Luke's Dream (19 page)

“About time,” she said aloud. Then, to me,
she said,
I saw how she kissed you when she sat behind you. Her
interest is noted.

“Who are you?” Bethi asked, looking over my
shoulder at Winifred.

“Winifred Lewis. You can call me Nana Wini.
The woman behind me is Mary, and the man who will be following us
shortly, the one who pulled you from that dog pile, is Jim.”

“Oh, I’m Bethi.”

“Luke, take her upstairs. Second door on the
right should be open,” she said as we neared a set of stairs.
“We’ll be right up with some bandages.”

I took the stairs two at a time and opened
the door she indicated. The apartment was homey and clean. But the
scent of Bethi’s blood overwhelmed all of it.

With relief, I set Bethi in the chair. They’d
fix her up. They had to. I couldn’t lose her. I knelt before her
and cupped her face between my hands. Her skin was too hot. My
fingers started to tremble. Humans were so fragile.

The vacant look in her eyes and the defeated
slump in her shoulders worried me just as much as the fever.
Despair drifted from her, and I struggled to find the words that
would help console her.

She blinked and some of the despair
faded.

“Go,” she said, reaching up to squeeze one of
my hands. “Take a shower and put on your own pants.”

I glanced down, snorted at the sight of
Tinker Bell then met her gaze once more. Amusement struggled to
break through the pain in her eyes. Smoothing a thumb over her hot
cheek, I slowly shook my head.

“I’d rather stay with you.” I focused on the
spreading bloodstain on her shirt.

“There’s nothing for you to do right now,”
she said, crossing an arm over her stomach. “They’ll fix me up, I’m
sure.”

Someone would, but I didn’t want her to go
through it without me. These people were all strangers to her. I
wasn’t going to leave her with anyone she didn’t trust. I stood,
ready to tell her that when she arched a brow at me and waved
toward the door. Determination shown in her eyes. Not wanting to
upset her further, I decided I’d let her think she was getting rid
of me. I needed to figure out what was taking Winifred so long,
anyway.

Leaving the room, I met Grey on the stairs.
He had our bag, and it was stuffed with the clothes from our saddle
bags. Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn’t find any pants for me in
there. I’d wrecked the last pair.

“Here,” he said, reaching into the bag and
pulling out a set of clean men’s clothes. “Thought you might need
it.”

“Thank you. For the pants and the help.”

“Any time.”

“Do you know where Winifred is?”

“Digging up the supplies we’ll need. Stitches
aren’t something we need to do often. The room next to yours is
open if you want to wash up. Your girl already looked feverish. We
don’t want to add to that.”

It looked like Bethi was right about
showering. With a nod to Grey, I did as he suggested. Using a burst
of speed, I showered, was dressed again, and back in the hall
within five minutes.

When I opened the door, I caught Bethi
tossing two pills in her mouth. The contents of her bag were
spilled out on the floor in front of her, and she was still alone.
My annoyance with the Elders crept up a few notches.

Bethi swallowed hard and leaned her head
back.

“That bad?” I asked, shutting the door behind
me.

She startled and looked at me. “What do you
mean?”

“Pain pills?” I asked, coming over to take
the bottle from her hand. It wasn’t pain reliever but a
prescription for Lorazepam…in someone else’s name. Fear held my
heart in a tight fist.

“How many did you take?”

“Relax. It’s just a bottle. I keep other
stuff in there. I took two sleeping pills.”

Sleeping pills? I glanced at her stomach then
squatted beside her. When I lifted the hem of her shirt, I saw a
mess of bloody tissue exposed by the gaping horizontal slit. The
edges were jagged. She’d torn herself open. I looked up at her,
trying to quell my panic. How much blood had she lost? Was it safe
to take sleeping pills without knowing? Where in the hell was
Winifred?

I tried to steady my thoughts. Winifred would
fix her. She had to.

“I know,” Bethi said, steadily meeting my
gaze. “It’ll need stiches. No hospital though, okay?” She grabbed
my hand and squeezed it as if trying to force my compliance. Fear
poured from her until I nodded. “The dreams will knock me out, and
the pills will keep me under.”

She hated her dreams. That she was willing to
endure them instead of being awake told me just how much she
hurt.

