help, they rolled his wife onto her side, exposing her neck. A curving red line was like a raised welt, half hidden in her hairline.
“Bridget? Can I get you to hold her steady? John, you need to hold your wife’s feet.”
“Why…” he began and then shut his mouth when Bridget glared at him.
Bas hid his smile. “Bridget, bring me back if I drift too long.”
“How?”
“Use your imagination,” he said. He touched her mind.You can always kiss me.
Because this guy isn’t freaked out enough? If I start kissing you over his comatose wife, he’ll call the cops when I don’t stop.
You’re right. We will do all the kissing later. Just slap me or something instead.
Bad placed his fingers on the welt on the woman’s neck, and the stale room dropped away.
Lily’s mind was a mess of fog and dense black forest. The trees were like twisted fingers, and everything smelled of terror. The shadows between the trees condensed into the shape of a man. It was no man. Bas could feel it like a great kraken of multiple tentacles, all reaching out to another sleeper, feeding off all of them.
“You,” a voice echoed through the trees. “You took my favorite from me. The woman who is a hawk and so very sad.”
“She ismine,” Bas said, his dragon rising so fast he didn’t have to think about shifting.
Like the creature’s true form was a tentacled parasite, Bas’s truest heart was that of a dragon. He was claws and fangs and flame.
“You can’t save them all,” the shadow man hissed.
“You should have stayed asleep,” Bas growled, and fire burst out of him. The shadow creature screamed as the light and heat surrounded it, burning the sticky black trees and the creeping fog. Bas felt the second it left her mind, like a clawed sucker pulling free. A dark-haired woman sat in the ashes, sobbing.
“Are you Lily?” Bas asked gently.
“Y-Yes,” she blubbed.
Bas held out his hand to her. “Come on, Lily. Let’s go home to John.”
The trembling hand took his, and the world spun. Bas hit his body, and he blinked hard. His eyes were watering, and his cheek stung. He caught Bridget’s hand as she readied it for another slap. Her eyes were wild and frightened.
“I heard it scream in my head when you attacked it,” she said, her whole body shaking.
Bas kissed her palm. “I’m here. Don’t smack me again. I’m okay.”
“J-John?” The woman in the bed beside them croaked.
“Baby! I got you, love. I got you,” John said, pulling Lily close.
Bas reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He passed it to John, his whole body suddenly heavy with exhaustion.
“Draw this sigil under this bed, or the creature that was feeding off your wife will come back. I’ll make sure you get something more permanent soon,” Bas said, and got to shaky feet. Bridget slid an arm around his waist and helped him out of the apartment.
As soon as they were out of the building and under a clear sky, Bas began to feel better.
