gun. Her body screamed for her to run, get out, save herself.
But her heart brought her to his bedside. "Oh... God."
The hospital johnny left his arms and his legs bare, and it seemed as if he was bruised everywhere. And his face... good Lord, he was desperately battered.
As he made a groaning noise in the back of his throat, she reached out to take his hand-oh, no, not there, too.
His blunt fingers were swollen at the tips, the skin purple, some of the nails missing.
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She wanted to touch him, but there was no place that she could. "Butch?"
His body jerked at the sound of her voice and his eyes opened. Well, one of them did.
As he focused on her, a ghost of a smile pulled at his lips. "You're back. I just... saw you at the door." His voice was weak, a tinny echo of the bass it normally was. "I saw you then... lost... you. But here you are."
She sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and wondered which nurse he thought she was. "Butch-"
"Where did... the yellow dress go?" His words were garbled, his mouth not moving much, as if his jaw were broken. "You were so beautiful... in that yellow dress..."
Definitely a nurse. Those suits hanging next to the door were yello-shoot. She hadn't put one on, had she?
Holy hell, if his immune system was compromised, she needed to protect him.
"Butch, I'm going to go out and get a-"
"No-don't leave me... don't go..." His hands started twisting in the binds, the leather restraints creaking.
"Please... dear God... don't leave me..."
"It's okay, I'll be right back."
"No... woman I love... yellow dress... don't leave me ..."
Not knowing what else to do, she leaned down and softly laid her palm on his face. "I won't leave you."
He dragged his bruised cheek into her touch, his cracked lips brushing her skin as he whispered, "Promise me."
"I-"
The air lock broke with a hiss and Marissa looked over her shoulder.
Havers burst into the room as if he'd been torpedoed inside. And through the yellow mask he wore, the horror in his stare was as obvious as a scream.
"Marissa!" He swayed in the protective suit he had on, his voice muffled and frantic. "Sweet Virgin in the Fade, what are you-you should have a hazmat on!"
Butch started to struggle on the bed, and she lightly stroked his forearm. "Shh... I'm right here." When he'd calmed a little, she said, "I'll put one on right now-"
"You have no idea-oh, God!" Havers's whole body shook. "You're compromised now. You could be contaminated."
"Contaminated?" She looked down at Butch.
"Surely you felt it when you came in!" Havers launched into all kinds of words, none of which she heard.
As her brother kept at it, her priorities realigned themselves, steel locking into steel. It didn't matter that Butch had no idea who she was. If the mistaken identity kept him alive and fighting, that was all that mattered.
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"Marissa, are you hearing me? You're contam-"
She glanced over her shoulder. "Well, if I'm contaminated, then it looks like I'm staying with him, doesn't it."
Chapter Seven
John Matthew squared off at his target and tightened his grip on his blade. On the far side of the gym, across a sea of blue mats, there were three punching bags hanging from the bottom lip of the bleacher section. As he concentrated, the middle one became a lesser in his mind. He pictured the white hair and the pale eyes and the pasty skin that haunted his dreams, and he started to run, his bare feet slapping over thick plastic skin.
His little body had neither speed nor strength, but his will was enormous. And sometime in the next year or so, the rest of him would catch up to the power of his hatred.
He. Couldn't. Fucking. Wait. For his transition to hit.
Lifting his blade over his head, he opened his mouth to scream a war cry. Nothing came out, because he was a mute, but he imagined he was making a whole lot of noise.
As far as he was concerned, the lessers had killed his parents. Tohr and Wellsie had taken him in, told him what he really was, showed him the only love he'd known. When those bastard slayers had murdered her and Tohr had disappeared, John had been left with nothing but his revenge-revenge for them and the other innocent life that had been lost back in January.