Page 42 of Pyre

Shit.There was no way the audience hadn’t seen Ruby get stabbed. She crumbled to the floor, feigning injury, and let out the most fake, pathetic sounding moan she could manage. Kavya opened the door, and two confused police officers stepped inside, taking in the scene—Mrs. Ulerik and Manny on the ground, both sobbing, Mrs. Ulerik clutching her bloodied face as tea dripped down her cheeks.

Jonah stood, allowing one police officer to cuff Manny while the other called for an ambulance. Ruby moaned again, slightly more realistically, purely for the sake of the camera. She shot a desperate look at Kavya, willing her to shut off the feed so she could stop the act.

“The audience isn’t going to buy a miraculous recovery,” Jonah whispered, crouching beside her and wrapping his arm around her waist to help her up. “Time to head to the hospital.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“I TOLD KAVYAto warn you about the needles,” Lucas crackled through the truck’s speaker.

Kavya had mercifully turned off the camera after Jonah helped Ruby to her feet, but comments and messages of varying concern and mockery were pouring in on social media.

Jonah drove them to the hospital while Kavya scrolled through the Tweets: “Needle Little Help: Bounty Hunter Stabbed by Grandma on Livestream” and “Sticking it to the Man: Fugitive’s Mom Jabs Back.” Ruby’s personal favorite read “Croak and Dagger: Stabbed Bounty Hunter Saves Partner with Frog Mug”.

“I did warn them,” Kavya chimed in as Jonah pulled into the ER drop-off. “But I’m getting pretty tired of you putting us in these ridiculous situations.”

Lucas scoffed, distorted by the sound system. “Ruby’s a weird, superhuman zombie and you think a lady with an antique medical equipment collection is ridiculous?”

Ruby bristled at the ‘weird’ comment. “Watch it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “At least I don’t pretend to be a zombie in my free time.”

Lucas’s indignant gasp brought a grin to her face. She once walked in on him playing Dungeons and Dragons over video chat. He was playing as a Necromancer named Emerald. She’d laughed so hard, he kicked her out of his office—and sent her to Alaska. She didn’t fear the cold, it didn’t bother her, but amoose had stepped on her luggage, ruining her favorite Chanel cardigan. She had bought it used, but the fucker had still been $2,000.

Over the speaker, someone knocked. “I’ll call you back,” Lucas promised before hanging up.

The hospital loomed over the trio—white, sterile, and disgusting. Ruby’s fingers curled into a fist before she realized it, muscles tensing against the phantom bite of cold steel tables and the sting of countless needles. “Is this really necessary?”

“Unfortunately,” Kavya confirmed, unbuckling and popping her head between the front seats. “We show Jonah at the hospital after every ‘hunt gone wrong’. Our fans would freak if we didn’t do the same for you.”

It had been five years since Ruby’s last hospital visit. Five years since she had been strapped to a table, poked and prodded and cut and injected. Five years since the phlogiston detox that had left her as human as a thermophile could be.

“Alright, darling,” Jonah patted Ruby on the shoulder. “Time to hop out. I’ll park and meet you there in a few.”

Ruby pushed his hand off of her and dragged herself out of the truck. The scent of antiseptic hit her before the automatic doors even opened. Kavya and Ruby made their way into the building, the fluorescent lights in the hospital lobby making her skin crawl. Ruby forced herself to the front desk while Kavya settled into a waiting chair.

“How can I help you?” The nurse behind the plexiglass looked as though she had seen some shit. Her eye bags were dark, rivaling Ruby’s, a permanent frown etched into the sides of her mouth.

"Got stabbed with something rusty." When the nurse didn’t flinch, Ruby added, "Probably need a tetanus shot."

“Are you currently bleeding?”

Ruby patted her side. “No.”

“Fever?”

“No.”

“Pain level?” The nurse gestured at a series of smiley faces on the poster behind her.

“One.”

She hummed as she typed on her computer, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

“When was your last tetanus vaccine?”

Technically, fifty years ago. “Childhood.”

“Take a seat. A nurse will call you when the doctor is ready to see you.”

Ruby nodded, smiled at the nurse who was already looking to the next patient, and walked over to where Kavya was discreetly recording on her phone.

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