Chapter 225

I stay with Neil, continually holding his hand, even into the night. Eventually, despite my best efforts to keep standing, my legs start to hurt and I have to sit down.

The brothers take turns sitting with me. Beau first, then Archer, who refuses to tell me exactly what he did with the doctor who was purposefully sedating Neil. And finally, Steven, who gives me a full explanation of the offending IV and how it kept Neil unconscious.

The explanation is medical and thorough, and I understand very little past the most basic premise. Whatever was in that IV was bad, and that it was taking Neil this long to wake up was also bad.

All over, it’s bad.

I sigh.

Steven looks at me sideways. “Do you want to go home?” he asks me. “You can come back in the morning. No one will stop you.”

I shake my head a little. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I don’t want to tell him that when he asked me if I wanted to go home, my mind immediately went to the Pyramid. I couldn’t say when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I began to think of home as where the Hayes brothers were.

I wouldn’t dare say that out loud, however, so I swallowed it down.

Steven watches me for a minute, like he can tell I’m holding back. When I don’t offer up what I’m thinking about, he stands.

“I’ll go down and get us some coffee,” he says.

It makes sense. If I won’t sleep, then he won’t either. Coffee is the next best thing.

“Okay,” I say and he leaves.

With Steven gone, I lean forward and squeeze Neil’s hand. I wish with all my heart that he will wake up.

I can’t help but think about all those old fairy tales, the ones that end with the prince waking the princess with a kiss. I’ve tried touching Neil’s face, I’ve tried holding his hand, I’ve tried speaking with him.

I haven’t tried kissing him.

So, slowly, I stand up and lean farther into Neil’s space. I press my free hand into the mattress beside his head to balance myself, and then slowly drop myself over him. I lick my lips.

Then I press my lips to Neil’s.

The kiss is merely a soft press of lips to lips, nothing forceful or overly passionate. I just want him to know I’m here, and that I care.

And if he happens to wake up like in the fairy tales, well…

It would be nice.

I keep my lips there a moment, wishing I would feel something stirring beneath me. But Neil remains still as a statue.

It’s no use.

I start to pull away.

Suddenly, a hand combs through my hair, keeping me right where I was. Neil’s lips move under mine, opening slightly. His tongue sweeps out and brushes over my bottom lip.

I gasp, and Neil uses that opening to push his tongue beyond the wall of my lips and teeth and into my mouth.

The silver inside of him burns as he kisses me, but I wouldn’t trade it, because Neil is kissing me. He’s awake. He’s alive.

I force myself to pull back. I want to make sure this isn’t some kind of fever dream for either of us.

Neil blinks his eyes open and looks back at me. Then he pouts. “Why did you stop?”

“Because…” You were in a coma until a second ago? Because I should tell everyone about you being awake? Because we should probably get a doctor?

Neil gives me a sad look. “You don’t want to kiss me?”

I can’t have him thinking that. One more kiss wouldn’t hurt. Then I’ll tell everyone.

I lower myself straight back down and he smiles against my lips. I would die to protect that smile, so kissing him to keep it is no great ask.

Our lips meld together as our kiss deepens. His hand combs through my hair, pulling down to my shoulder, where he tugs me closer. My elbow gives out and I all but topple, half on top of him, my bottom half hanging off the bed.

When I’m closer to him, his arms more fully close around me. It burns wherever we touch. The poison in him is much stronger than the last time we were like this. But I wouldn’t move for the entire world. A little simmer between us means nothing.

We kiss and we kiss. I break to tilt my head and breathe, and then we’re straight back to kissing.

Neil’s heart monitor picks up speed. That should probably alert the doctors. I should probably back away to let them know myself.

But Neil’s kisses are intoxicating, and I don’t want them to end.

I could have lost him. I was so close to losing him.

This almost doesn’t feel real. Did I fall asleep? Is this all some terrible dream?

“Neil?” says Steven from the doorway.

In a start, I pull off of Neil and glance over my shoulder, back at where Steven stands in the doorway. Holding two cups of coffee, he’s watching us with wide eyes.

“Neil, are you awake?” Steven asks.

“Uh…” Neil looks from Steven to me, and then back to Steven. “Was I asleep?”

“You were in a coma!” Steven says. He rushes to his brother’s side. He puts the coffees on the side table, then turns away from them. They’re totally forgotten there as he peers over Neil. “Are you feeling alright?”

I back away.

Neil rubs at his chest where the silver is covered with a thick white bandage. “I kind of do feel like hell, now that you mention it.”

Steven has his cell phone in his hand in the next moment. He’s writing a text.

Twenty seconds later, Archer and Beau burst into the room. They all look at each other, the relief on Archer and Beau’s faces is palpable.

“Thank fuck,” Archer says.

Beau storms forward. “Don’t you ever scare us like that again.”

Neil mostly seems confused. “What happened?”

They take turns filling him in, starting with how his health was deteriorating, which he remembered, and ending with how one of the doctors was sedating Neil to keep everyone from thinking he was too weak to operate on.

Beau points at me. “I told you he was tough.”

“I know he is,” I say. Neither of us could keep the smiles off our faces.

Neil, however, appears deeply troubled by the news he’s received. His frown is deep. His upset crinkles his brow.

“The doctor says our father was threatening his children,” Archer says. “I made certain that he was telling the truth.”

“You believe he was?” Neil asks. “Was father making those threats?”

“I have no proof beyond that man’s word,” Archer says. “But given my tactics of interrogation…” I wonder just what happened when Archer forced the doctor out of the room. “I believe he was telling the truth.”

Neil sighs. “Gods. What won’t he do to interfere in our lives?”

“There is no final depth of his depravity, unfortunately,” Beau says. “It just goes and goes.”

Something hardens in Neil’s face then. He sits up a little higher. “Archer, go get the doctors. Legitimate ones, please.”

Archer nods.

Neil continues, “I want this silver out of me. Now.”