Patrick shook off Jono’s hand and stood, pacing the small room because he couldn’t do anything else. He wasn’t a doctor, wasn’t a healer. He could do nothing butwait, and his powerlessness ate at him.
He was taking what felt like his hundredth turn around the room when Jono’s head snapped around, attention on the door. Patrick rocked to a halt, gaze going to the door that was shoved open not even a second later byWadeof all people.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Patrick asked in a strangled voice.
“I told Sage I wanted to be with you guys,” Wade said defiantly, an empty-looking backpack hanging from one hand.
“Did she tell you no?”
“Uh. She didn’t tell me yes?”
“So you left without telling anyone where you were going when the Dominion Sect is targeting us?” Patrick really wasn’t in the mood to explain how incredibly short-sighted and dangerous that was. “How the hell did you even get here so fast?”
Before Wade could answer, General Noah Reed caught the door before it closed and slipped inside the waiting room. “The fledgling flew. I sensed his arrival. You’re lucky radar didn’t catch him.”
“Youflew?” Jono asked as he stood, scowling at Wade even as he tapped away on his phone, probably updating Sage.
Wade gave him a stubborn look. “I wasn’t going to wait on some stupid airplane when I could get here faster on my own. I left out of Central Park, and no one saw me.”
“Where the bloody fuck did you even land?”
“Uh, Arlington?”
“I picked him up on my drive over here,” Reed said, coming to stand in front of Patrick. “He’s growing into his nature if he’s able to fly unnoticed by the masses and block radar with his scales.”
“You still can’t have him unless he signs up with the military of his own free will,” Patrick said.
“Oh, fuck no. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a uniform,” Wade retorted, coming toward Patrick.
“Shut up. You should’ve stayed in New York so you’d besafe.”
Wade ignored him, coming close enough to wrap his arms around Patrick and hug him so hard his spine cracked. “You were in trouble, and I wasn’t going to stay behind. Not this time.”
Patrick awkwardly patted Wade on the back, knowing that was guilt speaking, but he didn’t have the mental capacity at the moment to offer any meaningful comfort.
“The FBI wants your statement,” Reed said after Wade finally let Patrick go.
Because of course that agency had been called in to oversee an attack on a federal director. Patrick clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I can’t leave yet.”
“They’re on-site—”
“I mean I’m not talking to anyone who isn’t a doctor. Not until I know—” Patrick broke off, glaring at Reed, the world watery at the edges. “Whoever was out there tonight was aiming forme.”
“Setsuna is the director of the SOA and has a history with you. She is as much a target as you are in this fight. You can’t know for sure who they were aiming for, Collins. You can’t blame yourself for this.”
But he could, and he was, because he knew where that bullet should’ve gone.
“If that’s true, then the lot of you on that fancy joint task force are all targets,” Jono said, giving Patrick time to get himself under control when all he wanted to do was rage.
Reed slanted Jono an indecipherable look, blowing smoke out of his nose, no cigarette in sight. “Precautions are being taken as we speak. The various parties and agencies who needed to be updated on what happened have been informed. I have been told that Priya Kohli is now acting director of the SOA. She will be here shortly. We’re staging in an administration area of the hospital to stay out of the way of the staff here.”
Patrick nodded. “If—”
He cut himself off as the door to the waiting room was pushed open and a doctor was let inside by a military aide stationed in the hallway. The doctor was in scrubs, no white coat, and not wearing any operating gowns or gloves. Patrick could still see traces of blood splattered at the hem of his green scrub pants.
“Usually we contact family first, but I was directed here by an officer,” the doctor said, not appearing put off by that instruction.
“It’s a matter of national security that we know the outcome,” Reed said, turning to face the man.
