Ghost of a Chance by Kris T. Bethke

Author:Kris T. Bethke [Bethke, Kris T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay Romance
ISBN: 978-1-64080-034-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2018-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

BLAKE was not recovering like he should—not like he had been the past several weeks. After Derek got the bleeding stopped and Blake could move again, Derek helped him to the bed. But Blake couldn’t stop crying—huge body-shaking sobs, breath hitching, lungs wheezing with the effort to draw in air. His face was red and swollen, and tears still coursed down his cheeks. Derek’s usual methods of soothing hadn’t worked. The pain meds hadn’t worked. Blake just lay there and cried.

Derek tried massage, rubbing hard at the pressure points that should relax Blake. He tried stroking his hair, telling him that he was fine, he was safe, it was all okay. And still Blake cried, wouldn’t look at him, curled in on himself, and sobbed.

That wasn’t normal, and Derek didn’t know what to do.

He considered calling for help. King was trained for that sort of thing, and more than that, he was a Guardian. He would know what to do. But King was anchoring Sam, and Derek couldn’t justifiably pull King from Sam’s care. Not unless it continued for too long.

Blake’s vitals were wrong too. Though his temperature and oximeter readings were basically back to normal, his pulse and blood pressure were high. He needed to hydrate, but he couldn’t get himself under control enough to drink.

Derek set the water on the bedside table, slipped off his shoes, and crawled into the bed with Blake. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, but he hadn’t had to go that far in weeks. Just touching Blake had previously been enough to soothe, to calm, to get him back to where he should be. But Blake curled away from him, hunched over his stomach, and buried his face in the pillow.

Something had happened when he was on the spirit plane. That much was obvious.

Derek wrapped Blake up anyway, and after a second’s struggle, Blake let himself be held. Taking it as a step in the right direction, Derek pulled Blake against him until they were as close as two people could be without actually being inside each other. He kissed the back of Blake’s neck, pushed his sweaty hair off the nape of Blake’s neck with his nose, and hummed against Blake’s skin.

“It’s okay, baby. I swear. Whatever happened, we’ll fix it.” Derek was making promises he might not be able to keep, since he didn’t know what actually happened, but he didn’t care. He would say anything, do anything, to get Blake to calm.

Blake shook his head, and pushed away forcefully. Derek’s panic increased a little, and he was ready to get up and call King. But before he could move, Blake turned over and threw himself into Derek’s arms, buried his nose against Derek’s collarbone, and clung for all he was worth.

That was a vast improvement, as far as Derek was concerned.

He hummed a lullaby his mother used to sing when he was small, turned onto his back so Blake was draped over him, and took all his weight.

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