by Nicole Thorn
He put his hands in his pockets. “Now, I will admit I stole this idea from my daughter. But she didn’t do much with it. How can she think that a few mind games could make up for the loss of her mother? Ridiculous. When she decided to stop, I decided to pick it up. My original intent was to take care of you last. Let you watch your friends and family die, knowing that someone was coming for you. But, unfortunately, my daughter is waiting for me. I need you taken care of before we leave in the morning. She’d be very disappointed in me if she found out. I’m sure you understand, little Fallen.”
I needed to get out of here. Every time I tried to focus on Hell, my mind would fight me with pain that made me forget to breathe. Hale was still around here. I couldn’t leave without him anyway. He might stumble on us right now. Then Miller kills him. I couldn’t let that happen.
He kept calling me a Fallen. So that meant Dottie didn’t tell him what I was. So he didn’t know that if he killed me it would send Lucifer coming for him. I didn’t have a safety net.
“So I’m thinking, I kill you. Then Wyatt. If I have time I might just go for your ‘mother’.” He used air quotes. “Maybe that aunt of yours.”
My hands were at my sides as I lay on the sidewalk. I could feel the glass all around me. So I did all I could do.
I took up a piece of glass in my hand and threw it as hard as I could at Miller. It hit him in the arm. It was enough of a distraction for me to get up and start running.
I didn’t know which way to go. So I just went. I stumbled about fifty feet before an arm wrapped around me. I felt glass cut across my neck followed by the coppery smell of blood as it trickled down my neck. My hand went to my throat and I felt the cut. Nothing major was severed but the blood was plentiful.
“You’re quite fast. Chalk that up to your divinity. But nothing is unstoppable,” he said, more cheerful than he deserved to be. He still had me in a chokehold as the blood was dripping from me. “I wish that I had tracking abilities like my wife did. I’d find every topside that you made and destroy them. This world should be rid of your blood. But I guess you’ll just have to do.”
I was wretched back by my hair and Millers hand went out as he got ready to sink the glass into my stomach. I sent my knee into his side and he doubled over.
He came back up quicker than I thought he could. He tossed the glass onto the ground and it shattered again. The man smiled as he reached for something in his vest. He produced a switchblade and opened it. “I bit more civilized, don’t you think?”
The thought came to mind that Hale would be looking for me soon. If he found me then he wouldn’t make it out of this. Not unless Miller died. I never promised Dottie that I wouldn’t kill him. I was going to try not to, but this was about my survival. I’d trade his life for mine.
I narrowly dodged the first swipe he took at me with the knife but the second cut through my forearm. I almost grabbed the knife from him but he backed up.
My foot went into his stomach and he fell backwards, the knife fell from his hands. I didn’t have any kind of weapon on me, so my only options were to run or to go for the knife. But I couldn’t run. Not when this man still wanted me dead. Not when he was willing to kill every one I love. The only choice I had was to kill him.
My head still throbbed with every move I made. But I fought on. My powers were useless but I was still strong. He was a topside and I was half of the purest evil in all of creation. He was nothing.
I reached for the knife that was beside Miller and I felt my legs go out from under me. He swept his foot along the back of my legs, causing me to fall onto my back.
When I was down he moved on top of me, putting his hands around my neck. They kept slipping once they were covered in blood but he just pressed against my throat harder.
I scratched and him blindly and desperately as I tried to get him off of me. My fingernails found the flesh of his face and I dragged them down. He made a pained sound as his skin tore. I shoved him off of me and he landed on his side.
Miller rolled away from me and I struggled to get up. I didn’t realize that he got the knife until I saw the moonlight glistening off of the blade. It tore through the air and landed solidly into my side. I screamed in pain as I felt it snap one of my ribs.
“RORY!” I heard Hale calling to me but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Just that it was far.
I saw Miller look up into the distance just before he tore his blade out of me. I screamed out again and my hand went to my side. Hot, sticky blood was oozing onto the concrete below me quickly. Whatever he did, it did its job.
In the darkness I could hear Miller scramble to get up and run. I thought he was running to hurt Hale, but I saw the blurry image of the man as he took off down the street.
Would Dottie ever know that he killed me? I didn’t think so. Her father would make sure of that. She’d be long gone before the news of my death hit the town.
My vision started going as everything began turning black. The pain in my head and body was lessening as sleepiness took over me. I could smell the blood pouring from my ribcage and neck. There was so much. I just knew it.
“Rory,” the voice was closer now. Still not quite here. By the time it was, it would be too late. I’d never see his face again. I was Hell bound. And now he was going to watch me die.
I felt his hands on me and his voice as he quietly panicked. My vision was gone and I couldn’t speak. I was hardly even there anymore. His hand went to the wound on my neck as he tried to stop the bleeding. It was pointless, but I couldn’t tell him that. I didn’t want the last thing I said to him be something that would smother the little bit of hope he had.
The darkness took me over and the last thing I heard was Hale begging me not to fall asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hit And Run
When I woke up I thought the first thing I’d see would be a bunch of other dead souls. Maybe a pigeon. A homeless man on a bench. But that wasn’t what I saw.
