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I could see her hand and a syringe in it. I tried to lift my hand to bat it away, but all I managed to do was flop my hand onto my belly.
I felt and saw the needle inject me again, and the world went sideways.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I woke to voices.I let my magic slide out before forcing my eyelids to lift. I felt the spaces in my home, three bodies filling the usually empty air. Another trickle of magic told me that Christy, Sera, and Jesse were here.
Friends. Family. No rich bitches with crocodile tears. I was safe.
Christy and Sera were in my bathroom. Jesse was beside me, sitting on the floor next to my sofa. He was still, but watching me, guarding me. All of this might mean I was recently dead—or not.
I wasn’t sure what dying felt like.
I knew I was on my sofa, on top of what I thought was a tarp, and I had an overall chill, a very cold stomach, and general sense of dampness. I had no idea how I got here. I was home. Not in the building lobby, but inside my home. The last thing I knew I was in the lobby. Had I crawled here? Did I get dragged here? My brain was muzzy, and I knew that it was probably from whatever jabbed me—or a result of the throbbing in my head from hitting the lobby floor.
I forced my eyes open and turned my head to stare at Jesse. “Up.”
“Keep the ice there. You stopped convulsing when we got ice on you.” Jesse helped prop me up. “You were burning up when we found you.”
“How long?”
Jesse glanced at the wall clock over the sofa. From this angle, I couldn’t see it. “Maybe an hour since we found you. About twenty minutes since you stopped thrashing. Two minutes since you started to wake.”
I nodded. “Time now?”
“One-ish. You didn’t call or reply to any of our texts, so . . . we’re here.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal that they had come to check on me and probably saved my life.
“Dead?”
He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Time would tell if I’d stay alive. I felt the venom in me. What diddraugrvenom do to someone who was a living but genetically-similardraugr? It was a question I’d asked myself more than once when something cold, dead, and surly slavered on me in attempts to gnaw on my carotid. The poison was inside me, but I had no idea if it would kill me because, technically, it might not be poison to me. It was like a rattlesnake with a cut in its mouth. Did the venom injure the snake? Or was it different because I hadn’t swallowed it, but had it injected in me.
“What do you need?” Jesse prompted as he scooted closer.
“Cold drink. More ice.” I swallowed. My whole body felt like it was on fire on the inside. I could trace every vein.
Jesse turned his head and called, “Water. Ice bags. She’s awake.”
I noticed that he was wearing black disposable gloves, as if we were about to dye my hair. Actually, they looked like they were the ones from my bathroom used just for that. He’d been careful in this, at least. Who knew how much venom had been on my skin?
“Vodka,” I corrected, even as I felt the air displaced as one of the women moved from bathroom to kitchen. That was Sera. She was a hummingbird where Christy felt like a jay. Jesse was always more owl in his presence, watchful and strong. Someday, he’d be a great father to children who would be my “nieces” or “nephews.” We weren’t blood, but sometimes family was what you chose.
Jesse looked at me and said in a low voice, “I can try again to kick them out or you can risk getting all confessional. Asking for vodka after convulsions is going to raise a couple questions. You want to tackle that?”
“Vodka.” It was that or call Mama Lauren for one of her weird medicinal concoctions.
“Your call, little sister.” Jesse started to push to his feet, probably to fetch my booze.
I felt woozy and started shivering, and I wasn’t entirely sure I’d see sunrise.
Amateurs. The women who did this only left me half-murdered. Fucking amateurs. That was why I liked beheadings. No doubts there. Sever the head, and bodies dropped, evendraugror whatever the fuck I was. If I healed, I was going to be . . . unpleasant at best. Why would they risk that? What if I woke up adraugr? The thought of that particular nightmare made my heart speed. I really, really didn’t want to find out that I was adraugrnow.
I tried to lift my arm to grab him and totally missed.
“Stay for now,” I rasped.
Jesse took my hand. “Hey, Gen? Focus on me, yeah?”
