AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can walk,” I said. “I’m good.”
“Would you just please fucking give me this, Shane?” His voice had an edge. “I know it was way worse for you, but we had a year of hell too. Just this. It’s all I ask.”
“It won’t be just this,” I told him. “There will be more. Lots more. I know you.”
He snorted. “Well, good. That’s an encouraging sign.”
He had a point. Fuck it. I was being stupid and stubborn. I lifted my arm, draped it around his shoulder, and almost howled when I put my weight on my freshly bandaged feet. The adrenaline had worn off. So had Demiguel’s anesthetic spray.
I leaned on my brother as I hobbled to the dining room. The physical contact felt both familiar and alien. So did this place that I knew so well, where I had spent years with family and friends.
We got to the dining room. Everyone stopped talking. The Drake brothers were there, all three of them, plus the blonde that I had met in the breezeway. Kat, she had called herself. Amos and Darius both looked me over and gave me a careful embrace and a gentle pat on the back, as if I might fall apart on them if they squeezed too hard.
The table was loaded with food. I was used to the small plastic trays of dry, bland, tasteless food that appeared in the metal drawer at intervals, like mediocre magic.
The colors and aromas of Angela’s feast made me dizzy.
“You sit next to your rescuer, of course,” Angela directed, herding me over to the chair next to Red. Or Cass, she’d said. That was her real name, but I couldn’t think of her as anything but Red. I’d make that adjustment later. One thing at a time.
Her gorgeous hair was freshly washed, and a cloud of warm, perfumed air hung about it. She wore a thick, fuzzy green sweater that clung to her slim body.
Reggie leaned forward to study me with intense curiosity. “Are you the guy who told them to come and rescue me?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” I confessed.
“Thank you,” she said solemnly. “I was dying in there, locked in that room.”
“Yeah,” I said, with feeling. “Same. Your sister made it happen, though.”
Reggie’s face shone as she looked up at her big sister. Red seized her in a rocking side hug. When they came apart, their eyes were freshly wet.
“I’m so glad you got me out,” Reggie said. “Even if I die of Varen’s now, that’s okay. I’d rather die when I’m with you than stay in that awful room one more second.”
That was followed by horrified silence.
“You most certainly will not die!” Angela sounded insulted by the very idea.
“Sure I could,” Reggie said matter-of-factly. “People die all the time. Mom died. I know it can happen. Fast, too. Boom, and off you go.”
“We’ll see about that,” Ethan said. “We’ve got a supply of your medicine from the fridge in your room. We’re going to get all the smartest people we know to examine those medicines to see if those clinic types were being straight with you. Considering how crappy that place was, I wouldn’t trust anything they told you.”
“Absolutely,” Reggie agreed. “If I could live, it would be great. I actually want to, now. This place is really nice.”
Ethan turned to Kat. “Did you call Rose?”
“First thing,” she replied. “She’ll be here tomorrow morning.” Kat turned to us with a reassuring smile. “Rose is a friend of ours. She’s a brilliant pharmacologist. She’ll check out that medicine we got from the clinic. We’ll know more soon.”
“Thank you,” Red said gratefully. She turned to me. “Your family is awesome.”
“Glad you like them,” I murmured.
“I like them, too!” Reggie announced. “They’re nice!”
“The feeling’s mutual, sweetheart,” Amos told her with a grin.
Angela bustled in with yet another steaming oven dish loaded with something that smelled amazingly good. I was overloading with all the sensory input. Even the fabulous food felt like an assault on my brain. But I’d be damned if I was going to run away from these people, or from Angela and her food, which was her primary love language. Or my family, who had just dragged my sorry ass out of the shit.
No fainting, no seizures, no running for the bathroom allowed. Just… breathe.
