I nodded. “I’m not sure why I went unconscious. It’s just a shoulder shot.”
“Shock.” Liz put a hand on my uninjured shoulder.
I wasn’t sure if I believed her, but I let it sit for now. “Okay, let’s get me to a doctor to get the bullet out, and then I’ll be fine.” I stood, and my body felt off, woozy even. I looked at Liz, and she shook her head subtly as if telling me not to mention it.
O’Donald didn’t even notice. “Have one of our people take care of it while I take your statement.”
Liz jerked her head toward the door. “The streets are clogged up, think you can walk?”
She could have just taken us there, but maybe she didn’t want O’Donald knowing she had that ability.
I nodded. “Yeah, still a bit of shock, but I think I’ll be okay for the walk.” I took a few steps toward the door, and the world tilted to the left and then to the right. Maybe walking was a bad idea. I glanced at Liz, trying to give her a silent heads-up.
She nodded. “O’Donald, why don’t you go talk to the officers on the scene, let them know that I’m taking a witness to PIB for medical attention? Let them know it’s one of our own?”
He looked skeptical for a moment. Talking to an officer would take time. He’d have to explain why he was there, who the witness was, and why I was there. I held my breath, hoping he’d take the bait.
Please let him take it. Because if I took any more steps, I was going to throw up. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Okay. Keep Collins in line, get her patched up, and I’ll meet you with an officer in her office.” He walked off, and I looked at Liz as soon as he was out of earshot.
“I’m going to throw up if you make me walk all the way to PIB.”
She nodded. “To the alley, and then I’ll take you there. We need O’Donald to see that we leave the building.”
She was hiding her ability. I nodded, and we took a lot of shaky steps out of the building and toward the corner.
I had to stop a few times as the world started to spin. “What is wrong with me.”
“Not here,” she whispered as we rounded the corner out of sight. She sighed and used magic to take us close to PIB.
I knew what she was doing. We needed footage to show that we walked into PIB just in case O’Donald or someone else checked on it. I pressed my hand against the wound and leaned on the building we’d appeared next to. “Liz, something’s wrong.”
“I know, Abby. Hang in there. I think you’ve been poisoned.”
My eyes widened at her words. “How are we going to fix this at PIB?”
“We’re going to get the bullet out, use a cleansing spell, and see if that helps. We don’t want O’Donald to know.”
I swallowed. “Why?”
“Because I’m pretty sure he’s the one behind it,” she whispered.
That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “I’m not going to be able to hide it for much longer.”
She nodded and looked at her watch. “Let’s walk to the building, we should be fine on time now.”
I pushed off the wall, and the world went completely sideways. “Let’s get this out of me. Hopefully, I can heal it, and then the poison will go away.” I’d never actually been poisoned, so I wasn’t sure if that’s how it worked with witches. Of course, I also thought the magic in our bloodstream pushed out poisons. Was it like when I was drugged, and it would wear off faster?
Liz and I walked to the office, trying to keep a normal pace to explain how we got there in good time. We got into the office building, and Mandy looked up at us.
“I’ll get the PIB medic in,” she said without missing a beat. “Go downstairs, room to the left.”
I eyed the elevator, and Liz ushered me closer to it.
“It’s okay, Abby, just a floor down.”
Since my legs were starting to feel a bit like jelly, I decided that the stairs were a no go. I wobbled my way over to the elevator and leaned against the wall while I let Liz hit the buttons.
“Call Merick,” I ground out. “O’Donald will be here soon, and I’m getting worse.”
“Sent him a text already,” Liz said. “I’m your bodyguard, I’m not going to let you die of poison,” she teased a little.
The door dinged open, and she helped me out. Two steps into the hall and my legs went numb. I fell to the floor. I looked up at Liz. “I’m going to pass out again.”
And before I knew it, that’s exactly what happened.
This time I woke up on a steel table. The cold metal helped bring back a little bit of my mind and helped with the massive heat I was suddenly feeling. “Liz?” I asked, scared. The light above me was blinding, and I couldn’t see anything. Something was digging into my shoulder, feeling like it was shredding muscle.
“I’m right here, Abby. Dr. Greenberg is taking the bullet out of your shoulder.”
That explained the pain.
“Pain killers would be great.” I gritted my teeth, trying to hold still. “Is our other problem taken care of?”
I wasn’t sure how much Dr. Greenberg knew.
“Merick is working on a solution for that. He should be here in a few minutes. I couldn’t give you pain killers while you were unconscious.”
That was fair. After a few moments, the pressure in my shoulder let up, and there was a little ‘dink’ as something hit a metal tray.
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