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Eric shifts from my side to sit in front of Cordelya.

“Hang on to me, Cordelya,” he says, offering his hands.

With the slightest wobble, she takes his hands, freeing my arm so I can look at her head. It takes a moment, but I eventually find the raised welt; dried blood cakes around the root of her hair.

“You’re hurt.”

“It’s not bad.”

“You’re hurt,” I repeat, gaze traveling to where officers have detained Chad. “What happened?” I ask, even though I already have my suspicions.

Cordelya looks at me over her shoulder. “I got back to my apartment, and Minna was on the floor, not moving. Then I smelled Chad’s awful cologne, but by then it was too late. He hit my head with something, but it didn’t knock me out. I tried to crawl away and get to my feet, but he hit me a second time before I could.”

There are no words strong enough to describe the rage surging through me. The only thing that cuts through is Cordelya’s small gasp as she whimpers, “My fur babies.”

“They’re alright, Moonlight. Dale said he would stay with them and make sure they were fed and taken care of.”

Her broken sob has me pulling her flush to my body, wrapping both my arms around her to anchor her as she cries.

“Thank you.”

“Always,” I whisper to her hair.

As much as I’d like to keep holding her, I still need to finish assessing her.

“I need you to sit up again. Eric is going to hold up his finger and tell you how he needs you to follow it. Can you do that?”

“I think so.”

I help her sit up and let Eric take over.

Holding his pointer finger up, he instructs, “Follow my finger only with your eyes.”

He begins moving his finger across her field of vision. Her body sways as she follows his finger with her head and not her eyes.

“Since you were hit, have you felt dizzy, nauseated, or thrown up?” I ask.

“I threw up twice. The nausea comes and goes. Chad’s cologne makes me incredibly nauseous, and so does moving my head too fast.”

“Headache?”

She nods her head as Eric and I exchange a look.

“Concussion?”

“At a minimum. With all her symptoms, I’d feel better if she had a head scan.”

I scoop her into my arms and stand. “I know you want to go home, but I’m afraid you’re going to need to go to the hospital first.”

Cordelya closes her eyes tightly, breathing slowly through her nose.

“As much as I’d like to argue, you picking me up just now made me see stars and had my tummy doing an unpleasant turn.”

“I’ll go make sure we can get out. There are at least four police cars here. Plus Jackson and the others will be here any minute. I let them know we found Cordelya before I came in.”

“Appreciated,” I say as Eric turns and walks to the door.

One of the Mountain View officers steps up to where I stand holding Cordelya.