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My beautiful, gigantic teddy bear.
My fingers clutched at his hand.“If she remembers anything, she will tell me, and I’ll be in touch.Now get the fuck out so she can get some rest.”
“That’s not how this works, Jack,” Ben said with a stubborn tilt of his chin.“You know I have to get a direct statement from her.I’ve been holding off for as long as I can, but she’s fully coherent now, according to the doctors.I give you and the rest of the Hannigans special treatment, but I still have a job to do.A responsibility to the people of this county.The men who did this to Nishia could still be in the area, and—”
I screamed, released Jack’s hand, and covered my head with the blanket.“No, no, no.They’ll get me again.I don’t want to go back.The darkness is bad.The shadows hurt.They smell bad andtouch meand-and-and…”
I couldn’t breathe.A sob was stuck somewhere in my throat, but it wouldn’t release.My body felt cold, frozen from fear and pain and the realization that I wasn’t as safe as my mind had led me to believe with Jack there to protect me.
“Nishia, sweetheart, it’s okay.”
I barely heard Jack’s voice, but then he uncovered my head and cupped my face in his hands.“Nishia, look at me.”
My gaze was zooming around the room, looking for shadows, for any danger.Vaguely, I realized that we were completely alone now, but that didn’t fully register because I was still busy looking for the shadows.
“Nishia.”
No.
Please.
Stop.
Stop.
“Stop!” I screamed through my teeth as tears poured down my face, and I was finally able to draw in a deep breath.
Jack’s tender touch tightened for a fraction of a second before he gently skimmed his thumbs over my damp cheeks.“It’s okay, little fairy.I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done to you.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
jack
A strange sensationfilled my body as I looked down at Nishia’s tear-stained face and terror-filled eyes.
Helplessness.
I’d never felt it before.In the past, if there was a problem that needed to be solved for one of the residents of Sanctuary or my family, I simply handled it.No matter what had to be done, what lengths I had to go to, the threat to the people who mattered became a ghost.
With Nishia, I didn’t know who had done this to her.
I had no immediate leads to pursue.No abusive ex to hunt down and make disappear.The men and the van they’d driven to drop her at Sanctuary’s gates had completely disappeared.Her piece-of-shit mother was dead from an overdose.Necromancy was a thing of myth, so there was no bringing that cunt back and interrogating her.
Nova assured me she would look deeper into Faye Cohen’s background.She promised to help me as much as possible from her end, and I knew if anyone could get me the answers we needed, it was my cousin.But who the fuck knew how long that would take?
Until then, I needed to protect Nishia from the shadows that haunted her sleep—and the potential threat to her and possibly Sanctuary as well.Because there was no way those bastards had driven all the way across the country and then simply decided to dump their captive at my door.There was something deeper, more sinister going on.
I could feel it in my bones.
An idea was already swirling in my mind, but it would have to wait until Nishia was calm enough for me to make the calls needed.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I cupped the back of her head and held her against my chest.Stroking my hand over her long, tangled hair, I did the one thing I rarely did, but had seemed to calm her during the few interactions we’d already had.
Talk.
I told her stupid shit.Like how I’d nearly burned down my uncle Raider’s house when my cousin Kingston had tried to get me to help him bake his mom a cake for her birthday when we were ten.Then there was the time I let River play dress-up with Kingston and me when we were twelve.I thought I heard the softest, sweetest laugh when I described how good I looked in a dress with bright-purple eyeshadow and crimson lipstick.
Talking wasn’t something I was good at, but for Nishia, I would change every apect of myself to help her through this shit.With other people, I never knew exactly what to say.Watching and listening was my thing; it helped me stay blended into the background, so that people didn’t notice me.And those who did would pretend I wasn’t there.I scared them because they could sense the darkness lurking just beneath the surface.
