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Austin’s eyes rolled back, and his head dropped to the mattress. His breathing was shallow and fast, and his hands were cold and clammy, nothing like what they should have been since he just stepped out of a hot shower.
Panic edged in, setting Paige’s heart on overdrive. She knew enough about shock from her parents’ car accident. She knew if she didn’t get him help, he’d die, just like her parents did.
“Austin?” she asked and gently patted his cheeks, praying he would come to. But he didn’t react at all. Without stalling any more, she yanked the phone and pressed the button for the front desk.
“Hello. This is Paige Turner in room 508. My boyfriend has been hurt, and I need an ambulance.”
“How was he hurt?” the desk clerk asked.
“He’s bleeding. Please call nine-one-one. I think he’s gone into shock,” she said.
“Please stay on the phone.”
Paige could hear the clerk speaking with emergency services and then the phone shuffled.
“What is the nature of his injury?”
Paige stared at his back. “He was... flogged.”
A beat of silence came over the line. “Excuse me?”
“Some asshole whipped him until his back was a bloody pulp,” Paige yelled, losing her composure. “Just get a fucking ambulance here, now, before he bleeds out!”
The phone shuffled again, she heard the muffled explanation, and then the desk clerk was back. “The emergency operator said to put a cold compress on the wound until they get here.”
“It’s his entire back,” Paige said, staring at the extent of the damage.
“Soak a towel in cold water and lay it over the wound,” the desk clerk said. “The hotel manager is on his way. When the ambulance arrives, I’ll bring the technicians up to the room.”
“Thank you,” Paige said and hung up.
She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower to cold, soaking a towel. She wrung out most of the water and folded it in half, bringing it back into the room before gently laying it across Austin’s back.
He started shivering, and Paige grabbed the edges of the comforter and pulled it over his body to try to keep him warm. Her brain started cataloging things she needed to do, and she shot back into the bathroom. She gathered up their personal items from the sink, dumped them into the small suitcase, and zipped it up with shaking hands.
She dropped Austin’s phone, keys, and wallet into her pocketbook and then glanced around the room for her phone. She went back into the bathroom, rummaged through her jean pockets, and came up empty. Neither her phone nor the hotel room key were in her pocket. She shivered.
With her heart pounding in her throat, she went back into the room and double checked the suitcase and her pocketbook. The click of the door opening stiffened her muscles, and she spun towards the sound. Fear burned through her bloodstream and her mouth dried instantly.
An unfamiliar face poked around the door. “Miss Turner?”
Her muscles relaxed. “Yes,” she answered and reached for the chair to steady herself.
The hotel manager stepped into the room and crossed to the main space. He glanced at the lump of covers on the bed. The slow-spreading red stain on the pristine white linens. His gaze snapped to hers.
“He’s really hurt,” she said, crossing to the side of the bed and taking his hand in hers again. The feel of it settled the flutter of nerves overcoming her entire form. “I think someone stole the room key,” she added as an afterthought. The last thing she wanted was for Hunter to show up and manipulate the staff or even the medics.
The hotel manager’s eyebrows rose, and then he scanned the room, looking for evidence of the crime.
“It didn’t happen here,” Paige said, and the worry lines in his forehead smoothed. “But I think the person who did this also stole my phone and room key.” She glanced at the door. “And I’m terrified he’s going to come finish what he started.”
The worry lines were back, but before he could respond, the door opened again. This time a woman opened it, holding the door open for the medical team.
Paige stepped aside and let them get Austin on a gurney while she made sure all their stuff was in the suitcase. When they wheeled him out the door, she followed with their bag and her pocketbook. Every muscle in her body tensed as they stepped out of the hotel, and her scan of the street didn’t provide any glimpse of the man in the museum.
She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his evil blanketing the area. She took a seat on the bench next to where Austin lay and gave the medic a weak smile. As soon as the vehicle was moving, she closed her eyes, fighting back the sudden burn of tears.
“He’s going to make it,” the medic said.
Paige opened her eyes and they landed on his name tag. “Thank you, Sam,” she said, reading the embroidered name. “Do you know if the hospital gift shop has anything with black tourmaline?”
He just stared at her like she’d sprung a new head.
The thought of leaving Austin to find what she needed in the city scared her. What if Hunter came looking for her and found Austin unguarded? The thought produced a rash of gooseflesh that rippled up her arms. What if she didn’t go and Hunter found her with Austin?
Deep down, Paige knew she didn’t have a prayer without the ancient protection of her ancestors. Black tourmaline would cloak them from Hunter’s internal eye. Emeralds would turn his evil against him, and anything else she could get her hands on to ward off evil she would buy, just to keep Austin safe.