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I obediently took my medicine and yawned. It was getting harder to keep my eyes open because the pain of the headache was blinding. I was also trying to keep from envisioning the scorpion brigade that the shadow man had sicced on me.
“We’d better get her to bed,” I heard Teran say. The next moment, she and Rowan helped me up and into the bedroom. I was phasing in and out as they undressed me and slipped my flannel nightie on me—it was sleeveless and big enough to move around in.
“Into bed, missy,” Rowan said, folding the blankets back. As I slid beneath the covers, I felt Xi and Klaus curl up near me and I fumbled, trying to reach for the sleep mask that helped block out the light.
Teran tucked it into my hand and brushed the hair back from my face. “Rest now, and sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the blessed darkness soothed my head. The meds began to work and I fell into a dreamless sleep, forgetting about the mirror, about the shadow man, about everything except that my aunt and my grandmother were watching over me.
CHAPTERELEVEN
“January, wake up! Come on, honey. If you can wake up, you have to get up.” Rowan’s voice echoed in my head.
I tried to blink, but realized the mask was on. My head was heavy, and I wasn’t sure if I could fight the fog to come out of it, but the urgency in Rowan’s voice gave me the extra oomph to push through the haze.
Groaning, I pushed the sleep mask up. The light beyond the window was still dim. Either I had slept all night and all day, or I hadn’t been asleep for that long. I tried to sit up and Rowan helped me.
“What’s going on?”
“How’s your headache?” she asked.
“Still around, but I think I can sit up without vomiting,” I said, my stomach reeling like I was drunk, except I’d only had a few sips of brandy. “What’s going on? I want to go back to sleep.”
“Honey, I’d let you sleep except…well…Tarvish drove Killian home. January, Killian was attacked in the parking lot of his office tonight.”
That got my attention and I sat up abruptly, making my head spin and throb. “Crap, what the hell?” I burst into tears. “How is he? Where is he? He’s alive, isn’t he?”
“Calm down—it’s going to be all right. Killian will heal. He changed into his wolf form when he was hit, and he bit whoever did it. He has bruises on his head and shoulder, but nothing’s broken. He looks worse off than he is.” Rowan rubbed my back. “Tarvish brought him home from the hospital and then he and Teran took off to bring Killian’s SUV home. Teran will drive my car back while Tarvish drives the SUV.”
“Where is he?” I tried to wipe my eyes but I couldn’t stop crying. Everything seemed so surreal and I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up to find everything normal.
“He’s in his wolf form on the sofa. He’ll heal a lot faster in his shifter form. Come on out and see for yourself. I’ll help you.” Rowan helped me out of bed. I was dizzy, but I was able to brace myself on her shoulder. Rowan was incredibly strong, and she bore my weight with no problem.
As we entered the living room, I saw Killian there, curled on the sofa. The great gray wolf was streaked with blood on his shoulder and I started to whimper, wanting to take away the pain.
“His fur…”
“We’ll clean it for him. The police got there fast. I called Millie and she took a report at the hospital. Killian managed to call Tarvish before he changed into his alt-form and attacked.”
“Why didn’t he call me?”
“I texted him after we got you into bed and told him you were out with a migraine and had taken your meds. He knew that you’d be out for a while and wouldn’t answer the phone. Millie said that he didn’t get a good look at his attacker.” Rowan helped me sit beside him and, though I wanted to wrap my arms around him, I didn’t want to hurt him. So I stroked the fur that felt so familiar, then leaned down to kiss him on the muzzle.
His eyes fluttered open and he stared at me for a moment, then licked my face before shifting slightly and closing his eyes again.
“Does he have a concussion? Should he stay awake?”
Rowan glanced at a set of papers from the hospital. “Dr. Fairsight didn’t think so, though he’s going to have quite a headache for a couple days. They took X rays but nothing was broken. She wants to see him again tomorrow—Friday, not Thursday—unless it’s apparent that something else has developed.” She stood. “I’ll get a washcloth and a brush for his fur.”
As she strode out of the room, I turned back to Killian. I couldn’t keep my hands off him. I wanted to touch him, to reassure myself that he was all right. After a few minutes, I kissed him again and he shifted in his sleep, letting out a faint whine.
“I love you so much,” I said, whispering in his ear. “You have no idea how important you are to me. I’ve never known love like you’ve shown me. I never knew that love could be so wonderful and overwhelming.” Even though his eyes were shut, his tail twitched and thumped gently against the sofa seat.
Rowan returned and I leaned back against the cushions. My headache was still beating a rapid tattoo inside my head, and it was all I could do to keep from losing my dinner. Though by now, whatever I’d eaten had been digested and if I threw up, it would be the dry heaves.
She handed the washcloth to me and set a bowl of sudsy water on the coffee table, on a folded hand towel. The cloth was warm and wet, and I gently washed the fur that was streaked with blood. It was caked on by now, but it hadn’t dried hard enough yet that it would need scrubbing. I saturated the fur with the soapy water, then waited for a couple minutes. Finally, as I rinsed the cloth in the bowl, then rubbed the strands of hair between the folds of the material, the blood began to flake off and I was able to clean most of it off his fur.
“I want to sleep by him,” I said. As much as I wanted to stay up and keep watch over him, I realized that I needed more sleep or the migraine would retake its foothold and tomorrow I’d be a basket case.
