Terric stood, and I tipped my head back to see what he was going to do.
He was looking down at me.
I gave him a smile. I’d seen that anger before.
Thought about putting together some words to warn ol’ Jeremy that he was about to get his ass handed to him on a platter, but figured he’d catch on soon enough.
Terric turned so he blocked my view of Jeremy. “Leave. Now.” Two words. Words that Jeremy really ought to listen to.
I actually hoped Jeremy would push it. It had been a while since I’d seen Terric punch someone in the face.
“Please, Terric.” Jeremy leaned toward him, the chair Terric had been sitting in between them. “He has you where he wants you. He’s preying on your sympathy. You have to be strong, remember? We talked about this. All he wants is to use you—”
“Out.”
“—use your magic for whatever rush can score—”
“Jeremy.” Terric pointed to the door. “Leave now before I do something to end this. End us.”
I could cut the tension with a knife. If, you know, I could actually lift my hand. Or make a fist tight enough to hold a knife.
Also, if I had a knife.
Jeremy looked past Terric to glare at me.
I winked at him.
Oh-ho, that did not go over well.
He used a few choice four-letter words and stormed across the room. A door slammed shut. Aw. I hurt his feelings.
Terric was still standing with his back toward me.
He shifted his shoulders just a bit, as if taking the weight of the damage that might have just been done to their relationship.
I was, once again, not a lot of help in his love life.
He turned to me. The anger wasn’t gone, but it was under control. Set aside for now. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“Super,” I managed.
“Are you thirsty? Do you hurt?”
“Yes.” I answered both questions, even though I knew he could tell I was still in pain. Just one of the many joys of being tied to another person’s souclass="underline" he hurt, you hurt.
He sat back down in the chair with a sigh and handed me the glass of water from the side table.
It took me two tries to get my hand around the glass. Those were some long odds I’d actually get any of the water in my mouth.
“Here.” He hadn’t let go of the glass yet. So he stood, sat next to me, and pressed the glass back in my hand.
Then he lifted my hand with the glass to my mouth. Helping me drink.
It was embarrassing. But I needed that water. And needed the help. I gulped as much of it as I could before I had to breathe again.
Terric tipped the glass away, waited for me to stop gasping, then helped me drink the rest.
“What happened?” he asked as he placed the glass on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Eli,” I said.
Terric froze. “Where?”
“My room. Shot me with a tranq.” I swallowed, trying to get my brains in order. “Jesus, hate this.” Pointed at my head.
“Eli was in your room,” Terric repeated. “And he shot you with a tranq gun? Did he say anything?”
“Lots. The usual crazy.” I was out of air. Worked on filling my lungs. “He cut up Joshua just to get our . . . attention. Just to fuck with us.” I was shaking now, a tremble I couldn’t seem to get under control.
Terric made a blanket appear from somewhere nearby, draped it over my legs and up to my neck.
“What else?” he asked.
“Said he wanted me—us—to save him. Find him. Save her.” Stopped for breathing again. This was getting old.
“Find who?” Terric shifted off the couch and knelt on the floor in front of me, then settled there cross-legged.
“What are you doing?” I asked, suddenly alarmed.
“Your feet are a bloody mess,” he said. “You showed up on my doorstep with no shirt, no shoes, and looked like you’d walked all the way from the inn to here, barefoot.”
“Did I?”
“You may as well have. Dessa called. She found you at a bar downtown. Brought you here. I’m going to heal your feet.”
“Wait. Don’t.”
He wrapped his hand around my left ankle. I didn’t think I could pull away if I tried.
I tried anyway.
Nope.
“Just tell me what else he said.”
A soft warmth spread out over my foot, which was a far cry better than the pounding ache I’d been unsuccessfully ignoring.
“Anytime now, Flynn,” he said.
Huh. I must have drifted. He set my left foot down carefully, then picked up my right foot by the ankle.
“Said Dessa knows where he is. Knows what’s going on. Said he’s a prisoner. Going to kill everyone. In two days if we don’t find him. Stop him. Save her.”
“Her who?”
Terric put my right foot down, and that lack of pain made me realize how damn exhausted I was. “His soul.”
“Fuck,” Terric breathed. “So he does have a Soul Complement. And they’re using her against him?”
“I think so,” I said. “Or that just might be what he wants us to think.” I wouldn’t put it past Eli Collins to manipulate and use his Soul Complement for whatever dark scheme or experiment he was involved in. “Or maybe he’s telling the truth and someone is using her against him.”
Terric didn’t say anything for a bit. Just sat there, cross-legged, with one hand absently on my bloody bare foot. “Did he say who he’s going to kill?”
I nodded, which sent the room swinging. Not doing that again. “Anyone who stands in their way. All of us. You. Me.”
Terric took a deep breath, let it out.
“So Jeremy is unhappy,” I said.
“He was being an ass. He doesn’t like you,” Terric added. “And he is the least of my problems right now.”
“Am I the most?” I asked, trying to pull together a smile. I wasn’t sure if both sides of my mouth were working.
He looked up at me. “Always.” He shook his head, as if trying to figure me out. “What the hell were you thinking, walking half a city barefoot?”
“I don’t remember. Any of it.” A hard image of blood on my lips flashed through my mind. “Might have hurt people.”
“I already thought of that. Sent people to see if you did any damage. Did he look sane?”
“Collins?”
“Yes.”
“Not really. Desperate and crazy.”
“Not a winning combination,” he said.
“Maybe for him,” I said. If you believed the records on the man, Collins had done a lot of brilliant things while being stark raving mad.
Terric stood. Walked away. By the time I began to wonder where he’d gone, he was walking back, bare feet quiet in the thick carpet.
“Whatever he shot you up with isn’t out of your system yet,” he said. “You want a doctor?”
“Doctors don’t work on me.”
“You’re not inhuman, Shame.”
I didn’t say anything. This was an old argument.
He must not have expected me to say yes to the doctor anyway. He had a pillow in one hand and another blanket in the other. “Then you should get some sleep,” he said. “I’ll take care of . . . whatever needs to be done until morning. You’ve got four hours.”
“Find Dessa,” I started.
“I will.” He set the pillow on one side of me. “Lie down.”
I worked on getting my legs to move. Lifted one with the help of my hands. Then the next. Didn’t have the energy to do anything else.
Just sat there staring at my feet stretched out on the couch in front of me.
Terric bent, putting his mouth near my ear. “Don’t argue and make this harder,” he said. He slid one hand and arm behind my back, and the other under my knees.