I opened my eyes and I saw Hale. He wasn’t looking at me but he was holding my hand so tightly that if I were human, he’d be breaking my fingers. His other hand was covering his mouth as he stared down at my side with dread.
“Why the sour look,” I croaked. My throat hurt when I talked. The cut stung and I could feel bandages around my neck.
Hale looked up at me with surprise and the smallest amount of joy that a person could have while still looking happy. He didn’t say anything as he quickly moved forward to kiss my forehead. It hurt but I kept my mouth shut.
He pet my hair and said, “I thought I lost you for a minute there.”
“I thought I lost me too. Glad to still be in the land of the living.” Even if it was barely.
“When I saw you lying there…” he trailed off. “Well I thought that it was over. You closed your eyes and you stopped breathing.”
I looked around my bedroom and down to my side. My shirt was pulled up to my bra and my side was bandaged. I lifted it up for a second to peek and saw that a jagged wound about four inches long was stitched. “What happened? Did you do this?”
“No. When I found you I carried you back home. Your mother and sister were already there. They did this.”
“Where are they now?”
“Hadley is with your mother in the living room. She thought that I’d like to be alone in here with you. Apparently I wasn’t doing well. Go figure.”
I reached out to him with the hand he wasn’t holding and touched his face. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
He laughed through his nose. “Scared isn’t even half of it. But it’s not your fault.” He kissed my palm. “He found you?”
I nodded, knowing what he meant. I filled him in on everything Miller told me. That he thought I was a Fallen and that everything he told Dottie was bullshit. This wasn’t over by a long shot.
“How’s Hadley?” I asked when my story was over.
The space between his eyebrows crinkled. “What do you mean?”
“Brom Bones. I’m assuming in between finding me dying and bringing me home you didn’t find him.”
He laughed. “That damn cat. No, I didn’t find him. Hadley did.” Before I could ask how, he said, “He was sitting on the porch screaming bloody murder when she got home. He was asleep in her lap last I saw.”
Stupid cat almost got us killed twice now. But I knew that Miller had been coming for me. So maybe it was a blessing. If he’d gotten into the house then Hale would have been vulnerable. It would have been too easy for Miller to take us both out. I knew that now. I knew that what I was meant nothing. I was just another person. One who could be killed if she wasn’t careful.
I went to sit up and Hale stopped me. “Hold on there, Lamb. You’ve got broken ribs and you’re about to tear your stitches. Maddy said that it should be completely healed in a few days. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
“Comes in handy.”
He moved so that he was in bed next to me. He still wouldn’t let me sit up. “Do you think he’ll come back for you?”
I took a deep breath and instantly regretted it. “Yes. A man like him won’t let this stop him. He would have killed me then if he didn’t hear you coming. Maybe he thought he couldn’t take two of us.”
“What about Dottie?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. He might take her and go. She just wants her father safe, so I don’t know whose side she’ll be on. I’m sure whatever he tells her will be twisted.” His face has scratches all down it and it was enough to convince her of whatever he says. She hated me; she didn’t want to be on my side.
My mom and Hadley came in with a tray of food for me. It was what they’d gone out to get. Hadley was nice enough to save me some bread. We all sat on my bed while I ate and I told them everything I told Hale. Hadley was laid out across the end of my bed, Mom was sitting in the corner, and Hale was by my side.
Hadley swiped a piece of my bread and said, “Told you it was good. Totally worth the drive.”
Mom swatted at her arm and cursed at her in an accent language. “Be kind to her. She was just stabbed. Not worth the drive.”
The bread was actually pretty good.
I glanced at the clock and it was well past midnight. “Jesus, how long was I out?”
“A few hours,” Mom said. “Trust me, it was better that way. The wound was so deep that I saw your rib.”
“Gross…” I frowned. Hale unconsciously gripped my hand tighter. I turned my head to him. “Where do Mason and Mollie think you are?”
“Oh,” Mom cut in. “I called them. I thought you might need him tonight so I said that you had a little car accident. He’s staying over tonight.”
Hadley muttered under her breath, “Like every other night.”
Mom grumbled. “I guess he is here a lot…” She lifted her eyes to him. “You’re pretty much living here now, aren’t you?”
Hale shrugged. “I still have most meals at home.”
Mom turned to Hadley. “Am I a bad mother for letting my seventeen year old have sleepovers with her boyfriend?”
“Nah,” Hadley said. “She’s a good kid. So is he. And they’re not even having sex. Losers,” she coughed into her hand and I nearly kicked her. “We’re children of The Devil. There are worse things we can do.”
“So true. I remember when I was young. I used to—” just as she was drifting off, she realized she was about to launch into a story that maybe she shouldn’t have been telling her kids. To change the subject she decided to take my other piece of bread and shove it in her mouth.
When I got to my pumpkin cheesecake I sank the fork into the tip of the slice and fed it to Hale. For some reason he had a thing for that specific part of whatever cake he was eating. He always got the first bite. I held my hand under his chin while he took the bite.
