“Eat,” he ordered again. I started with the soup. My stomach was still knotted from dealing with that thing and crossing the dead. I ate slowly, seeing how my stomach was doing. When I felt surer, I started on the sandwich. He even remembered that I liked sourdough and tomato.
Zeke sat down on the bed facing me. Those sky-blue eyes watched me carefully. His entire body was tense as he ran his hand through his hair. He was on edge, the bags under his eyes were dark. I looked up at him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
His eyes ran over me before looking at the nightstand. “Are you sure Miles picked those pajamas out?” His voice was strained.
I looked down at what I was wearing again. Okay, yeah, the bottoms were showing more leg than usual, but Miles was a gentleman. It wasn’t like Zeke to say anything about what I was wearing… usually.
I looked up to find his eyes shadowed, his jaw clenched. “What’s wrong, Tough Guy?” He turned back to me.
He sighed deeply. “What happened in the courtyard?”
My pulse picked up. “I got really dizzy and I’m exhausted,” I offered. I wasn’t exactly lying, but right now… right now we couldn’t talk about this.
His eyes ran over me. “How was it in there?”
I set my plate aside, pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Not fun,” I offered, hoping he’d let it go.
His eyes were warm when they met mine. “Baby.”
I sighed. “It was okay at first, it was just poking at me.” I looked down at my knees. “Then later, it started making hits.”
“I’m sorry,” he said in that gentle voice he used with me sometimes.
“Not your fault,” I told him. “If I had been paying attention, I might have seen what was happening sooner.”
“That is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard you say,” he snapped at me.
My eyes shot to his. “What?”
He scowled down at me. “It’s not your fucking fault,” he growled. “There are five of us. And no one noticed.”
“The only reason he was at that house was—”
“Because he chose to be,” he pointed out, his eyes hard. “This isn’t your fault. You hear me?”
I let out a deep breath and looked up into his eyes. “I hear ya,” I answered softly.
“Now, finish eating so you can go to sleep,” he ordered. I picked up my soup and started eating again.
Miles
I walked down the hall, tapping the fingers of my good hand against the book cover. That crossing was different than usual. And bleeding from her ears? That was entirely new when it came to crossing souls. Lexie had just dropped. She’d never done that before… at least not in front of us. It must be one of the symptoms that she said were getting worse. My tapping increased. At least I’d managed to hire more graduate students to do more research before we had to leave. Hopefully, there would be some information waiting for us when we got back.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as my heart burned in my chest. The signs had all been there. She’d been exhausted lately, frighteningly so. When was the last time anyone went with her to the cemetery?
My stomach dropped. It had been months. God damn it! My body grew tense as I didn’t move a muscle. How the hell could we be so careless? We all knew she was tired! Everyone knew she was running herself ragged. And we did nothing!
I cursed myself and the others. We should have seen the signs. I should have seen the signs.
My lungs were tight as it finally hit me. She was getting worse.
I took a deep breath and tried to find a calm center in the chaos that erupted in my mind. Now that I had seen it with my own eyes, there was no way I could deny it. Maybe she just needed a break from the dead? She had been wearing her beads again; she might just need to strengthen her barriers, buy us time…
Even I knew I was full of it. But I didn’t want to be. I stared at the door and thought about the girl beyond it. Right now, she was exhausted. She’d spent hours with that demon. She’s been crossing the dead left and right. Isaac was possessed by a demon. Ethan was slowly falling apart. Zeke was going to lose his mind. And Asher seemed to be avoiding her. She didn’t need me going in there and grilling her while I tried to find answers. It wouldn’t be helpful. What would be?
Sleep. Angel needed to sleep to get back to where she was okay. She needed to eat right, too. Okay, that we could do, and Zeke wouldn’t question it too much right now.
Zeke. Shit. I took another deep breath and let it out slowly. When he found out… it wouldn’t be good.
Stop it, Miles. You can’t deal with the future, you can only work with what’s in front of you. And right now, she needed to sleep.
Having control of myself, I tucked my book in my sling, raised my good hand, and knocked on her door.
“Come in, Miles,” Lexie called. I stepped inside and went still. Zeke was sitting on the side of the bed in front of her.
He took a plate from her and got to his feet. “Get some sleep,” he muttered before turning and coming toward the door. I moved out of his way. Zeke didn’t look at me as he left. Did he suspect something was wrong with her? He did see her drop in the courtyard… I’d have to find out later today. Worried, I turned back. My heart stopped. The pajamas I had picked out were… damn. The shorts were… the top was… everything… She was showing a lot of skin as she scooted over to the left side of the bed. Thankfully, she didn’t notice my stunned expression. Why did I get the shorts? She usually wore pants to bed. I couldn’t find it in me to be sorry about her pajamas.
Forcing myself to focus, I walked across the room to the right side of the bed and paused. Deep bruise-like bags hung under her bloodshot eyes. She was even paler than normal.
“What did you bring?” Lexie asked as she slipped under the blankets.
I looked down at the book in my sling. My ears warmed. “Oh, um, ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy.’” I pulled the blankets back and carefully got into the bed, making sure to not touch her. Why was this so awkward? She slept in my room at home. I carefully pulled the sling off and set it on the nightstand.
“Can’t go wrong with Douglas Adams,” she said with a small smile. I laid down and shifted to get comfortable. She moved to her side to face me. “Are you going to read to me?”
I grinned a little. “If you like.”
She smiled and scooted close enough that I could feel her body heat.
I focused on opening the book and started reading. “‘Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.’” I made my voice the one she seemed to like.
I continued reading to her, noticing that she was only half asleep. I made my voice quieter. Her breathing grew deep and even. I kept reading just in case. I knew she was asleep when she shifted closer, her head moving to my shoulder, her leg slipping over mine as she pressed against my unbruised side. She moved her hand to my chest and left it there. The scent of rosemary filled my nose coaxing me to relax. I closed the book, set it carefully on the nightstand with my glasses, and pulled the lamp’s chain to dim the light to a soft glow. I held her hand against my chest and took a deep breath. What did she go through in that room? I ran my thumb over her palm and looked at her. If we couldn’t find the answer… how much longer did we have with her? My eyes burned as I pressed my lips against her forehead and just felt her against me. Eventually, my eyelids grew heavy. I fell into a deep sleep with her touch and smell soothing me.
Chapter 15
Friday Late Afternoon
Zeke
What time was it? I checked my phone. 3:44 p.m. I took another drink of coffee. I was going to need to get some sleep soon. But I didn’t want to. There would probably be nightmares; there always were when I hadn’t slept for a few days. I leaned my head back and took a deep breath. I was just going to have to—
The door to Isaac’s room burst open. Ethan strode out, his face furious.
I got to my feet as he walked by, muttering in Spanish under his breath.
“Ethan!”