Jasper sighed.He hadn’t been planning on making a trip to the hospital today, but this day was full of surprises.
* * * *
ARCHIE WASN’T SURPRISEDto get a text from Jasper.Hewassurprised to see that, apparently, Jasper was at the hospital.
Braith had been moving toward the next house to talk to the people who lived there, too.Archie stopped following him and turned toward the car.
“What are you doing?”Braith asked.
“I just got a text from Jasper.He’s at the hospital.”
Braith’s eyes widened.“Is he okay?”
“I don’t know.He didn’t give me any details.”Which, as far as Archie was concerned, meant that he was probably on death’s door.It was an exaggeration, but maybe not as much of one as Archie hoped.Why wouldn’t Jasper have given him more details if he could have?It had to mean that he couldn’t, right?
“I’m driving,” Braith declared.
Archie was fine with that.His heart was racing, and he was pretty sure he would’ve crashed in his haste to get to Jasper.Braith would go more slowly, and while it would drive Archie nuts, it would keep both of them safe.Archie didn’t need to join Jasper in whatever hospital room he was in right now.
He didn’t know what to think, and things didn’t get better when they reached the hospital to find two cops outside of the room Jasper was in.Archie didn’t want to talk to them, but they were blocking the entrance, so he didn’t have a choice.
“Can I see my boyfriend?”he snapped.
Braith cleared his throat behind him.“What my friend here meant to say is that he’s worried for his boyfriend since we know he’s here.Can you tell us what happened?”
The two cops looked at each other.One of them shrugged.“Fight between monsters.None of our business.”
Archie narrowed his eyes at them.“Someone was hurt.Isn’t your job to ensure that doesn’t happen?”
“The guy’s not human.If he didn’t want to get hurt, he should’ve been more careful.”
Archie took a step forward.His hands were squeezed into fists, and while he knew that punching a cop was the worst thing he could do right now, he couldn’t help the anger swelling in his chest.That man was saying that because Jasper wasn’t human, he didn’t matter.
The door opened behind the cops, and Jasper appeared.He glanced from the cops to Archie, then reached out and grabbed Archie’s arm.“Come in,” he murmured.“And thanks for nothing,” he added, looking at the cops.“Why are you still here if you’re not going to do anything?”
He didn’t wait for an answer.He pulled Archie inside the room, with Braith quickly following.When Jasper slammed the door shut, Archie relaxed, but only for a few seconds.
He grabbed Jasper’s shoulders and held him at arm’s length, looking him up and down to find out why he needed to be in the hospital.He looked okay.There wasn’t any blood on him.There wasn’t even a scratch that Archie could see.“What happened?”
Jasper gestured toward the other side of the room.“Cullen here decided to take a swan dive on the pavement.”
Archie blinked.“Cullen?”
Sure enough, when he turned, he found Cullen sitting on one of the beds, looking sheepish.There was a bandage on his nose and one on his left hand.Cullen raised it to wave, then winced and dropped it.“Hi,” he said.
Archie had no idea what was happening.“Hi.”
“We’re both okay,” Jasper reassured Archie.“We were in the monster district when two monsters approached us.I wanted to get out of there, but Cullen decided to face plant instead.”
“Were you attacked?”Archie needed to know whose ass he needed to kick if that was the case.
“Only by the asphalt.”
Cullen groaned.“It’s not funny.”
“It is a little now that we’re safe.You should’ve seen the way you fell.”
“I’m fine with never seeing it,” Cullen grumbled.“Feeling it was enough.”