“Luke,” she whispered. “The ones who are
after us aren’t done trying. Tell the others to soak the buildings.
I’ve died by fire before, and it’s not fun.”

Winifred, where are you?

Coming.

The door opened and Winifred walked in
followed by Charlene and Grey. Both the Elders were freshly
showered.

“Grey has more experience stitching,”
Winifred said without preamble. “Charlene will assist, and you and
I will hold Bethi down.”

Bethi twitched in her chair, but I knew it
was because of a dream and not what was to come.

“Holding her down shouldn’t be necessary,” I
said. “She took two sleeping pills.”

“Those usually take a while to work,”
Charlene said, watching Bethi.

“I don’t know about that. Bethi’s different.
She said they’d keep her under, and I think they will.”

Winifred nodded slowly, also staring at
Bethi. “We’ll hold her just in case.”

Winifred knelt on Bethi’s right side, near
the door. I sunk to my knees on Bethi’s left side and gently held
her upper arm and set my other hand on her thigh as Grey lifted
Bethi’s shirt. Concern filled his gaze.

“We should take her to a human hospital,” he
said. “This isn’t a new cut and needs to be cleaned better than we
can do here. I might be making matters worse by sewing something
in.”

I was already shaking my head. “No. No
hospital. They would ask too many questions. Especially with her
sleeping.”

“It could get infected. They have
antibiotics.”

“We do, too,” Charlene said, moving to the
kitchenette. She reached under the sink for a wash pan and started
filling it with warm water.

Grey seemed to take that as the final answer
because he didn’t say anything further.

“Bethi’s worried more unmated will attack.
You need to call them off. She’s in no shape—”

“I’ve already sent out a call,” Winifred
said. Something in her tone seemed off. She wasn’t lying; it was
something else.

Charlene brought the water over, stopping me
from questioning Winifred. With Charlene’s help, Grey cleaned away
as much of the blood as he could. A sick feeling settled in my gut
as I watched Grey open a pack of sutures while Charlene doused
Bethi’s stomach with iodine.

“Why were they attacking you?” Winifred
asked, distracting me.

I studied her face as I answered. “In the
beginning, I thought they were challenging me. Now, I’m not sure.
They hurt her and didn’t seem to care. Why would they attack an
unclaimed female?”

Winifred glanced at Bethi, a troubled
expression clouding her features.

“The speculations I have are…disturbing. It
has come to our attention that there are some of our kind who can
ignore our commands.”

I stared at her, weighing her words. I’d
skirted around a few rules and laws myself. Yet, what those mutts
had done wasn’t skirting. Injury was injury. They shouldn’t have
been able to hurt Bethi like they had. That meant her call to avoid
Bethi might not do any good.

Breaking eye contact, I looked down at Bethi.
The idea of things changing didn’t bother me—that was the point of
evolution—but the idea of Bethi’s safety being comprised did. If
the Elders couldn’t control our kind, how could they possibly
protect her? Instead of the Compound being a place of safety, it
was just another damn hotel.

Grey tied the next knot and opened a new
suture pack. Bethi twitched when he poked the needle into her
flesh. I hoped it was a dream twitch and not because she was
feeling what he was doing to her.

“What are you going to do about it?” I asked
Winifred, picking our conversation back up.

“There isn’t much we can do. We’re still
trying to understand why.”

“Why? Maybe it’s nature’s way of telling us
your rules and laws aren’t in the best interest for our kind
anymore. Maybe it’s evolution’s way of giving those of us without a
say a chance to decide what’s right for ourselves.”

My words didn’t upset her; instead, she
seemed thoughtful.

“Perhaps.”

I turned to watch Grey carefully place each
stitch. After he snipped the end of the final one, he went to the
sink and washed his hands while Charlene cleaned up all the
supplies.

“She needs rest,” Charlene said. “A lot of
it.”

“The less she moves, the better,” Grey
added.

I gazed at Bethi’s restless face. They didn’t
know how impossible that order would be to carry out.

* * * *

She slept for hours, twitching through
dreams. Tears would wet the corners of her eyes one moment and then
anger would draw her features. I hated seeing her suffer through
the very thing she’d wanted to avoid. And, because of Winifred’s
watchful gaze, I couldn’t lie with Bethi to try to help ease her
tormented sleep.

