Page 25 of Blood in the Water

LEONA

Cas had been sleeping for three days.

He was alive.Barely.

The Irish doctor said at least three times that he should be dead, and by the third time, I wanted to tape her mouth shut. Another piece chipped from the stone that had become my heart each day he slept.

When Colin pulled up to her small home, she rushed outside, took one look, and immediately shook her head. She said he needed a blood transfusion and didn’t have any stock on hand. By the time she got some, he’d be long dead.

ThankfuckI was O negative. Universal donor.

I demanded she take my blood immediately, no second thought or question in my mind. She used my blood to keep him alive. Just like he saved me, it was my turn to save him. He wasnotallowed to die. We had work to do.

I grabbed Cas’s hand and rested my forehead against the edge of his bed. My fingers drew absent-minded patterns on his skin. The only thing keeping me from screaming was his steady intake and exhale of breath.

One breath at a time.

He was stable now. He just neededtime. And that was something I didn’t have.

The hollowness in my chest, which had morphed into fury, had settled into a constant gnawing pain. The only way that pain was ever going to go away was once Max had paid for the blood he spilled with his own.

“Have you slept?” I looked up as the doctor came in to take his vitals. She was beautiful, with long hair so platinum it looked almost white and a small button nose framed by a round face. She spoke with a slight English accent, unlike Colin’s Irish.

We were currently camped out in one of the two makeshift hospital rooms in her house. In the last two days, I’d seen at least four groups of Irish soldiers come in and out, using the triage space where she could dress wounds and take non-emergency visits at the front of the house

I shook my head. “Can’t. But thanks for checking up on him, Doc.”

“Just call me Willow, please,” she replied, slightly inclining her head. “He’s doing well, but it is apparent you are not.”

“I’m fine, Doc—ah, Willow.” I suppressed a yawn. I was not fine. But I was not going to show any more weakness around the Irish. They may be helping us, but that would not last forever.

Colin said it was safe for us to stay here and that the Irish were willing to hide us until we could get out of the city since we were technically still under their protection when Max attacked us at the airport.

But I didn’t fully trust them.

Colin? Yeah, he’d earned it. Yet the more people who saw us here, the more likely word would get out that Leona Vero was hiding with the Irish.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t immensely thankful. We would not have survived this long had the Irish not agreed to help Cas. However, at this point, their services had extended well past areturned favor. We were no longer square. I would owe them for this protection, and eventually, they’d come to collect.

Doctor Willow pulled over the rolling stool, plopped down, and lifted her stethoscope. “Let me check you out. Come on, you haven’t let me examine you, and all you’ve been doing is sitting in this chair. Whenever he does wake up, I imagine he won’t be pleased if you’ve collapsed from exhaustion yourself.”

I glanced at Cas’s sleeping face. He looked so peaceful with his eyes closed, and his face relaxed. No, he would not be happy. He’d yell at me for being an idiot. “Fine.”

She quickly checked my vitals, breathing, eyes, and ears. “Your blood pressure is high, and you’re very dehydrated by the look of your mucous membranes.” She wrapped the stethoscope around her neck. “You’re wearing yourself too thin, Leona. What you need is sleep.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Nightmares.Every time I’ve managed to doze off while sitting here, I’ve jolted awake almost immediately. Images of Max’s hands around my neck. Cas dying beneath my hands. Max slitting my father’s throat. Cas taking more bullets to the chest. All versions of psychological torture played in my mind on repeat.

“It just won’t come,” I said. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t question further. “I’ll sleep when he wakes up.”When the bastard is dead beneath my feet. Then I’ll truly rest.

She looked at me long and hard. “I can give you something to help.”

Immediately, I opened my mouth to say no, but she held up her hands. “Nothing strong. Enough to take the edge off. A light sedative.”

“No. If he wakes up, I want to be awake.” He would almost certainly freak out at being somewhere he didn’t know, and I’dneed to be there to calm him down. With as strong as he was, Cas freaking out was never a good thing.