Liam stood and began undressing. The suddenness of it all surprised me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my brows pinched together.
“I think best when I’m doing something.”
I arched a brow. “Excuse me?”
“Join me for a swim?” He grinned, making it clear he knew where my mind had dipped. My cheeks heated and my anger died away as I realized I’d misinterpreted what he’d meant. He peeled his shirt off and tossed it onto the concrete beside me. His six-pack was impeccable, and it was hard not to stare. “Before we head back to my place.”
I blinked, my mind still slightly stuck in the gutter. “Back to your place?”
“Obviously, it’s not required that you stay with me.” He unbuttoned his shorts. “I figured you’d feel safer with me than alone in Ruby. Also, I can’t leave until I situate a few things here first. I need to make sure my clan and the campground are taken care of just in case.”
Just in case? The reality of the situation fell on me. There was a real chance Liam could die while helping me rescue Penny and any others Ezra might have in his grasp. Heck, there was a chance I might die.
I swallowed hard and forced the thoughts away. Liam wouldn’t be dying. He’d come back. I would see to it somehow.
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he said, misjudging my silence.
I shifted on my feet. Him being nearly naked in front of me was a bit uncomfortable. “Okay.”
“Good. Honestly, I prefer you staying with me. My bear needs you close, as weird as that might sound. He needs to know you’re safe.” He scratched his neck, and I swore his cheeks reddened beneath the dim lighting of the lamppost nearby. It was cute. “So, how about that swim?” he asked once he brought his eyes back to mine.
“Sure, if it helps you think.” Who knew, maybe it would be helpful. I’d at least be able to burn off some of this pent up energy.
I peeled off my tank top and cut-off shorts, leaving only my bra and panties on. Liam’s eyes were on me, trailing the length of my body, I could feel the heat of them. It caused tendrils of satisfaction to ripple through me before I could stamp it out.
This was a swim meant to spark a plan of rescue, not something to flame either of our libidos.
“Any physical activity helps me think,” Liam said as he stepped to the edge of the pool and prepared to dive in.
“Is that a fact?” I asked in a saucy tone. I couldn’t help it. He’d left himself wide open.
He shook his head, a wide grin spread across his face. “You’re something else.”
I grinned as I slipped into the water. It was warmer than I’d thought it would be, which was a nice surprise. I went under once, to get my hair wet, and when I came up, Liam was watching me. That half-cocked smile hung on his face still. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I looked up at the stars.
“Into astronomy?” Liam asked after a few seconds had passed. I noticed his eyes never wavered from me. Maybe treading water while staring at me was part of his thinking process.
I brought my gaze back to him. “Sort of.”
“It’s a yes or no question,” he said, his grin growing.
“Then, yes, but in my own way,” I answered, holding his stare.
He drifted closer to me while chuckling. “I love how everything about you seems to surprise me, even answers that are supposed to be simple.”
Butterflies erupted into flight as the space between us was erased, but I tried to keep my cool.
“Is that a nice way of saying that I’m complicated?” I asked. My tone was a little harsher than I’d intended, but maybe that was a good thing. It might kill the butterflies in my stomach and rein in this moment, whatever it was, between us.
“Not complicated,” he said. He didn’t need to tread water now. He was tall enough to touch. Close enough to touch too. “Interesting.”
“I’ve been called worse, so I’ll take it.” I swam past him, placing distance between us I felt was needed. He followed, and before I knew it, we were racing from one side of the pool to the other.
Liam was fast, but so was I. I lost count of how many laps we did. All I focused on was my competitive streak and how good it felt to be doing something besides worry. When my stamina gave way, Liam pulled ahead, and I lay on my back to float and rest. My muscles burned. My lungs ached. Still, there was a smile on my face because that had been fun.
“You’re good,” he said as he treaded water beside me.
I grinned. “Not as good as I once was, but I’m happy to see that I’ve still got it. I’m not even gonna lie.”