“Is she always this restless?” Winifred
asked, breaking our long silence.

“Yes. Every time she closes her eyes, unless
she’s lying in my arms. That seems to help.”

I smoothed back her hair, trying to comfort
her. A tear ran down her right cheek then her left. I couldn’t take
it anymore.

“Bethi,” I said, close to her ear. She didn’t
move. “Bethi.” This time I shook her shoulder.

“Why isn’t she waking up?” My question wasn’t
really to Winifred. It was just my frustration.

“Go…away…”

Bethi’s sleepy, slurred words had never
sounded so sweet.

Could I have a moment alone with her?
Winifred sent to me.

I gently smoothed my hand over Bethi’s hair
again then stood.

I’ll be right outside.

Gabby asked that we let her know as soon as
Bethi was awake. Could you find her?

With those words, I knew Winifred was getting
rid of me. I could try to say no and stay, but if Winifred really
wanted me gone, she’d command me. If I left on my own, I could
return on my own. Standing, I nodded to Winifred then walked out,
quietly closing the door behind me. Winifred’s voice reached me as
I walked away.

“Do you need a drink, Bethi?”

Unwilling to leave Bethi for long, I raced
through the halls to the Commons. Gabby and Clay stood talking to a
few others.

“She’s awake,” I said, uncaring if I
interrupted. Then, I started to walk away. A hand grabbed my
shoulder and tried to turn me. After what I’d been through, I
wasn’t going to budge.

“There’s only two reasons to touch someone,”
I said softly. “You’re either making a pass or starting a fight.
Which is it, lover?”

“That’s enough, boys,” Grey said, coming into
the room. His gaze shifted from me to whoever stood behind me.
“I’ve had my fill of stitching and mending for the day. Clear?”

“Yeah,” a voice said right behind me. I knew
that voice. I knew the scent. Emmitt. The pack leader’s golden boy,
and owner of the bike.

The hand released me, and with a brief smirk,
I started out the door once more. Several people followed, but I
didn’t turn to see who. I didn’t care. I didn’t like that Winifred
had gotten rid of me. Why? Bethi had given me the slip too many
times not to be wary.

“Is she all right?” Gabby asked from behind
me.

“She was when I left her.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“That’s a good question,” Emmitt said as we
climbed the stairs. “Feel free to start talking.”

“No thanks. You’re doing enough for both of
us.”

He growled behind me. Uncaring, I pushed open
the door to the apartment.

Bethi stood in the hallway just outside the
bathroom. She’d run her fingers through her hair and had a tiny bit
of color back in her cheeks. However, her pained expression and
slight stoop told me that she had a long way to go before she felt
better.

“What happened to my bike?” Emmitt demanded,
his words clipped with anger. Uppity git. His pampered life had
given him a sense of self-entitlement. I wasn’t about to cater to
him.

Ignoring him, I watched Bethi study the
people who’d followed me. Her wary gaze shifted from one to the
next, evaluating.

“Emmitt,” the woman beside him said.

“Michelle, he trashed my bike. It looks like
he dumped it. Jim feels guilty enough that it was stolen
.
He
won’t even look at me now. You owe me an explanation.”

He pushed my shoulder.

“Ah, there you are,” Bethi mumbled. “We were
just talking about you. You must be Peter Gibbons.”

Peter? Who in the bloody hell was Peter? I
glanced at Winifred, who was smiling slightly.

Is she all right?
I sent Winifred.

I believe so. She’s quoting a movie.

Emmitt pushed me again, and I tore my gaze
from Bethi to glare at him.

“I don’t owe you anything. But if you ask
nice, maybe I’ll tell you what happened so you can go running to
daddy.”

Emmitt’s hand closed loosely around my
throat, a pathetic attempt to show his dominance. But I knew who
had the true authority in the room, and Winifred wouldn’t put up
with cocky shows of power. I laughed in Emmitt’s face and knocked
his hand aside. He growled. I did the same, baring my teeth.

Suddenly, Bethi was between us, slapping a
hand on each of our chests.

“Stop. Both of you.”

I stepped back, unwilling to cause Bethi more
pain. Emmitt didn’t move. His jaw twitched as he stared at me.