by J. E. Taylor
“He shouldn’t have been able to control you at all,” she whispered behind her hand. “What the hell have I done?”
“Paige,” he started, and she dipped her head, looking at the ground instead of him. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it is. I didn’t do the right spell to banish him, and I can’t fight that kind of power.” She met his gaze. “And what he did...” She trailed off, going even whiter than before and her arms wrapped around her waist. “I need to feel clean,” she muttered and slid by him back into the bathroom.
Austin leaned his forehead against the wall, debating on whether he needed a hospital or not. The rush of water in the shower pulled his attention away from his own pain. In the bathroom, her clothing was piled on the floor.
All his training in psychology jumped into gear, and he stepped into the room. “Do you want me to help?” he asked just outside the curtain. When she didn’t answer, he slid his shoes off and pulled the curtain back, bracing himself for the pain he knew the water would inflict, but her anguish was more important at the moment.
Paige stood with her back to him and her face buried in her hands. The shake of her shoulders told him enough. He emptied his pockets, dropping his keys, wallet, and phone on the counter along with the crystal before stepping into the shower with his dress pants and t-shirt still on.
She stiffened and shot a glance over her shoulder. Her semi-glare changed as she scanned his clothed form. A crease appeared between her eyes and she met his gaze.
Without speaking, he picked up the soap and lathered her back, being careful not to rub the shallow welts in her skin. He concentrated on the exquisite burn each drop of water made on his back to keep from getting overwhelmed with the feel of her skin under his hands. The moment he stepped aside to let her rinse, the relief pulled shakes from the core of his soul. Trails of bubbles slid off her back, mingling with thin trails of red before it swirled down the drain.
In some ways, the cleansing of her body reminded him of their first shower at the sanitarium, but this time, her need for feeling clean was psychologically rooted and not a physical need. All he could do was try to patch the damage that bastard did today.
When she turned towards him, he washed her front as gently as he had done her back. She kept her eyes closed, and after he finished, he turned her and lathered her hair, taking his time to hand-comb the suds from root to tip before rinsing it with the same care.
When he was finished, she turned and stepped into his arms. Austin held her, delivering a soft kiss to her forehead.
“We need to get emeralds and black tourmaline,” she said after standing in his arms for what seemed like forever.
Begrudgingly, he unwrapped his arms and turned toward the faucet. Her gasp stopped him, and he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Take off your shirt,” she said.
He slowly peeled the fabric off.
More red flowed into the tub and the room started to spin.
“I think I need to sit down,” he said and slowly sank to the floor of the tub.
She turned the water off and threw the shower curtain aside, grabbing a towel before she knelt down next to him.
“You need a hospital,” she said, her voice holding authority.
He met her gaze. “That’s the first place he’ll look,” he answered, knowing she was probably right. But based on what they just lived through, he didn’t want to be in a compromising position again, especially in his current condition. “All we need is some antibiotic ointment and bandages.”
“Austin, you need stitches in at least a dozen places. I’m calling an ambulance.”
He grabbed her wrist when she went to stand. “Do you really think a hospital will deter him? That’s what he’ll expect, and I sure as shit don’t want you anywhere near the kind of sharp equipment they have in a hospital. He wanted you dead today, Paige.”
He swallowed the burn of bile and took a deep breath.
“He wanted you dead by my hand.”
The reality of how much Hunter hated him was far more than what he carried against Paige. Death was easy in comparison to the lifetime of guilt he wanted Austin to suffer.
They stared at each other in a stalemate.
“I think I’m going to need help getting to the bed,” he said with a sigh, still holding her gaze.
Paige helped him to his feet and stripped off his bloodstained slacks, leaving them in the shower with his shirt. He wrapped a towel around his waist and shuffled to the bed, crawling onto the soft mattress and collapsing on his stomach.
“I’m going to go get something to patch you up,” she said as she rummaged through the suitcase. She pulled on clothing before she hand-combed her hair and turned to him.
He sent a tired smile in her direction, clinging to staying awake, to not falling into a state of shock now that the full scope of his wounds was making itself known.
“Paige?” he muttered, and she knelt by the side of the bed. “You probably should cover me.” His teeth had already started the slow chatter as shivers traversed his overly heated skin. The air brushed his wounds like a blowtorch now that his back was exposed.”
“Austin, you really need a hospital,” she said again, taking his hand in hers.
The last thing he remembered was shaking his head no.
Black Magick Chapter 6
Austin’s eyes rolled back, and his head dropped to the mattress. His breathing was shallow and fast, and his hands were cold and clammy, nothing like what they should have been since he just stepped out of a hot shower.
Panic edged in, setting Paige’s heart on overdrive. She knew enough about shock from her parents’ car accident. She knew if she didn’t get him help, he’d die, just like her parents did.
“Austin?” she asked and gently patted his cheeks, praying he would come to. But he didn’t react at all. Without stalling any more, she yanked the phone and pressed the button for the front desk.
“Hello. This is Paige Turner in room 508. My boyfriend has been hurt, and I need an ambulance.”
