313
Tony
I stood and walked toward the room.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we've got you… scheduled for some lab work. It should only take an hour or so."
"I'll see you soon, sweetheart," Ginevra said softly, stroking Quillan’s head. “Then, I want to hear all about this Christmas party, hm?”
"Okay!" Nora scooped him up and stepped out into the hallway. Another group of nurses came in. I heard the click of the bed being made ready to move.
"Come with me," Matt said and looked at Nora. "You'll be alright here? There's food inside."
Nora nodded. "I think I can totally get behind some of those snacks you packed. Aurora over there—"
"Hey!"
Quillan burst into giggles. "But you are like Princess Aurora now!"
Nora laughed. Ginevra laughed, and they wheeled her away. I followed Matt away from the room to another section of the hospital. It looked less surgical. I guess it was the section away from the ICU.
"What is it?" I asked.
Something pricked at the back of my mind.
"About… Ginevra and everything," Matt started. "I think we should—Well, what I mean is—"
My heart lurched. I turned sharply back the way we came, stretching my senses, reaching out, straining toward where we had left Nora and Quillan.
"There's something—"
We turned to leave, our steps echoing in the sterile silence. As we walked, Matt attempted to resume the conversation, his voice a low murmur against the hospital's white noise. But a prickle of unease crawled up my spine, a primal alarm jangling beneath my skin. My senses, heightened by the day's emotional rollercoaster, screamed of danger.
I heard a cry of pain and went still. Matt flinched.
"Something's wrong," I rasped, my voice catching in my throat. "I can feel it."
He glanced at me. We retraced our steps back toward the room.
“Quillan!”
My heart leaped into my chest, and I ran forward. Nora was crumpled against the wall, bleeding from her shoulder. I recognized the scent. My blood turned to ice.
What the hell was Eliza doing here?
Matt hissed. "That crazy—"
"Let me go!" I heard Quillan cry, farther away, much farther, and getting faster.
"She took…" Nora whispered, collapsing.
"Get her help," I said, running down the hallway after the scent. I didn't smell Oren or anyone else familiar. It was just her.
"Eliza!" I roared, my voice echoing through the hallway. The scent, strong now, led me down the sterile corridor, my feet pounding against the polished floor.
I was going to kill her.
There was no doubt. No sense of hesitation. I was going rip her fucking throat out. I burst through the door leading to the emergency staircase and jumped. Each level I fell past, bouncing between the railing, brought me close to the sound of Quillan’s crying. When I reached the bottom floor, I shot out and shoved the emergency alarm up. The sound blared through the hospital. I saw security officers rushing around.
“Eliza!” I yelled. “She took my son!”
A security officer turned and started speaking into his radio, but I didn’t stop to listen to what he said. The front doors seemed to lock into place, but Quillan was still getting further away. I turned, skidding around the corner, following the scent.
She was heading out the back. I could smell her fear and panic growing stronger. I was seconds away from shifting. Then, the phone blared in my pocket. I opened it.
“I’m—”
Matt's voice, strained and urgent, ripped through the receiver. "Tony, it's Ginevra! She's gone!"
My world tilted, the ground beneath me threatening to give way.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” I yelled.
My mind, already stretched thin with fear of what the hell Eliza had planned for Quillan, started screaming, yet the panic didn’t shift. Oren. It had to be him. He wouldn't miss this opportunity, not after the way I had antagonized him. If I had to kill him today, I wasn’t going to let myself feel guilty at the least.
"The doctors were taking her for scans," Matt explained, his voice rough with worry. "She… she just took off. We searched the floor, but she's vanished."
Vanished. Vanished was better than being taken. The word echoed in my head.
And then, a scream ripped through the air, choked with terror and pain.
It was Eliza’s voice.
I pushed through the back door. The scent of blood and something that reminded me of birds swept over me. The back door slammed shut behind me, the sterile air replaced by the biting chill of the night. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, a potent cocktail of fury and relief. At the end of the alley, bathed in the harsh glare of moonlight, lay the scene of carnage.
Eliza was crumpled on the cold asphalt, and blood pooled around her. I smelled burning flesh. I could hear her choking on blood. The gaping wound in her chest looked brutal, but it hadn't been made by claws. Quillan was huddled a few feet away, just behind a dumpster. Whimpers escaped him. His clothes were all splattered with blood. Members of the Blue Moon Pack surged down the alleyway. The sound of fluttering wings filled my ears. I ran forward, shifting before I could think about it, but the change didn't go. I didn't even feel it rippling through me the way it usually did. My pace stuttered and stalled, and a lance of pain went through me. I wouldn't get there fast enough on two legs. I couldn't take on all four of them in my human form. My heart was in my throat. If they took Quillan, if I lost him like this, there was only one way I would be able to get him back.
After telling Oren I was coming after him, I couldn't even trust that Quillan would be unharmed. I could see his face streaked with tears and blood.
I pushed against the block, slamming into it, pushing my legs harder as they burned. Pain like I'd never known ripped straight through my chest. I screamed, my legs buckling, and I went down just as I was sure that the man in front was going to grab Quillan.
He shrieked and scrambled away. I pushed myself out of the grime of the alleyway, trying to get out even as the weight kept me pinned to the ground. Then, a blinding light, like a miniature sun exploding, engulfed the alley. The sound of fluttering wings came from above, and something hit the ground, light as a feather. The men who were rushing down the alleyway froze mid-step and bathed in the light. They didn't scream. It was as if they had no sound left to give. Then, in a horrifying instant, they were gone. In their place, puddles of shimmering red-gold beads lay scattered on the pavement, clicking against the pavement.
I blinked, stunned. Quillan trembled. The light eased, turning into a gossamer, glowing set of wings as immaterial as air. They melted together and fell around a figure like a cloak. The figure didn't turn toward me but started marching down the alleyway, feet barely grazing the ground. She stepped back in the air, taking a stance. A long spear started to materialize in her hand.
"Ginevra?"
I gasped as she launched the spear. I heard glass shatter. Someone choked. The scent of blood grew stronger. Tires screeched against the pavement as the spear exploded across the car.
"Mommy?" Quillan whimpered.
She turned to Quillan. The car shot off into the night. The light that spread out behind her like wings folded around her. She crouched down and drew Quillan into her arms.
"Are you alright?"
I blinked. Where had she come from?
I looked up and saw several stories up the broken window. I pushed myself to my knees and then onto my feet. Pain still wracked my body, and every step forward was a battle, but I heard the car getting further away. Someone came out into the alleyway.
I heard them murmuring, rushing towards Eliza's form, and as I reached Ginevra, the wings of light vanished with the sound of fluttering wings. She stumbled into me. I caught her, taking her weight and pressing them both to my chest tightly.
Her hair glowed, more blonde than ever, as if she'd dyed it with gold. It smelled like fresh air and spring. I growled low in my chest, content and happy in a way that shook me. The red gold beads around us lifted into the air and drew together, circling her arm and forming a band.
"Klutz," she whispered. "What was that anyway?"
My lips twitched. "I'm… too old apparently to be running around."
She chuckled a little, leaning into me.
"Mommy, are you okay?" Quillan asked softly.
"Mommy is going to be just fine," she whispered, her voice fading. She looked up at me. Her eyes were still full of that flashing light. "We… need to talk."
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