“Okay. Okay. Hang on.” He grabbed a book off my shelf and started fanning it.
It totally wasn’t helping. “The peroxide was a bad idea.”
“You know what a good idea is? The emergency room. In fact, it’s a fantastic idea.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’ll take hours. No way. I already said it twice, but I’ll say it again. I don’t need stitches. You can’t make me get them.”
“Fine. But you’re just being a stubborn baby.” He poured more peroxide on it.
“Fuck! That burns,” I said when I could get air enough to talk again.
“See. You’re such a baby.” Axel started digging through the clear plastic bin that had all the first aid supplies in it. He came back with a tube of antibiotic ointment.
“Don’t use your finger.”
He showed me the Q-tip in his hand. “Please. I want to touch that as much as you want me to.” He rubbed it on and put an extra-large bandage over the cuts. “So you going to tell me whose ass I need to kick?”
Nope. Not a chance in hell. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It definitely matters. No one hurts my sister and gets away with it.”
I wanted to cry and scream and hit something, but none of that would help me right now. “Can we talk about it tomorrow? Please. I’m hurting and tired and sad. Really, really sad.”
He stood there, staring at me for a while. “Okay,” he said finally. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” He handed me an ice pack.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
“Take care of your lip. Okay?”
I nodded.
When he left, I grabbed the scissors again, and cut down the front of my dress. It was one of the only dresses I actually liked. It was a damn shame to have to destroy it completely. Once it was off, I studied the material and saw four inch-long rips where my left shoulder blade was.
How did Dastien manage to do that with his bare hands?
I snorted. It didn’t matter how he’d done it, but it sure sucked that he had.
I threw it in the trash and grabbed a giant sleep shirt, slowly easing my arm into it. As I put peroxide and ointment on my bottom lip, my mind drifted back to Dastien. Something was off about him. Okay, so maybe the biting and scratching thing was it, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I didn’t get any visions when we kissed. And that connection. Intense didn’t even begin to cover it.
He was different from everyone else I’d ever met. And, even accidental biting aside, I was still drawn to him.
This was stupid. Why was I pining over some lame guy who I kissed and then who ran away? I couldn’t lose my shit over one kiss. Hopefully the cuts would be better in the morning, and I could forget this whole thing ever happened.
A shiver rushed down my spine. Something was watching me. Someone was waiting for me outside. Dad had put curtains up on Friday night, so no one could see in, not that anyone ventured down our road, but I couldn’t shake that feeling.
I slid the curtains silently along the rod and leaned close to the window and jumped back.
Oh crap.
A wolf was in my driveway. I stepped back toward the window to double check.
It was sitting there. Watching me with its golden eyes. I wanted to go out to it, but that was crazy. It was a wolf. A dangerous, wild, totally not-tame wolf. I threw the curtain closed and slid into bed.
It wasn’t until that moment, as I waited for sleep to come, that I realized how much I wanted friends. I liked to think I was fine alone, but sometimes being alone was flat out lonely. Axel was great, but he had his own life to live. With him gone soon, I was going to be the outcast again.
The wolf howled outside, and I wanted to howl with it.
***