Page 81 of Harmless
“Wake up, creep. Come on,” he begged in a rough voice. “Not now. Not like this…”
“What happened?” I demanded, rushing to her other side.
Rori was motionless and unresponsive except for some twitching in her hands and face, mainly in her half-closed eyelids. Only the whites of her eyes were visible through the slits.
“I don’t know,” Paige sobbed. “She was fine. And then I looked over and she was like this.”
“It looks like a seizure. Has this ever happened before?” Devin came over and touched his fingers to the inside of his wrist. Then he leaned down, touching his ear to her chest.
“No,” Torr croaked with a shake of his head. “Not for as long as I’ve known her.”
“How long has she been like this?” I looked at Paige.
“Two minutes, maybe three?” she sniffed.
Devin lifted his head, frowning. “I’m no medic, but she has a strong pulse and her heartbeat sounds normal, if a bit fast. I dunno, I think we just need to wait it out.”
“We need arealfucking medic. What if she’s braindead or something?” Torr lifted his head, his eyes landing on me. “Find someone with medical experience. Now.”
“Dude, none of the fighters are—”
“Find someone!”he bellowed.
“Wait, I think she’s coming back!” the Hunter exclaimed, leaning over Paige.
Rori’s eyelid fluttering had indeed turned into full-on blinks, her brow furrowing before her eyes opened fully to focus on all of us. “Uh. Hi, guys.”
“Oh, thank fuck!” Torr threw himself on top of her in practically a full body slam, embracing her hard. “Thank all the fucking gods you’re okay.”
“Ow! Iwasokay, but you’re crushing me!” Rori shoved at his shoulders. “What’re you all looking at me for? What’s with all the drama?”
“You were having a seizure.” Paige sniffed and wiped her cheeks. “You were unresponsive and twitching for a few minutes.”
“Yeah, you scared the shit out of us, asshole.” Torr just squeezed around her tighter. “Never do that again.”
Rori’s eyes widened with some realization, her arms coming around Torr’s back to rub up and down. “Oh! I’m sorry for scaring you guys. I was just uh, taking a nap and dreaming really vividly. Seriously, I’m okay. I didn’t mean to make you all worry.”
Devin and I exchanged a look. Yeah, neither of us were buying it.
“Must’ve been a hell of a dream,” the Hunter remarked as he helped Paige to her feet, then held her against his chest.
“Yeah.” Torr released Rori so she could sit up, and her eyes passed over him, Devin, and me with a haunted expression. “I need to talk to the three of you.”
Rori comforted Paige with a quick hug, then our president and VP walked us further away from everyone for some privacy.
“I was outside of my fucking body,” Rori said in harsh whisper the moment we were alone. “And I was in Astarte, flying and seeing through the bird’s eyes. She took me over the compound. I saw…fuck, I saw everything.” Rori brought a hand to her forehead, suddenly looking exhausted before looking up again sharply. “You guys believe me, right?”
“Yes.” The answer came from Devin, which surprised everyone. He returned our bewildered looks with a shrug. “What? The gods talk to us and inhabit animals, right? Could be weirder.”
“If you say so,” Torr muttered. “But yes, I believe you too. So what’d you see?”
Rori paled and let out a breath that seemed to take all of her strength with it. “They’re killing men as like…ritual sacrifices. I saw the whole thing.” She looked to the sky, eyes filling with tears. “And I couldn’t stop it.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault.” I followed the impulse to bring her head against my shoulder, kissing her hair. “There was nothing you could do, paloma. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Her arms came around me, fingers curling to grip my shirt. “So you’ve seen it too.” A statement, not a question.
“Not exactly, but we’ve heard it.” I looked over to Devin, who nodded.
