Page 34 of The Voices are Back

Karen, Cassius’s girl’s brother’s girl—say that three times fast—was a female sheriff’s deputy that was a complete and utter badass.

She took everything in all at once, and her eyes narrowed on the man trying to push to his feet.

“I think it’s best if you stay on the ground where you’re located at this moment,” Karen said seriously. “She okay?”

“She needs an ambulance,” I said as I took her in.

“Okay.” Karen didn’t argue. “What happened?”

KD answered that, giving her the same details as he’d given me a few minutes before.

“So she was getting attacked in the dark, you pulled up. He dropped her and you”—she turned to face me—“chased after him?”

“That’s right,” I said. “I also subdued him when I saw who it was that KD had in his arms.”

She nodded, as if that little tidbit didn’t affect her at all.

“And who are you, sir?” Karen asked, looking at the man at her feet.

“I’m Wallace.” He sounded nasally, as if maybe I’d broken his nose with that kick.

Good.

“Wallace what?” Karen pushed.

I could tell she was getting irritated with him.

However, I missed whatever else she said when the ambulance pulled up and two medics got out, both headed straight toward us.

With barely a glance at the man who lay on the ground and Karen leaning over him, talking to him quietly, they moved toward me and said, “What happened?”

I looked down at Morrigan.

Morrigan had bruising around her neck, indicating she’d been strangled. Or at least he’d tried.

She also had a cut on her forehead which indicated she’d fallen and hit her head.

I explained everything to the medics, and they helped her onto the gurney, though sitting up instead of reclined like I thought maybe she should be. But I wasn’t a paramedic, and had zero leeway in how she got treated.

What I did do was follow her onto the ambulance despite the medic in charge asking me to wait outside.

“Sorry, but no,” I said. “She’s alone, and she won’t stay alone seeing as I’ll be with her.”

The medic grumbled under his breath, and I couldn’t figure out why.

It was only when he kept swinging me wary glances that I realized that maybe he thought I’d done this.

“I didn’t do this,” I said. “Also, she has POTS.” I then explained everything that she had going on with her that might’ve exacerbated the issue of her passing out.

“Oh.” The medic looked as if he was breathing easier now, as if he wasn’t quite so scared.

I leaned onto my knees as we started to move, the last thing on my mind was the ride that we were supposed to be going on today. Morrigan, since she’d gotten helped into the ambulance, hadn’t looked at me, as if she was mad that I’d made her go to the hospital.

I knew she hadn’t wanted to.

But I also knew her aversion to going to the hospital stemmed from her desire not to be there alone, and not because she thought she didn’t need to go.

A while ago, for her first hospital visit with me when she’d fallen and broken her arm, she’d told me her fear of being alone in a hospital with no visitors. At the time, I’d thought that maybe it was just her being a little extra—because Morrigan was known to be that way—but now I realized it was truly a fear of hers.

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