Page 35 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

Lucy

T he room around me was so dark that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. For the first time in a while, I didn’t feel like I was burning alive, but when I tried to move, pain exploded in my leg.

I gasped, reaching for it, when my hands were caught in a strong grip.

“Don’t touch it,” Ambrose ordered gently. He let go of my hands and moved away from me. A second later, light filled the room.

We were in Ambrose’s bed, and he looked like shit. Still, seeing his face so close to mine was like coming up for air.

“You’re awake.” He smiled.

“What…”

I wasn’t sure what to ask first. Where was Charlie? What was wrong with my leg? Why the hell were my arms wrapped with gauze? What had happened?

The last question answered itself when the gunfight downstairs came back in little flashes.

“Your mom?” I asked, holding my breath.

“She’s fine,” Ambrose said, leaning closer. “Currently pissed that Alice has her on a liquid diet for a few more days.”

“She was shot,” I argued. “It was really bad.”

“Immortal, baby,” Ambrose said slowly. “Remember?”

Oh, yeah. That made sense.

“Everyone is fine,” Ambrose continued.

“Good,” I replied, lowering myself back down to the pillow. “That’s good.”

I was having a hard time processing the memory of what happened.

They’d just kept coming.

“Hey,” Ambrose called, reaching out to run his thumb along my jaw. His face appeared above mine. “How are you feeling?”

“Probably better than you look,” I replied.

He’d gone from a five o’clock shadow to a full beard, but it didn’t mask his newly sunken cheeks or the hollowness in his eyes. His hair was a mess, and it looked like he’d thrown on the clothes he’d found. The sweatpants he had on were lime green.

“It’s been a long thirty-seven hours,” he said ruefully.

“I’ve been asleep an entire day?”

“And then some,” he replied. “You needed it. Alice says sleep is the great healer.”

“I thought that was God.”

He just shrugged.

“What’s wrong with my leg?”

“You were shot in the thigh.”

“I think I would’ve remembered that,” I argued. When the hell had I been shot? I’d been on my feet the whole time.

“Alice said you probably didn’t notice because of the adrenaline.”

I let out a huff of breath.

“You have a graze on your ankle too.”

I was pretty sure I knew when that one happened. It was when they’d shot out the windows.

I stared at the ceiling. My entire body felt heavy and weak.

“You want to get up?”

The moment he said it, I realized I really did need to get up. My bladder felt like it was going to burst. I nodded, and he moved around to help me sit on the edge of the bed.

“What’s wrong with my arms?” I asked, looking down at the bandages. Someone had put me in a T-shirt I didn’t recognize, and there was so much gauze that it looked like I was wearing a long sleeve shirt under it.

“You had some cuts from the window glass.” Putting his hands on my hips, he braced me as I stood.

My leg didn’t feel as bad as it had when I’d first moved it.

I was in nothing but a pair of panties, and there was a wide bandage taped near the inside of my thigh and another on the outside of the opposite ankle.

Instead of the sharp pain I expected, it felt more like a dull throbbing as I hobbled into the bathroom.

Ambrose hovered in the doorway.

“I’ve got it from here,” I told him.

“Are you sure?”

I glanced at the toilet three feet away. “I think I can make it.”

Reaching up, he rubbed his hand over his jaw and then smiled ruefully. “I’m having a hard time letting you out of my sight.”

“You’re not watching me pee.”

“I’ll turn my back.”

“You’ll shut the door,” I retorted. I gestured at it, making something on my arm twinge. I barely held back a grimace. “I’ll be right out.”

He sighed and closed it between us. Turning, I headed over to do my business.

“Stop listening at the door,” I called out.

“I’m not,” he called back.

“Bullshit!”

“I have good hearing, remember?”

I felt my cheeks heat as I tried to ignore his presence.

When I was done, I shuffled over to the sink and jolted at the sight of myself in the mirror.

Someone had brushed my hair and pulled it neatly into a low ponytail, but my fringe was wild on my forehead, and my cheek had a large yellowing bruise.

Looking down, I turned my arms back and forth.

The bandages were clean, like they’d just been changed.

“Lucy?” Ambrose called.

“I’ll be right out!”

I washed my hands carefully so I wouldn’t get the bandages wet and then shuffled back out of the bedroom. When I got there, Charlie was sitting on the end of the bed.

Relief rushed through me so hard that I swayed.

“Nice of you to wake up finally,” he greeted, looking me over. “Have a good nap?”

“That’s bold, coming from you,” I replied, moving to the bed. “You’re good?”

“Well, I’ve been worried out of my mind for the past two days, but yes,” he said as I gingerly sat down near the pillows. “How are you feeling?”

