Page 110 of Legacy of Chaos

“Someone get Shade,” he barked. “And I want Talon too. Hurry!” He turned to one of the nurses. “Start a line and prep a crash cart.”

A crash cart? The blood drained from Cyan’s face. This sounded bad. Really bad.

“Doctor?”

He wheeled around to her. “Cyan, right?” When she nodded, he continued. “Are you with him?”

“With him?” she asked, confused. She was standing right there. Of course she was with him.

“I mean, are you fucking him?”

Her mouth fell open at the blunt question. “I don’t see how—”

“Yes or no,” he said. “I need to know when he last had sex and when he last used an injection.”

Oh, of course. The doctor wasn’t being a perv. He was asking medically relevant questions.

Feeling like a fool, she said, “I don’t know when he had his last injection. I know that we were, ah, intimate about twenty-three hours ago.”

“Thank you.” He gestured to the door. “I need you to leave.”

“But—” She broke off as Shade burst through the doorway, his expression a tortured mask of devastation and fear that made her heart break. Maybe it would be best to wait outside. This was family stuff, and she wasn’t exactly that.

But right now, in this moment, she wanted to be.

Terrified and feeling lost in a way she hadn’t felt since Shanea died, she slipped out as Talon, another of Stryke’s cousins, entered, looking every bit as worried as his uncles.

Chapter 27

The world was blurry and tasted like vinegar.

Stryke blinked up at the ceiling overhead. Why were there chains? And what was that infernal beeping?

Confusion left him dazed. And why couldn’t he see any colors? Just shades of black and gray.

“Stryke?”

He blinked, trying to recognize the voice. It sounded like his dad—maybe—but the buzz in his ears made everything distorted.

“Son.” His dad’s face filled his vision, and to Stryke’s left, Eidolon’s got too close for comfort. At least they were in color. “You’re awake. Thank the gods.”

Now the chains on the ceiling made sense. He was at Underworld General Hospital. But how had he gotten here?

“What—?” He coughed, wincing at the tightness in his chest. “What happened?”

His uncle and father exchanged glances before looking down at him again. Eidolon gripped his wrist, and Stryke felt the warm vibration of the doctor’s healing power flowing into his body.

“Remember I told you what would happen if you kept taking the suppressants?”

Oh, yeah. That. Shit. He would never hear the end of this.

“What the hell, Stryke?” Shade growled. “What were you thinking?”

He ignored his dad and focused on Eidolon. “Give it to me straight.”

“I’vebeengiving it to you straight, and you haven’t listened. Maybe now you will.” The doctor stepped back and folded his arms across his broad chest, covering the caduceus symbol on his black scrub top. “Your organs are shutting down,” he said bluntly. “You experienced a cardiac event that would have been fatal if you’d gotten here five minutes later.”

“Oh, my God.” The new voice—his mother’s—left a pit in Stryke’s stomach. “A cardiac event? He could have died?” Runa rushed over, and his dad made room for her to get to the head of the bed. “How is he now? Can this be reversed?”

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