Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 19

Retreating from the alley I'd managed to shove the civilian into, I tug the shirt awkwardly as I attempt to keep it from resting over my gunshot wound. While I was thankful for the dark colors, it swallowed me and I couldn't help but feel I obviously didn't belong in the faded jeans and sexcapade shirt modeled after Tiberius's band. 

Stealing one last glance back at the unconscious man in his underwear, I hoped that I hadn't seriously hurt him in the process. I couldn't say I'd done my fair share of dispatching that involved the need for survival on the other side. With the wolf on the edge of my own consciousness, I couldn't say for certain there wasn't a side of me that wanted to kill him. To sample the sweet scent wafting from his pounding jugular. 

Shaking my head at the thought, I'm disappointed by the lack of consideration for a man gone missing in this ever-expanding crowd. Would his family miss him as mine missed me? I tug the shirt once more, flinching at the discomfort in my collar bone. Spotting a woman with her phone out, videoing the sinking wreckage, I carefully tap her on the shoulder. "Excuse me. There's a man unconscious in that alleyway-"

She looks me up and down, wrinkling her nose as if wondering why I was so filthy. "I don't have any money."

"I'm not asking for money, that man needs help and I don't have a phone." Degrading to beg for assistance, I decide I'd done my good deed and simply sigh at her less than enthusiastic posture. As I move to walk away, she hesitates and clicks the video off. 

"A man?" Looking over my shoulder, she brushes her hair out of her eyes to get a better look. She's young, maybe seventeen, and so painfully human. She moves slower than my patience, I can only nod to keep from being unnecessarily rude. If it would get the man assistance, maybe I could forgive myself for robbing him. Her eyes flick back towards me and she pulls one corner of her mouth into a smirk. "Where're his clothes?"

I shrug one shoulder, careful not to move the injured one. "Dunno." I grumble, in the back of my mind, I can hear Verando chuckle that I'm a horrible liar. "Can you just call someone? I really have to go." I was quite involved in figuring out where the hell I was. Reason told me that I'd used up my time with this witness, I needed to move on and find someone else for directions. The longer I spent with her, the more time she had to remember my face and remember that I could easily be tied to most of the activity here. 

With a tilt of her head to look over my shoulder once more, she seems to accept my answer with a softer look. "Do you need to call someone?"

I cursed my useless self, the version of me that had been in a daze for months. I couldn't even tell her my address, let alone the phone number of the one person who could come and rescue me. I had lived someone else's life it would seem, fading in and out of existence for months on end with no sense of self. With a pathetic laugh, I run my hand through my hair, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the situation. "I honestly couldn't tell you what their number was. Just get that guy some help, please?" 

As I slip back into the crowd, I see her hand and jerk backward to avoid her touch. Her fingers slip over my sleeve and her eyes widen at the blood streaking the ends of her long, manicured nails. Swallowing back the panic, she slips her clean hand into her purse and pulls out a card. "If you ever want to get clean... my brother went here. He died a few days ago... but maybe you could make better use of the space. His name is David, his stuff might still be there, we never went and got it."

Clean? 

The rims of the slanted eyes slowly brim over and she blinks back the discomfort of the memory. Gesturing towards me once more with the card, I carefully take it so as not to touch her. "It's really shitty to be strung out on the street if there's someone worrying about you. Get clean. Please."