Page 88 of Hounded

The nurse offered a sympathetic smile. “Do youwantto care for them?”

“I can’t,” I replied. “I’m not enough.”

The nurse’s hand settled on my thigh, and I stared at that point of contact as she continued.

“What if you could give your friend more time with his family?” she asked. “Then he could care for them the way you cannot.”

My shoulders slumped. “There’s no time. He’s dying. They’ve called everyone in.”

And sent me out.

I looked at the closed doors a few feet away, a physical wall between my beloved and me. The divide had always been there, but it wasn’t always so tangible.

The nurse patted my leg, commanding my focus again. “He’s a young man, isn’t he?” Her delicate brow pinched. “Near your age?”

She must have seen Jonathan lying in there. Perhaps she’d tended to him.

I nodded.

“What do you suppose he could do with another… twenty years?” she asked. “He could see his children grow, perhaps even become a grandfather.”

It felt cruel to suggest, given his prognosis. I shook my head, refusing to let the seed of false hope take root.

“You could give him that time,” the nurse insisted. “Give it to them.” She gestured to the brick wall between us and the medical ward.

I should have been in there. Should have been with Jonathan. Like I’d always been.

I bit my lip until I tasted the bitter tang of blood. Pain fended off the tears that seemed determined to overtakeme. When I ducked my head, the nurse cupped my chin in her palm. Her touch sent a cold shock through me.

“You could repay everything he’s done for you,” she said. “Show him what’s plain to me.”

I stared hard into her gemstone eyes. “What’s that?”

“You love him.”

Breath stalled in my lungs. I expected condemnation or loathing, but the woman remained unfailingly kind. The nurse brushed her thumb along my jaw. I should have pulled away, but the comfort was so unexpectedly welcome, so desperately needed, that I leaned into it.

She smiled, and I felt better than I had in weeks.

“I think you love him enough to save him,” she said.

“How?” The word slipped out, unbidden.

The nurse brushed my hair behind my ear, touching me in a way only Jonathan had. It seemed intimate, and I found myself melting against the warmth of her skin.

“You wanted to belong to him,” she murmured, speaking truth she shouldn’t have known. “Unfortunately, my power doesn’t extend that far, but you could belong to me. Be wholly mine. Fully possessed.”

The conversation had become utter nonsense. A complete stranger offering to take me in, trying to mend wounds I’d believed to be hidden. It had happened before. Jonathan took similar pity on me, but it failed to explain why this woman wanted anything to do with me, or how her interest could save Jonathan’s life.

I shook my head, unsettling the locks she’d tucked away and breaking her hold on me. “I don’t understand,” I said.

Her smile persisted. “I would have you at my side, nothidden away. Never forgotten. You could be quite dear to me. Would you like that?”

To be dear, yes. But not to her. It was the same as Jonathan had said, offering me his family when I wanted my own. I wanted him.

More than that, though, I didn’t want him to die.

“Your friend would have the time he needs.” The nurse’s voice wove itself into my thoughts. “And you would have your heart’s desire. To be loved. Cherished. Adored.”

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