Ancient Monsters (New Blood: Eldritch Blues Book 4) by Debbie Cassidy

Author:Debbie Cassidy [Cassidy, Debbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-07T18:30:00+00:00

twenty-four

AUGUST

There was so much blood. On my hands, all over my clothes. “Archie! Stay with me.”

He was pale and unresponsive, his head lolling in my lap, body stretched across the back seat. The eldritch was in the cab of the van, strapped down for safety. Unconscious but no longer bleeding. Its wounds were visibly healing.

But Archie’s weren’t.

Quentin drove like a maniac, but I needed him to go faster.

Archie was fading.

I stroked his hair back from his sticky forehead. “How much farther?”

“Gates to Underbelly coming up,” Quentin said.

“We’ll need to show ID and all that shit,” David said. “I’m gonna leap out and sort it. You keep driving. Don’t stop.”

I met his eyes in the rear-view mirror, communicating my gratitude with a look. He nodded once.

Quentin slowed the van and David leapt out. We careened ahead, the roar of the engine drowning out the guards’ indignant bellows.

Fuck them. Fuck them all. All that mattered was Archie.

Please don’t die.

“Down the main street?” Quentin asked.

“Yes, you can’t miss the sign.”

“I see it.”

He swerved and brought the van to a sharp stop. The motion pitched me forward in my seat.

Quentin climbed out and yanked my door open. I scooted out and he carefully dragged Archie from the vehicle and into his arms.

I ran ahead to the hospital and shoved the doors open.

The receptionist, the same woman who’d been at the desk on my last visit, looked up, startled. “Oh my.”

“Help. We need help, please.”

She picked up the phone. “We have a severely injured male.”

“He’s bleeding out,” Quentin provided.

“Bleeding-out male.”

I slapped the counter to get her attention. “He’s a spectral.”

“A spectral…” She pulled the phone away from her ear. “He’s gone. Probably on his way.”

Dr. Roman, the large infernal who’d taken my blood all those months ago, appeared, striding up the corridor. The red tinge to his skin I’d noticed the last time was more prominent today, and his hazel eyes stood out starkly against it.

“August…” He remembered my name. His gaze went from me to Archie in Quentin’s arms. His lips thinned. “Bring him through, quickly.”

He turned on his heel and headed back the way he’d come.

We followed.

He slammed open the doors to a clinically white room housing an operating table and a tray of shiny implements.

“Set him down, quickly.” Dr. Roman crossed to the sink and began to scrub his hands while Quentin and I got Archie’s scarily limp body onto the table.

“Now please leave and let me work,” the doctor said.

“I’m not leaving him.” I clung to Archie’s hand.

The doctor locked gazes with me. “If you want me to save him, then you will. Argue with me and we waste precious time.”

“August, come on.” Quentin gripped my shoulder. “Let the doctor work.”

I faltered for a moment, then nodded. “Please don’t let him die.”

Dr. Roman’s hazel eyes warmed. “I’ll do everything in my power to save your friend.”

I let go of Archie and allowed Quentin to lead me from the room. The door closed behind us. There was no window to look into the room and see what was happening.

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