After being bitten by Paul Dekker, he’d needed way more medical attention than Luca could give with a first aid kit.
When they’d left the compound, his breathing had been shallow, his heartbeat almost nonexistent. By the time Nox had hot-wired one of the remaining vehicles at the bunker, the damage had healed, leaving scar tissue that looked months old.
Then the fever set in, and the only option they had was to leave him at the nearest hospital.
The question was, how did he heal?
What worried Luca was the bite Paul Dekker had inflicted on Dr. Dante might be the reason.
Paul Dekker had been Anubis like Nox but created artificially with the VrK serum. Being able to Phase into the wolf-type creature hadn’t been enough for Dekker. He’d tried to force Nox to surrender the ichor Koda had given him.
Luca ran a finger over the faint ridges of the scar over his temple. Ironic how a similar set of events brought Luca to Nox.
Death had never scared Luca.
But living had.
The years of chemotherapy and moments of remission were nothing more than commercial interruptions in the unstoppable process of dying. A state Luca had been in most of his life.
In a few weeks together, despite the circumstances, Nox had given Luca all the things he’d been too scared to want. And now that Luca had Nox, he’d never thought of wanting more.
Until the moment six strangers knelt and called him Cana.
Jelani and the others were nothing but strangers to Luca, yet he knew them. Nox had been nothing but a stranger when he’d broken into Luca’s home to save him, yet he’d known him too.
As if on some deep level, some unreachable place, they’d connected a long time ago because they shared an intimate understanding of a place people did not return from.
Where all living things eventually arrived.
Death.
Why would Jelani and his companions radiate the same déjà vu? They weren’t Anubis, and they were clearly alive.
Or maybe that familiarity didn’t come from a place in death but—
A knock seized Luca’s attention.
“You okay in there?” Nox’s deep voice muted the hush of the water against the stained tile walls.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m… fine.” Luca shut off the water and went to open the shower door.
It refused to budge. He jiggled it like he had to get it open the first time, but from the inside, he couldn’t manipulate it back onto the bent track.
“You sure.”
“Yes, I’m….” Luca cursed. “The door’s stuck.”
“The bathroom door?”
“No, the shower—” Luca grabbed the rail and jerked the sliding door enough to pop it completely over the tracks and wedge the edged groove on the opposite side where it pinched nicely against the other half of the sliding door, cementing them both in place.
Just great.
At least Nox didn’t come busting in to save the day.
No, because Luca had made it perfectly clear he was not a wilting violet.
He tugged at the door, and it didn’t budge.