Page 36 of Seth
“Yes, you are.” Gustavo nodded a few times as if it could help him persuade Diego.
“I’m so not! If this is how you woo people, no wonder it takes you forever to win them over. If you try to impress him, I gotta tell you even he can’t possibly find this sexy or romantic!”
“Shut up and do what I say.” Gustavo smirked. “I’m not trying to be romantic. I want to know how he disposes of the bodies, and I want a little payback for breaking my nose.”
“You are a sick fuck. You are playing with a psycho. When he slits your throat, I will be the first to say ‘told you so’,” Diego grounded out.
“Fine. I’ll do everything myself. Now drive.”
“Okay.” With a shrug, Diego cruised down the road toward the isolated building of the morgue.
The easy agreement puzzled. Gustavo squinted. “Just like that? Not long ago, you were morally obligated to stop me from doing stupid things. What changed since then?”
Diego worked his mouth from side to side as if considering his answer. “As your lieutenant, I do have obligations, but as a party interested in your yacht, I shouldn’t interfere anymore.”
“Fucker...” A playful punch to Diego’s shoulder stirred the wheel, making the car wriggle on the road.
* * *
Seth layon themedical bed in a private room of the hospital, an ice pack pressed to the left side of his ribcage. Next to him, David Haas lingered in a plastic, uncomfortable chair the way only doctors do when they have time to linger. Relaxed, comfortable, as if resting on a puffy sofa, he scrutinized the medical file resting on his knees as his index finger kept tapping his cheek. His salt and pepper hair spiked from one side from the old habit of pulling on it while thinking.
“Just like I suspected, it’s a mere crack. It will heal in a couple of weeks. Since you are here anyway,” the doctor’s gaze traveled up, fixed on his patient, “Why don’t you stay overnight?”
Seth scrunched up his face.
“You didn’t expect to get rid of me within five minutes, did you? I’ve already booked the MRI room for you for tomorrow morning. I’d like to do a full-body scan.”
Seth nodded.
The doctor slapped his shoulder and got up. “Sit tight. I’ll go, grab some Kinesiology tape. We will check your heart tonight, and tomorrow evening you can go home.”
Seth nodded again, his lids weighed, and the dream swept over him as soon as David’s steps faded behind the door.
* * *
The desert howled.Razor-sharp particles sank into his obsidian skin, sandpapering it. Set tried to blink the sand off his only eye, but the wind kept tossing new handfuls into his muzzle, filling it up again. Set shook his head, ears twitching in displeasure. Through the thick cloak of whipped sand, he couldn’t see a thing.
Usually, storms never bothered him. Today felt different as if the desert rejected its master. The black vortexes, rising from the ground, tore on his garment. He looked for his staff, but his hands were empty, and only the khopesh sword hung behind his back.
His hoof slipped as the wind pushed him in his chest, and the dune beneath his feet drifted. On the verge of losing his balance, Set lifted his hand, fisted the air, and called, “Sha.”
The slippery body of the snake-like creature wound around his leg, slithered up, and settled into his hand. Solidifying, it took a form of a long stick with an animal head. Squeezing the metal in his palm, he raised the staff in the air, and his low voice rolled over the desert. “Calm.”
Black vortexes around his legs dispersed. The sand curtain collapsed to the ground, revealing the red sky with a glowing eye hovering above the horizon.
Deathly hush plugged his ears as even the wind died.
He turned his back to the sun. His chest constricted, and a bitter taste filled his mouth.
On the horizon, SkyBlade, though washed in sun, barely reflected any light. Its lifeless form stood idle, and the tip, not long ago bloody and thirsty, darkened as if rust overtook it. Black dust strewed from it, reversing the glass to sand.
The heart is dying? Why?
* * *
Gustavo waited.He waited for hours for Seth to leave the hospital, but when the ground became lighter than the sky and the main gates closed for visiting, he plucked out his gun and put it into the glove box.
“What are you doing?” Diego lifted a brow.
