Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“How is this your fault?”
“I went to Morgaine. I put her and my sister in danger.”
“I was the one who accidentally saved Kyle’s life when Morgaine poisoned him,” I told her, ready to take some of the blame. “We wouldn’t be in this situation if not for me butting my nose in,” I explained as I peeled out of the parking lot.
We drove in silence for the rest of the short ride, both of us lost in our own thoughts, beating ourselves up for the whole situation.
“Oh my God. That’s her. That’s Bayleigh. Stop!” Everleigh demanded, pointing out of the windshield to a woman running out of a house, barefoot, eyes huge and panicked.
“Bayleigh!” Everleigh screamed out of her window before throwing her door open and running to her sister. “Are you okay? What’s going on? Are you hurt?” she asked, grabbing her sister’s face as I rushed out to join them.
“She got poison in her mouth!” Bayleigh gasped. “She’s… is she going to die?” she asked, tears welling up and spilling down.
Die?
Not on my watch.
Goddamnit.
I didn’t stop to wait to hear more than that, just took off at a dead-run toward the house Bayleigh had just made her way out of.
How had she ingested poison?
And if so, how much?
Would Dr. Price be able to help her?
Before I could let my head spin too much, though, I damn near ran right into her.
“Crow?” she croaked as she cradled a hand to her chest.
“Baby,” I said, reaching for her, seeing how sweaty and pale she looked. “Come on. We have to go get you to the doctor.”
“He’s dead,” she said, looking back toward the closed door. “Or dying. But he won’t be alive long.”
“What about you? How much did you ingest? What is it?”
“Wolf’s bane,” she said as I reached for her, scooping her up. “Not a lot. But my heart… my heart feels funny,” she told me, voice wobbling as the adrenaline started to wane and the panic set in.
“Is she okay?” Bayleigh asked, eyes huge.
“She’s going to be. You two wait here. My club is going to show up, get you home, and take care of the… mess,” I said as I shuffled Morgaine into the passenger seat.
“Okay,” Everleigh said, holding her sister’s head to her shoulder.
“Five minutes, tops,” I said, reaching for my phone even as I threw the car into drive. “Slash, get over to ‘burbs. Back corner by the park. Two girls will be waiting outside. There’s a body inside. I’m taking Morgaine to Dr. Price. She’s ingested some poison.”
“Got it,” Slash said. “Keep us updated.”
With that, I flew over toward Dr. Price’s place, laying on the horn as I pulled up to the curb, not giving a single fuck about the neighbors.
“We’re here, baby,” I murmured, watching as she tried to take slow, deliberate breaths, trying to calm that hammering heart of hers. “Come on. One more minute and the good doc will get you feeling better. He did wonders for me,” I reminded her as I cradled her in my arms and started up the front path.
Dr. Price appeared out of the left side of the house—his home portion—still pulling on a t-shirt over his bare chest.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, going toward the right side of the house, unlocking his office door.
“Wolf’s bane,” I told him, watching as he turned back to me with a raised brow.
Belladonna.
Wolf’s bane.
The poisonings were stacking up in town.
If he thought it was suspicious, though, he kept his opinions to himself.
“How much?” he asked, leading us into the same exam room I’d been in for my poisoning.
“A couple drops, maybe even less. It was a concentrated oil, though,” Morgaine said with gasping breaths that had my stomach tensing as I placed her down on the table and moved out of the doctor’s way.
“Okay. Your heart is hammering?” he asked, slipping a blood pressure cuff over her arm.
“Yes.”
“Is your chest tight?”
“A little.”
“How’s your stomach?”
“It’s okay. I’m a little queasy, but not too much. I spat it out, but some must have… absorbed.”
“That’s okay. We can monitor your heart rate and blood pressure. If things get a little wonky, we can shock your heart into a normal rhythm, okay?” Dr. Price asked, tone soothing, calm even in the face of a rare poisoning. It seemed to ease some of Morgaine’s nerves as the cuff started to tighten around her arm.
“Okay,” she said, nodding.
“What’s going on with your hand there, sweetheart?” he asked, holding his hand out to her, waiting for her to place it there.
“I think I broke it,” she said, making rage bubble up in my system. And there would be no outlet for it. She’d already killed the bastard.
“Okay. We can get that fixed up too. I want to X-ray it,” he said. “But I’m more concerned about your heart right now, so I am just going to gently wrap it to keep it still until we can get to that,” he explained as he went over toward the cabinets.