Nox didn’t move.
The cop pushed Luca inside. He pressed his face against the window.
Nox didn’t move.
“No.” Luca pulled against the cuffs. “No, no, no….”
The cops outside hand cuffed Nox again. His limbs remained limp.
“No, Nox. Please.”
More sirens sounded in the distance.
Luca screamed and kicked at the door. Nox could not be dead. He could not be dead. “Get up. Get up. Get up. Goddamn you, Nox, get up—” Luca curled forward, the pain filling him with a bottomless cavern, reaching beyond the physical to his point of being, closing around everything and ripping it out.
The world crumbled around Luca, coming in flashes and broken voices. The ache running around Luca’s wrists meant nothing. The burn in his throat meant nothing.
Minutes, hours, it all meant nothing.
There was only Nox, the rain, and the puddle of crimson under his body.
Red lights joined the blue. A yellow sheet flapped in the wind falling over Nox.
Whatever hope Luca had left shattered. He slumped against the door, every breath whistling in and out of his lungs. Snot covered his upper lip, tears blinded him. Sorrow burst from Luca in choppy wails.
The chasm in his chest widened, and he knew what it was. His connection with the Anubis going dark leaving behind a void as black as its fur. Taking with it something Luca didn’t even realize was there till it was gone.
Like Nox.
People moved around the cop car. A door clicked. Cool air touched Luca’s cheeks. Rain pelted his face. His feet moved because the person who pulled him from the car pushed him to a square of light. Alcohol and sterile air.
“Sir, can you tell me your name?” The EMS worker had streaks of gray in her dark hair. “Do you know what day it is?” She touched Luca’s face with gloved hands and turned his head from one way to the other. “Do you know where you are?”
“Luca.”
She leaned closer. “What did you say?”
Luca swallowed, but his tongue was too swollen. “Luca. My name is Luca Suarez.”
“Alright, Luca, we’re going to take care of you.” She wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm. “Can you tell me how you got these bruises?”
Bruises. Bloody Nose. The pain of…. “A man hit me.”
She flicked her gaze up. Another EMS person stepped out from behind Luca. He touched the edge of metal running under his butt. A bumper?
“Any blurry vision? Headache?” The other EMS worker was blond with bright blue eyes.
Luca touched his face. “No.”
“I’m going to clean you up a little, so we can get a better look, alright?”
And Luca would stay calm. These people weren’t here to hurt him. Nox had promised he wouldn’t abandon him.
“Can you tell me what happened?” The man brushed a damp cloth over Luca’s skin.
His eyes were so kind. And the woman’s touch gentle even though the blood pressure cuff squeezed too hard.
Luca blinked.