All I knew was, he wanted me in his bed and he was looking to submit.
For now, Ezra was the one. And I needed him desperately.
1. JACQUES
I lay in a hospital bed, and my skin itched as if I’d been infested by a thousand mites. I scratched my skin, picking at the scabs that had formed. I hated sitting on my hands, healing, and being forced to drink the green smoothies provided to me by the Sanctum staff.
“Stop it,” June, one of the medical staff said. They all wore the same formal-ish style drab gray shirt that was so unoffensive to the eyes it made me want to rage. “I’ll apply chamomile to it, but if you don’t stop itching, I might be forced to sedate you.”
“I’m calm,” I said, my hands curled up into near fists.
June hummed, looking at my chart. “Come on, Jacques, you know the only way to get medical clearance is to follow the orders,” she said, dotting her finger against the paper. “You’ve not been taking all your meds.”
“I have.” A lie. “How would you even know?”
“Your urine output,” she said. “There’s no trace of the sedative. It’s got an antihistamine in it that your body requires.”
“No.” I shook my head. “That shit makes me feel like I’m drunk. I don’t like to feel out of control. Tell Mercy I’m checking myself out and I’ll head to a local A&E so they can sort me out.”
It was my fault completely. I’d fallen into a bush of poison ivy and sumac—or whatever it was called. It had covered most of my skin, even though I hadn’t been naked, but there was something about leaves, they were alive and shit, and they’d probably decided my entire body was the perfect place to rub their grubby little poisonous leaves.
“She’s not going to let you leave,” June said. “You’re not going to be able to explain to her why you were in a tree spying on someone. Unless you’d like to catch a stalking charge from the police.”
“I wasn’t stalking,” I said. “I was checking in on someone.”
“From the tree outside their apartment?” she smirked, looking at the chart. Outside in the real world, people didn’t sass me, because they knew I’d punch their entire jaw clean of teeth. Obviously, in here, violence wasn’t allowed, and this was June, she’d helped me through a lot—I’d never hurt her, or anyone here. This place had rehabilitated me when I was at my worst.
I snatched the chart from her. “Is that all written on here?” I glanced over the medical mumbo jumbo.
“No,” she said. “It’s just what I’ve heard. You know we don’t just come in here to take care of you. We’ve got to report back to Mercy—well, Tabby, the medical suite manger. Just like you’ve got to debrief.” She sighed. “Now, let me go get you some of those tablets I want you to swallow.”
Rolling my eyes, I rubbed a hand across the edge of the clipboard. It was so hard... and perfect for a good scratch on the raised, itchy patches of skin where my body had been touched by the ivy. As she came back with them in a paper cup, she took the binder and watched as I tried my best not to take the pills. I failed. The only time I’d ever been fine with being told what to do... and five minutes later, I was out of it.
***
Mercy was in front of me the next time I woke up. And a man and woman were standing around me, rubbing down my limbs with a thick floral-scented cream. It was all a haze for a moment, before I came to and the ache of the canula in my arm reminded me those drugs were in my system. And because me and pain had a good relationship, those drugs were tearing through like there was no tomorrow.
“You could’ve done a lot more damage,” Mercy said. “What the heck were you doing?”
“None of your business,” I mumbled, my mouth numb, almost unable to fully open. “I was... doing my business.”
“Reaper,” she said, placing a hand on my chin and turning my face. “Jeez. You do not seem well. Ever since Donovan left, you’ve taken his reckless streak. I don’t like it. You’re one of my best, and I have two requests for your services on my desk.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you want. I don’t do drugs.” The words made sense in my head, but they weren’t coming out the way I was hoping. “I don’t do drugs.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “We know.” She gestured around and it was like my vision was inside a fishbowl with everyone looking at me. I could barely feel my arms. I didn’t know if the cream had numbed them, or if it was those stupid tablets I’d been forced to swallow. “But you need to make sure you’re better. Let’s get the doctor in and see if we can speed this process up.”
I’d been in these comfy Sanctum hospital beds many times, they were a second home to me, especially when it came to mending broken bones and gunshot wounds.
June appeared beside the doctor. “We’ve been giving him thesolaphenidine hydrochloride.”
“And it’s working,” the male doctor said, flashing a small torch light in my face. I tried my best to flinch or even stop him, but I was numb on the bed, and lifting a limb that was being massaged down with cream was practically impossible. “You should sleep. The sedative in your system will help with the histamine response to the poison sumac on your skin. It’ll be a few weeks until you’re properly healed.”
“No,” Mercy said from behind. “Do something faster.” She snapped her fingers. “I know you can do it. I don’t know, induce a coma, push him through.” That was all I caught ofthe conversation before falling asleep... for what seemed like forever.
***
Time didn’t operate the same in Sanctum as it did everywhere else. It could’ve been five minutes but felt like five hours, or even five days. This place had everything you could ever need, and some things you wouldn’t want, like to spend days attached to an IV in a hospital bed not knowing if they were going to discharge you or pump you full of drugs.