“Like someone ran me over with a Zamboni.”

“Close enough,” he said with a small smile.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You dated a cop for ten minutes ?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

It took me a moment to understand what he was referring to.

“I may have gone back to the gun range without him,” I replied as Ambrose walked back into the room.

“Did you live there?” Charlie asked dryly.

“No, I didn’t go for long.” I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Then how the hell did you do all that?”

“Once you know how to load and fire, it’s not hard.” I shrugged.

“Oh, please,” he shot back. “I saw the aftermath. You?—”

“They were practically on top of us, Charles,” I snapped, my voice high and weird. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of skill when you’re that close!”

The amusement in Charlie’s eyes disappeared. “I’m sorry, Luce.”

“It’s fine,” I replied flatly.

“Hey, baby,” Ambrose called. “You up for a little trip?”

“Oh, sure,” I spat, spinning on him. “How about we go back to Europe? I had so much fun there the last time.”

Charlie jerked with surprise, but Ambrose just watched me steadily.

“I was thinking we could walk down and see Alice so she doesn’t have to come up here.”

“Definitely,” I said, dropping my feet to the floor. I ignored the pain in my thigh and stomped toward him.

“You want some pants?”

“Not if they look like yours.” I glared.

The asshole laughed.

“She’s always like this when she’s sick,” Charlie said.

“I’m not sick.”

Ambrose got me some baggy sweatpants and helped me step into them. They were very loose in the waist, but that was fine because it meant they were also very loose in the legs and didn’t put any pressure on my wounds.

I complained as we left Ambrose’s rooms. “Should I really be walking?” I asked, letting him tug me along slowly. “It seems like a bad idea.”

“She wanted you up last night, but you were sleeping,” he replied.

“That seems way too soon.”

“She’s pretty good at what she does,” Charlie said from behind me.

“Good to know,” I mumbled.

We took the stairs slowly, setting two feet on each one before I moved to the next. As a result, there were people waiting for us by the time we reached the bottom floor.

“How are you feeling?” Erik asked, watching me intently.

“Like shit. How about you?” I replied flippantly.

After a moment, he smiled. “Better.”

That’s when I remembered he’d been shot too. Shit. I didn’t have time to apologize for being a jerk when Reese moved in for a hug.

“Holy shit, dude,” she said, squeezing my waist. “You’ve been asleep a long time.”

“It was an exhausting day,” I replied, patting her back.

“Understatement of the year.” She pulled back and looked into my eyes. “We did it.”

“Barely.”

“It counts,” she said firmly.

“I’m taking her to see Alice,” Ambrose said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

Erik and Reese backed out of the way as he led me toward the hidden hospital room.

When we got there, I got a nasty sense of déjà vu, but it wasn’t Reese in the bed next to the one I’d been in.

Instead, Alice’s large mate lay there, still as a rock, his face pasty white. His neck was wrapped in white gauze.

“Oh, good. You’re awake,” Alice said from her place in a chair beside him.

“Sven?” I asked, looking back at the Vampire.

“He’s still recuperating,” she said firmly as she stood. “It takes time. Let’s take a look at those wounds.”

I walked over to the other bed and stood beside it. Untying the knot at my waist, I let the sweatpants fall to my feet.

Alice raised her eyebrows. “Well, that’s one way to do it.” She walked over to wash her hands as Ambrose kneeled down to help me step out of the pants.

“How are you feeling?” Alice asked over her shoulder.

“Sore.”

“I’ll bet. That bullet was a tricky bugger.”

My stomach flipped at that.

I stood very still while she took off the tape and uncovered the wounds on my legs, my chin high as I stared at the wall. As she poked at those, Ambrose began to unwind the cloth around my arms.

“Healing nicely,” Alice said. “Your immortality hadn’t solidified yet, but if I had to guess, I’d say it had started.”

“How long will it take?” Ambrose asked quietly.

“You know I can’t answer that,” Alice chided. “But I don’t think it will be long. A week, perhaps?”

“How will I know?” I joked. “Is someone else going to shoot me?”

“Don’t say that,” Ambrose snapped.

I looked at him in surprise and accidentally got a good view of my arms. They were covered in fresh pink scars. Four on each arm were oddly uniform. Some of the others were still scabbed over. Near my elbow, a row of six neat stitches ran in a straight line.

“Shit.”

“That’s what you get when you go wrestling around in glass,” Alice said.

My stomach pitched again, and I pushed that memory away.

“Stitches on your arm can come out today,” she announced. “I want the ones on your legs to stay another day, maybe two.”