Heart's Redemption (MxM)

Chapter 15 ~ Ian

I hadn't been able to lift Sam on my own. Carlos had helped me get him into the bed of the truck, assuring me as he did that Sam was still alive and that the drug would wear off, given time. On the other hand, someone needed to monitor him, make sure he kept breathing, and keep him calm once he woke up.

I'd planned to drive somewhere, get out of town, and then pull over and stay with Sam myself, but Carlos had climbed into the truck and pulled him across his lap.

"What are you doing?" I'd asked.

"I'm coming with you," Carlos had said.

"What about Toni?"

She wasn't badly hurt, but she'd have a hell of a headache later on.

"Fuck Toni," was Carlos's reply. "Let's go before she wakes up."

I'd stared at him, unsure what to do. The way he'd reacted after Sam exorcised the demon made me believe he had not been a willing part of Toni's plan, but I still didn't trust him.

He'd seen my hesitation and I'd seen the real fear in his eyes.

"Please—just get us away from here before more demons show up, okay? You can drop me somewhere later if you want."

He'd hugged Sam to his chest as though clinging to a life-raft, and the fact that Sam still had gold skin and horns convinced me. Toni had seemed disgusted by Sam even before he'd revealed his demon form. If Carlos had any similar bias, he was hiding it really well.

I've been driving for about an hour now. Every few minutes, I look back and check on Carlos and Sam. Carlos gives me a thumbs up to indicate that Sam is okay. He'd been so still, so seemingly lifeless—his eyes open and unseeing, his body limp—that I'd feared the worst, but Carlos promised he was unhurt, and that he'd wake up soon, fully recovered.

I, on the other hand, am not in good shape.

My shoulder hurts bad. I can't use my right arm, and I've been driving one-handed. The pain is hot like fire, like a million bees stinging me at once. It spreads from my shoulder down my back and across my chest, and I'm sweating with the effort to keep my focus on the road and off the agony slowly burning down my will.

A loud thwack on the window behind me startles me from the fog of pained concentration, and I turn to see Carlos rubbing the back of his head. That's not what really captures my attention though. Sam is sitting up beside him, red eyes wild and sharp teeth bared, looking caught somewhere between confusion and fear.

Veering off the road, I come to a stop in a cloud of dust. I throw open my door, intending to get out and go to him, but when I try to move a searing pain cuts through me and I utter something like a scream. A moment later, it's Sam who comes to me.

"Ian?" he leans into the cab, still looking a little unsteady on his feet, concern pinching his angled black brows. "Are you okay?"

I shake my head. "Shoulder's busted to hell," I grit through my teeth. "You?"

"I'm fine," he answers. "Just...I don't know how to get rid of this." He gestures at his face.

"What worked last time?" I ask.

His face deepens a few shades of gold, and he glances away. "I...I think it was touching you. The contact."

"If that's all, then why aren't you back to normal? Carlos has been holding you for an hour." I gasp as a sharper twinge of pain shoots through my shoulder.

He looks up to meet my eyes again. "I don't want Carlos."

The heat in his eyes cuts through my misery, and I feel a warmth in my chest that has nothing to do with my injured shoulder.