“How was he hurt?” the desk clerk asked.
“He’s bleeding. Please call nine-one-one. I think he’s gone into shock,” she said.
“Please stay on the phone.”
Paige could hear the clerk speaking with emergency services and then the phone shuffled.
“What is the nature of his injury?”
Paige stared at his back. “He was... flogged.”
A beat of silence came over the line. “Excuse me?”
“Some asshole whipped him until his back was a bloody pulp,” Paige yelled, losing her composure. “Just get a fucking ambulance here, now, before he bleeds out!”
The phone shuffled again, she heard the muffled explanation, and then the desk clerk was back. “The emergency operator said to put a cold compress on the wound until they get here.”
“It’s his entire back,” Paige said, staring at the extent of the damage.
“Soak a towel in cold water and lay it over the wound,” the desk clerk said. “The hotel manager is on his way. When the ambulance arrives, I’ll bring the technicians up to the room.”
“Thank you,” Paige said and hung up.
She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower to cold, soaking a towel. She wrung out most of the water and folded it in half, bringing it back into the room before gently laying it across Austin’s back.
He started shivering, and Paige grabbed the edges of the comforter and pulled it over his body to try to keep him warm. Her brain started cataloging things she needed to do, and she shot back into the bathroom. She gathered up their personal items from the sink, dumped them into the small suitcase, and zipped it up with shaking hands.
She dropped Austin’s phone, keys, and wallet into her pocketbook and then glanced around the room for her phone. She went back into the bathroom, rummaged through her jean pockets, and came up empty. Neither her phone nor the hotel room key were in her pocket. She shive
red.
With her heart pounding in her throat, she went back into the room and double checked the suitcase and her pocketbook. The click of the door opening stiffened her muscles, and she spun towards the sound. Fear burned through her bloodstream and her mouth dried instantly.
An unfamiliar face poked around the door. “Miss Turner?”
Her muscles relaxed. “Yes,” she answered and reached for the chair to steady herself.
The hotel manager stepped into the room and crossed to the main space. He glanced at the lump of covers on the bed. The slow-spreading red stain on the pristine white linens. His gaze snapped to hers.
“He’s really hurt,” she said, crossing to the side of the bed and taking his hand in hers again. The feel of it settled the flutter of nerves overcoming her entire form. “I think someone stole the room key,” she added as an afterthought. The last thing she wanted was for Hunter to show up and manipulate the staff or even the medics.
The hotel manager’s eyebrows rose, and then he scanned the room, looking for evidence of the crime.
“It didn’t happen here,” Paige said, and the worry lines in his forehead smoothed. “But I think the person who did this also stole my phone and room key.” She glanced at the door. “And I’m terrified he’s going to come finish what he started.”
The worry lines were back, but before he could respond, the door opened again. This time a woman opened it, holding the door open for the medical team.
Paige stepped aside and let them get Austin on a gurney while she made sure all their stuff was in the suitcase. When they wheeled him out the door, she followed with their bag and her pocketbook. Every muscle in her body tensed as they stepped out of the hotel, and her scan of the street didn’t provide any glimpse of the man in the museum.
She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his evil blanketing the area. She took a seat on the bench next to where Austin lay and gave the medic a weak smile. As soon as the vehicle was moving, she closed her eyes, fighting back the sudden burn of tears.
“He’s going to make it,” the medic said.
Paige opened her eyes and they landed on his name tag. “Thank you, Sam,” she said, reading the embroidered name. “Do you know if the hospital gift shop has anything with black tourmaline?”
He just stared at her like she’d sprung a new head.
The thought of leaving Austin to find what she needed in the city scared her. What if Hunter came looking for her and found Austin unguarded? The thought produced a rash of gooseflesh that rippled up her arms. What if she didn’t go and Hunter found her with Austin?
Deep down, Paige knew she didn’t have a prayer without the ancient protection of her ancestors. Black tourmaline would cloak them from Hunter’s internal eye. Emeralds would turn his evil against him, and anything else she could get her hands on to ward off evil she would buy, just to keep Austin safe.
Black Magick Chapter 7
The steady beep penetrated the darkness, and Austin blinked slowly, letting the shaded light into his reality. The tiled floor came into view, and he stared, groggy and disoriented. Shifting his body sent a river of discomfort over his back, but it was dull and removed from the acute pain he had felt earlier.
“Paige?” His rough whisper overrode the beeping.
When no answer came, the beeping sped up along with the pounding in his chest. The sudden introduction of panic in his blood wiped the grogginess out of his mind, and the fact he was lying face down on something akin to a massage table entered his thought process.
The shuffle of feet turned his attention to his right, and when white shoes appeared at the edge of his vision, his heart clenched. Hospital. Shit.
“Mr. Anderson, are you awake?”
Confusion clouded his mind, and his gaze darted around looking for the person the shoes were addressing. Austin picked up his head and turned it towards the voice after doing a quick scan of the machines in front of him.
“Where’s my girlfriend?” he asked, his voice tentative with all the doubts shuffling through his head.
