20. Nineteen

Nineteen

Sawyer

I was on fire. Everything burned. My limbs were leaden, refusing to move.

I coughed. My lungs wheezed. I fought to draw in a deep breath. I blinked my eyes open. Darkness surrounded me.

Was I still unconscious?

I shouldn't hurt this bad if I'm knocked out.

I gagged, sputtering. My chest ignited. I grunted. Why did I hurt so bad?

My injuries weren't that severe. Tingling pinpricks shot from my shoulder to my fingers. It was the same one Drake had scratched and Fiona had thrown wolfsbane tainted water on.

Shit.

Dad was always trying out new things with the wolfsbane. What if he'd developed something new? Something worse? I wouldn't put it past him.

Cool hands pressed against my face, like someone was running an ice cube across my skin. "Sawyer. Sawyer, can you hear me?"

Sloane's voice cut through the haze. I blinked rapidly but everything was a blur.

I groaned and shifted, trying to sit up. A strangled gasp crept up my throat, sending me into a coughing fit. I couldn't catch my breath. My chest rattled.

Sloane pushed on my shoulders, shifting me so my head was in her lap. "Don't move, Sawyer. Shhhh. It's okay. I'm here." She combed her hand through my sweat slicked hair as she made shushing noises.

I inhaled her sweet vanilla cinnamon scent, letting it wash over me. My eyes slid shut. "You're not really here are you?" I croaked out.

She trailed her fingers over my cheek up to my hairline, slicking my hair back. "Not yet, but soon. I promise." She pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I just need you to hold on and be strong for me a bit longer, okay?"

It sounded so easy when she said it like that. She didn't know my whole body was paralyzed and an inferno.

She put her other hand on my cheek. "You're burning up. How are you feeling?"

I answered her with a cough. It was like I was drinking needles. The fire scorched through my chest, making me wheeze.

She held me close. "Shhh, shhh. Don't try to talk. It's okay." She rocked me gently. "Just relax and try to get some sleep.:

Her cool fingers trailed over me. I winced when she touched my shoulder. A curse escaped her lips. I'd never heard her swear before. It must be bad.

I reached out to her through our connection. Sweetheart? Can you hear me?

My mind was wishy washy. The ground lurched beneath me.

Sloane gingerly touched my shoulder. "I can hear you, Sawyer. It's going to be okay. We are going to get you help?"

How? You aren't really here.

I held my breath. Maybe I'd been out for days instead of hours. No. She'd already said she wasn't really here.

She muttered as she shifted so my head was on what I thought might be her leg. "No. Not yet. Soon."

She trailed her fingers over my chest. I hissed when she grazed one of my deeper cuts. Funnily enough, I remembered thinking they were all superficial.

Her hand went back to my cheek, and she rocked softly. "I'm done looking at your wounds."

How bad?

She made a noise in the back of her throat before cradling my head and peppering kisses over my forehead, nose, and both cheeks. "It looks like you're still in the cave. No one has found you. That's good."

It was good news. But...

You didn't answer my question, sweetheart. It's bad, isn't it?

She cleared her throat and held me closer. "The scratches look deep and are already infected."

She pulled away. I groaned, missing her scent and warmth even though my body was burning up.

She put her arms under my armpits. "Do you think you can help me move you? If I can get you to the spring, we can get these wounds cleaned up and bring your body temp down. You're too hot."

I thought you liked me being hot.

She laughed out loud, which made me chuckle. Bad idea. It turned into a raspy cough that had white spots bursting behind my eyes.

She put a finger on my lips. "While it's a good thing you're making jokes, don't laugh. And no jokes right now. I don't want you to hurt yourself worse than you already are."

Where's Lincoln?

She sucked in a breath and let it out. "He's sleeping. Out cold. He needs the rest. I should wake him. He can help me get you to the spring."

Okay.

"Don't move."

Her presence faded away, leaving me alone in the cave. The water roared outside, or maybe that was my pulse thrumming in my ears. I couldn't be sure.

The cave was dark, cool, and had the lingering scent of Sloane and Lincoln. How had no one found me yet? They'd been right on my tail. Surely someone had seen me crawl in.

Or maybe this was all in my head. Perhaps dad had knocked me senseless, and I was dreaming. If I was, it wasn't so bad.

Maybe Luna was watching out for me. It had always struck me as odd that no one else had ever found our cave. It was Lincoln and mine's special spot. Now Sloane's too.

"Sawyer." Lincoln's voice broke through my thoughts.

Sloane's fingers were back on my face. They were ice cold. Or maybe I was that hot. "We need to get him into the spring. We can wash these cuts and bring his fever down."

Lincoln put his arms around my thighs. "Get his head. We can carry him over."

Sloane grasped me under my armpits. "Stay still, Sawyer. Let us do the work for you."

I wasn't sure I had much choice. My body was leaden. I could barely hold my head up, let alone see clearly.

The world bounced some more as they lifted me up and dragged me to the spring. Lincoln angled my body and got in the water first, dragging my lower half into the spring.

