Page 13 of Starlight

The man nodded, looking very unconvinced. “Do you have a name?”

“Akai. And yours?”

“Cole. Do you have any idea how much you fucked up my life that night?”

“Do you have any idea how your cousins fucked up mine?” His entire life had been ripped apart. But Cole had been an innocent bystander who’d gotten caught in his need for revenge.

Cole opened the first aid kit. He rummaged through until he found bandages, needle and thread, and antiseptic. He glanced up. “There’s a part of me that wants you to suffer the way I did for months, but I’m not a dick. You can have some aspirin, and I’ve got some whiskey in the cabin.”

He held out two tablets. Aspirin was near enough to willow that it would be fine. “I’d like the whiskey, too.”

Cole studied him for a moment. “Fine. I need to get some water anyway.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

What the fuck was he doing?

There was a monster sitting by his fire waiting for him to sew up his wing. Cole paced around the cabin, stalling in the same way he had paced around his truck before getting the first aid kit. This couldn’t be for real. It couldn’t be happening. It made absolutely no sense.

Yet, it made perfect sense because he had seen the wolf and the monster before. He hadn’t imagined it then, and he wasn’t imagining it now.

“Fuck.” Never in his wildest imagination had he considered that the monster had been the one watching him. Because who thought that?

He grabbed the whiskey out of the cupboard, filled a bottle with water, and grabbed a clean tea towel. Was that all he needed? It wasn’t as though he had a whole lot of supplies. He shook his head. It would have to do.

He half expected Akai to be gone, but just like before, he was still waiting. It was because of him that Akai couldn’t go anywhere. His stomach turned. He’d shot someone. Not a person or an animal but a monster.

Was it rude to call him a monster?

That seemed like a problem for daylight. He grabbed the big flashlight as he walked out the door. It was fully dark now, and the meteor shower would be happening soon.

Akai was staring up at the sky. The firelight made his gray fur gleam, and when he turned his head, the flames reflected in his large red eyes. Everything about him was big. He was tall, with big hands and eyes, yet weighed less than he did.

If Akai was going to attack him, he would’ve done so already, wouldn’t he?

Perhaps he was telling the truth, and he had wanted to watch the sky with him. It was kind of sad that the monster stalking him had realized how alone he was. Could he be more pathetic?

“I think I have everything.” He handed over the bottle of whiskey and painkillers. “Do you want to take them while I have a look at the wing and pretend I know what I’m doing?”

Akai smiled, revealing small, pointed teeth. “Take a photo of the wound with your phone, and I will tell you how best to approach it.”

Cole’s eyebrows lifted, but of course Akai knew about phones. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Let me get the flashlight on.” He turned it on and rested it on the ground, angling the light at the dark stain on Akai’s wing. “You’re going to need to open it a bit.”

He touched the wing again. He thought they were small feathers covering the wing, but they weren’t. The same way he thought Akai was covered in gray fur. It looked like fur, but didn’t feel like any fur he was familiar with, not that he was an expert.

Akai put two tablets in his mouth and washed them down with the whiskey. He grunted as he opened his wing. “I can’t even support it with my hand because my arm hurts.”

“It’s a fucking scratch. Stop being a baby.” But he moved his leg so Akai could rest his open wing against it. He understood how much some injuries hurt and saw no point in making his wing worse. “Can you open your wing a little bit further, or is that as far as it goes?”

Akai grunted but obeyed.

Fully open, it was obvious where the bullet had ripped through. His fur or feathers or whatever were stained with blood, and there was a hole he could put his fist through. “I’ll take a photo so you can see.”

“Thanks.” He didn’t sound particularly grateful, though, and Cole didn’t blame him.

“You’re not like them.”

Cole was silent as he fiddled with his phone to get the best picture. He took a couple, not sure what Akai needed to see.