“He can hear you now,” Belle grumbled, sounding so damn cute.
I didn’t point out the obvious of ‘him hearing us’ when we were now FaceTiming.
“You’re going to have to stay away from us for a while,” Lynn said, looking at me, then to Belle, and back. “Your fiancée here” —he looked pointedly at Belle, then back to me— “knows you as Aryus Dumas. Y’all met in Vegas a week ago. Got engaged. End of story. Okay?”
“For how long?” I asked curiously.
Damn, my head hurt.
“Until we can find the rest of those kids,” Lynn said simply. “We don’t need the club’s name associated with finding a car full of kids. Or my name, either.”
He had a point.
“And you can’t go home,” Lynn continued. “You are known as a Souls Chapel Revenant.”
Before I could bark out an ‘okay’ Belle was leaning forward so that she was directly in the line of sight of the phone’s camera.
“He can come home with me,” Belle entered into the conversation. “I have plenty of room.”
I couldn’t see Lynn’s face, but I could hear him when he said, “Now I don’t think that’s a great idea…”
“It’s a perfect idea seeing as I just announced he was my fiancé,” Belle admitted, scooting back so that I could again see Lynn’s face. “Sooner or later, everything is going to get out about who he is. A child being saved from being kidnapped is going to make national news.”
Lynn sighed. “I know. But we only need a few days, hopefully. They’re still in the area—the ones responsible for this—because they’re afraid to move right now and draw attention.”
He had a point.
I pressed my hand against my face, feeling the pressure behind my eyes, and wondered if my brain might really explode.
“You okay?”
I wasn’t sure who’d asked it. Lynn or Belle.
My head had gone from an ‘I’m about to perish’ to ‘I’m already dead’ throbbing level.
I opened my eyes to tell whoever would listen that I needed something, but when I opened them, my vision was gone.
Everything was just… black.
“Fuck. I can’t see.”
Then I promptly passed out.
CHAPTER 9
Not everyone is going to believe I’m pretty or funny. They’re wrong though.
-Belle to Bruno
BELLE
“He’s having seizures,” Dr. Blunt growled. “They’re being controlled now with medication, but seizures are not a good sign. Neither is the fact that his pupils are not equal. The vomiting was controlled as well with medication. But I’ve put him back under for at least the next few days. The swelling needs to go down. Now. I’m still under the impression that his brain will not need surgery based on the scans, but that’s something that could change at any point in time.”
I felt my stomach all but fall out of my body at his words.
“Do you have any questions?” Dr. Blunt asked.
I shook my head.