Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“You should’ve seen Reese,” Alice said, amusement in her voice. “That girl can shoot too.”
“She had the rifle? We saw the bodies outside.” Josiah asked as he laid Lucy’s arm gently on the bed. “You need anything?”
“I’ve got it,” Alice replied. “Clean and bandage those cuts on her arms.”
“On it.”
“Reese had the rifle,” she confirmed. “Used the upstairs windows.”
“Smart,” Matthias mumbled.
“I used to be good with a rifle,” Alice said as she dropped the bullet she’d pulled out of Lucy’s leg on top of the rolling cabinet.
“Uncle Sven said you were a better shot than him,” Josiah said as he crossed the room.
“Easily,” Alice agreed, glancing at her mate.
“You want me to check him?”
“No, he’ll do,” Alice replied. “Lucy’s arms first.”
I didn’t move from my place at her side, so Josiah worked around me. Once the blood was cleaned off her arms, the wounds were easier to see. Across the top of each of her forearms were four deep gouges with familiar spacing. Josiah laid his hand on top of them so I could see where his fingernails fell. I nodded.
Someone had scratched her, and they hadn’t been fucking around.
The bottoms of her forearms were worse. Little bits of glass were embedded in the tender skin there, one of them so deep that it would need stitching once Josiah pulled it out.
“Alice,” my dad called, carrying my mother into the room.
“Josiah, get the extra gurney,” Alice ordered.
He rushed across the room and set it up in less than a minute.
“She’s still out,” my father said as he laid my mother down.
“For the best,” Alice replied. “I’ll get to her next. Then Matthias.”
“I’m good,” Matthias said faintly. “Jo, call Adira. Tell her I’m—” His words drifted off.
Lucy’s eyebrows pulled together in a frown as her eyelids fluttered.
“It’s okay, love,” I said, running my thumb over her cheek.
“Almost done stitching,” Alice said as my father set his hand on my shoulder.
“Lucy?” Charlie called, running into the room. “Oh no.”
“It’s a fucking party in here,” Alice snapped sarcastically.
Charlie ignored her as he rushed to the foot of the bed. “Is she okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” I replied firmly.
“What happened to her?” Charlie asked as he began to cry. He wrapped his hand around her foot.
“She was shot,” Josiah replied when I couldn’t seem to get the words out. “And she’s got some good scratches on her arms.”
“Oh god,” Charlie choked out.
I knew he loved her, but I needed him to shut the fuck up. I was hanging on by a very thin thread. When Josiah and Alice spoke, they were matter-of-fact. They didn’t get emotional. They just did what needed to be done. The way they moved around the room was habit, comfortable, businesslike. That’s what I needed. I couldn’t take on Charlie’s worry. It felt suffocating.
My father’s hand tightened on my shoulder.
Lucy woke up with a cry when Josiah pulled the large piece of glass from her forearm. She shot up in bed so fast that none of us were able to stop her before her fist swung for his throat.
“Lucy,” I yelled, catching her around the shoulders as she lunged for him.
She froze and turned toward me. “Ambrose?”
The sight of her big brown eyes nearly brought me to my knees.
“Hey, baby,” I replied as she went limp in my arms.
“Fuck,” she breathed. Her entire body shuddered.
“You sleep through me digging a bullet out of your thigh, but wake up when this one pulls a puny piece of glass from your arm?” Alice asked. She shook her head and strode toward the sink. “No sense.”
Lucy let out a painful sounding laugh and then groaned.
“Get her something for the pain,” I ordered Josiah.
“She nearly took my head off,” he said as he walked toward the cabinets along the wall.
“You’re back,” Lucy croaked when she caught sight of Charlie at the end of the bed.
“Told you I’d be fine,” he replied tightly, shaking her foot a little.
Before I could warn him not to jostle her, Lucy inhaled sharply.
“Your mom?” she asked me, her eyes filling with remembered dread. She looked up at my dad.
“She’ll be fine,” he assured her gently. “Immortal, remember?”
“I…She…” Lucy’s face fell, and she began to cry in great, wrenching sobs. Her chest heaved with each breath she took.
“You’re okay,” I soothed. “It’s over. Shh. You’re okay, love. Everyone is okay.”
Josiah came over and carefully leaned over the bed so he could reach her arm. A minute or two after he’d administered the pain medication, her sobs slowed to a gradual stop.
“What the fuck?” I yelped as her body relaxed completely against me.
“Just the pain meds,” Josiah said over his shoulder as he hurried to the sink. “And she’s probably exhausted. Did you see what she did out there?”
I held Lucy for a few minutes, relishing the feel of her breath on the base of my neck.