Page 99 (1/1)

"Holy shit, this night is crazy What tilanced at the wall "It’s four am The number" The human handed hi the number into the phone He pressed the button for speaker an to pace It was Dez Kirby who picked up "Baojia?" "Dez" He hated that his voice broke, but he couldn’t seem to control it "Where is she?" "She’s at UC Medical Center Matt and I are here with her They have her stable Both her legs were broken, and she lost a lot of blood, but they’re worried about head trauoes down" "Is she going to live?" There was enough of a pause that he punched a wall "Dez!" "They think so, okay! There’s no way of knowing if she has any brain daht now We just have to wait They think, if everything happens like they’re hoping, that she’ll be significantly better by to And you’ll have to leave in like an hour" "I don’t care" He was already pulling on a new shirt "I’ll be there" She wasn’t awake, but she wasn’t dead, either And Baojia sat there, holding her limp hand until he was forced to leave before dawn Carwyn had explained to the doctors about the horrible rockslide while they were hiking, and a brush of Tenzin’s ao away Dez and Matt would stay during the day while Baojia could not He returned to Coronado He had no place else to go The next night, he was holding Natalie’s hand, trying to keep his distance from the hospital equipment, when his sire slid into the room Ernesto pulled up a chair and sat across fro his head to the side as he looked down on the sick wonored the leap in his chest and tried to make his voice as calone down the way the doctors were hoping for They were very pleased when I arrived tonight" They both fell silent, the only sound was the beeping from the monitors, which filled the rooht," Ernesto finally said under his breath "I did" "Because of this?" "Because he was conspiring with Ivan to hold human hunts and implicate you in the deaths of the victi human bodies in your territory in an attempt to make you look weak And yes, because his actions led to the injury of ently "She is not a vampire" "That makes her no less my mate Not to reen took on an eerie quality in the fluorescent lights of the hospital "You are in love with her" "Yes" "Why didn’t one of your friends turn her after she was injured?" Ernesto looked over his shoulder toward the hall where Carwyn and Beatrice waited with Dez and Matt "Perhaps they are not friends at all, but those ant to use you?" He clenched his teeth "Like you did?" "I aave you this life Without me, you would have never rave, or buried in a mine that caved in Perhaps part of the railroad you helped to build, stuffed under the tracks like garbage" Baojia looked away froan to count the freckles on the back of Natalie’s hand "I know you are my sire" "I am your family" "No," he said firmly "You are not" Ernesto frowned "You sister is devastated" His chest ached for Paula "I ae of Rory’s actions?" "No" "How can I be sure?" Ernesto shrugged "Unless you cois, how can I be sure who to trust, Baojia?" He blinked Ernesto wanted hi after me? Youinterest in me, or you would not want me back" He kneas true the aze narrowed, but he didn’t speak "Is it Katya?" As soon as the name of his old rival was spoken, Ernesto’s ao wild and the nurses rushed in Baojia stood and backed against the wall, s at his sire as the nurses ushered Ernesto out "I see" "You see nothing,at the sleeping wo he needed "I knoho my family is Goodbye, Ernesto Don’t bother us You may question my friends, but I do not Nor do I question Natalie’s" Beatrice was already at the door, along with Caraiting orried eyes to see what the commotion was Ernesto looked away fro kindly before he patted his granddaughter’s cheek and murmured, "I wish the best for your friend, cariña I’m sure she’ll be fine The doctors here are unparalleled" "Thank you, Grandfather" Beatrice’s voice was carefully neutral "I’lanced toward Baojia with a sood hands" "So she is" The old vaht when he turned to Baojia and said, "Good luck"

CHAPTER THIRTY

Sound wasfroan to sift through her murky senses