“Were you an avid swimmer?”
I flipped around to tread water with him, so I could look him in the eye. “I was on the swim team in middle school.”
Liam laughed. “Middle school?”
I splashed water in his face. “Hey. Just because it was forever ago doesn’t mean it doesn’t count.”
He opened his mouth to say something—maybe to apologize or say something smartass—but whatever he’d been about to say died on his tongue as his eyes landed on something over my shoulder. The reality of the current situation rushed back. My heart dropped to my stomach as thoughts of Ezra and the others filled my mind.
Had they found us? Had they somehow gotten through those patrolling?
When I turned to see what had nabbed his attention, I quickly realized it wasn’t Ezra or anyone from his pack of coyotes; it was a frantic woman. She rushed through the gate toward us, tears streaming down her flushed face. Her breathing was labored. She’d either ran here from somewhere or had been sobbing for hours.
Liam climbed out of the pool immediately. He was at her side in seconds, concern sharpening his features. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
The woman looked familiar, although I couldn’t place her.
“It’s Tobin. The curse has him. He’s sick.” Her words were shaky but easy to make out. They sent a jolt of alarm deep into my gut, prompting me to get out of the pool. “I didn’t think that’s what it was at first. I just—oh my God, Liam, I can’t lose him. Not like this. I can’t lose my baby.” She broke into a fit of sobs that looked painful, as though pieces of her soul were breaking away each time her body shook.
Liam reached out to steady her. “It’s going to be okay. Tell me what happened. What makes you think Tobin has the sickness?”
The woman didn’t look at me as I neared them. It was as though she could look nowhere besides Liam.
“I know the signs. I remember them from when Lane came down with it.” Fat tears fell from her eyes. Her worry and pain nearly broke me. I couldn’t imagine having already lost someone I loved to this sickness and then learning my son had it as well. It seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. “I’ll never forget what it looks like.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Liam said as he pulled on his shorts.
I grabbed my clothes and dressed quickly. I was coming with them because I had every intention of saving this little boy. This woman wouldn’t suffer through another loved one dying from the sickness if I could help it, especially not her child.
Chapter Five
Blister-like wounds the size of dimes spread from the little boy’s right side around to his back, over his left shoulder, and were making their way down to his elbow. It was the most painful-looking rash I’d ever seen.
“It’s hitting him hard and fast, Liam,” the boy’s mother said in a shaky, but steady voice. She dried her tears, and I knew it was all to remain strong and calm for her little boy.
Liam crouched down beside Tobin and placed a hand to his forehead. “He’s burning up. How long has he been like this?”
I stared at the little boy, taking in the dark circles beneath his eyes, his pale skin that seemed to have the bluish tint of death to it, and the painful-looking blisters that marked his skin. It shocked me to my core that this was the same little boy who had been playing pirates behind my Jeep without a trace of sickness days ago.
T
hat was where I recognized his mother from. She’d come out to tell Tobin and his friend to leave me alone.
My eyes remained glued to the kid as I heard his mother pull in a shaky breath and then exhale slowly. She was doing a damn good job of holding herself together for her son. I admired her strength.
“He complained his side was itchy yesterday, but I didn’t think anything of it. Honestly, I was too tired after working a double at the diner to look.” Her voice wavered, and I imagined it was because she was kicking herself for not having looked sooner. “He complained about it again this morning. I looked then, but it didn’t look anything like this. There were three or four marks that looked like mosquito bites. He’d been fishing in the pond with Ben the other day for a few hours. I thought they were just bites he’d picked up there.” Her lips pressed together into a thin line and she swallowed hard, as though she couldn’t bring herself to say what came next in her story. Guilt dulled the color of her eyes.
Mom guilt.
I’d seen it before. Although, it wasn’t something I was familiar with, considering my mother never seemed to suffer from it, I had witnessed Penny’s mom tormented by it a time or two.
