here to keep my girl occupied, but it’s time for her to take her leave as well. Tinksley and I will need full privacy as I deliver what few options she has on the table.
“Tigerlily, I want to sincerely thank you for your assistance throughout this ordeal.”
The Chief’s daughter proffers a warm smile and waves me off. “It was my pleasure, Captain, and the least I could do.”
“I appreciate it, truly. Would you mind if Tinksley and I had a word, though? The doct—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself.” She rises from the bed, smoothing a hand down the knee-length, saffron dress clinging to her figure. “I’ll just excuse myself, but if either one of you need me, you know where to find me.”
“The library,” Tinksley and I parrot.
“You got it.” She chuckles, retreating for the doors.
“I’m dying, aren’t I?” Tinksley asks before the click of knob resounds.
♫ Unsteady - X Ambassadors ♫
Hook stands just feet away, clearly caught off guard by the impudent way in which I dropped my question. I wasn’t eavesdropping on his conversation with the doctor, not by any means, but I already knew the outcome wasn’t going to be anything good based off the pensive hums I heard throughout the course of my examination. Him wanting to speak with Hook after the fact cemented it.
“Give it to me straight, Hook. Don’t sugarcoat it because you think I can’t handle it,” I urge him, bracing myself for what I know is coming.
“You need to feed, and I’m not just saying that because it’s what I want. If you don’t feed, you can’t heal from the extraction,” he states calmly.
As if it was the most normal thing in the world, something casual one hears daily.
“Extraction?” I’m sitting up straight, making way to scoot to the edge of the bed, but he’s already coming toward me, silently begging me not to move.
“It’s the only way. Medication won’t work. It’ll never hit your bloodstream before the venom destroys it.”
The hairs at the nape of my neck go rigid at the mention of his venom running through my system. I’ve known it’s there, obviously, but it hits me harder than a sack of bricks.
“What happens if I don’t consent to it?” God, I sound so timid, hands running up and down my arms from the sudden chill that blasts over my skin.
“Doctor Ward says you have a week,” Callan clarifies, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Not the way you want to go, trust me.”
“Why not?”
“Dying from an infection? It’s agonizing, Tinksley—more than withering away from lack of sustenance. The fever, the pain that will seize your body…”
He can barely look at me as he says that, eyes clamping shut as the ideation undoubtedly flickers through his mind.
“If you choose to remain firm on your decision, don’t choose this route. Please.”
His plea pulls at my heartstrings. “I don’t have much of a choice at this point. Dying ‘as is’ isn’t an option anymore. Either I rip away this part of myself just to do away with the infection, then have to feed in order to heal, or I let the infection run its course and take me when my body can’t endure it anymore. It’s one or the other, right?”
But even as I say that, I know I have an out—one I was intent on not taking advantage of.
So much has changed, though.
“Tinksley, please.” Hook rushes me, slowly dropping to his knees before me. “I’ll beg you if I have to. Please, please don’t choose the latter. I don’t know if you realize this but, you still have the option to go through with this and forgo completing the transition as you had originally planned.”
“I do?” A flicker of hope touches my voice.
He nods. “Your wounds won’t heal, but at least you’ll be clear of the infection.”
Said hope? Gone. Just like that.
“Still isn’t ‘as is.’” I sigh. “That sounds—”
“Painful?” He sets his hands on the bed, still somehow caging me in. “It is. Fever, chills, misery.”
One moment, I’m sinking my teeth into the rope and securing it around my head. Next I’m reclaiming the hooked sword and pulling one of my wings forward within my range of sight.
Do it, that beguiling, ill-boding voice coaxes from deep within. The same one I’ve done my best to ignore all these years.