Love in the Land of Fire, Brochu, Rebecca [best free novels .txt] 📗

out of his sight. Gar’s on his heels the entire time, long fingered hand pressed to his shoulder in a show of silent support that’s normally not their style, but Josiah is strangely thankful for it. He knows that if it wasn’t for Gar’s guiding hand and the promise he’d made to Rafe he would have fought his way through anything and everything that stood in the way of him getting to Frisch.

Instead he climbs into the back of the medical transport, Gar’s promise to meet him at the hospital ringing in his ears. He clings to Rafe’s limp hand and realizes that he never wants to let it go. Josiah knows that they haven’t actually known each other for long in the scheme of things, but that doesn’t compare to the way the knowledge that he truly does want to Bond with Rafe hits him directly in the heart.

Faced with Rafe bloody and bruised for the second time since they first met Josiah knows without a shadow of a doubt that Rafe is it for him. If anything happens to him Josiah knows that it’ll be like a piece of him has been ripped out, something destroyed that he’ll never find again.

For only the second time in his life Josiah closes his eyes and prays.

7

7Chapter Seventeen

The ride to the hospital is like a nightmare. Rafe stays unconscious, his hand limp in Josiah’s grasp and his eyes closed no matter what the medical team does to him. Josiah refuses to let him go, has a hand on a part of him the entire time, until they’re inside the hospital and Gar and Eagan are there and they’re holding him back from going into the operating room.

He doesn’t even struggle against their restraining hands, doesn’t have the extra concentration it would require. Every part of him is focused on Rafe, on remembering the way he looked on that table, the way he’d asked Josiah to stay with him. For the first time since he can remember Josiah feels truly helpless.

Gar and Eagan hold him together for a while; Eagan has an understanding look on his face and Josiah knows that he’s imagining his own Bonded in a similar situation while Gar looks on, an awkward but fiercely protective shadow. Marcel and Isaac rush in at some point, Marcel enveloping him in a perfume scented, spine cracking hug while she whispers in his ear, and in the background Isaac nods at him in silent support.

They settle in to wait; a mismatched but closed ranked group that gets more than one cautious glance from anyone who wanders too close.

Hours pass Josiah by in a fog, his attention turned inwards until he snaps out of it abruptly when a doctor approaches them. He’s shorter than Josiah by about half a foot, his eyes a light grey color and his hair a close cropped brown. His collar flashes when he moves, the four sapphires embedded in the silver glinting in the bright light of the hospital corridor marking him as having originated from Water. The man looks tired, his face streaked with sweat and lined with fatigue and Josiah feels his heart clench in fear. He’s on his feet and in front of him before he has the chance to say anything, the others crowding close behind him in support and shared worry.

“Is Rafe alright?” He croaks out the question, his entire being hanging on the answer.

The doctor’s eyes narrow, warm but tired grey edging into steel territory as he rakes his gaze dismissively over Josiah and turns towards Eagan instead.

“Lead Enforcer, we need to have a word. Privately.” The man’s voice is honey smooth and cultured but cold as ice, and it pisses Josiah off to be dismissed in such a manner.

Eagan glances between the doctor and Josiah, confusion and a slight hint of nervousness on his expressive face. He knows just as well as everyone, besides the doctor, just how dangerous Josiah can be and they’re all vaguely afraid that this man’s refusal to acknowledge him might actually push him over the edge.

“Doctor?” Josiah breaks into conversation before it can actually begin, his tone sharp and unforgiving.

“Karney, Bryant Karney, and I have nothing to say to you.” Karney’s voice is razor sharp and the venom in it takes Josiah aback for a second before his own tightly reined in temper kicks its way back to the forefront of his mind.

“Listen to me, you son of a bitch, if you don’t tell me how Rafe is right now I’ll feed you your teeth.” The words are practically hissed out and Josiah means every single one of them.

Karney takes a half step back and Josiah sees Gar shift slightly in the corner of his eye but dismisses it when the doctor seems to gather himself. He sets his shoulders and meets Josiah’s gaze head on, distaste curling his 7plush mouth into a sneer.

“I don’t answer to abusive assholes like you so take my advice and back off before I have you thrown out.”

Josiah gapes for seconds, caught off guard by the doctor’s implications, before he steps forward, hand raised to grab the other man by his collar. Gar’s in front of him suddenly, crowding the doctor’s space and speaking in a low intense voice.

“Josiah wasn’t the one who did this. It was Zweil’s former dominant. Josiah is an enforcer and the last one who would hurt another in such a way.”

Karney searches Gar’s face for a moment, his eyes flickering around to the rest of their group as well before they land on Josiah again. The doctor studies him for a moment and seems to find what he was looking for because his face softens, his eyes warming and his shoulders relaxing. He steps around Gar so that he’s face to face with Josiah again and this time when he speaks his