Page 275 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

If one dies, we both die.The words echoed in his skull like Kass was right there with him, reminding him of the bond and what it meant.

Fuck, he couldn’t quit and die. Someone peeled his hand away from the wounds and lifted his shirt. They were making a hell of a fuss. He couldn’t remember anyone carrying on quite so much. More pressure.

Paramedics arrived, and he was lifted onto a stretcher and rolled out.

“What were you stabbed with?”

“A pen.” He had no idea where it, or who the man who’d attacked him was, only that it was payback for getting a reduced sentence, for getting help from the Coven. “I left my book in the rain.” The library would be pissed. He’d be fined for destroying it.

The paramedic lifted her eyebrows. Blood coated her gloves. “When did you last eat?”

“Breakfast.”

“Allergies?”

“No.”

“You’re going straight into surgery.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you have anyone you’d like notified?”

“No.” Kass already knew, and he wasn’t next of kin or anything official, he doubted boyfriends counted. Bailey closed his eyes, then opened them just as fast. “It was a gang attack, will there be cops guarding me?”

He shivered as a rush of cold swept through him.

She glanced at the other one, a man he could smell but not see.

“Don’t worry about that.” She gave the man another glance and shook her head.

“They’re ready,” the man said.

The ambulance stopped and Bailey moved so fast the world was a blur. He caught the words “bleeding out”, before a nurse told him to count backward from ten.

He made it to seven.

* * *

Kass paced the hospital corridor.He’d known something was wrong from that first rush of panic but couldn’t do much beyond pushing magic and life Bailey’s way. He had a cracking headache that the cheap coffee in his hand wasn’t helping. He’d driven to the hospital straight after work, trusting the bond to take him to the right place, not knowing if he'd be allowed in, but unable to stay away.

How useless had Bailey felt being half a world away?

Bailey was alive, but the bond had shrunk to a thread and the flow was going one way. The impressions and fragments of feelings he’d become so used to were gone. He hadn’t realized how much space they’d taken up. He was left empty.

He had another coffee and sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair. The minute hand on the clock seemed frozen. His eyes must have closed, because his coffee was cold, and his eyes were scratchy. What had woken him? There was the usual hospital noise, but it wasn’t a sound.

There was a flicker in the bond.

Bailey was getting closer.

He ditched the coffee in the bin and stood. A few seconds later a bed was wheeled down the corridor, accompanied by nurses and a cop. Kass knew it was Bailey without looking at him. The bond swelled with each breath as Bailey reached for him.

Kass stepped toward the bed, but he barely recognized the man there. Gone was the long blond hair, instead it was dark and short. The snap and sparkle that usually illuminated him was also missing. How close to death had he been.

The cop looked at him and straightened as though trying to figure out if Kass was a threat. His nose twitched.

Kass glimpsed the shifter aura around the cop, a wolf, and drew his magic in tight.

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