Page 6 of Don't Let Go

Hot.

Blink.

Blurs moving around.

The world swayed.

Darkness again.

Another blur.

The light sharpened gradually, forming a frame around a set of red-rimmed blue eyes that stared back at me. I blinked slowly, adding more clarity to the image. It was so real…

“Hi,” Locke whispered. A smile softened the corners of his mouth. His usually perfect hair was mussed, his face unshaven, and his clothes wrinkled. Something was wrong for him to be in such an unkempt state. “You still with me?”

Was he here? For real? Or was this some kind of dream? Why was he here? Maybe I was imagining it. Focus was so damn hard at the moment. Arm trembling, I tried to lift my hand. It was like it was totally disconnected from me.

He ducked his head, meeting my touch. The roughness of his whiskers scraped at my skin. Locke was real.

He was real and I was touching him.

Why—how had he found me? Were the others real too?

His smile deepened and he covered my hand on his cheek, keeping it pressed to his face. “It’s really me. We’re really here. Been waiting for you to open those gorgeous eyes.”

Movement behind him. The others? But even as I raised my eyes to focus, they were already closing. Dammit.

Blink.

“There you are.” Remy had replaced Locke. Maybe I was hallucinating. These two didn’t even know each other. But the shadows under his eyes and the paleness to his face suggested more than worry. “The doctor is actually here this time.”

Irritation ruffled beneath those words.

“Mr. Remington.” Oh, the doctor was the lyrical voice. “I’ve told you that just telling her off is not going to work.”

“Yet, she is looking at me and she can hear me,” he retorted, before glancing back at me. His cooler demeanor softened. “Can’t you, luv?”

I squeezed his hand. Even as I searched for the words to say, a woman entered my line of sight. Her darker skin and eyes seemed so warm in contrast to the violent white of the room. Was it really that white? I couldn’t really see much past either Remy or?—

I had no idea what the doctor’s name was. The room seemed to swim again, then there were two fingers moving back and forth right in front of me. Oh, that helped. Easier to focus on what was closer.

“Can you follow this motion?” Her tone had turned brisk, direct. “Excellent. That’s good tracking. I need to test your pupil response.”

The only warning she gave me before she pierced my brain with a too bright pin light. It flooded my eyes, fading everything around me. Eventually, it left a corona effect around Remy, then Locke, and McQuade as they crowded in behind him.

They were all there.

Exhaustion had marked them, but it was worry that stamped their features. I’d seen them in a lot of situations.

This one was new.

They were here and terrified.

For the first time since I woke up, fear pierced me.

Maybe I imagined it?But that didn't seem likely. No, they'd been incredibly relieved. I'd also been shot. With trembling fingers, I traced the thin pink line right along my hairline. I could feel it, but it wasn’t visible unless I pulled my hair back tight.

A furrow where the skin had split open after a bullet creased me. They’d used these little butterfly bandages on it and skin glue after it kept reopening for a couple of days after. The blinding headache had been insane.

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