Page 5 of Protect Me
ChapterTwo
VIKRAM
Katelyn Saucony, the last person I would have expected on my doorstep.
Well.
I’ll be damned.
In hindsight, I should have anticipated such a twisted move. Vinita had a hand as meddling as my mother’s. She’d always been a better chess player, too. Kingslayer, I used to call Vini. One day, she’d pay for this.
For now, I needed to sit down.
Katelyn eyed me like a wary cat when I shuffled back, crutches painful under my arms, and left the door open for her to close. The world tipped whenever I stood, but I tried to hide the drunken feeling. Heaven knew, I’d experienced it enough. Just like the pained grimace I bit back by sheer willpower.
I’d brought this on myself.
A few moments later, I sank back onto the couch. Was there an imprint from my body here yet? Too late to check, I’d already closed my eyes. The ethereal, hazy quality of the world returned. If I didn’t need these painkillers so much to function, I’d tie them to an 80 pound weight, throw them into the deepest reaches of the ocean, and wave goodbye.
Wait, what was happening?
My eyes opened, latching onto Kate again.
Right, Katelyn.
I needed to get off this medicine.
“Tell Vini I’m fine,” I muttered. Did I imagine the slur in my voice? What I didn’t dream was the way Katelyn fidgeted with the bottom of her shirt. Her top teeth worried her bottom lip, blanching the plush skin there. I tilted my head back to help my eyes close faster, but they opened again.
Why was she stillso nervous around me?
“You had surgery,” she said, a bit unnecessarily. Her eyes darted back to my knee.
I swallowed, my throat dry as Hades.
What response could she possibly expect?
“Yes.”
“Are you . . . all right?”
“No.”
A rustling sound followed. I cracked one eye to see her bent over the couch, picking up a wrapper between two fingers. She stopped, gazed around the littered mess of my townhouse. Her eyebrows pulled together.
To her credit, she let no disgust show on her face—though I wouldn’t have blamed her. I hadn’t cleaned up after myself in several days. Wrappers, old water bottles, and empty medicine bottles cluttered the ground. I’d shuffled around with my crutches, making trails out of the wreckage. Somewhere in the chaos waited a garbage bag, but it might be under a pile of blankets by now.
Had that been before or after the fever?
Katelyn opened her mouth, then closed it again. She pivoted on the spot, and her twirl sent my head spinning. I closed my eyes to make it stop. One long blink later, ashuckof sound drew me back to the land of the living.
My apartment had transformed.
No more wrappers, bottles, or garbage could be found. Kate had just dumped a bunch of clothes into a pile on the couch nearby, and the sound had been her shaking a blanket. Her arms paused. She turned, looked right at me. Her eyes widened. She covered her mouth with a hand.
“So sorry. Did I wake you?” she whispered.
Unconsciousness beckoned.