“It’s okay, Rayna,” Liam insisted. He remained crouched at Tobin’s side but lifted his gaze to lock with hers. “You didn’t know. It’s summer. He’s always outside. The chances of it being a few mosquito bites were pretty high. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
He’d said all the right things, but even I knew his words wouldn’t bring her any comfort. They wouldn’t make her little boy better. There was only one thing that could—me.
My eyes drifted to Tobin again. I assessed his fevered, blistered little frame, trying to pinpoint where I should place my hands so the Mystic magic could do its thing.
Should I hover my hands over his right side, the area where his mom said the first few blisters had appeared? Did it matter since this wasn’t a gash or a bite mark in need of being stitched together again? I still didn’t fully understand how being the Mystic worked, and it was starting to piss me off.
Tobin coughed, coming to, and my thoughts left me. He made a noise that was caught somewhere between a whine and a strangled cry of pain. His mom was at his side in an instant. Liam stood and stepped to me to give them space.
“Hey, honey,” Rayna whispered to him. “Shh. It’s going to be okay.”
“I’m scared I’m going to die like Daddy,” Tobin said between wheezy pulls of air.
My heart broke. Right there, in the middle of their RV, watching as a mother tried to console her dying little boy.
Rayna placed a tender kiss to Tobin’s feverish forehead. She moved his sweat-soaked hair away from his eyes and shook her head. “That’s not going to happen. You’re going to be just fine because we have something Daddy didn’t.” She looked at me. “We have the Mystic.”
I nodded in agreement and then stepped forward.
Liam caught my wrist, pulling me to a standstill. The area between his brows pinched together as he stared into my eyes. He licked his lips and then leaned close to me to speak.
“I know you want to save him. I want you to save him, believe me, but I need you to know that taking this sickness into you could be ten times worse than what you felt when you healed Nash. It could wipe you out for days. A week even,” Liam insisted. “There aren’t any stories about what happens to the Mystic while healing the sickness or how long it takes for them to recuperate from it.”
My gaze drifted back to Tobin and his mom. His skin looked slick with sweat, and the painful blisters marking him had already spread. They covered his entire left arm, a portion of his torso, and a few had sprouted up on his face.
This kid was growing sicker by the second.
“I have to heal him,” I said. “I can’t just let him die.”
“And what about your friend? What about the other girls Ezra might have?” Liam asked. I could see it in his eyes that it pained him to remind me of them when a member of his clan was clearly in need of my help, but he did so anyway because Liam was a good guy. He cared about everyone.
Including me.
While I knew Penny needed me, so did Tobin. I couldn’t do anything for Penny right now being so far away, but I could save Tobin. He was right in front of me.
“Penny’s strong. She’ll be okay for another day or two. Tobin won’t,” I said, trying to make myself believe the words. “I need to help him now.”
Liam nodded and released my wrist. His eyes blazed with the brightness of his bear, and I knew it was because his bear had come to the surface to thank me for agreeing to help one of the youngest members of his clan.
I moved to crouch beside Tobin. Rayna gave me space but remained at his side.
“That’s right,” I said, forcing my lips to twist into a smile I didn’t feel. “My name is Tris, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’m here to make you better, okay?”
Tobin didn’t answer me. Instead, he pulled in another wheezy breath as his eyes fluttered open to look at me. His pupils were dilated, but I wasn’t sure he could see me. His eyes were too glassy-looking and bloodshot.
They freaked me out.
Rayna gripped one of his hands as she leaned forward and whispered sweet words to him. He moaned and whined, wiggling in agony in his twin bed.
Death wasn’t something I’d encountered up close and personal until coming to Gem Creek Campground. It wasn’t something I wanted to encounter ever again either.
“Daddy!” Tobin shouted suddenly, startling me. I flinched as he jerked up from the mattress into a sitting position. He reminded me of a zombie kid on one of those creepy TV shows Penny loved to binge-watch. It sent a shiver up my spine. Creepy kids had always freaked me out.
