Page 166 of Vacancy

I balled my hands to pummel him again, but as I wound my arm back, a firm grip caught my wrist, stopping me.

“Archer, man, stop…” A familiar voice penetrated my consciousness. “You got him. He’s out. It’s okay now.”

I shuddered, blinking at Professor Zweifel’s bloody, battered face, a little alarmed that I’d caused all that, and I chuffed out a traumatized sob before I fell back to sit next to him, needing a moment to calm down before I did anything else.

Parker’s hand remained solid and supportive on me as he added, “You did good, man. You caught her killer. You avenged your sister. And you saved the girl.”

The girl?

Remembering that Oaklynn was still strapped practically naked to the table, I lifted my face and started to glance around. “Oak…?”

“She’s okay. Foster’s got her. She’s sitting up and moving all her limbs. She’s going to be just fine.”

I needed to see her for myself, though, so I started to stand until a strange force inside me sat me right back down.

I blinked, swaying slightly, unable to understand why I couldn’t just get up.

Shaking my head in confusion, I glanced around instead, searching the room until I spotted a bare-chested Foster slipping his T-shirt over my girlfriend’s head to cover her as she sat upright on the table she’d just been strapped to, her free legs dangling down the side.

She looked shaken to the core. Her eyelids were heavy as if she’d been drugged. Her entire body was trembling, and blood immediately soaked through the front of Foster’s shirt once she got it on. But she was alive and upright.

On the other half of the room, Keene was gripping his hair and walking in a tight circle as he talked on the phone. “Yeah, we’re in the basement of Crimper Hall on Haverick campus,” he was saying into the receiver. “Yes, people are hurt. Send an ambulance. There’s blood and…” His worried gaze strayed to me, only for his eyes to widen. “Oh shit, Archer. You’re…”

I glanced down to where he was looking, only to find my own shirt covered in blood.

“Damn. Is that mine?” I began to ask, strangely dazed by the sight of all of it on me before I finally spotted the scalpel that the professor had been holding when I’d first come into the room.

It was sticking out of my side.

“Fuck.” That wasn’t supposed to be there. I reached to remove it, but my hand felt as if it weighed a hundred pounds and I couldn’t seem to move any faster than a sloth.

“Don’t let him pull that out!” Keene, the nursing student, shouted, and Parker caught my hand.

“Whoa, whoa. Hang on, bud. Let’s not remove it just yet.”

I wavered unsteadily, swaying as my vision dimmed.

Parker caught my shoulders, steadying me.

Oaklynn screamed my name.

I lifted my head to find her while Keene ordered into his phone, “We’re going to need more ambulances. Sendallthe ambulances.”

And then, there was my girl, falling onto her knees in front of me, her eyes wide with terror, while tears streamed liberally down her face.

“Damien?”

“You okay?” I slurred, reaching for her face, only to realize my hand was bloody.

When I paused to frown at it in confusion, she gripped my wrist. “Me? I’m not the one with a fucking knife sticking out of my stomach.”

I shook my head, not wanting to think about that because I was finally starting to feel it, and it really hurt.

“I… I’m sorry I…” With a wince, I paused before adding, “Sorry I let him get you. Sorry I…”

God, even talking hurt.

“What?” Oaklynn sobbed, clutching my face in her hands. “You found me. Yousavedme. You… Damien? No. Don’t close your eyes.”

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