Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“Flame.” AK’s hard voice made me lift my head. “Talk to me. Do you feel the flames again?” I blinked, and then stared at the road ahead. The grey asphalt blurred my tired eyes. Fuck! I needed to get to the hospital. I needed Maddie. I needed her right the fuck now. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. My skin felt like it was burning. I needed Maddie to touch me and make it go away. But she wasn’t here, so I dropped my hands and sank my nails further into my skin. My cock twitched at the immediate rush of addictive pain. Pain felt good. I hadn’t felt this in so fucking long. I’d forgotten how it felt to release the evil that lived inside me. “Flame!” AK barked. “Talk to me, brother.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. If you feel the flames, remember how it feels to have my fingers on your skin, chasing them away. You never have to cut yourself again, baby. My touch will keep them away. Just think of my touch, and the fire will extinguish.
Maddie… feel Maddie’s fingers. I did. I remembered us lying on the bed, her hand running up my arm, her green eyes watching mine. Then she’d smile, and any flames that tried to escape went back to sleep.
Maddie made the devil’s fire sleep.
“Flame!” AK was shouting now.
“How do you know if someone is lying?” I asked without looking at him, noticing a drop of blood on my arm from where my nail had broken through the flesh.
“What? Who do you think is lying?”
I pictured Maddie’s touch, but all I saw was her face. Her pale face, her pale lips, hearing her throw up in the bathroom. “She said she’s okay. Feeling better. But she still looks sick.” I turned my head toward AK. He was watching me while keeping an eye on the road. “But she said she was better. Maddie doesn’t lie to me. Ever.” I shook my head. “But she’s still so pale.”
“Madds doesn’t lie, brother. If she says she’s feeling better, believe her. People get sick. Flu, viruses, but they get better when it’s run its course. Maddie will get those kinds of things too. But she’ll get better.”
I inhaled a deep breath, but something in my chest felt tight—just plain fucking wrong. Like there was a huge fucking boulder suffocating my lungs and crushing my heart.
“About Ash…” AK said, and my hands curled into fists. They began to shake. “We need to think of a way to help the kid deal with everything that’s happened.” AK turned off the radio. “Has he even been going to school?”
“He leaves on a morning. Maddie makes sure he leaves. He drives the truck there.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s going, brother. He graduates soon. That little fucker will throw everything away.” AK ran his hand over his stubble. “I’ll sort it. Make sure he attends. Saffie’s starting school next week. I want Ash watching out for her. Never thought she’d ever go. You know how shy she is. But the little bitch has said she wants to. Phebe is worried sick. But she’ll cope better if Ash and Zane are there watching out for her.” AK shrugged. “She knows Ash some. Little fucker can get his ass back to school and make sure no mean bitches give her trouble.”
When we arrived at the hospital, we parked next to Styx and walked inside. “Assholes. Think they’d never seen cuts before,” AK said, gesturing with his chin around the entrance of the hospital. People must have been watching. I didn’t give a fuck. I never noticed other people anyway.
And I hated hospitals. The stink. The sounds. My skin broke out in cold sweats at the memory of being strapped to a hospital bed and injected with shit that made the flames in my veins worse. Doctors and nurses who kept me pinned down while demons fucking ripped me apart inside, drugging me with shit that took my screams away but not the flames.
“Flame.” I switched my attention to AK, who was standing in an open elevator with Styx. “Get in. Maddie’s just up here.” Maddie. Maddie would make everything better. Clear the fog in my brain and my lungs, that didn’t want to breathe. I’d touch her hand, and everything would calm down.
I rocked on my feet as the elevator climbed high. I saw Styx signing something to AK, but I only focused on the lights telling me how far we were from the floor were Maddie was. When the door opened, I burst through into the hallway. “This way.” AK pointed. I followed him and Styx to a desk, and we were let into another hallway.
“There’s Zane,” AK said.
Zane got to his feet and held out his hands. “Ash texted me, Uncle. I can explain—”