“Aww,” Hadley cooed. “So cute. I oughta get me a boyfriend.”
Mom laughed. “I thought you were back on girls.”
“Or the girls are on me. I’m not picky.”
I groaned. “Come on.”
“What?” she said, almost annoyed. “You’re the only one here that’s never made out with a girl. You don’t know what you’re missing, so you have no room to talk.”
My mouth dropped open and I looked to my mother. “What?”
She broke eye contact. “Um…two hundred years is a long, long time…things happen. Whiskey is a strong drink—You know what,” she held her hands up. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
“That’s fine. Don’t tell me. I don’t even care,” I lied. I’d pry that story from her sooner or later. Or I could just ask Hadley when Mom was gone.
After I was done eating Mom checked up on my stitches. And she gave me the okay to sit up. It was just a matter of my own pain tolerance. A pain killer wouldn’t do much for me. It would burn itself out of my body by the time it started working. Booze was my best shot but I didn’t want to do that. Best not to be drunk around Hale. I might do something I regret. Like shamelessly pull his clothes of and make an idiot of myself. I wonder if he has a happy trail. I really should know that…
“Rory?” Hale said like it wasn’t the first time he said it. I blinked until I was back in the room. Mom and Hadley were gone and Hale was dressed in his jammies.
“Huh?”
He smiled. “I asked if you needed help changing?”
“Oh. No I think I’m good.” I reached for the pile of clothes that Hale apparently put in front of me so I could go to the bathroom and change. He sat in bed next to me as I was sitting up. Then I decided I really needed to know. So I lifted his sweater up to his stomach. I smiled when I saw the little trail of hair I was hoping would be there. I dropped the fabric and said, “Okay. Now I’m good.”
In the morning I was already getting better. Sleep did that. I was okay walking on my own. Everything hurt but it was tolerable. Not enough for me to try school. So Hale stayed home with me and the family.
We were all still waiting for Miller to come back for me. I had a team of bodyguards with me now; there was no way he was getting to me. For the time being, I was as safe as I could get.
Hadley was nice enough to go back to the spot I was attacked and she found my phone. The case was shattered but the phone itself was fine. I was just glad no one took it. I didn’t feel like hobbling around a phone store today.
Hale was being a saint. He asked me how I was every five minutes like clockwork and he got me anything I needed. Even when I told him I could do it myself. He sat on the arm of my recliner while we spent the day together.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked some time later.
“I am. But I think I’d be way more comfortable if I was on your lap. Just my opinion,” I held my hands up, already in defensive mode. Mom and Hadley were in the kitchen, so I was safe with the inappropriate comments.
“I’m not sure how good an idea that is. You can never seem to keep your hands off of me.”
I cocked my eyebrow. “Really? Pretty sure last time we were making out you were the one going for zippers. Not me.”
“Zippers are a hindrance and anyone would agree.”
“Never said I didn’t. I was just trying to get a comfy seat.”
He took a few seconds, but he got up and adjusted us so that he was under me. I was sitting sideways on him with my head on his shoulder.
My hand went to the gauze on my neck where Miller slit my throat. It wasn’t hurting as badly now. My side was the real killer. But the place he cut me was exactly where Hale’s father cut him years ago. I was sure it was a coincidence, but still. Strange. Mine would heal in a day or two leaving no traces. Hale would never get that. He’d have his scars for the rest of his too short life.
We didn’t do much for most of the day. Ethan called me to make sure I was alright. I told him the official story. I was driving home with dinner and I was hit by some guy that ran a red light. Easy enough to fake for someone who wasn’t goi
ng to check.
Mason and Mollie were being very kind about the whole thing. They said that Hale could stay as long as I needed him. As if they could stop him even if they tried. But, it was sweet of them not to cause issues. Hale was spending almost every night here anyway, and I think they knew it. Hale wasn’t getting into trouble anymore and that was what mattered most to them.
“I’m not in the mood to cook today,” Mom decided. “I think we should go get something.”
“That worked out so well the last time,” Hadley snarked. “Came home to a howling cat and a sister with a hole in her stomach.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Obviously she would come with us, Hadley. She can sit in the car with Hale and I while you go get us food. How does that sound?”
Hadley narrowed her eyes at Mom. “Why am I the one who’s being sent off like a trained monkey?”
Mom put her hands on either side of Hadley’s face and squeezed while talking in a baby voice, “Because you were always my little monkey. Your daddy and I used to chase you around the house while you make monkey sounds.”
Hadley was almost blushing. “I do not recall that,” she said flatly while looking away from us all.
“Well I’ve got some old tapes of it. Maybe the kids would like to see them,” she looked to us.
“No. No. No,” Hadley waved her arms violently. “I don’t think so. We can burn those later.”
Mom teased her for a few more minutes before we decided to go. Hale carried me to the car and buckled me up. Even with me telling him I didn’t need that. He insisted that I needed to be taken care of. It was the only time in his life that I wouldn’t be as strong as him, so I didn’t want to take it away from him. Not if it made him feel better to take care of me. He sat next to me during the car ride and we all started teasing Hadley again.
