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Lucy was in the living room, sitting on her knees on the floor and rocking slightly as she hovered over Ava who was lying prone on the carpet.
39
VAUGHN
“Ava?” I croaked.
Lucy looked up, and horror seized me.
Tears streamed from her eyes as blood smeared its way from a cut on her lip. Her cheek was red and puffy just under her left eye as if someone had knocked the shit out of her.
Her neck looked irritated and discolored. But it was the expression on her face that stopped me cold. I saw terror and loss and utter grief. As if her daughter were already gone.
“No.” I
shook my head, denying it.
“I can’t get her to wake up,” she sobbed, unable to stop shaking. Her voice was a hoarse croak.
Finally glancing down at Ava, I choked as my worst fear seemed confirmed. There was blood on her head, and she looked as pale as death.
Behind me, I knew the other two had rushed inside and darted past me so they could search the rest of the house. But I barely even noticed them as I unsteadily lurched forward and fell to my knees next to Lucy.
“Why won’t she wake up?” she rasped.
Shaking my head with no answer, I held my fingers over Ava’s lips. “No, no, no...” But when I felt a stir of air, I released my own breath, so relieved I almost passed out. “Wait, she’s breathing.”
“She is?” Lucy started crying even harder, her words barely intelligible as she added, “I…I…couldn’t tell. She’s breathing,” she announced, to which a voice from the phone on the floor next to us spoke.
“Good. She probably just passed out, then.” I glanced over, realizing Lucy was currently on the line with a 911 operator. “Was she ever conscious after the fall?” the man asked.
“She cried when she fell,” Lucy explained, seeming to get more control over herself. “But then she...then she…”
“That’s okay,” the man explained. “As long as she was conscious at some point. That’s encouraging news.”
I bowed my head and exhaled again, glad to hear that, and gently rubbed my thumb over the blow on Ava’s brow. The cut seemed shallow enough, but a nasty raised bump was welling around it, almost promising a future bruise.
“It’s swelling out,” I reported. “The cut. It’s not depressing.”
“Another good sign,” we were promptly told. “Swelling out’s better than going in.”
Lucy hugged herself. “Why are her ears and nose bleeding, though?”
The dispatcher didn’t have a ready explanation for that one. I swallowed and met Lucy’s worried gaze as he finally told us, “We’ll have someone there soon to check her over. Just hang tight. They’re on their way, okay?”
“Where’s Chloe?” Luke demanded, bursting from the hallway and into the front room.
Trick appeared behind him, nearly bumping into him before he noticed Ava on the floor. “Jesus,” he breathed, jarring to a halt and gripping Luke’s arm.
“H-he took her,” Lucy said, starting to cry again as she held her ribs and shuddered.
“Took her?” Trick demanded. “Took her where?”
“I...I don’t…” She shook her head, her voice so raw and broken it was barely audible. “I-I was fighting him off, but then Ava fell, and I had to check on her. He dragged Chloe out then. I don’t know where they went. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But Ava was hurt.”
“Shh…” I murmured, reaching out. “It’s okay.”
But my fingers barely grazed over her cut lip and the strange marks on her throat before I realized they looked a hell of a lot like a handprint.
