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He nodded, and the siren flicked on, wailing loudly into the night. I grimaced and glanced down at Jess, but she remained unchanged.
It was the longest I’d ever seen this girl without some sort of animation on her face.
I hated it.
Leaning down, I whispered against her ear, “We’re in the ambulance, baby girl. They gotta be real loud so we can get there fast. Don’t be scared. I’m here. Just keep breathing.”
The fingers I was holding jerked slightly.
“Jess?” I questioned, flicking my gaze to the paramedic. “She just moved.”
He nodded once. “She can probably hear you.”
“Yeah?” I echoed, returning my full attention to her face. It was unchanged, her lashes still downswept, oxygen mask strapped over her nose and mouth, and blood smearing her skin.
Without thinking, I licked my thumb and started swiping away what I could reach. “You’re too pretty for all this blood,” I told her.
A throat cleared, and a cloth appeared under my nose. I glanced at the wipe the man was offering.
“Thanks,” I muttered, taking it to gently clean up more of her face. “So much blood,” I murmured.
“Head wounds bleed a lot.”
“Does she need stitches?” I asked, not looking away from her.
“Yes.”
I nodded. “That’s okay. I’ll hold your hand for that too.” I promised. “I’ll do anything for you.”
Including making whoever did this pay.
But later. Right now, she was all that mattered.
4
Jess
Pain tried to break into the darkness where I drifted.
It pricked and pinched, needling its way into unconsciousness to rouse me for brief flickers in time. It was confusing and fearsome to go from nothing at all to intense agony without any sort of warning.
I couldn’t decide which one was worse, nothing at all or too much. Both were unrelenting.
But then, suddenly, something else was there. Something soft and gentle, vaguely familiar, but incongruous with the place I was imprisoned.
Despite its oddity, it was exactly what I wanted. The thing I clung to when the blackness let in just a pinprick of light.
Baby.
Baby girl.
Sweetheart.
That’s my girl.
I’ll do anything for you.
Fear and discomfort were overwhelmingly present. But reassurance had a voice. A voice that whispered the most beautiful words. Words that held the worst at bay, promising that if I just held on, the glimpses of consciousness would eventually give way to something better.
