Page 13 of Edge of Forever

Zeke flashed him a raised brow and followed Logan in. He halted in the doorway. Her hair was pinned back and gauze was wrapped around her head from forehead to ear. A gossamer thin layer covered thick pads over her eyes.

Her hands were wrapped in similar gauze. Her elegant hands were bright pink and spread on little wedges to hold her fingers apart. A blanket was pulled up over her torso and half a dozen tubes and wires were attached to her.

Logan backed out the door and bent at the waist. He hadn’t been prepared for that.

“Hey, buddy. Breathe.”

Logan sucked in a breath through his nose and then out his mouth. “I’m all right. I just wasn’t prepared to see her like that.”

“She’s okay. The doc said she’s a fighter, right?”

“Right.”

He stood up, straightened his shoulders, and walked in again. The blow to his gut was no less vicious, but he took it. Forced himself to walk forward and sit down next to her.

Dammit, he wanted to touch her and everything about her looked fragile. He drew one long, dark lock of hair away from the white gauze. “Hi, baby.” He brushed a light kiss against the crest of her cheek. “You come back to me Izzy, mine. If you think you’re getting away with saying yes to marrying me and skipping out on the ceremony, you are sorely mistaken.”

She didn’t answer.

Not even a blip on that stupid machine counting out her heartbeats.

Five

The beeping was back.

Loud.

Annoying.

Voices this time, too. Logan?

It sounded like him, but didn’t smell like him.

Why couldn’t she see him? Why couldn’t she open her eyes?

She turned her head and the red came back and then the black.

So heavy.

Logan?

Why couldn’t she see him?

Six

Somewhere between dawn and noon he’d crashed in the chair beside her. They tried to kick him out, but Dr. Marra had taken pity on him.

She was still so damn still.

The nurses checked her vitals, kept changing out some sort of special blood bag, redressed her hands, but wouldn’t answer any of his questions. Especially about her eyes.

He stretched and winced. His six-two frame was not built for these chairs. Even the one that was supposed to be a sleep chair.

It was too far away from her anyway.

The only way he’d been able to get a little sleep was when he’d passed out with his hand on her upper arm. One of the few areas not burned, cut, or bruised. He pressed his forehead to her shoulder and breathed her in. Jasmine lingered under the acrid soot and the clinical hospital scents. It was the same smell he looked for at night, and the one that filled his head as he opened his eyes each day.

Marcus ducked his head in and gave him a c’mere gesture. Logan dropped a kiss against her forehead. She jerked, and he stopped.

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