Part 45 (1/2)
”Okay, sure.”
”Maybe you're right about the hospital.” Leah stood and handed back the gla.s.s. ”We should go now.”
Tony was all in favor of that. Left arm pressed tight against his side, he extended his right. ”I'll help you out to the car.”
Somehow Leah managed to support most of his weight and still make it look like he was helping her. A lot of stunties were better actors than the industry gave them credit for, he acknowledged silently as he thanked Mrs. Chin for her time and the two of them moved as quickly as possible toward the street.
Leah tipped her head toward his. ”You fell out the window?” ”What was your first clue?”
”Could have been the way you were upstairs and then came in through the front door. Or it could have been the crash you made as you hit the porch roof.”
”Mrs. Chin... ?”
”Kitchen's in the back of the house. She might not have heard it.”
”Is she still watching?”
Clothing rustled as Leah half turned. ”Yes.”
”Then let's move a little faster before she comes outside and sees what I did to her bush.”
”You damaged one of her bushes!”
”The damage was mutual.”
”If I let you go, can you lean on the car until I get the door open?”
”Sure.” Or not so sure. The adrenaline was wearing off, he hurt in more places than he cared to catalog, and the world was beginning to tilt again. f.u.c.k that. Tilted world had got him into this mess. Mess. Messed. Missed. Didn't miss that d.a.m.ned bush.
Wouldn't miss it. It could just lay there and well, rot.
”Come on, Tony. Into the car.”
Leah's voice seemed to come from very far away and she seemed taller. Or he had gotten shorter. And that would suck.
”G.o.d f.u.c.king d.a.m.n it!” Cracking his head on the edge of the car roof helped him focus. He collapsed into the seat and whimpered a little as Leah buckled him in. You know what needs seat belts? f.u.c.king window ledges, that's what.
”This isn't good.”
She was sitting beside him in the driver's seat and, since he couldn't remember her going around the car, it seemed he'd lost a few minutes somewhere. She was looking at a dark stain on the palm of her hand.
”s.h.i.+t. You're bleeding!”
”No, Tony. You're bleeding. It's soaking into your jacket. That's why I didn't see it before. How badly are you hurt?”
”I can't feel the fingers of my left hand.” When he lifted them up into the light of the streetlamp, they looked kind of like sausages.
”But that's good I can't feel them,” he added. ”Because when I could feel them, they hurt like f.u.c.k.”
”Let me see where you're bleeding.”
”I'm bleeding? Oh that's just great. Henry's going to kill me. He hates it when I waste... Um...” The word just wasn't there. And then a good chunk of the world wasn't there. Then what was left started beeping.
Henry pulled up behind Tony's car and was out of his own almost before the engine stopped. ”The supplies you asked for are in the backseat,” he snarled, pus.h.i.+ng past the Demongate and yanking open the pa.s.senger side door. The blood scent, no longer confined but spilling out to almost overwhelm the night, would have been dangerous had his anger at the circ.u.mstances not been so great.
Scooping Tony up into his arms, he led the way into the apartment building.
”Hey, Henry. I was just thinking about you.”
”Were you?” Henry sat on the edge of the bed, his cool fingers gently gripping Tony's jaw.
”Yeah. I was thinking you'd... uh...” Interesting that it hurt so much to frown. ”I don't remember. But you were there.” His gaze flicked up over Henry's shoulder to Leah and he snorted. ”And you were there. And there was a wizard. Oh, wait. That was me.”
Smiling, Henry released him. ”Don't frighten me like that again.”
”You're frightened of me misquoting The Wizard of Oz?”
”You've been in and out of delirium for the last two hours. We were just discussing whether or not we should take you to a hospital.”
”What happened?”
”Apparently, you fell out a window.”
It all came rus.h.i.+ng painfully back. The window. The bush. The bleeding.
And now?
He was in his own bed, in his own apartment. His left arm was on top of the covers, forearm wrapped in a tensor bandage, the fingers an ugly shade of grayish purple and still sausagelike. With his right hand, he explored the gauze corset wrapped around his torso. If he hadn't been to a hospital...
”Leah does a decent field dressing,” Henry said, reading the question off his face. ”We don't think the wrist is broken, but you won't be able to use the hand for a few days. What happened?”
Duh. ”I fell out a window.”
”He got careless,” Leah muttered, stomping to the kitchen.
”I didn't.” Was her bad mood because she cared, or was that just lingering delirium talking? ”The world tilted.”
”I thought as much.”
A little surprised, Tony turned his attention back to Henry. ”You expected a tilted world? What? It was part of the whole Demonic Convergence thing? Next time, warn a guy.”
”I expected something like this to happen. Not this specifically.”
”Cryptic much. I thought you'd be more p.i.s.sed.”
”Oh, he was.” Leah reappeared holding a mug. ”The anger and the yelling and the accusing me of trying to kill you went on for a while. Henry, lift him into a sitting position.”
Tony wasn't given a chance to protest, and it didn't hurt as much as he expected it to.
”Now, drink this.”