They Rise at Dusk (Book #1) ✔️

Chapter 33: Damage Control

Two days later, I was still in the hospital. I've gone home once to get some clothes during daylight, called Dorian and explained what happened, and returned to the hospital.

Jax was awake, but only his mother came to visit. A peculiarly grey-haired woman, around fifty, with caring brown eyes and worry dragging down her smile and wrinkling her forehead. She paid no mind to me, who sat in the waiting room and watched night fall. Each time I've asked to be let to see Jax, they've told me the same thing.

He doesn't want to see you.

So I waited.

They would have to discharge him eventually, and we had things to discuss.

I dreaded the conversation more than I dreaded the fact someone tried to murder us. Although the latter hasn't completely sunk in. I assumed it was whoever tried to kill me the first time around. It had something to do with Sargent Joe Bender.

Sometime during the third day of waiting, an older nurse with a kind face came up to me. I stood up before she approached.

"He requested to see you. Room 23."

"Thank you." I murmured, eyes jumping down the hallway.

This was it.

Fuck.

I walked down the hallway and knocked on his door, my heart pounding in my chest. All I wanted to do was help him and I might have permanently screwed up. Still, the fact he was okay made it worth it.

"Come in." A muffled sound came from within.

I opened the door. Jax was on the bed, his muscles tensing barely visibly when he saw me. His head was half-shaved and bandaged. He wore the hospital robes and was covered with a blanket. Nothing seemed to be broken, and looked like he was healing, but there was a different kind of weariness in his expression, something that made my soul hurt.

Our eyes met under the neon hospital lighting. It felt like we were looking at each other for the first time, with some sort of clarity, recognition and understanding.

"How are you?" I asked, but stayed by the door, just in case he needed me to leave quickly.

His smirk barely touched the corner of his lips, "Miraculously healed."

I swallowed, "What did the doctors say?"

"That I should have bled to death." Jax shrugged, his gaze remaining firmly on me, "That I should have bled out a few minutes before the ambulance came. I was lucky, they said, really fucking lucky."

I had no idea what to say. Thousands of possible conversation scenarios played in my mind through the past three days. I still had no idea what to say.

"I had to." I breathed out like a fool. "I had to, Jax-"

"I would have bled out. I know." Jax cut in. "You saved my life."

My heart stopped beating.

"A complete stranger saved my life."

My mouth closed. There was nothing I could say, except tell him everything. There were no excuses, or comforting words, only the truth. That was the only way.

"Tell me what you want to know." I said, nodding. "No more lies."

Jax gestured towards the chair in the far corner of the hospital room. I listened, ignoring the little warning sound in my head that told me I was moving away from the door. No, this was Jax. He'd hate me, but he wouldn't hurt me. I sat in the chair and braced myself.