Deciding Lissianna must have dropped something, Greg almost ignored the sound and went back to debating his future, but then he thought better of it. He should at least go see if she had cut herself or needed any help, Greg decided, and sat up on the bed. Pushing the blankets aside, he swung his feet to the floor and stood to cross the room.
The silent darkness that met him as he stepped out of the bedroom made him pause, but it was the faint chill breeze running up the hall to whisper against his na**d flesh that set the hair at the back of his neck on end. Something was wrong.
Greg almost turned back to pull on his jeans, but a sud-den fear for Lissianna stopped him. Instead, he moved silently up the hall; ears straining and eyes struggling to see more than the shadowy shapes in the gloom of the living room ahead.
He'd only taken a couple of steps when Greg heard the soft shush of the sliding doors in the dining room. The sound made him pause warily, then the cessation of the breeze that had alarmed him just moments before made his heart start to pound as he realized that someone had just left the house.
"Lissianna?" He called, hurrying forward. "Lissi?"
Fear gripped him when there was no response. Greg paused in the entrance to the living room and ran his hand over the wall in search of the switch he knew was there. He found and hit it, and blinding light immediately flooded the room. It left Greg blinking furiously in an effort to adjust to the sudden change from dark to light.
"Lissianna?" Despite suspecting they were already gone, he peered around the room, his eyes searching for an intruder. When his gaze landed on Lissianna's still form on the couch, Greg's heart skipped a beat, but it seemed to stop altogether when he spotted the stake sticking out of her chest.
"Oh Jesus," he breathed, then rushed forward. Sharp pain shot through his foot as he reached the coffee table, reminding him it had been the sound of breaking glass that had drawn him out here. Apparently, the sound hadn't been caused by the intruder breaking a window to get in. Hopping back on his uninjured foot, Greg glanced down at the shattered water glass on the floor beside the off-center coffee table. Whoever had done this must have knocked the table as they went to leave, sending the glass to the floor.
Greg plucked the piece of glass from his foot, then tossed it aside and continued to the couch, only to pause there, unsure what to do. Lissianna lay as still as death, her face completely devoid of color above the afghan covering her body. His gaze shifted reluctantly from her face to her chest. The afghan had been made in pale greens and blues, but was now sporting a large patch of red where the stake went through it, a patch that seemed to be growing by the second.
"Oh God." Greg hesitated, then--not knowing what else to do--he finally grabbed the stake and tugged it from her body. He winced at the resistance he received and the wet sucking sound it made as it finally slipped free. Greg tossed the stake aside in a move that did little to release the rage that was building inside him, alongside his fear and grief.
Lissianna lay so still and looked so pale, Greg feared she was dead, but his heart wouldn't accept the possibility. She couldn't die when he'd just found her. He'd waited thirty-five years for a woman like her, he'd never find another. He had to get her some help, he had to-- He had to save her... but first he had to get dressed.
Bending, Greg scooped up his T-shirt, the only item of clothing still left lying about. His jeans were in the bedroom, and Lissianna had obviously donned her clothes again before lying down earlier. After jerking the shirt on, Greg lifted her up into his arms, afghan and all, and turned back the way he'd come.
He hurried up the hall, unwilling to leave her alone and vulnerable again. Greg laid her gently on the bed in the bedroom, his gaze hardly leaving her face as he tugged on his jeans. He'd take her to his place and make some calls, he decided. Greg knew a lot of people in the health industry, he had connections at the hospital. Somehow, he'd get an IV and some blood for her and the nanos would heal her and everything would be fine, he assured himself.
Lissianna had insisted they should avoid their apartments because it would be the first place her family would look, but they couldn't stay at Debbie's. Her family had found her here. And surely if her family had already checked his apartment, it would be safe to go there.
Greg wasn't altogether sure about that, but he didn't feel he had a choice at the moment. His personal address book was there with the numbers of everyone he knew, people he needed to contact if he was going to save her. He had to go there, and he wasn't leaving Lissianna here by herself, so she was going as well.
