Page 1 of The Devil on my Chest

Prologue

Way back in Ness and Cyrus’s story, (Ness’s Wait) I mentioned that Rocky and Mal were going with Simon and Darwin to New York. So in effect, their story will start from that point and moving forward in parallel to the timeline in Ness and Cyrus’s story.

“You should leave me. I’m a fucking mess.”

Mal was jolted from his doze by Rocky’s voice. “Hey there, you’re lucid. How are you feeling?” he whispered, peering over his shoulder at where Simon and Darwin were curled up on another seat toward the front of the plane.

“Mal. Listen to me.” Rocky was gripping his hand tight, his eyes desperate. “You need to leave me. You need to let me go.”

“Don’t be silly. I’m never leaving you. You saved me, remember?”

“There’s something wrong with me, Mal.” Rocky started to pant, and Mal could see he was struggling. “I can’t feel my wolf. I don’t know how much longer I can go on.”

“You can’t give up. I won’t let you,” Mal said urgently. He knew things had been bad, but if Rocky was losing his wolf…and yet, he couldn’t be, because Mal could still sense it. It was more that Rocky was losing his mind. “Rocky, you’re my whole life. I know we’re not mates but…”

“Don’t say that. Don’t say that.” Suddenly Rocky’s eyes were filled with tears. “You’re the only one I ever wanted as a mate.” He panted again, his eyes glazing over, and then as if he was shaking off a fog, they were clear again. “Mal, you need to know… You remember all those times when you thought I was off fucking someone else.”

Mal swallowed the lump in his throat as he nodded. That wasn’t something he liked to think about.

Rocky’s hand came up, gripping his collar and pulling Mal’s face down to his. “I never did anything with those people,” he rasped. “I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Why are you telling me this now?” Mal whispered, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

“Because I’m not going to make it.” Rocky shook his head. “That compulsion is coming again. I can feel it creeping through my body. It’s like a devil’s sitting on my heart. Mal, you have to let me go, let me die. I can’t live like this.”

“You’re going to get well.” Mal searched one-handed through the bag Doc gave him. “You hear me? You’re going to get well, you’re going to go back to dozing off in your fancy office, letting me cover your work for you. You’re going to keep running with me, caring for me, and when you’re well, we’re going to have a long damn discussion about why you kept letting me believe you were sleeping with other people. But you’re going to live, do you hear me? Live!”

“Mal, I can’t. It’s coming. The blackness is coming again. I need that fucking cake!”

“No!” Syringe in hand, Mal stabbed it into Rocky’s chest, pressing down the plunger, tears falling down his face, as Rocky’s body arched up and then slumped back down. “I’m not letting you go without a fight, you stupid wolf. Don’t you know how much I love you?”

Tossing the empty syringe aside, Mal grabbed Rocky’s limp hands and held them, sobbing as though his heart was breaking – because it was. The plane couldn’t land soon enough.

Chapter One

“So how did we get here?” Doctor Nelson said as Mal slumped in the chair the doctor indicated. The office was brightly lit. Was that undoubtedly meant to be welcoming? It was the last place Mal wanted to be, but he had no choice. The only thing Mal could think about was Rocky getting well. He wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to get through the questioning without losing his cool.The doctor is trying to help,Mal reminded himself.

“We got here on a private jet from Arrowtown,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face. “We were lucky we had a close friend who had the means to get us here without Rocky having to travel commercial.”

Mal couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a decent night’s sleep. He looked up and said, “I’m sorry, Doc. That was flippant of me. That’s probably not what you meant, but you have to understand how overwhelmed I am right now. Please, tell me. How is Rocky? He’s my only concern.”

“Rocky is just through there.” Doctor Nelson indicated a small area separated from the office by a curtain. “He’s still heavily sedated and I can tell you before we go any further, there is both good and bad news.”

I’m not sure I can handle any more bad news.“What is it? What’s happened? Is he dying?”

“I don’t think so,” Doctor Nelson said. “And I understand that’s not reassuring, but the good news and the bad news is the same thing. Your Doctor Farriday from Arrowtown was right. Rocky has been cursed.”

Mal felt a shaft of pain through his heart at the same moment he felt an unbearable sense of relief. “I knew something waswrong. I knew this wasn’t typical behavior. I knew just by virtue of the fact that he was getting worse and worse that it had to be something external, and not him just falling apart or going rogue.” Mal broke off, rubbing at his eyes to stop the tears from falling.

“How can we fix him? If this is a curse, it means it can be broken, right? He can be made well again.”

“It’s not that simple,” Doctor Nelson says slowly. “I know that you wish that there was some magic potion or a button we could press or a pill that he could take, and the curse would just disappear, but our knowledge about curses is still so limited. Curses are complex concepts, and for us to be able to treat this one, we need to know what caused it in the first place. How long have you and Rocky known each other?”

“Decades,” Mal said. “Absolutely decades. I refuse to think of what my life was like before Rocky came into it, and I like to think that Rocky feels the same.”

“Are you two mates? That wasn’t in his records.” The doctor glanced at his papers.

“There were times when I thought we were.” Mal gave an embarrassed laugh. “It was just wishful thinking. But Rocky and I have been as close as two people can be who haven’t, or who don’t, sleep in the same bed. Although there have been many times in the past when we would curl up in our shifted forms together just to stay warm.” That was a memory that still made Mal smile.

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