Brothers 3

Chapter 38

The florescent lights of the hospital were like tiny needles poking into James's eyes over and over. While he had recovered a lot from the attack by drinking blood he still found it painful to look at lights. The sun was the worst.

Shutting his eyes, he leaned against the cool wall and hummed a tune he knew well from childhood. Robert had hummed it to him a lot. There were enough humans in the place to make James's mouth water, but he kept his hunger at bay. Their blood might smell nice but the last thing he needed was to expose himself by chowing down on a patient.

Voices polluted the air, and someone was crying in the waiting area. James imagined himself at home, in front of the fire drinking a glass of whiskey. It would be so peaceful. That was if the house hadn't been a shell of itself. Turned out that once they had fled the ruins the fire service had put out the house. Half of it was still standing and in the state it had been before. The other was a pile of bricks inside a frame that vaguely resembled the house. Richard's study had burnt along with the room he died in. James rolled his shoulders at the sudden tension the thought brought on. He didn't care, after all he wanted to wipe the man out of the house from the start. Still, something felt wrong about there being no echo of the once master of the house. The wolves had finally destroyed him.

The door clicked open, and voices wafted out.

"Thanks doc, we will," Mikey said, holding the door open for Ella.

James half opened his eyes and watched the doctor wishing them well and patting Ella reassuringly on the arm. Humans are very soppy that way.

Mikey had a bandage around the upper half of his injured arm that spread a little onto his chest as well. When James had dragged him in here he had been half alive. Now he was grinning like an idiot again and thanking the doctor over and over. His hair was a little messier than usual but other than that he was the same old wolf he had always been.

Ella was pressed into his side. She had a sling on and when she turned to face James his heart stammered as it always did now when he saw her arm. Where there used to be a hand there was only a stump, wrapped well in pristine white bandages. Ella was smiling when she saw him, but her smile faltered when she noticed him staring at the missing limb. Don't be an ass, he told himself, if it shocks you then it must kill her.

Painting on one of his signature smirks he waited for the doctor to shuffle down the hall before clearing his throat.

Mikey turned and grinned widely. "I knew there was a reason the sun wasn't shining today."

James pushed off the wall, shrugging. "What can I say, it isn't needed when I'm here." The sudden urge to hug Mikey washed over him. Seeing the man on his feet again instead of in a bed pumped full of drugs like he had been for days now was such a relief that James felt like he could take a deep breath again. But he wasn't a hugger. Besides, he would never live down hugging a wolf.

He met Ella's eyes and a long silence extended between them. After everything that had happened he wasn't sure how to speak to the woman he was linked to. Things had been awkward before but after he killed her father, and she lost her hand James didn't think there was anything he could say to make it better.

Pressing her lips together she took Mikey's hand. "I guess we never did break that spell."

James ran his fingers through his hair. "No. Guess that means we all need to stick close together." Whatever she said next would decide how things went. If she hated James then he knew Mikey wouldn't make her be any closer to him than she had to be. Any friendship that he and Mikey had would be dead in the water. But if she didn't hate him...

"I wouldn't want it any other way." There was an emptiness to her eyes that told James she wasn't completely fine, but she didn't look away from him.