Page 85 of A Perfect World
A low moan got me instead.
I pried my eyes open, the discarded phone still spurting Jack’s demands, but I barely heard him. All my focus went to the man beneath me, heaving in shuddering breaths.
“Ollie,” I whispered, my free hand clutching his soaked shirt. The storm lightened a fraction as ice blue, bloodshot eyes found mine.
“Courtney,” he breathed, his hand covering the one holding the journal against my chest. Each labored breath shook more tears from me.
“Where the fuck are you?” Jack howled from the speaker.
Ollie winced as if the sound physically hurt him. He propped up on an elbow, coughing out sporadic directions to his very panicked best friend, but I was fading fast again.
Too fast.
“Stay with me.”
His voice was a life raft.
“It hurts.”
“I know,” he murmured, curling around me. “I know.”
I clung to him, both of us shivering with the journal wedged between us burning like an inferno.
“Is it draining you?”
He grimaced. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does.”
Glowing eyes glared at me, his nostrils flaring. “I’ll take this eternally over the pain of losing you.”
My lower lip trembled. “No one can know.”
“No one will,” he promised. I tucked my head into the crook of his neck. Between his arms, the heat of the journal and the bruising misery of my body, I drifted back into the comfort of red plasma.
42
Ollie
Sittingonthefloorbeside the bed, I fisted my hair, elbows on knees, soaked clothes plastered to my skin like a wet shell. The shower continued running, but I couldn’t go in there.
I couldn’t stand the sight of blood on her. I couldn’t handle seeing more of the damage done to her beautiful body.
Maybe it made me weak not to face it, but I couldn’t shatter again. I made sure she had the journal with her, hoping it would heal her faster, and collapsed to the carpet.
She asked if the journal healing her was draining me; I didn't want to answer. It was sharing my life-force, dragging me to the edge of consciousness, but I’d give all of it to her if she needed it.
When the Hummer screeched to a stop beside us on the shoulder, smoke from the vehicle across the road had shrouded the tree line. Bits of the drive came in pieces. Jack drilled me relentlessly, though with the journal siphoning from me, I barely formed words. I remembered Serina crying at the sight of us, and Buddy licking my face until I passed out again. Both of us started to rouse as Jack parked and helped us up to the dorm.
“Can you explain what the fuck happened?” Jack demanded from the doorway.
My nails bit into my scalp, eyes trained on the dark gray carpet.
“There’s nothing more to explain. It had to be one of those Merit assholes following us, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.”
Jack growled under his breath. “I thought they wanted us alive, what you’re saying doesn’t make any fucking sense. Why try to kill her?”
They did kill her.
