Page 9 of Cardinal House

I feel sick.

Gritting my teeth, she comes closer, stopping beside the monitor. I track her movements, the way her small hands hover over the keyboard, long fingers elegantly tapping the keys, the clacking loud. The beeping stops, her hands drop from the keys and those bright eyes come to mine again, they remind me a little of my sister’s. Grace has two different coloured eyes, but one of them is an icy-blue, it’s more surface level water than this girl’s though. These blue orbs want to drown me.

Her gaze flicks to my chest, and automatically, mine follows. The gauze is stained red, a steady seeping bloom in the centre of the covering. That’s when I feel the pain again, but it feels dull now, in comparison to how my heart ached and pounded when she appeared in the doorway.

“Hello, Luna,” Thorne greets quietly, my head snapping in his direction at the ease in which he speaks this stranger’s name.

“Hello, Mr Blackwell,” the girl replies softly, her voice rough, a little gravelly, as though these are the first words she might have spoken today.

Luna.

Sweat gathers along my hairline, beads of moisture gathering across my forehead, but the rest of me is cold. An infection of ice shoots through my veins, forcing goosebumps to raze across my flesh, and my heart hammers harder again. The wound feels as though it reopens, grows, turning into a black hole of my own despair.

I don’t want this woman in here.

I don’t want my brother greeting her like they are already familiars.

It’s been three days.

I need to go home.

“Wolf,” Thorne says, and the buzzing in my ears seems to wither away and die.

On the opposite side of the bed to her, I look to him, his immaculately suited body folded effortlessly into the hospital chair, fingers resting delicately atop his knee. You wouldn’t look at this well dressed, straight-postured man and see a killer.

“This is Luna,” I stare at my brother so long I feel my eyeballs drying out, but I can’t conjure any thoughts to make my mouth form a reply. “She has been taking care of you throughout the nights.” Thorne is not one to smile, though he does it more now, but his lips curl at one corner as he flicks his gaze back to the woman.

Luna.

The name feels too comfortable inside my head. Like I could say it too easily.

Too much warmth associated with it.

Too much comfort.

Luna.

Thorne stares at me, and I can feel my lips part, the air funnelling in through my teeth, and the first words out of my mouth are like poison, “I want a different nurse.”

“Wolf,” he frowns at me, those black brows dropping low over his even blacker eyes. “Do not be rude.” Looking over me, back to her, he says, “Please ignore my brother, Luna, he is a barbarian when he first wakes up.”

My molars ache where I clench my teeth so hard, staring at him, but the harder I clench my jaw, the worse the ache in the rest of my body feels, so I loosen it up, pull air in through my nose, try to breathe normally.

“Nurse Barker asked me to change your dressing,” the girl, the woman, Luna, whispers, her voice cracking, it makes my fucking guts twist. “I can see if I can ask her to do it, it’s not a problem.”

I feel the cool air move into the space beside me, her soft footsteps tracking her away, I don’t look, but I drop my head back against the bed, stare up at the ceiling before shutting my eyes.

“It’s fine,” I grit out. “Just get on with it.”

Chapter 5

Wolf

This is torture.

Her long fingers carefully peel off the tape holding the large bandage to my chest. This is day three of consciousness and I am starting to lose my fucking mind.

The gentle touch of her gloved hand against the hardness of my pec sends goosebumps across my flesh, my nipples pebble into tiny hard points and the tendons in my neck are so taut it feels as though my head’s going to shoot off of my shoulders.

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