Page 72 of Body Tox

It was warm, with a spicy, sweet tang to the air that made me physically drool. I panted, the intense need to lick the floor sopotent I had to bite my lip and hold my breath. If there was this much delicious blood…Echo was hurt.

I shook my head, my concern for Echo overpowering my need to bathe in her blood.

“Echo. Oh fuck, Little Wraith. I got you. It’s okay.”

I picked her up, nearly tripping over a toppled table on the ground and so many damn papers I felt like I was skating to the doorway.

I could hear her little moans of pain, her head lolling to the side, and her heartbeat pushing blood onto my forearm.

Shit.

I got to the doorway, her body lit up by that glow of the candles. She felt cold. Her face was frozen in horror. Her eyes were half open and half closed, bouncing around and seeing nothing.

“Echo,” I said as soothingly as I could manage.

“It’s okay,” I assured her, walking toward the warmth of those flames.

I picked up one of the candles and brought it close to her, examining her wounds.

She looked like she rolled on the ground. She had random papers sticking to her body. Her head was the only injury that she had that I could see in the dim light. That was when I realized that a toppled table must have been the culprit. Maybe it was too dark, so she tripped over the papers on the ground.

“Elephant in a china shop,” I chastised with a smile.

I poured the wax of the candle onto her head. She hissed, and I shushed her, watching the bleeding wound seal close and the blood stopped seeping from her damn head finally.

“Alive,” she whispered, that haunted look still plaguing her features.

“Yes, you’re alive, clumsy ass,” I said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “Score reads table one, Echo nill.”

I winced at my thumbs, the weight of her body pressing painfully on the cracked digits.

I dislocated them both, so in order to correct it, I needed her to snap out of it. I was no better than a damn rabbit right now, only able to paw at things.

How did animals live like this? No wonder gorillas were the only animals known to beat their meat like people.

“Alive!” she shouted, her sudden fear amped up, her delicate hands grabbing my jacket and shaking the hem.

I blinked, jolted by her sudden outburst. She was in a trance of sorts. She didn’t look like she realized she was in the church at all. Or with me.

“Echo…it’s okay. I am here. You’re safe.”

“He’s…alive,” her whispered words were a warning.

Who was ‘He’?

I tried to ask her, but her beautiful eyes closed, her breathing even and calm in my arms. I grunted, adjusting her in my grip, feeling truly handicapped. I wasn’t sticking around here to find out the mystery.

I needed to get her to the safety of the attic, where I knew she hid her fancy little dagger in a jewelry box she thought I hadn’t noticed. I carried her up the stairs, trying to find any sign that we were not alone. There was nothing. No footsteps, smells, or open entryways.

I frowned. Maybe she was having a nightmare from knocking herself out on that table. I took her to the attic, grabbing an old burlap sack used to hold tins of liquor and throwing it on the altar slab.

I laid her on the marble, stripping off my shirt and jacket and laying it over her.

She stopped shivering and seemed more peaceful. I smiled. She looked so fucking breathtaking lying here with the moonlight shining down on her face.

It was angelic.

I crawled beside her, her body warming me instantly.

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