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The mass of people huddled around Jackson burst out of his room, sprinting with his gurney towards the elevator.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, racing after them.
“He needs surgery,” Isaac barked over his shoulder, his eyes tinged with the same yellow Jackson got every time he was stressed about something. “You have to stay here.”
“Surgery?” I gasped. “But…but what about—”
Isaac turned as the nurses loaded Jackson onto the elevator. “I’ll bring him back to you, Rebekah. I promise, but you’ve gotta let me work.”
“Go,” Shado said to him. “Save Jack.”
I made a move to follow, but my legs gave out. The elevator doors closed, and my heart pounded against my ribs, trying to get out and follow him. My lungs shrank and swelled but I couldn’t take a full breath.They had to save him. They had to. My life would never be the same if he—
“Rebekah! Look at me,” Shado demanded crouching in front of me, grabbing me by the shoulders. “Breathe. He’s gonna be okay. Just breathe.”
“They have to save him. He can’t die. Not like this. He has to live so I can tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“That I love him. I still love him. I didn’t get the chance to say it back. He has to hear it. He can’t die thinking I’ve hated him. He—he can’t die.”
Shado’s eyes watered and she crushed me against her chest. “He knows, Rebekah. He knows.”
18
Waiting for Godot
I couldn’t get the blood off. No matter how hard I scrubbed at my skin, it stayed red. Tears poured over my cheeks, and I couldn’t breathe. “It won’t come off.”
Shado pulled a wad of paper towels from the bathroom dispenser. “Let me see your hands.”
“No. If you touch me, I’ll see—”
She brandished the paper towels. “Just give me your hands.”
I lifted them from the sink, and she carefully dried my fingers without touching my skin. The red stains weren’t nearly as bad as they were before, but his blood was still there. Staring at the red crescents under my fingernails, the muscles along my spine tingled with fear. The shapeshifter had shot Jackson twice, but I’d cut him too.
There was still a bullet inside his chest. I’d tried to move him without making sure he was stable. So many mistakes, and on top of it all, I hadn’t said the words.I love you. It was such a simple sentence. Why didn’t I tell him? Why couldn’t I just say it?
She dumped the paper towels in the trash can and gestured for me to keep scrubbing. “Tate should be here soon with some clothes for you to change into.”
“When did you—”
“I texted him a few minutes ago, told him how to get in.” She shrugged.
I glanced down at my shirt and flinched. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” she said, putting another wad of paper towels under the water. “But, can I ask what happened?”
I swallowed around a lump in my throat. “He was at the house with me. We were talking about our case and Ingrid Tanis showed up at my door. She begged us for help, but it wasn’t—Shit! If she wasn’t dead an hour ago, she certainly is now. Dammit!”
I smacked my hand against the sink and a spiderweb crack shot across the mirror in front of us.
“Hey!” She tugged me around by the sleeve to face her and started scrubbing at the stains along my neck. “Take a deep breath and explain.”
“We thought that it was Ingrid who came through the door, but it wasn’t. It was the shapeshifter that killed Nadia. She tricked us into going through a portal trap, and poisoned me. It’s fading fast, but I don’t know why. It’s strange. Why posion me if it wasn’t supposed to kill me?” I shook my head. “On the other side of the portal, she had Ingrid tied to a chair. The shifter burned her alive, and then she pulled out a gun to shoot me. But Jack got in the way…I tried to help him—"
“Were you shot? Your hand is bandaged. Did she hurt you?”
