Page 69 of Killer Kiss

“She’s okay, Aug. You’re a lot worse.”

I shook my head stubbornly. “I’m fine.”

Ophelia frowned at me, but Luna’s big eyes stared at me over the top of the mask, and she sucked in deep breaths that reassured me she was okay. They loaded Willa into the ambulance, sirens screaming, and Ophelia ran over to hold her hand, assuring the frantic older woman that her granddaughter was okay and all she needed to do was get in the ambulance and get herself taken care of.

The second ambulance arrived a minute later, two male paramedics rushing over to me.

“Hey, hero.” One of them smiled at me kindly. “Heard you ran into a burning building to save this princess.” He gave me a nod of respect. “Good on you. Mind if I take her now?”

I realized I had a grip on Luna as tight as the one she had on me. Again, I tried to hand her over, but she burst into tears, fighting to get back to me.

Instinctively, I put my arm around her, and her cries quieted.

“We’re a package deal,” I told the men. “We go together.”

Neither of them argued, just dropped a stretcher down to the ground and helped me onto it. They propped the back up so I could sit with Luna on my lap, and I murmured comforting words to her as we bumped along while Willa’s house burnt to the ground in front of us.

Ophelia ran alongside us, but they stopped her at the ambulance door. “You’ll need to meet us there, Mom.”

“Oh, I’m not…” But who Ophelia was or wasn’t didn’t matter tonight. Her gaze shifted to meet mine. “I’m going to go get you some things. Your wallet and phone and clothes, and then I’ll meet you at the hospital, okay? I’ll drive your car.”

I went to say she didn’t have to. That I barely knew her and she didn’t have to come down to the shitty Saint View Hospital in the middle of the night when she probably just wanted to go home.

But the look in her expression said otherwise.

So I didn’t argue.

I just held my niece to my chest and thanked all the fucking gods that she was still alive.

19

AUGIE

The ambulance took us straight into the emergency department at Saint View Hospital, though our paramedics had ditched the sirens halfway there when both Luna and I were breathing well, and our oxygen levels were apparently ‘as good as could be expected.’

They wheeled us in, and a nurse tried again to take Luna from me, but by now, I had enough oxygen in my system that it wasn’t just Luna clinging to me that made me say no. It was the fact her parents weren’t here, and I wasn’t letting her out of my sight for anything or anyone.

“She stays with me,” I told the nurse.

The grumpy old woman who was probably at the tail end of her overnight shift scowled at me. “She needs to be seen in the pediatric department.”

I didn’t even bother trying to be polite. “Then treat me there too, or bring the pediatrician here. I don’t care. But she’s been through enough tonight. She’s scared, and her parents haven’t even been told what happened yet. Until they get here, we won’t be separated.”

The woman relented with a rude roll of her eyes and some muttering about this being the shift from Hell, but she pointed at a curtained-off treatment area, and the paramedics pushed us in that direction.

Luna and I shifted onto a bed, and I checked to make sure her oxygen mask was still fitted properly. It was, so I pulled the starched white hospital blanket up over her back and made slow, soothing motions up and down her spine.

From somewhere in the back of my mind, song lyrics appeared, and I found myself tunelessly mumbling the nursery rhyme. “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye. Four and twenty black birds, baked in a pie…”

“Well, that’s morbid. Someone call the ASPCA.” Ophelia’s tousled brown hair and ash-smudged cheeks popped around the curtain. Her gaze flickered over my face then fell to Luna. “How is she?” She cocked her head to get a better look. “She’s asleep, by the way.”

I relaxed a bit but didn’t stop rubbing Luna’s back. “She’s okay, I think. We’re just waiting on a doctor to come see her. But the paramedics said her oxygen levels weren’t too bad and they probably would only hold us both overnight.”

Lia sat in the seat next to the bed, and her shoulders slumped with relief. “Thank God for that. I was so worried driving over here. By the way, your car is horrible. It stalled at every set of traffic lights, so I just ran the last few. Sorry if you get a ticket.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Did you grab my phone by any chance? I need to call my brother.”

She nodded quickly and fished it out of the pile of things she’d brought with her. I eyed the clean clothes with longing, but there was no point putting those on until I’d had a shower. I reeked of smoke. It was in my clothes. My hair. Probably permanently etched into my skin.

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