Dark Mysteries (30 page)

And
to the bruised and beaten girl in that backseat, that was a
superhero.

Twenty-Four

There
was something keeping her from consciousness. Something cool and
fluid, like being underwater. Something making her thoughts hard to
form, her eyes too heavy to open like they should. She laid there,
listening, the sounds far away. A mix of voices were around her. A
female she didn't recognize and a male voice she did.

She
was catching the tail-end of an argument between the two. “family
only...” the woman finished.

“I'm
her brother,” Gabe's voice came then. Calm, charming, sure of
himself.

“And
them?” the woman asked.

When
Gabe spoke again, his tone was laced with a bit of amusement, but
steely. “We're all her family,” he told the woman.

“Yeah,”
came another familiar voice. “I'm her brother too.” K.
That was K.

Ellie
heard laughter, short and quiet. “And those two?” the
woman asked and Ellie could practically hear the resignation in her
voice. She knew she wasn't going to win the argument.

“Cousin,”
a voice she didn't know said. Younger. Like a teenager.

“And
you?” the woman asked, sounding more and more frustrated.

“Her
other cousin,” came the voice she hadn't realized she wanted to
hear so badly. Xander.

She
struggled harder against the drugs keeping her down. Coming into her
consciousness felt precisely like surfacing from water, slow and
thick, making frustrating progress before suddenly breaking through.

The
room was bright. Both from the fluorescent light overhead and the sun
shining through the windows at the side of her bed. The walls were
white, the floor, the blankets covering her... everything was white.
So, she was in a hospital, she realized with an almost overwhelming
sense of relief.

It
hadn't been a hallucination. Xander really had charged in and taken
down Nick and Jason. And then so had Gabe and K. Xander really had
taken her out of her shackles and carried her up the stairs. He
really had been holding her in the backseat of a car.

She
really was free.

The
tears came then, hot and fast, streaming down her cheeks.

How
many hours she had spent thinking about death? About the easiest and
fastest way to kill herself. Because there wasn't any hope. Because
no one knew what had happened. No one would know where to find her.
All that time and they had all found each other, put their heads
together, and searched for her. Not given up on her.

The
tears lessened as she watched the nurse continuing to argue with her
saviors. They all looked tired. Even model-perfect Gabe. Their faces
were scruffy, their eyes puffy. There were bruises on them all.
Gabe's light skin had a deep purple mark under his eye, K had one
across his jaw. Xander had several down one side of his face.

They
towered over the middle-aged nurse, looking too much like warriors to
be in such a mundane, normal environment.

“Hey
guys,” the young voice broke in. She had been right. He was a
teenager. With a split and swollen lip, looking at her. “Guys,”
he called, louder.

“What?”
Xander asked, then turned and froze, staring at her like she was some
mystical creature laying in the hospital bed. “Ellie,” he
said, moving quickly to her side. “Heya sweetheart,” he
smiled, reaching for her hand. “You're in a hospital,” he
said, unnecessarily.

“I
see that,” she said, her voice sounding hoarse. She smiled up
at him, ignoring the pain she felt at the movement, she gave him a
smile that had her whole heart in it. “You saved me,” she
said simply.

“Of
course we did,” Xander smiled back.

“Miss.
Piotrowski,” the nurse said, sounding surly, probably from
fighting with her four warriors for god-knew how long, “can you
please tell me who these men are?”

“Oh,”
Ellie said, a smile playing at her lips as she tried to sound
serious. “Well, this is my cousin,” she said, looking at
Xander. “And that's my other cousin,” she said, looking
toward the teenager she had never seen before in her life. “And
those two,” she inclined her head toward K and Gabe, “they're
my brothers,” she finished and they were all laughing, smiling
big goofy smiles.

“Oh,
for god's sake,” the nurse said, rolling her eyes and looking
up at the ceiling. “Fine,” she said, shaking her head and
moving to the door, “just keep it down in here.”

There
was a pregnant silence when the door closed. Everyone shifting their
feet, watching her like she was going to crumble into a million
pieces.

“You
guys look awful,” she said and they laughed.

“How
are you feeling?” Xander asked, his fingers stroking her hand.

“Well,
I'm not hanging from my wrists anymore,” she said, attempting
levity, “so... pretty damn good.”

“You
have two broken ribs,” K said, his tone as reassuring as she
remembered, “lacerations on your feet, stitches in your wrists,
various bumps and bruises, and a nasty cut on the back of your head.”
From where they had originally knocked her out. While she was on the
phone with him. It seemed like so long ago. “You were severely
dehydrated when you came in so you've been on IV fluids.”

“How
long?” she asked.

“Two
days,” K answered.

“No,”
she said, shaking her head slightly. “How long was I down
there?”

K
looked down at his feet. Her eyes found Xander's, who was staring at
the bandages on her wrists.

Gabe
was the one who spoke up, moving toward the foot of her bed. “Four
weeks.”

Everyone
seemed so stressed. Sad. Guilty. She could barely take it. “Damn,”
she said, “didn't beat my previous record then,” she said
and their horrified gazes fell on her, making her laugh. “I'm
sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “It's just... you all
look so serious.”

“Are
you sure you're alright?” Xander asked, watching her curiously.

“I'm
fine.” Better than fine. Alive. Not being hit and starved and
cut. She was away from him. And it made her feel almost giddy inside.
“How?” she asked, waving her free hand, looking at K.

“Like
I told you, I was in the city,” he shrugged, “looking for
you and I met this one,” he said, nodding toward Xander. “I
told him I would tell him when I knew you were safe. And then I got
your call...” his voice drifted off, his eyes looking pained
for a second, “and I tracked him down. We've all been working
together since.”