Finished dressing, he moved back to her side and peered down at her. They were going to have to take a taxi to his apartment, but he couldn't take her as she was. Any cabby would freak out at the sight of her and immediately call the police and an ambulance. He had to clean her up and try to bandage the wound, then he could claim she was merely drunk and passed out or something.
Leaving her on the bed, Greg hurried into the en suite bathroom and retrieved several of Debbie's snow-white towels. He dropped them on the bed beside Lissianna, then moved to the closet to select a clean shirt to replace her blood-soaked one. He hesitated over his choice, finally choosing a black blouse that would help hide the blood if she should bleed through, then he returned to the bed and knelt beside it.
Greg scanned Lissianna's face before he started, looking desperately for any sign of life, but there was none to see. Taking a deep breath, he tugged the afghan aside, then quickly undid her blouse, trying not to look at the blood soaking the pure white silk.
His first sight of the jagged hole in her chest and the slow, thick blood oozing from it made Greg gag. Trying not to acknowledge the thought that no one could possibly survive such a serious injury, he swallowed back the bile in his throat and quickly cleaned away as much of the blood as he could.
The wound was nearly in the center of her chest and just above where the top of her bra started. Greg pressed a small hand towel over it, tucking half of the cloth under her bra to keep it in place, then he sat Lissianna up. He supported her with one hand while he stripped away her bloodstained blouse with the other. He then threw the ruined shirt onto the floor, grabbed the clean one he'd collected from the closet, and struggled to get her into it.
Once Greg had the fresh top on Lissianna and buttoned, he laid her back on the mattress. Standing then, he moved around to the other side of the bed and the phone that sat on a table next to it.
Being a city boy, Greg had a car for long trips and to drive to work where he had parking, but he often found it more convenient to take taxis anywhere else he might need to go. It saved a lot of time that would otherwise have been wasted hunting for a parking space. That being the case, he knew the phone number of one of the city cab services by heart and punched in the number without having to think about it.
As he rattled off the address, Greg found himself grateful that he'd paid attention and noted the street name and house number when they'd come that afternoon. He was also grateful when the dispatcher assured him the taxi would be there directly. The last thing he needed was time to think about what had happened and to worry over the state Lissianna was in.
Hanging up, Greg moved back around the bed. He lifted Lissianna into his arms and carried her to the door, then hesitated, suddenly worried that her attacker might have come back to finish the job. After all, surely Greg should have been a target as well? And he was still alive.
That thought made him frown and shift uncomfortably where he stood. He considered setting Lissianna down and searching the house, but didn't think he had time before the taxi arrived. He was also reluctant to leave Lissianna alone.
Gritting his teeth, Greg decided he'd just have to move quickly and hope for the best. Bending slightly to reach the door with the hand under her legs, he turned the knob and pulled it ajar. Greg then straightened and used his foot to open it the rest of the way.
The hall was as dark and silent as it had been the last time he'd entered it. This time there was no telltale breeze, though. He rushed toward the entrance to the living room, alert for any sign of another presence. A small puff of relief slipped from his lips when he reached the intersection of halls just before the entrance to the living room. The hall to the right led to the dining room and ended at the kitchen. Greg turned left and moved to the front door instead. Pausing there, he glanced out at the dark and empty street, then down at Lissianna. A frown curved his lips as he noted that the white towel stood out sharply where it stuck up above the neckline of the black blouse. The contrasting colors, along with its bulk, made its presence obvious.
Not wanting anything to draw the cabby's attention to her wounded state, Greg started back the way he'd come, then paused when he spotted the coat closet. He set Lis-sianna on a small bench that sat in a comer by the front door, positioning her so that she wouldn't slide off, then opened the closet.
"Thank you, Debbie," he murmured as he pulled a thick, quilted winter coat out of the closet. "I'll pay you back for this."
Greg managed to get the coat on Lissianna and carry her out to the road before the taxi arrived. He was standing on the sidewalk with Lissianna appearing to stand, leaning against him when the car pulled up, but the truth was that he was holding her upright. She was a deadweight. Silently sending up a prayer that this would work, he started forward when the taxi stopped on the street before him. Lissianna's body immediately began to fall.