Page 2 of Flying Blind

“Yes, please. I can’t see. I don’t know what they sprayed in my eyes, and I can’t see.”

“I’ve got you. Just keep breathing.”

Bethany nodded. “Yup. Breathing. Got it.” She whispered, “I think I killed him.”

She felt Wren touch her back and hiss softly. “Right. We are going to make this right. He doesn’t matter.”

“Who is we?”

“I will tell you once you have received treatment.”

“Oh, great. Can you see the ambulance?”

“Yeah. They are two blocks away. Oh, a guy on a bike just about needed his own. They are pulling up, and two EMTs are coming this way. One female, one male.”

“Okay. Stay with me, Wren.”

“I will.”

The medics touched her, examined her on the street, cursed, and then got her into the ambulance. They didn’t give the other woman any flack when she insisted on coming with Bethany, and Wren held her hand the whole way to the hospital.

At the hospital, they tried to separate them, but Wren must have done a mind trick on them because they let her remain as they treated Bethany’s burns and took samples from her skin. The police came in and took Bethany’s statement, but she felt something coming from them. Contempt.

“Um, officer, I don’t know who these guys were. I was just going to buy eggs for my bakery.”

“Miss, we understand that certain people choose certain lifestyles, but you can’t expect us to correct these bad decisions.”

Bethany went cold. “What?”

“You are an attractive woman, and I am sure that your partners enjoy it, but we have seen the lengths that fetishists go to get to the next level. Your pursuit of pleasure is not something you can regret and then call the police for.”

She looked with bandaged eyes toward his voice. “I am a virgin, you colossal asshole. I don’t play; I don’t have fetishes. I have a career I love, and I was just planning an expansion for my bakery. I don’t care about men. I don’t give a frosty fuck about men, and the only time they enter my mind is when there is a bride and groom trying to agree on a cake. I was grabbed off the street, blinded, and branded, and you are saying that I did it to myself. Fuck you. The only thing that I get excited about is getting my sourdough to rise on the first try. If you don’t want to help me, get the fuck out of here. I have to learn how to live without seeing and figure out how to walk through a room without falling.” Bethany started sobbing as her self-control cracked.

She felt a business card placed on her hand and flung it off. “What am I supposed to do with this? I can’t read the fucking thing.”

Wren murmured, “I have it. It has your file number on it.”

“Thank you. Why are you being so kind?”

“Because I knew something was happening, but I couldn’t find you. Those demons hide really well in plain sight.”

“Demons?”

“You have heard rumours about strange alphas?”

“Yes.”

“Well, demon alphas are one of them. They make their mate by hobbling and blinding her, and she can only see and walk when they are around.”

“They have done this to others?”

“Not in this city. They are usually in areas where women can just disappear and then reappear with their faces worked over with plastic surgery. The demons like to stay near their mate, and they like her pretty.”

Bethany shuddered. “So, they are done with me now that I got away?”

“I am going to wait until you are being discharged before I cover that. My friend Luna is going to come by to keep you company when it’s sundown. I have to get somewhere safe.”

“Wait. You are leaving?”

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