“The ranger was a proud, quiet man. He’d seen his share of battle and death was an old friend. But tonight, he would become truly acquainted with evil.”
Oscar, now small and orange again, jumps onto Bastian’s lap. He strokes the cat’s back, leaving streaks of blood across him. Oscar peers at me with his yellow eyes, a keen knowing in them. I will have questions for him later, if one can question a cat…
“Read, ple’se,” Bastian gurgles as black trickles from his lips.
My hands shake so hard I have to set the book in my lap.
“Long was the road to hell, and it was paved with every misdeed the ranger had ever witnessed. Ever perpetrated.”
I look up and he nods for me to continue.
I read three chapters before his blood loss slows.
The sun crests the apex and heads toward the horizon.
Seventeen chapters and the wound is closing.
There have been knocks at the door but we’ve ignored them. My phone has chimed in my pocket but it’s inconsequential. My mouth is dry and I need to pee like all hell, but I read and read.
I’m blinking wearily, the words blurring together as I slur, when a hand grasps my shoulder.
“It’s okay now, Cait,” Bastian’s voice soothes me.
I lean into his arm and he pulls me from the ground. I ache everywhere. I’m hungry, and I really,reallyneed to pee.
“I have you, now,” he whispers as he pulls me up into his grasp.
“Don’t squish,” I complain, pointing to my belly.
“I won’t,” he replies, making sure not to curl me up.
He carries me to the stairs and takes them carefully—twisting and turning since I’m laid out on him like a plank of wood—as Oscar leads the way.
“You saved me,” he says. “More than just reading the story, you gave me your magic. You healed me.”
“Oh, good,” I mumble. “Toilet first please.”
He chuckles. “As you wish.”
A few doors later, and a strange removal of my stockings, I’m sitting on the porcelain throne.
“Out,” I say, waving him off.
“I’ll turn around,” he says.
“Nooo,” I moan. “You’ll hear, and smell.”
“I will also protect you from collapsing and bashing your head on the bathroom floor.”
I have to pee too badly to fight, so I let it out, a little bit of my dignity going with it but—
Goooooosh that feels so good.
Bastian laughs and I realize I’ve said it out loud.
“What is my cat?” I ask as the pee trickles out of me.
“A son of Cluasan Mora.”
