Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

Author:Andrea Hannah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The first thing Delilah heard was the siren. The second was Bennett’s voice.

“You’re okay, Lilah,” he said. “You’re okay.”

But Delilah felt anything but okay. She winced as she sat up. Her head felt like it was filled with bricks, and spots danced around the edges of her vision when she tried to keep her eyes open for too long. She squinted, taking in the scene around her.

Firefighters, police, and other people rushed around the shop like a swarm of gnats, their footsteps slapping the pavement, voices sharp and urgent. It was still raining, but the wind had dulled to an irritated breeze, and Bishop’s lone fire truck stood in front of Gordon’s Taxidermy, the top lights still flashing intermittently.

“Where’s Evan?” she asked. The words felt thick on her tongue.

“Shh, you’re okay,” Bennett’s voice wafted in. He wasn’t there, and all of a sudden he was standing next to her, his calloused hand on top of hers.

She blinked. Beneath her was the soft padding of a gurney that had been wheeled into the lot next to the shop. Beside her, a nurse secured a scratchy Velcro band to her forearm. “Hold still, love.”

Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears as the nurse pressed her stethoscope to the soft skin in the crook of her arm. More people shuffled past her as a van rolled through the lot. Her spine straightened. “Where is Evan?”

The only response was the hiss of the pump as the nurse listened to Delilah’s heartbeat ping-pong through her veins. She glanced over her shoulder. “Bennett?”

But Bennett just shook his head, his lips pressed into a thin line.

The nurse piped up. “Try to calm down, love. I can’t get a good read.”

“I can’t—” She scooted up the gurney she had been lying on. “I have to—”

The ambulance door flung open. Two EMTs pushed a second gurney toward the ramp leading into the back.

Evan was on it.

But he barely looked like the person Delilah had kissed only minutes ago. His face had already started to swell, his skin stretched taut over welts and bruises. There was a slash so deep over his left eye that the socket looked more like a bruised plum than skin.

And he wasn’t moving.

Delilah scrambled to her feet. “You can’t just get up and go! You hit your head!” the nurse yelled. She reached for Delilah’s wrist, but before the nurse could touch her, Delilah ripped off the cuff and tossed it onto the gurney. She started toward the ambulance.

Bennett stepped in front of her. She tried to move around him, but he caught her in his arms and pulled her into his chest. “It’s okay. He’ll be okay. They’ll take care of him at the hospital,” he whispered into her hair.

Whatever had hit Delilah in the head must have dulled her senses, because for the first time in months, she didn’t hurt when her boyfriend touched her. There was still something there, though. It hovered in the back of her mind like a nightmare, waiting for her to wake up again.

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