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Don’t tell him, Charlie thought. No matter what, you can’t tell them that you know about Kade.
She felt hazy, but less hazy than she had in a while.
“Did you give me less drugs?” she asked, changing the subject. She didn’t think Daniel would notice.
“Hunter came by again, said to only give you half the sedative and see how you were.”
Charlie thought about it a moment. She still hurt, but she hurt less. She felt sluggish and stupid from all the sleep, and more than almost anything, she really wanted to shower.
“I feel a lot better,” she said.
Then she yawned. The paste on her back tingled and then numbed her, feeling warm.
“Daniel,” she said, feeling her eyes falling closed again. “Why’re you with him? You’re so nice.”
He stopped putting the ointment on her back for a moment, his gentle fingers pausing.
His dark eyes locked with hers, and right away, even through the drugs and the soft arms of sleep pulling her down, Charlie knew she’d fucked up.
“It’s pretty simple,” Daniel said. He still spoke just as quietly, but now there was hard iron in his voice. “I love him.”
But why?Charlie wanted to say, thinking of the scowling man who sometimes stood in the background, looking at her like he wanted her dead.
Instead she gave in to sleep.
* * *
The next timeCharlie woke up, she knew it was for good immediately. Even though it was night time, everything was crystal clear where it had been murky before: the moonlight falling through the windows, the crackle and snap of the fire in the next room. Even the clean, sharp scent of the forest seemed better, more real than it had in days.
I’m okay,she thought. She lifted one hand to her forehead.
Can you even tell if you’ve got a fever yourself?She wondered, staring at the ceiling. Her back hurt and itched all at once, but it felt better — the pain no longer felt like a knife through her entire body, but only like her back was being sliced into.
It was some kind of improvement.
Slowly, carefully, she pushed herself up on the cot, thankful for the hundreds of pushups that the FBI academy had forced her to do, and soon enough she was sitting up on the cot, her knees close into her chest.
Something moved in the dark, halfway across the room. Charlie froze, her eyes still adjusting.
She waited for the shape to turn into a wolf and charge her.
I knew I wasn’t really awake, she thought. I knew it seemed too real, too good to be true.
Then, as she saw more and more of the room, she realized it wasn’t a wolf.
As Charlie squinted in the moonlight, she finally made out the face of a sleeping man with pale skin and light brown hair that was almost red. Asleep, he looked peaceful for once, instead of angry.
It was Kade, watching her sleep.
Charlie gritted her teeth and stood, pulling the bathrobe around her. Then she walked to the bathroom very, very slowly, but by herself.
