My eyes meet Brigit’s as I try to yell at her, “Go. Run.” but I think the words are a bit slurred.
A loud gunshot rings through the air, and I watch Brigit’s face as she flinches, looking right through me in horror.
I collapse to the floor, and she follows, keeping her hands over thewound on my stomach. Wherever Steele fucking shot me this time, at least I can’t feel it.
That’s definitely bad, right? If I can’t even feel a gunshot, I’m definitely dying. At least the last thing I’ll ever see is Brigit.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble.
She shakes her head, holding mine up, “You’re not dying, Cormac, so stop acting like you are.”
I might be.
“I just have to tell you,” I push through the fog setting in. “I just need you to know that I love you. And I’mnotsorry for stalking you. I’m not sorry for being so in love with you that it made me into a man with no conscience. But Iamsorry that I didn’t explain everything when I had the chance.”
Her lips wobble, and she looks up behind me, her eyes on something I just have to hope isn’t Steele coming to finish the job before I finish soaking in the last seconds we’ll have together.
“How lucky a bastard am I that I got to fall in love with you twice?” I ask nobody in particular.
Movement jostles me, Brigit, under one arm, holding my body up, and somebody else on the other side.
She smiles sadly, nearly buckling under my weight, “You didn’t even know me.”
“I knew you the second we met. Every time we met.” My head spins, “Every universe, Bunny. Every time we meet in every universe, I’ll know you instantly and you’ll be mine, yeah?”
With a nod and a sniffle, she answers, “Yeah.”
A gruff, familiar voice close to my other side mumbles, “Good god, Fomori, you’re so sappy. You’ve only lost a little blood, you’ll be fine.”
I’m pretty sure he’s lying.
“I’m notlying. I’m being absurdly optimistic,” Skyler corrects.
Loud sounds echo as sudden bright lights assault me, barely keeping me on this side of consciousness.
“Right here!” Brigit’s strained, shaky voice echoes in my ears. “He needs help!Please!”
New, unfamiliar hands try to take me from Brigit and Skyler’s hold, and I try to fight with my limbs that weigh a thousand pounds.
“Cormac,” Brigit grabs my face, bringing my gaze to hers, none of the world around us meaning anything anymore. Her deep chocolate eyes are filled with tears that form a line down her face. “Cormac, they’re going to help you. They’re taking you to the hospital.”
The hospital again?
She laughs, “Yeah, you and Skyler. But I’ll be right behind you, okay?”
Did I say that out loud?
She nods, and it’s the last thing I see before the haze takes me under.
The next thing I register is the beeping of machines.
And once again, my entire body drowning in agony.
“Cormac,” a familiar voice brings me all the way back to life.
But when I open my eyes, I’m surprised not to see Skyler or Brigit, but Dr. Sad-Eyes.
“Hey, Doc,” I cough out a laugh. “Did you miss me?”
