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When they left, I took it back out again. I eyed the hep-lock in my arm hungrily. The IV port snaked into my vein, the clear tube carrying saline and antibiotics and whatever else was keeping my broken body satisfied. I didn’t even need to find a new vein. I shook the contents of the syringe, pushed a little out to make sure it was clear.

And then I slid the needle into the port.

I watched the plunger depress. Watched the brown vanish into the clear line. Watched it travel the short distance—six inches, maybe less—into my arm, my blood, my heart.

The warmth hit me so fast. Almost instantly, I sank back into the pillows.

David’s voice faded. Delane’s face disappeared. The memory of Silas, reaching out to me in the darkness under the freeway with broken hands—floated away like smoke.

The shaking stopped first.

Then the pain.

Then the thoughts.

Then everything.

SILAS

The friendly nurse, the one who assisted me with my cup earlier in the morning, poked her head into my room randomly before visitation hours were done. She gave a weak little smile.

“Are you feeling up to just one visitor? You’ve had someone waiting to get in here.”

Now, this piqued my interest. Besides Jace—who had already made himself known—who the hell would be here for me? Unless Serenity caught wind of me waking up, in which case, she was about to chew my ass out. She may look meek to the hospital personnel, but I knew better.

“Send them in,” I said without pause, and both nurses left, closing the door to the room with a sharp clang.

It wasn’t long before the door reopened. And I was definitely not expecting to see Delane waltzing right into my hospital room like she owned it. But there she was. Red hair like fire blazing from her skull, eyes green wide and filled with irritation.

My mouth surely dropped before I could catch myself. She stopped as the door closed behind her, standing at the foot of my bed.

I stared at her for the longest time. I was at a loss for words.

“What…are you doing here?” I finally asked. My shock was genuine.

I had imagined this conversation many times, actually. But never like this. Never did I assume Delane would be confronting me from a hospital bed, my half-dead, broken body staring up at her from the sheets.

She didn’t speak for a moment. She glared at me with those hate-filled, green, siphoning eyes, like she was trying to drain me of what little life I had left. Her arms stayed crossed over her chest, her back nearly pressed against the door, as though she was considering whether or not to go right back out the way she came in.

Then she spoke. And I was impressed by her confidence.

“I am here for Noah. And then I found out he was here…because of you. That he risked his life for you.”

The look on her face told me exactly where her memory was drawn to. She was reliving the night I attacked her. How Noah swooped in, heroic as ever, and made sure she was safe from me.

I knew what this looked like to her. The jealousy emanated from her skin. She finally saw the truth. She wasn’t special.

I smirked, or at least tried to. The area around my lips was so swollen, and I couldn’t move them as much as I was used to.

“What?” I asked, enjoying the curl her lip made at my mocking tone. “Do you just hate that he wanted to save me, too?”

I hoped that made her shut up and leave. I didn’t need an audience. I didn’t even know who let her into the damn hospital, let alone my wing. Judging by her persistence, she’d probably been here longer than half the reporters stalking the place.

Unfortunately, her reaction wasn’t to turn around and walk out of my room. Instead, her jaw tightened, her eyes narrowed, and she continued prodding at me.

“You think gloating about him saving you is cute? He’s in a bed just down the hall and you put him there. Whatever sick, twisted game you’ve been playing since the deal he made with you is the reason he was nearly killed.”

I didn’t quite remember this girl being so talkative before. Or feisty. This was new. And I didn’t like it.