I draw back even as I ache for the taste of Andy’s pathetic blood. But now my arms are giving out, and then I find Kellen kneeling on one side of me and Ignacio on the other, keeping the flailing Andy pinned down. His pulse thrums in his neck, perfect for my teeth to sink into.
A bank teller is on his way, too, and a crowd has gathered. Almost everyone else around us has their mobiles raised, recording it all. If I were caught on camera murdering Andy—I would never see freedom, or Peony, again.
I recoil, my jaws flexing as I fight for control. But it doesn’t matter, not anymore. The world is fading, the sound drowning out and the lights going dim. I reach for my little flower as I finally collapse to the floor beside Andy, and she wraps her hand around mine.
“I’m with you, Rupert,” Peony says in a faint whisper. At least she’s safe. That’s what matters as the pool of blue blood around me grows bigger, the world drifting away.
And then, it all goes black.
Beeping.
Frantic voices. More beeping. Horrible pain lances through me, followed by a strange, uneasy lightness. The agony slows, and I feel everything else slowing, too.
“Please, Rupert,” I hear Peony begging. “Please, stay with me.Please.”
I would never leave her, not if I had a choice. I feel hersmall hand squeeze mine, and then suddenly she’s gone, and I’m surrounded by unfamiliar faces in masks.
“It’s not working,” a woman’s voice says.
“Try more,” someone else answers. “He’s huge.”
“I can’t find his veins.”
“What the hell is this thing?”
The pain settles down even more, and then everything goes dark again.
peony
Rupert. My Rupert.
This can’t be it. This can’t be the end for him, not when I’ve only just found him.
Is this my punishment for even considering leaving? I hunch forward in my seat in the waiting room, tears bursting free from my eyes again. Kellen puts an arm around me, pulling me in against his side.
But it feels like nothing. There is no comfort in the world that can soothe me. Will I ever feel anything but sadness again if Rupert doesn’t make it through this?
“I’m sorry we didn’t meet under better circumstances,” I say to Ignacio with a sniffle. “I like your flowers, though.”
He holds up the bright arrangement that’s clearly been through hell. “Brought them for you, actually. To thank you for having me over for dinner.”
I laugh through my tears, and he passes the half-bare flowers over to me. “And what a dinner it turned out to be.”
My gaze drifts back to the door to the emergency room, where I keep trying to manifest a doctor who will tell me Rupert’s stable, that he’s going to survive. I’m close todemanding they let me see him because I need to tell him how much I love him before I lose him.
I can’t think like that. Iwillsee him again.
He will make it back to me, I know it.
The cops have already questioned me at length about Andy’s kidnapping after they took him away in a car. I’m fully exhausted, as are Kellen and Ignacio.
At last, the doctor emerges. I leap to my feet and rush toward her. She holds up her hands, a tight smile on her face.
“He made it through surgery,” she tells me, and I’m so overjoyed I could simply weep again. “And he’s stable now, though it was a challenge to figure out his… anatomy.” She sighs. “But it will be a long road to recovery.”
I don’t care how long it takes him to be better, as long as he’s still here with me. I collapse into Kellen’s arms, and he has tears in his eyes, too.
The doctor doesn’t leave, though. “What is he?” she asks me. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’ve seen alotof things.”