The water hit me like a punch to the stomach. It was frigid, knocking the air right out of me. I gasped in a breath. Then coughed.

Sloane put her mouth to my ear, making shushing noises. "I know. It's okay. We got you. We'll get you out and warmed up after we clean these wounds."

My knees buckled when Lincoln set me down. Sloane grunted as she was forced to bear my full weight. She sputtered and then coughed.

Lincoln grasped me, hauling me up and holding me so my head stayed above the water. He looked over my shoulder at Sloane. "Was I this lethargic when you rescued me?"

Sloane dipped her hand in the water and ran the cold liquid through my hair. "Yeah, but your injuries were far worse. He has a broken leg, maybe a few ribs at most. The scratches aren't horribly deep. It's the infection I'm most worried about."

I blinked my eyes open, letting my head lull to the side so I could see. She wasn't lying. Angry red marks streaked across my shoulder and torso. The scratches were red and swollen. Pus oozed out of them.

I'd seen some gnarly infections before when we'd interrogated survivors of packs we'd attacked. My chest was a whole new level.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I tried again. "How long has it been?" Days for sure.

Sloane gently splashed some water over my chest. "Twelve hours. Maybe a little more"

That was it? My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach as my body dipped lower in the spring. Water sloshed in my mouth and I choked, spitting it out.

Sloane and Lincoln jerked me up higher in the water. I sputtered and bit my lip, willing myself not to cough again. Because that hurt like hell.

Lincoln held me up as he carefully moved around me and then took the brunt of my weight. "I'll hold him up. You see what you can do to get him cleaned up. Having the wolfsbane laying on the wounds can't be helping."

Sloane appeared in front of me. Her eyes narrowed, gaze focused on my chest. She cupped the water in her hands and lifted them, cleansing me softly.

Her brow furrowed as her brows knitted together. "I don't suppose you guys kept any antibiotics in here."

Lincoln rested his forehead against the back of my head. "No. We never had any reason to."

Wolves didn't get infections. Not like this. We shifted to heal our injuries. Except I couldn't. The wolfsbane was wreaking havoc on my system. My wolf was dormant until the poison finished running its course.

My wolf. I reached for him, but couldn't feel him. Where was he? I pulled on the tether that connected us again. Still nothing.

My pulse pounded. Why couldn't I feel him?

Sloane grasped my cheeks. "Hey, you okay?"

I snapped my focus on her, taking solace in her beautiful eyes. It dulled the paralyzing fear, but didn't take it away fully. "I can't feel my wolf."

Sloane looked over my shoulder. "I'm sure he's still there. You're pretty sick right now. The infection shouldn't have gotten so bad this fast."

"It's unnatural not to feel my wolf, though. Right?" I already knew the answer, but I had to ask.

Lincoln splashed water as he adjusted me. "It is unnatural not to feel your wolf, but when I had the wolfsbane running through me, I couldn't feel mine, either."

My head fell forward, so my chin was near my chest. I grunted, trying to lift it but couldn't. "But the infection? Is that normal?" It didn't feel normal.

Sloane licked her lips and lifted more water, letting it run down my chest. "It's pretty bad. Even Willa's didn't get this bad that fast."

I blew out a breath and closed my eyes. "I bet Dad's done something to the wolfsbane. Tainted it somehow. Made it more potent."

My eyes flicked open, and I stared at Sloane. "He'll use it against you and your pack the first chance he gets. If it gets in the bloodstream..." I got cut off by a cough.

My chest throbbed. My vision darkened. I fought against it, willing myself to stay awake. I had to warn them.

I opened my mouth, swallowed, and then closed my mouth, exhaling through my nose. "If it gets in the bloodstream...the effects are almost instant."

I considered my words after saying them. That was true. I'd felt the inferno ripping through me almost immediately. They might have had wolfsbane on their claws but it was the water Fiona had tossed on me that really did me in.

Sloane pressed her lips together and rubbed gently at my cuts. "We'll take that into consideration. It's not going to stop us from coming. Especially now."

I wheezed in a breath. "You have to be careful. Both of you. Dad will kill you if he catches you."

Sloane gritted her teeth, fire lighting her eyes. "He's not going to catch us. We are going to do this, Sawyer."

The sheer determination in her voice had the weight lifting from my chest. "Okay."

She moved her attention to my shoulder, cleaning that scratch. "We are going to take him down and get you and everyone else out."

I closed my eyes unable to keep them open any longer. The dark haze was sucking me back in again.

Sloane shook me. "Sawyer, I need you to stay with us."

Lincoln jerked me. "He's slipping back under. I think he's going to pass out."

"Will we lose our connection?" Sloane sounded panicked but for the life of me I couldn't open my eyes again.

Lincoln splashed water on my face and wrenched my body up. "I don't know. We have to get him out of the water. If he passes out and we aren't here to hold him up..."

Sloane made a noise in the back of her throat. They tugged me to the right, yanking on me. I opened my mouth wanting to say something, but the thought left my mind before it had fully formed.

The darkness crept up around me, surrounding me and pulling me under.