Ellie
nodded. She should have known K would have sought out the person he
knew she was getting help from. She turned to Xander. “And what
about him?” she said, tilting her head toward the kid.

“Remember
how you told me to take care of strays?” he asked, and she
smiled.

“My
name is Brian,” the kid said, standing, but not moving closer.
Respecting the fact that she didn't know him, giving her space.

“Hey,”
she said, wondering how old he was. How he ended up in Xander's care.
How the men could have possibly thought it was a good idea to take a
kid into whatever brawl they had all obviously gotten into.

But
they were questions left for another day as Gabe walked over and
patted him on the shoulder, tilting his head toward the door. “We
are all gonna go catch a shower, Ellie,” Gabe said, nodding to
Xander. “We'll be back in a few hours.”

“Hey,”
she called as they quickly made their way to the door. “Thank
you.”

K
smiled at her, a look she didn't realize how much she had missed over
the years. Gabe rolled his eyes. “Damsel. Distress. What man
could resist that kind of adventure?” he winked and they walked
out, leaving her and Xander alone.

The
silence drug on, Xander petting her in places: her hand, her
shoulder, her knee. Like he needed to keep proving to himself that
she was there.

“Hi,”
she said, feeling almost shy.

His
eyes found hers then, dark, searching. Then, almost immediately,
amused. “You know... this was taking the whole 'playing hard to
get' thing to the extreme.”

Ellie
laughed, ignoring the shooting pain in her side, and just let herself
enjoy the moment. The short amount of time where they could
completely ignore the reality of what had taken place. Where things
were easy and normal. “Xander...”

“Don't
thank me,” he said, shaking his head, “it comes with the
territory,” he said.

Ellie
felt something in her chest deflate a little, a new, sharp pain
stabbing in her heart. “Right,” she said, knowing her
voice sounded sad and not caring, “it's part of the job.”

“No,”
Xander said, rolling his eyes, “it's part of being in love with
you.”

“What?”
she asked, sure that she had misheard him. Or that the medicine they
were giving her was stronger than she originally thought. “You're
not...”

“Yeah,”
Xander said, a part of him enjoying her disbelief, “yeah, doll,
I am.”

She
watched him for a moment, a part of her not believing it, the other
part trying to place the new feeling she was having inside. Like
something in her chest was fluttering its wings. Like she herself was
flying. It took her an embarrassingly long time to recognize it as
happiness. “Well, that's convenient,” she said, bringing
her other arm across her body to rest on his hand, “because I'm
in love with you too.”

“I
know,” Xander said, smirking at her.

“What?”
she asked, wrinkling her nose. Who responded like that to a
declaration of love? “How did you know?”

“Because
the cord snapped,” he said, sending her a crooked smile.

She
reached down, putting a hand under his chin, and pulling him up
toward her.

“Baby...
your lips are all...”

“Just
shut up and kiss me,” she said, leaning toward him.

–

She
got the reluctant doctor to hand her discharge papers the next day,
along with a stern warning that she was to spend a week in bed to let
her ribs and feet heal completely or she would just end up right back
in the hospital.

Xander
had left a few minutes before, going to grab a shower and a change of
clothes for her to wear home.

“Gabe,”
she said, hanging her feet off the side of the bed. “Do you
know Faith?”

“From
Lam? Yeah,” Gabe said, his brows drawing together. “Why?”

“Do
you have her number?”

“Yeah...”
Gabe said, drawing the word out.

“Dial
her and hand me the phone,” she said, pushing herself onto her
feet, waving off K who reached out to help.

She
took the phone, walking carefully to the bathroom and closing the
door. “Hey Faith... it's Ellie. From the panic room,” she
said, sounding amused. “I have a favor to ask...”

She
sat in her room a few minutes later, still in her thin hospital gown,
but with a lightweight blue robe covering it. There were a lot of
things Xander was willing to do. Things that crossed the letter of
the law. Things that might even push the lines of morality. But there
were some things she knew that he could never be a part of. And this
was one.

Ellie
never considered herself a particularly vengeful person. She hadn't
laid awake at night thinking of ways to make Nick suffer for what he
had done to her. Her main mindset for years had been survival. How
she could hold onto her freedom. And her life.

That
was what she was choosing to call what she was about to do. Survival.
It was the only way she could have a life. The only way she could
stay in one place. Put down roots. Not have to look over her
shoulder.

She
looked down at the paper in her hand. Just an address. That was all.

It
was the only way.

“Gabe,”
she said when she heard footsteps in the hall, “you are going
to want to leave. Right now,” she said as they got closer.

“What?
Why?”

“Because
you don't want to be a part of this,” she said as they finally
turned into the room. Faith. And Vin.

Gabe's
eyes widened, looking at her like she had lost her mind. But he
sighed and walked out. K looked at her, his eyes knowing. And nodded.
Approving. Knowing it was the only way. Then followed Gabe into the
hallway.

Even
next to someone as powerful, as dangerous as Vin, Faith looked like
fire and brimstone. Like hell on heels. She nodded at Ellie, offering
her a strange smile

“Miss.
Piotrowski,” Vin said, coming into the room, closing the door
behind him. “You wanted to see me?” She felt small with
him in the room. Shabby in her hospital gown and gift shop robe while
he stood there in an immaculate three-piece black suit. His eyes were
keen, taking in her injuries with an odd sort of detachment, but
there was a wince when he finally got to her face.

Ellie
took a deep breath, holding out the piece of paper toward him. He
walked over, curious, and took it. She watched as he read it, his
brows furrowing for a moment before recognition dawned on him.