The nurse smiled. “She said she needed to run an errand and hoped to be back before you woke.”
His gaze jumped past the nurse, towards the doorway and the hustling hospital staff beyond, before it returned to hers.
“Mr. Anderson, do you know where you are?”
The fact she called him the wrong name registered in his brain, and his brow creased in confusion. A voice in the back of his mind kept his tongue from correcting her.
“You’re in the hospital, and you’ve had close to two hundred stitches in your back. You lost enough blood that you needed a blood transfusion. Now you have an I.V. line to make sure you are hydrated, and your next dose of pain medicine will be administered in another hour,” she explained.“Do you have any questions?”
He attempted to push himself up, but he only succeeded in propping himself up on his elbows before the pain sliced through the fog in his mind. Wincing, he glanced around to get a feel for where he was. It wasn’t a private room. Only curtain walls separated him from the next emergency room patient. He gave the nurse a slow shake of his head. While over a dozen questions circled in his mind, he wasn’t sure right now was the time to ask any of them.
“When my girlfriend gets back, can you please make sure they let her in?”
“Certainly, Mr. Anderson.” She made a note on the file and sent a smile in his direction.
“Um, do you know where my phone is?” he asked before she turned away.
“I’m sorry. I don’t. Your girlfriend left your suitcase on the chair.” She waved towards the far corner of the makeshift room. “Would you like me to look through it?”
Austin turned his head to the side and stared at their suitcase, wondering where Paige would have packed it. Exhaustion claimed his muscles, and he shook his head, settling back into the bed.
“It’s not an emergency,” he muttered. The floor blurred and then faded as he slipped back into sleep.
“Please don’t make me do this,” he pleaded.
“She whipped you to shreds and you want to take pity on her?”
“You did this to me,” Austin growled through clenched teeth, glaring at the man standing next to him. His hand tightened around the thick horn, and the man’s evil chuckle resonated on the darkness.
“Are you sure about that?”
He stepped to the side and waved his hand, revealing Paige standing behind Austin, whipping him. Every time the lashes hit his back, blood splatters flew into the air. Each biting connection of leather to skin arched his back and clenched his eyes with a grunt of pain. And she smiled an insane grin with each spray of blood.
The vision faded and Austin looked at her bound form. An unjust anger filled him, and he stepped forward, positioning the horn with the intent to do as much damage as humanly possible.
Austin gasped. His eyes flew open to the darkened room, and he forced himself to his knees, panting as pain and anguish shuffled through his skin. The heart monitor danced a quick tune, and he forced himself to breathe. Drawing a breath hurt and he let out a gruff groan as cool air caressed his ass. The open johnny hung from his front, and blankets piled on his feet.
The curtain behind him rattled as it opened, and he twisted to take a glance over his shoulder.
“It looks like you are ready for some more medicine,” the nurse who had spoken to him earlier said.
“I would rather not,” he said and pulled the blanket high enough to hide his bare butt. The nurse met his gaze with a barely concealed smirk.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ve seen a bare ass before.”
Austin let a small huff of a laugh escape, and he sighed. “If you have Tylenol, I’ll take that, but I really don’t want anything stronger right now.”
She stepped next to him and held his wrist, checking his pulse despite the heart monitor. Then she checked his blood pressure and jotted numbers down on his chart. He remained kneeling on the mattress, unsure of how
to get himself into a comfortable position.
“How long have I been out?” he asked and wiped the sleep from his eyes.
She looked at her watch. “A little over two hours.”
His gaze bounced to the chair and the suitcase that still remained.
“My girlfriend hasn’t come back?” Fear gripped him, dulling every other sensation.
“Not that I am aware of,” she said, eying him closely. “The police have been waiting to speak with you as well.”
He swallowed hard. “Can you check the waiting room for my girlfriend?”
“Sure. Can I send the police in?”
Austin tried to shift and winced.
“Would you like some help?” She stepped closer, but he put his hand up to stop her.
“I can do it,” he said through clenched teeth.
He succeeded in shifting to his side, but his breath had turned into a ragged pant of pain. The back of the bed slowly rose, and he glanced at the nurse with a nod of thanks. The last shift pulled a grunt from his chest, and he slowly eased back against the inclined mattress. The pressure brought the sting of tears to his eyes, and he pressed them closed, counting until his breath came to some semblance of normal.
Sheets shifted and his eyes opened as the nurse pulled the fabric over him, covering him.
“Are you sure I can’t give you something stronger than Tylenol?” she asked.
“I would rather not,” he whispered.
She gave him a nod and left the room. No sooner had she stepped out of sight than two New York City officers stepped into the room.
“Mr. Anderson,” the dark skinned cop asked as he looked at the tablet in his hand.
“Yes, sir,” Austin said, and the lie tasted bitter on his tongue.
“Can you tell us who did this to you?”
Austin’s gaze landed on the foot of the bed as he considered his words very carefully. If he told them the ghost of a dead man possessed another and whipped him to shreds, he’d end up in the mental ward. He slowly shook his head.