Page 106 of Tempt Me

“Tell me what’s going on. No nurse talk bullshit this time, okay? I am a big girl, and I can handle it,” I said when we got far enough away from the room Pharaoh was in.

Ezello sighed. “We don’t know what happened, Fallon. Judas attacked Goliath and his guard. They didn’t see it coming, and when they came to, they found Pharaoh…”

I waited for her to continue.

“He was staring out at the cliff, holding you in his arms.

I tried to think back to those moments in the forest. Ferdinand had chased me after he found me searching for Taliah. I fought him off, but he was so much stronger than I was…

The wind was picking up. It was carrying his laughter as he chased me. I had to get away. I had to find Taliah and get us back to the cabin. I didn’t even know if she was alive.

“Taliah!” I hollered to the setting sun. I followed her blood trail. It was too much. I feared the worst.

Her form finally came into view, hidden behind shrubbery. She was lying against a boulder near a huge drop-off. My heart sank even more. Ferdinand wasn’t far behind me, and this was a dead end.

“Taliah! Oh my god, Taliah.”

She was breathing, but it was too fast. Her words came out in grunted pants.

“Fallon. Get out of here. He is going…to find you.”

I shook my head furiously. I wasn’t leaving her.

“No. Tell me how to fucking help you. I am in love with your brother. You should know that means I’m stubborn.”

She laughed softly. “Of course. Did you…did you bring the gun he had?”

I reached inside my pocket, pulling out the gun that I swiped from the pool of her blood in the cabin.

She nodded. “Good. Now, I need you to take out the bullets and open them.”

I followed her instructions, not understanding a damn thing but sure that she knew what she was doing. She had the same hard edge that the triplets did.

“Reach into my pocket, Fallon, and get my lighter…it’s funny…as a doctor, I have always been told my smoking habit would kill me…guess they were…wrong…”

“Uh. Okay, whatever you need, Taliah, but hurry. He’s coming.”

I reached into her blood-soaked pants pocket, feeling the lighter she was referencing, and handed it to her. I could see the black-looking blood seep from her wound every time she breathed.

“Okay. Now get back and don’t listen to what I say next. Ignore me…okay?”

I was confused, so I backed away from her.

Taliah dumped the gunpowder onto the oozing wound and took a shuddering breath before flicking on the lighter. Her scream vibrated the trees above us. The powder caught flame, and the wound burned in a sizzle of smoke.

“Fuck! Oh, my fucking god. Make it stop!”

I lunged for her, but then her words entered my mind. She told me to ignore her because this was…saving her.

She had made some type of cauterization tool, and her bullet wound was closed.

“Taliah. Oh my god. You are such a badass.”

Taliah was sweating. Her tan face was covered in perspiration, blood, and dirt, but she was smiling.

“Told you I could fix worse.”

I laughed, feeling relief for the first time in the night.