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“Mila?” the stranger said. He stayed crouched in front of her, but didn’t try to get closer. “I’m Anatoly. I’m here to help.Everything is going to be fine.”

She met his gaze and realized thateverything was going to be fine. She was safe. Carter was safe. Anatoly was going to fix everything.

“Hello,” she murmured.

“Please tell the operator you overreacted, and you’re going to drive your friend to the emergency room yourself,” Anatoly said gently, handing her phone back.

Mila blinked and frowned. No, that wouldn’t work. She needed to make Anatoly understand that Carter needed more help than that.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “He needs an ambulance.”

Anatoly’s eyes went wide, then he leaned in closer and cupped her chin. She couldn’t look away. “He doesn’t need an ambulance. It’s only a few scrapes. He wants to go home and sleep it off. You want to make him happy, right?”

All her doubt slid away as she stared into Anatoly’s glowing eyes.

“Yes,” she agreed.

He let go of her chin, and she talked to the 911 operator. The woman was nice but in a hurry. She demanded Mila’s name and warned her that the call was being logged so if she called again then refused service, they’d need to check anyway.

Mila felt bad for wasting their time and apologized profusely before the woman hung up on her.

“Well done,” Anatoly said as more people flooded into the alley. Mila was relieved to see so many familiar faces. There was Rissa, Zander, Harper, and Silas.

“What happened?” Rissa asked, going down to her knees next to Mila.

“I smell durmin,” Zander announced.

“Durmin?” Mila asked, blinking up at him. The earlier calm was starting to wear off, letting fear tighten her chest. On top of that was growing confusion and the strong feeling that something that she didn’t understand was going on.

Everyone went quiet for a moment and stared at her.

Then Anatoly stood up and held out a hand to Zander. “I need to borrow your phone. I’m going to call Gio.”

Zander handed over the phone and then went back to checking Carter over. Anatoly walked off with the phone.

“Is Gio a doctor?” she asked Rissa. “Can he help Carter?”

“How bad is he?” Rissa asked Zander, ignoring Rissa’s question.

“I’m trying to see, but Babette won’t let me touch him,” Zander said. Babette was perched on top of Carter’s chest. She was growling and snapping at Zander when he tried to touch Carter.

“Babette?” Mila said, reaching out to the little dog. Babette didn’t try to bite her, but she did grab hold of Mila’s sleeve and pulled, as if trying to drag Mila on top of Carter too.

“Babette!” Mila tugged at her sleeve until she almost lifted the little dog off. Babette let go, but then whined and nudged Mila’s hand, trying to push her to touch Carter.

“I’m helping,” Mila promised, letting her hand rest on Carter's naked hip. She refused to look down to see why her hand was wet. It had to be blood, why wasn’t anyone calling for help?

No, they were calling someone. A man named Gio.

Babette licked her face as she stared at Carter’s eyes. They were closed but not relaxed. He was awake and in pain. That was good, right? Pain meant you weren’t dead. Pain meant a body wasn’t ready to let go of their soul yet.

Rissa and Zander were both talking to her, but she couldn’t hear anything. There was a roaring in her ears as she watched his eyes relax and the muscles under her hand went limp.

“No,” she whispered. “Please don’t die.”

“Mila.” Anatoly’s voice drew her attention away from Carter’s face. He was kneeling next to her, his eyes glowing again. Why wasn’t she worried about that glow?

“We’re going to put Carter in your van,” he said. “You’re going to drive him to Gio. This is very important, do you understand?”