Page 108 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

He’d kept his gaze locked with hers until her lids finallyfluttered shut, and her lips parted. No matter how hard he’d tried not to bemoved, his efforts had proven fruitless. Her scent had him reeling. He’d alwaysbeen fascinated by it. A combination of sweet and sensual, tropics and spice,the unusual fragrance saturated his clothes every time she came within fivefeet of him. And she had been much closer than that for the kiss.

His pants tightened around his hips at the thought. But whenhe’d wrapped her in his arms, he’d instantly regretted the response his bodyalways had when she was near. Apparently, his mind had yet to crawl out of thegutter it’d come from. She’d trembled, and he’d felt the rapid pounding of herheart as it tried to fight its way out of her chest. Something terrible hadhappened, and yet there he’d stood, groping her like a sixth-graderwho’d just entered puberty. Classy.

The doc was part of the family now.She’d seen things that no one else on Earth had but never questioned any of it.He supposed it was because she had gone to school with Charley. She must’veknown about Charley’s abilities, at least a little, because nothing seemed tofaze the doc—even when Elwyn went missing at five years old and came back threedays later as a teenager. The doc had taken it all in stride. Perhaps a littletoo much in stride.

Donovan watched as she knelt in her dining room and pried upsome wooden slats from the floor, her movements rushed with panic. Thankfully,she’d left the blinds open in her front window, giving Donovan an unobstructedview of her erratic behavior.

He thought about texting Teacup to see if she had anyinsight into the doc’s dilemma, but it was late, and even gods who subsisted oncoffee and sarcasm—truly her mother’s daughter—needed their beauty sleep.

The doc finally pulled up enough boards to drag out asatchel. She took it to her dining room table and opened it. Though Donovancouldn’t see inside, people only hid three things intheir floors: money, damning evidence, or an emergency bug-out bag. Since hedidn’t take the doc for a serial killer, and she probably had access to plentyof money with her being a doctor and all, bug-out bag it was. It could containany number of items, most notably emergency cash, fake IDs, a burner phone, andpossibly even a weapon.

She’d showered and changed into jeans and a whitebutton-down when she got home. Her damp hair fell softly around her shouldersas she worked. She closed the satchel and then glanced around her house asthough performing a final check. Seeming satisfied, she pulled on a blackhoodie and grabbed her coffee, a small suitcase with rollers, and the satchelbefore heading to her car.

When she tripped in her driveway and landed hard on herknees and palms, his hand shot to his door handle, but he stopped himself. Hisgut clenched as he watched her struggle to her feet, but he needed to know whatwas going on. Where she was headed. Donovan figured he was probably the lastperson she would trust with her problems. They hardly knew each other. So, hedecided to follow her and assess the situation while keeping his distance.Unless she needed him, of course.

She recovered and drove to a gas station. He followed andlooked on as she fought the card reader for what seemed like five minutes. Shefinally got it to work, and he took out his phone as she filled up.

What did he really know about the doc? She’d shown up on theLoehrs’ doorstep five years ago, very soon after Charley and her husband ascended, as they called it. They’d focused alltheir energy on creating a haven for their daughter while the rest of theEarth-bound got the compound ready. Elwyn Loehr was surrounded by people wholoved her enough to risk their lives for her—and her cause, of course. Beingthe subject of prophecies claiming that she would defeat Satan and savehumankind could not be an easy burden to bear, but the kid handled it with thegrace and smart mouth of a true professional. Donovan knew that Charley wasinsanely proud of her daughter. Hell, he was insanelyproud of her daughter. But the doc had shown up barely a month after a group ofbody-snatching demons almost caused a global apocalypse.

She was a real doctor. There was no doubt about that. Andshe’d said that she’d gone to school with Charley. That she knew about thepeculiar events that followed Charley everywhere she went. But had anyone actually checked? Surely, Swopes, one of Charley’s bestfriends and the man she’d left in charge of her daughter’s care, had run abackground check.

Donovan did a quick search of thedoc’s name: Lucia Mirabal. The usual stuff came up—her credentials, hervolunteer work, the hospital where she’d worked until she accepted the job withthe Loehrs—the couple currently raising Elwyn, and Farrow’s human parents.

He took note of the date she’d left the hospital. It hadbeen right around the time the demon horde was trying to make Earth its bitch. They were like leeches, and the hospitals had beenoverrun. Maybe, after everything that had happened, the doc decided to take abreak from the medical facility and seek out other opportunities. Seeing allthose people come down with a mysterious illness that no one—not even to thisday—could explain had probably shaken her. A strange near-apocalypsetended to change people.

But another article caught his eye. He scrolled to a newspost. The headline read: Local Doctor Attacked in Alley. Thedoc’s professional headshot, a picture he’d loved since first seeing it, toppedthe article. He paused a moment to admire the doc’s red hair and ethereal—aword he’d never used before meeting her—features before continuing to thearticle. After reading it, he sat, stewing in his shock, so deep in thoughtthat he almost missed the doc pulling onto St. Francis.

He hurried after her while trying to read the article at thesame time, swerving twice to avoid oncoming traffic. No one had ever accusedhim of having an overabundance of common sense.

According to the reporter, the attack happened close to thehospital where the doc had been employed. She’d been to dinner with friends buthad parted ways with them outside the restaurant. A witness told police thatshe went into the alley alone. No one had dragged her. Had she heard something?Had someone called out to her?

Whatever the case, at the time of print, they’d yet toidentify her attacker. All Donovan knew was that they had taken her toPresbyterian, which was a hotspot for the demonic activities of the time. Hethanked the powers that be that she’d made it out of that hospital alive.

Had one of the demons attacked her? They’d certainly leftenough carnage in their wake to warrant suspicion. Even the most peace-lovinghumans the demons inhabited became violent. No, not just violent. Enraged. Thewhole situation was straight out of Hollywood.

And the timing fit. Her attack hadoccurred right smack-dab in the middle of those screwed-up days. If Charleyhadn’t come back from whatever hell dimension she’d been sent to, there was notelling what the world would look like today. If that’d happened, though,whatever or whoever she was running from was not her attacker. As far as heknew, no more of those demons were left on the plane. Maybe she wasn’t running fromso much as running to. She’dgotten a call. Perhaps someone needed her help. But why would she have saidwhat she did: in case I never see you again?

He simply had no way of knowing what was going on until theyreached her destination, and his head hurt just thinking about it.

He followed the doc south out of Santa Fe, and for the firstcouple of hours, he tried to read and drive at the same time, searching forclues on what’d become of her attacker. Sadly, there was nothing. He found noevidence of an arrest or conviction. Was the assailant never caught?

Two and a half hours into their trip, he began to worry thatshe would realize he was following her, but he tried to stay backfar enough to compensate for that. He plugged the charger into hisquickly dying phone and then went into his contacts. He found the name he wassearching for and pressed call.

Garrett Swopes, Elwyn’s primary guardian, picked up afteronly two rings. Donovan was almost impressed.

“This’d better be good,” Swopes said, his voice groggy.Donovan looked at the time. Twelve after midnight.

“Am I disturbing your beauty sleep?” he asked the man.

“Something like that.”

“My bad,” he offered by way of an apology, not in the leastbit concerned. “What do you know about the doc?”

He heard Swopes stir as though sitting up in bed. “What doyou mean?”

“She was attacked before she came to work for us. Do youknow what happened?”

In the background, Donovan heard a feminine voice, thickwith sleep. “Did something happen? Is Elwyn okay?”