Lost Soul

Chapter Thirty-Three: Vows

"Shouldn't your new vampire friends have been back by now?" Cat asks. She's been getting ice from the river and packing it around Nick relentlessly for the past few days, but it hasn't helped his fever.

"Unless they got caught by Thomas," Ava says.

I tense and peer at her over the fire. "Is that a vision?"

"No," she grumbles. She grinds her teeth together. "They've been unhelpfully silent the past few days."

I'm fine with that. "They're vampires. Surely they're fine." It's Shay I'm worried about.

Danny rubs my shoulders and kisses the top of my head.

Charlie raises his eyebrows, glancing between us. "Did you two-?" He waves his hand and waggles his eyebrows.

Danny blushes while I roll my eyes.

"We're not dating," I growl. "I don't do hookups."

"Well, excuse me. When you said you wanted to spend the day with the guy you might have a crush on, I assumed-."

Danny snorts, "might?"

I swat his arm.

To my surprise, Cat smiles at us. "You two would make a cute couple."

"Are you saying that because I have your face?" I ask.

She smiles wider. "You mean I have your face?"

Warmth spreads through my chest and I smile at her.

She bites her lip and looks back to Nick. She starts to undo his bandages to clean them. She gags once they're off.

A chill fills me. I stand. "Why'd you make that face?"

She looks up, still grimacing. "What? It's nothing. It's just gross."

"What is?"

"The smell."

I surge towards her, dropping to my knees beside Nick.

"What's wrong?" She rasps.

I study Nick's wound, pressing on the skin around it. "No," I whisper.

"Raven?" Ava prompts.

The wound area has started to swell. The skin is red and inflamed. The scab and the area around it is crusty.

"How long has it been like this?" I demand, my eyes snapping to Cat's.

She looks at it, stammering, "I-I don't know. Since yesterday?"

"Shit," I hiss. "It's infected."

Ava's shoulders slump. "There's nothing you can do."

I point at her. "Stop that. Choices change things, right? I'm not going to give up just because you tell me it's hopeless. We need to reopen the wound and clean it."

"Then what?" Cat asks.

I hesitate. I really wish Rae were here. If not to fix Nick, then at least to pray for him to get better. "Say your prayers," I mumble.

Cat buries her hands in her hair as I set to work.

How much longer will he last like this? Without proper care or medicine to fix this... the infection may kill him.

I do what I can to clean the wound, but leave it open this time. Then, I pull Charlie to the side. "Is there anyway for you to track Max and Carter? You might be able to find out why they haven't returned. They could even lead you to Shay."

Charlie shrugs. "Nick's the tracker, Raven. Not me. Especially with how fast they run. It's not going to be easy."

"I don't care about easy. Can you do it?"