Page 61 of Outside the Veil
The wendigo lifted Tara to his mouth again and bit off her head. It rolled along the planks to Diego’s feet where it stopped, Tara’s sightless eyes staring up at him.
“Cabron!” he screamed. He swung for the monster’s head as it leaped at him. The iron connected with a ringing blow that numbed Diego’s arm. He lifted his right arm to stab at the thing’s heart at the same moment it seized his shoulder.
This time he heard the wendigo shriek in agony before the world exploded into a thousand falling shards.
“My love, it’s good to see you, but a bit shocking all the same.” Finn’s disembodied voice reached him from somewhere in the strange twilight.
“I don’t see anything. Where are we?”
“You’ve wandered into my Dreaming. Please tell me you are sleeping inside the house.”
“I—I think I’ve had a seizure. I’m out on the porch.”
“Ah, my hero. This you will need to explain to me, but later, when you are safe. I’m coming. Won’t take but a moment.”
Finn’s voice faded, and Diego found himself alone in the featureless, shrouded landscape. He wondered if he would be stuck there forever, without a house or tree or even a blade of grass to break the monotony. Then he looked up and saw the stars.
Chapter seventeen
Plain as Lightning
Diego woke with the leaden disorientation of post-seizure. Light filtered through the window—
Window. He was inside. How and when had he crawled back into the house? And why was he still alive and not possessed?
When he blinked the clouds from his eyes, he saw someone curled up beside him, tousled blue-black hair hiding most of his face. That explained the how at any rate. He hadn’t dreamed the conversation with Finn.
“Cariño?” Diego reached out to touch his cheek. “God, you’re like ice.”
Finn’s only answer was a soft whimper.
“Pobre hada. I dragged you out of your waterbed too soon, didn’t I?” Diego rolled over, abused muscles protesting. It hurt like hell to move, but he had no choice. Finn couldn’t lie on the hardwood freezing.
He got up on his hands and knees, hooked an arm under Finn’s and dragged him inch by painful inch to the ottoman.With a good deal of grunting, he wrestled Finn’s long frame up and cocooned him in blankets.
“Good thing you’re so light,” Diego muttered.Kitchen. Tea. Aspirin.
Even the smallest task took a ridiculous amount of time but eventually Diego returned with chamomile tea. He settled next to Finn, put an arm under his shoulders to lift him and held the mug to his lips. For a moment, he worried Finn might not be responsive enough, then those soft lips moved and parted and he drank in greedy gulps.
“Slowly, slowly, you’ll burn your tongue,” Diego chided. “Are you with me?”
“Rrmph.”
“Not quite, I guess.” He put the mug down and nestled under the blankets with Finn in his arms. Even if he was weak and ill, at least he was back in one piece. Finn turned on his side to curl around him, and Diego felt safe enough to go back to sleep.
“You feel a little better?” Diego smoothed the hair off Finn’s forehead. He had woken to one black eye blinking at him in confusion.
“Oh, assuredly so. Ready to gird myself in salmon scales and battle the white-capped falls.”
“No need to be sarcastic. Even if it’s poetic sarcasm.”
“Your pardon.” Finn stretched and let out a slow breath. “I am bone-weary and aching, but no longer dizzy. My love, what possessed you to abandon the safety of the house?”
“It killed Tara McHenry. That nice park ranger who brought your collar back to me.” Diego shuddered and rested his head on Finn’s chest. “It was eating her body.”
Finn’s forehead crinkled. “So you rushed out to rescue someone who was already dead?”
“Yes. I mean, no, I knew I couldn’t save her. But I couldn’t just stand there and watch her be ripped to shreds.”