This one wasn’t creepy, though. He was dying.
“Daddy’s here, Mommy. He’s holding his hand out to me. I think he wants me to come with him,” Tobin insisted. His voice raised an octave with excitement that crushed me.
“No, baby. Don’t go with Daddy. Stay here with me. Stay here with Mommy, Tobin. Please, honey. Stay with me,” Rayna begged him. Fat tears spilled from her eyes as she shifted her gaze to me. Her eyes pleaded for me to hurry and save her little boy.
Time was ticking. We all knew it. The stagnant scent of death hung in the air.
I shifted on my knees and swallowed hard before hovering my hands over Tobin’s forehead and torso. My eyes closed as I called to the Mystic healing abilities inside me, willing them to surface.
“But Daddy looks so happy. Look at him, Mommy,” Tobin insisted. “He’s right there.”
“Shh.” Rayna pressed a hand against Tobin’s chest, gently forcing him to lay flat on the mattress again. “Lie down. Let the Mystic help you, baby.”
I tried to ignore their conversation and focus on the magic inside me, willing a tendril to come to me so I could put it to use. When one surfaced seconds later, I gripped hold of it tight and willed it to heal the little boy. In my mind, I imagined the golden light spilling into him from my fingertips, seeking the dark tendrils of sickness flowing through his system, and sending them into me.
My fingertips warmed and tingled as Mystic magic built beneath the surface of my skin.
Tobin’s breathing grew labored. I opened my eyes to look at him. Was I hurting him? His eyes squinted shut while he coughed as though it was painful to feel my magic. More blisters had popped up on his face, and instead of a thin layer of sweat coating his skin, he now dripped with it.
Crap. He was getting worse.
When he cried out from the pain, I almost pulled my hands away. My intention was to make him better, not worse. Rayna placed a hand on mine, holding it in place and shook her head. She knew if I stopped, he would die.
“Keep going,” she begged me in a whisper, her eyes never wavering from mine. “Please.”
Liam’s hand pressed against the small of my back, and I knew it was his gentle way of encouraging me to continue. I didn’t look ov
er my shoulder to see if he was as worried about Tobin as I was. Instead, I used the energy that buzzed beneath the surface of my skin where his hand rested as an amplifier for what I was sending out. I closed my eyes again, focusing on lifting the sickness from Tobin and replacing it with the golden glow of Mystic magic. I imagined his blisters disappearing and his pain evaporating. I focused on his fever breaking and his face being full of color again, like the first time I’d seen him playing pirates with his friend behind my Jeep.
Mystic magic flooded from me. I nearly breathed a sigh of relief at the sensation of it, but then pain seared my fingertips. All the breath left my lungs in a hiss of air, and my muscles tightened as the white-hot pain built. The desire to pull my hands away from Tobin, to make it all stop, nipped at me but I knew I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to save him.
This pain meant it was working, that I was removing the sickness from him and taking it into myself.
My jaw clenched tight as sweat beaded across my upper lip. My stomach churned and bile crept up my throat. I swallowed, refusing to give up—to give in to the temptation to stop. I told myself the pain wasn’t that bad, that I could handle it, but when stars danced behind my closed lids and my muscles felt like rubber bands stretched too tight, I questioned for how long.
“It’s working,” Rayna breathed. Her excitement was the sweetest sound. “His blisters are fading. The sickness is leaving him.”
Those words fueled me to keep pushing, even as the coppery taste of blood pooled in my mouth. A shuddering breath escaped me as the pain inched up my arms like daggers stabbing me. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as agony then exploded through my chest.
This was what it felt like to die.
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. I hated myself for not being able to keep them in, but the pain was too strong. My teeth sank into my bottom lip to suppress the scream that built in my throat. I arched my back with the intensity of a new wave crashing through me and leaving me dizzy and lightheaded.
CAPTURED: GEM CREEK BEARS, BOOK TWO Page 4