"Save your strength. You look like hell."
"Thank you."
"You, on the other hand," he said to Marcus, "look like shit on toast."
Marcus snorted. "You're too kind."
"You almost got yourself killed." Milo's frustration was palatable, and it seemed to reach six feet across the cubicle and slap Marcus in the face. Because Marcus did the impossible—he actually looked chagrined.
Marcus didn't hide the pain it caused him to stand up. He wobbled a bit, and Kismet's hand jerked toward him, as though she wanted to help. She drew back instead. Marcus was too proud to lean on her, and this was something he seemed determined to do. Each step was an effort for his battered, abused body, but I'll be damned if he didn't seem to stand taller the moment he was in front of Milo.
"Vale deserved his fate and more for what he did to you," Marcus said. "I would suffer this and worse to see your pain avenged."
Milo was dumbstruck. He blinked at Marcus, a little saucer-eyed, until something clicked home. The blank stare became a tender smile, and suddenly I felt like an intruder on a private moment. Even Kismet shuffled away from the pair, coming closer to the side of my bed. Wyatt's arms tightened around my waist, and I squeezed his hands.
The moment stayed suspended in time, a beautiful thing shared by two lonely souls who'd found something that made them happy. And then Marcus brushed his knuckles across Milo's cheek on his right hand's trip around to clasp the back of his neck. He kissed Milo. An action both consoling and possessing, gentle and harsh. Marcus was making a statement to everyone that Milo was his.
And Milo, bless his battered heart, kissed right Marcus back.
Wyatt stayed with me long after Kismet and Marcus took Milo back to his room to rest. We sat together while my body slowly healed itself. The cut on my throat was long gone, the various scrapes and bruises distant memories. My gut, on the other hand, felt like someone was pinching and twisting the skin and muscle, with tingling for good measure.
"I can't decide if this is a record for me," I said.
"What's that?" Wyatt asked.
"In the last forty-eight hours, I've been shot, stabbed, and julienned, not to mention the whole Juliet potion and the beat-down Autumn gave me."
He sighed, then kissed the side of my neck. "You're giving me gray hair, you know that, right?"
"I know. I'm sorry."
"It's the life we chose, Evy. Every single day, I'm grateful for the healing gift that Horzt gave you. It's kept you in my life this long."
"Hopefully it'll keep me around a while longer. If that's what you want?"
"It is. I may be angry at what you did, but I'll get over it at some point."
"I hate that you have to get over anything."
"I know. I also need your help with something."
"Oh?"
"I have three teenagers to take care of now."
I twisted a little in his arms to look him in the eye. "What the hell do I know about raising teenagers? I was a hellion when I was sixteen."
"So was I. I figure between the two of us, we know everything we don't want them to do."
"Good point. So do you think Astrid will let them stay here?"
Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so. I hope the Assembly grants them mercy. If not… I'll deal with it."
Meaning: I go where they go.
And I went with Wyatt.
Chapter Twenty-three
Bad news always seems to ride the coattails of good news.
The good news came when Wyatt returned to the infirmary with a tray of sandwiches and bottled water for the small group of us holding vigil in Milo's room.
"Eulan called," he said as he deposited the tray on the rolling side table. "They removed Eleri from stasis and dosed her with the gnome cure. He says she's showing signs of improvement."
Relief burned in my chest, and it bubbled up in a burst of laughter. "Really? It's going to work?"
"So far so good. If Eleri continues to improve, they'll slowly reawaken the other vampires and give them the cure, too."
I was too tired to jump up and down so I did a few mental gymnastics to wear out my excitement over the news. More than saving the lives of vampires I considered friends, this meant that Walter Thackery didn't get the last laugh. He didn't win.
"We owe Horzt a huge debt," Kismet said. She'd brought a bunch of chairs into Milo's room for all of us: me, Wyatt, Marcus, herself. Even Astrid had joined the group, her midsection bandaged tight from the bullet she'd taken. Milo had been given a big dose of painkillers after his adventure into the exam area, and he dozed in and out of the conversations.
Astrid and Marcus had been treated a little while ago by a Therian doctor named Hunt who'd been brought in to assist while Dr. Vansis was otherwise occupied saving Tybalt's life. The only news we'd had on Tybalt in the last few hours was a terse "He's hanging on" from Hunt when he joined Dr. Vansis in the operating room.
Tybalt wasn't going out without a fight.
We ate while we digested the news that the vampires had a chance to come through this. I had no idea if the infection would cause lasting damage or side effects. No one would know right away. All we could do was hope for a positive outcome.
Others wandered in and out, seeking news we didn't have, and offering their respects to Marcus for kicking Vale's ass so solidly. Kyle and Lynn, Leah and Jackson, Shelby, Sandburg, Rufus, Nevada, Morgan, Carly, even Paul with his bandaged shoulder—all familiar faces.
Astrid watched everyone with a new glint in her eyes that worried me: distrust. Autumn had broken our trust, wormed her way into our organization, and then tried to kill our own. Human or Therian, we were part of the Watchtower. We were a family. Autumn had placed a fracture at the base of that family, forever altering the solidity of its foundation. And I didn't know how to start repairing it.
Finding that sense of trust again was only one item on a long list of things that needed my attention. The Frosts were still in the compound, under guard, hopefully coming to grips with everything I'd told them earlier. Aurora, Ava, and Joseph were still missing. Nessa and her goblins had slowed their attacks on humans, but once word got out that my latest death had been faked, I knew she'd be at it again.
The one thing we were waiting for word on, the thing I had no hand in affecting one way or another, was the naming of Elder Dane's successor. The Assembly was in session. We'd know as soon as a decision was made.
For now, the only thing getting my full and undivided attention was Tybalt. And the people around me. The people who cared about him the most.
Dr. Vansis appeared in the doorway like a ghost, standing where no one had been an instant before. He wore stained scrubs, and I tried to ignore the splotches of red in favor of studying his face. His expression was completely neutral, even his eyes empty of any actual emotion.
My insides churned, and I reached for Wyatt's hand.
"There was a complication," Dr. Vansis said. The tension level in the room skyrocketed with those four words. "Tybalt's injuries from the knife were serious, but not catastrophic. However, as I repaired the damage his heart rate and breathing became dangerously erratic. Keeping him stable was difficult. His internal systems were shutting down."
"Why?" Kismet asked, her voice sharp, cold, begging him to not say what he was taking care to explain.
"Dr. Hunt found an injection site behind Tybalt's ear. I won't know for certain without further testing, but I believe he was poisoned."
"Vale." Marcus's voice cut like a blade, fury blazing in his eyes. "The coward."
Vale had played his final wild card, a trick none of us had expected.
"Do you have an antidote?" Milo asked, startling me. I hadn't realized he was awake and listening. "Something that will help him?"