Moira woke in the hospital. Her body ached and she needed to pee. She looked down to see that her arm was wrapped in gauze and her wrist in a bright, yellow bandage. Her other arm was hooked to an IV.
“Welcome to the living.” Dr. Cassano’s voice broke through her thoughts. “You had us worried.”
Moira pulled her gaze from her arm and saw that Dr. Cassano was sitting by her hospital bed. “What happened?” Her throat was sore and she winced.
Dr. Cassano picked up a cup and held a straw to her lips. “Do you remember anything?”
She drank from it, grimacing with the effort. A rush of events invaded her thoughts and Moira scanned her hospital room. Jack was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Adam?”
“We found him running up the highway, carrying you,” he replied. “In nonmedical terms, he was freaking out.”
“Where is he?”
Dr. Cassano paused. “They sent him to the main hospital in Tacoma. He’ll be there for a while.”
“But—”
“You can call him,” he interrupted. “I think he’d probably break something if you didn’t,” he added grimly. “I had to convince him not to fight the policemen when they showed up. He didn’t want to leave you.”
Moira closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. “Oh, my God.”
“As soon as you’re healed, I’ll take you to see him, Moira,” Dr. Cassano said. “He’s allowed visitors. And I recommended they keep him off medication.” He set her cup aside.
“Is he going to be okay? I mean, will they release him?”
“The police want to talk to you first to corroborate his story,” he said with a concerned frown. “Adam told them there was an accident in the woods. That a vagrant attacked you.”
Moira’s thoughts tried to wrap themselves around that statement. She noted the shadows under Dr. Cassano’s eyes. “Did Adam tell you what really happened?”
“He said a lot of things.” Dr. Cassano dropped his voice. “Care to back him up? You’ve been unconscious for almost two days.”
“Jack attacked me. He tried to drown me and then…”
“Adam said he saw him,” Dr. Cassano said. “He said he’d turned into something evil.”
Moira nodded briefly.
“Is he gone?”
She glanced around the room but knew it would be empty. “Yes. He’s gone.”
“How?”
“I tricked him. And I found my way back.”
“That’s what Adam thought.” Dr. Cassano let out a pent-up breath. “That was really dangerous, Moira.”
“It worked.”
Tension traced his brow.
“I know it was dangerous,” Moira said quietly. “But I swear I didn’t have a choice. It was the only way.”
“I thought you were dead when we found Adam carrying you,” he said, his professional demeanor gone. “I thought you’d lost your battle.”
“I’m okay.”
Dr. Cassano studied her face. “Yes, I think you are.”