The intensity only heightens with every second that ticks by. I can’t sit. Instead, I pace back and forth in front of the door, ready to react. No one speaks, each of us lost in our heads as we try to understand what the fuck actually happened.
One minute she was turning the key victoriously, and the next, an arrow was lodged in her chest. It obviously came from the other side of the door, but how? Why?
Fuck.
Tatum warned us of booby traps, and we thought it would all be solved once we got the lock open. None of us expected the trap to trigger from accomplishing the little test.
None of The Crow’s bargains have transpired like this before. Why is this one different?
As I turn, stomping in front of the door once again, it opens, the nurse from earlier appearing in the doorway.
“Where is she?” I grunt, my body stiffening as she offers a tight, completely non-reassuring smile.
She takes a deep breath, lacing her fingers together in front of her as she works to make eye contact with each of us. “Miss Beauchamp is doing okay. She’s not out of the woods yet, but that’s due to the loss of blood she’s suffered.” Her eyes latch onme, or more specifically my chest, and I peer down at myself to realize the crimson stained clothes that still cling to me.
Blood.Herblood.
“How do we fix it?” Asher asks, and the nurse offers him a tight smile.
“Usually, we would perform blood transfusions, just like the humans, it’s the safest way, but it seems her body isn’t reacting well when we try.”
“What does that mean?” Minnie whispers, clinging to my side once more, and this time I drape my arm around her shoulders and pull her in tight. I need the silent support just as much as she does right now.
“It can mean one of a few things, really. She does have a rare blood type, but even syncing her up with the same doesn’t seem to be working. Otherwise, she could just be in a state of shock and need a bit more time to acclimate and know she’s safe.”
“Or…” Tatum murmurs, folding his arms over his chest as he stares intently at the nurse.
“Or?”
“The more sinister alternatives, the ones you’re not saying,” he grunts, and she gulps, pushing her hair back off her face.
“Right, those. It could be one of two things if we consider more supernatural reasons.”
“Which are?” Wylder pushes, clearly as irritated as I am by the fact that she didn’t start with them.
“There could have been something on the tip of the arrow. We’re still waiting on results to come back to confirm whether or not that’s the case, but otherwise it could be because she’s… bound.”
That single word hangs in the room like a guillotine, sucking the life from the room as it claims every breath from every wolf present.
“What did you say?” Asher bites, nostrils flaring as he squints at the nurse, and she pales under his intensity.
“Don’t be a dick to her, it’s not the nurse’s fault,” Minnie grumbles, folding her arms tight over her chest as her gaze flicks to me.
“Bound,” Tatum murmurs, tasting the word on the tip of his tongue, and by the way his nose crinkles, it doesn’t taste good. “But to whom?” He tilts his head at the nurse, but it’s clear from the way she shakes her head that she doesn’t have the answer to that. If anything, she was hoping we would know.
Wylder sighs, lacing his fingers behind his head as confusion claims him too. “It doesn’t make any sense. Who the hell is she bound to?”
A shadow casts over the door, the only inclination we’re not alone before one dark and taunting word fills the air.
“Me.”
