Page 164 of Crave

My head hangs over her limp fingers. “Fuck. Niki. How do we tell her?”

He steps closer, resting his hand on the edge of the bed.

“First we let her come back to us. We help her heal. And we do everything we can to track him down. Dead or alive, we bring our brother home. I’ll let you decide when the time is right, she hates being left out of the loop. So the sooner the better.”

I nod in agreement. I can never lie to Lara.

“We just have to wait for her to be ready to come back to us.”

And then I’ll do everything I can to help her. I don’t care what. Or how long it takes.

I just need my pchelka happy and healthy. That’s all I ask for in life.

CHAPTER 82

LARA

Song, Euclid, Sleep Token

Am I hallucinating?

Where the hell am I?

The bright lights. The beeping. A damn hospital.

Blinking through the clinical glare, my mouth is drier than a desert.

I can hear Alexei.

My god, am I still unconscious?

It’s like he’s really here. I can smell him, I can feel warmth on my right hand. His voice.

With all of the energy I can muster I turn my head.

His puffy red eyes are the first thing I see.

But he’s alive? He came back for me.

“Pchelka,” he whispers.

“Sladkiy.” A tear slips down my cheek. There’s so much I want to say. To explain.

I’m just so tired.

He rests his forehead against mine and I close my eyes, the calm to my storm.

Alexei gets the doctors in, who proceed to check me over. I hear them saying things to me, but it’s difficult to concentrate. I just want to talk to Alexei.

They’re discussing a program for my eating disorder. The word starvation came up a couple of times. Body shutting down. I’ve kind of tuned my brain out.

I know what I’ve done to myself. I know it has to stop.

I look over to Alexei, who is taking every word in from the doctor and squeezing my hand for reassurance.

He is now, and will always be, my protector.

Piecing me back together again bit by bit. I’ve hurt him. Seeing me like this will be killing him.

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