Page 74 of Hell House
She squares her shoulders, “Myself.”
I thumb the lace, half tempted to keep them for myself, but instead I go to the foot of her bed, taking her hospital sock clad feet in my hands. I slide the skimpy material up her creamy legs, noting the bandages coating her knees. A smattering of birthmarks dot her legs, something I hadn’t noticed before, but now I fight the urge to follow the trail of them with my lips.
“Can you stand?”
She nods. Panties laying right below her knees as we work together to swing her legs over the edge.
“Hold onto me.” She wraps her arms around my neck standing with me. Her t-shirt falls covering her front. I guide her undies up her legs as her grip becomes shaky. I settle the thin material around her hips, the scrap of fabric barely covering her ass. I sit her down and have her step one leg at a time into her black leggings.
“Alright, baby. I need you to stand one more time. Think you can manage?”
She must be tired because she doesn’t even sass me. She nods, linking her arms around my neck as she pushes up off the bed. I quickly hoist the leggings on. Her arm slips, but I hold her tight by the sides of her pants. “Okay, I’ve got you. Salem, sit for me, okay?” She sits, and I smooth her hair back.
“You good?” She licks her lips and nods.
“I just want to sleep.”
“Okay, baby. I’m going to get you out of here so you can sleep.”
And I do just that. Even going so far as to have a new mattress delivered via helicopter with special pillows, so she can sleep comfortably.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Emmet
“There’s another player on the board. That’s the only explanation for it.”
Headmaster Hayden stirs his piping hot herbal tea, his displeasure palpable.
“What were you doing out there? Do you realize that you could have put the entire plan in jeopardy?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I was taking a walk when I saw Salem get attacked. I knew that if she saw me, she would suspect me. Trust me, I played it off well. Walker doesn’t suspect a thing, and Salem never saw me.”
“You better hope they don’t find us out, or I won’t hesitate to snap your neck and send you flying back to purgatory faster than you can say your own name, Envy.”
I held my tongue about the body he was currently residing in not being able to snap a saltine cracker let alone my neck, but I wouldn’t put it past him to poison the shit out of me.
“You better fix this. Make sure they trust you implicitly. Do whatever it takes. We’re too close to Samhain to fuck it up now.” Spit gathered at the edges of his puckered lips, spraying saliva like he was Jonathan Groff.
The last thing I needed was someone trying to rid us of the only hope we had of getting the veil open.
“And you’re sure you didn’t see anyone?”
I can feel my patience thinning. “No. Like I said before, all I saw was Salem go down hard like she was attacked by air.”
His nostrils flare and I sense he isn’t telling me something important. Knowing better than to ask, I make to leave his house and head back to my room where I can get some information on Salem’s condition.
“Did you get the device from your father?” Remembering the flash drive in my pocket, I hand over the tech capable of blocking the island’s signal.
“No one should be able to get a phone call in or out once you activate it.” I tell him.
“Just think, Envy, in two weeks time we could be reunited with our families again.” His cloudy eyes shine wistfully.
I leave him to his memories and brace the cold, bracing myself for what I had to do the next coming weeks to make sure I never had to leave this body.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Salem
