Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Qhuinn had to glance at the guy again. “That something Doc Jane needs to give you a penicillin shot for?”
Rhage laughed in an easy and relaxed kind of way—which Qhuinn frickin’ envied. “No, that’s fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth. Mary and I been working on it. I choked on a PB and J a couple of months ago and that’s when it started—”
Clunk.
As the lock released, Qhuinn hit that bar like he was giving the damn thing chest compressions in a hospital code. The relief that came with stepping through into the parking area, with all its space in every direction, was like breathing clean air after you’d held your breath from a bad smell. And as for the irrational fears shit? He didn’t know from whatever Peter-Pan-ophobia Rhage was going on about, but if he had to diagnose one for himself, he’d say it was garden variety claustro and fuck all the holes—
“Really,” he muttered at his choice of words.
“Huh?” Rhage tilted his head like a big, beautiful dog. “Or you talking to yourself?”
They came up to the main entrance into the training center, and sure, now the lock turned immediately again.
“You gotta trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to know.” He opened things and glanced down the wide corridor to where Xcor and Tohr were standing. “And no, it doesn’t have to do with food, peanut butter or otherwise.”
“Roger that,” Hollywood said amicably.
Passing by the lineup of classrooms, they stopped when they got to the patient rooms. Tohr was on his phone, texting something, but Xcor stepped up with the greeting.
“Dad—”
“Dad—”
He and Xcor clapped palms and then shoulders, and then Rhage joined in the hello’ing. As those two stepped back, Qhuinn nodded at the red can of high-test Coke in Xcor’s hand.
“That kind of night already?”
“You know it.”
The leader of the Band of Bastards was dressed for war, but he had to smother a yawn. Which was a surprise. The stocky male was strong as a bull, and on a typical night, he was the first to get out into the field to hunt. Not this evening. He seemed drained and distracted—and that was proof that he was worried about the Lyric(s) situation, too.
It had always been the way, the four of them concerned about the young and all the things that affected them.
Xcor took a draw on the can. “So to take our minds off it all, Layla and I binge-watched a show about veterinarians set in the Scottish Highlands at the turn of the twentieth century all day long.”
Yup, they hadn’t been able to sleep, either. “Not your usual gig.”
“Too right. I started watching just to be pleasant.”
“And you didn’t pass out from boredom?”
Rhage nodded as he crunched down on his Tootsie Pop. “For real.”
“Worse.” Xcor took another long drink. “I got sucked in. I ended up with crumpled Kleenex all over the bed. And I do not cry.”
Qhuinn had to laugh. “Softie for animals, huh.”
“I joined PETA at three in the afternoon, and by six, I was ready to adopt all the dogs in Caldwell that didn’t have a home. I am never watching television ever again.”
As Rhage’s phone rang, he turned away to answer. “Hey, Mary, you okay?”
In a lower voice, Qhuinn said, “How’s Layla doing?”
“Not good.” Xcor shook his head, his deformed upper lip flattening. “She keeps playing that video of the billboard over and over. Verily, Lyric’s been so good to us, FaceTiming last night, coming home from her grandparents’ right after sunset—she and Layla spent a little together—but I don’t know. Sometimes the reminder of how important someone is becomes just as traumatic as the near miss.”
“Maybe I can talk to her?”
“Yes, please.” Xcor, with his Old Country manners, bowed. “Anything to ease my shellan.”
Tohr put his phone away and came forward. “Hey, thanks for coming—and being willing to sit guard. Syphon and Syn just left.”
“No problem.” Qhuinn nodded at the door to the patient room. “Any change in the male?”
“He’s breathing on his own, but not really conscious. Doc Jane’s in the lab with Ehlena, if anything acute happens.”
“Mind if I go in and see him?”
“Doc Jane says keep it at five minutes, no longer.” Tohr lifted up his phone. “And if you get anything out of him, I’ll come back from the field immediately. This is the most important thing on our docket to-night.”
“Roger that.”
With things settled, Tohrment and Xcor said their goodbyes and headed back down toward the dreaded hall of tiny little holes. If Qhuinn remembered the schedule correctly, Tohr was on at the Audience House and Xcor was downtown in the field. The two, as half-brothers, were never paired up, just like Blay and Qhuinn, and John Matthew and Xhex, as mated couples, were likewise kept apart. The same was true for V and Payne as brother and sister, and Z and Phury.