Anna licked her lips and nodded a little. It was hard to tell, but she seemed pleased to see him. “Jack. Yeah. Just weak. Confused.”
“Okay. Let me just give you some updates before your parents get back.” He glanced back at the door for signs of her parents, seeing nurses walked by. “They went downstairs for a few minutes.”
“What happened?”
He took a deep breath, unsure what to say. “You don’t remember?”
“No. Last thing was being in the Quest Ring.”
“Okay. You came back around 2am and it’s now about 8 in the morning, the same day. You arrived on 270 and were hit by a car. The media are all over this because they know it was you, and Matt was caught on camera when he vanished before, so it’s been crazy with media attention. I don’t want you to worry about that, though. They can’t get in here, okay?”
“I can’t feel my legs.”
Jack didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth, partly because he was hoping they were wrong despite the gravity of her injuries being impressed upon him now that he saw them. “Well, they have you pretty heavily sedated, and you just came out of a lot of surgery, so that might be normal. I don’t know. Don’t worry, okay? You know Ryan’s loaded and he’ll do anything to help you. The best care anywhere, I swear.”
“What about my friends?”
Apologetically, he said, “I’ll keep trying to reach them.”
“Not the boys. The ones in the car. When I disappeared.”
“Oh.” Jack’s face fell. He didn’t want to tell her the news. Not when she was like this. But he knew it had been days, and she had almost certainly been wondering the whole time.
“Please,” she whispered. “I see it in your face. You have to tell me. The waiting….”
Their eyes met again, and resignation settled on him. She had a right to know, and wondering wasn’t going to help. He whispered, “I’m so sorry, Anna.”
“What is it?” she said. “Please.”
He licked dry lips. “Jade lost both legs. Raven also survived, but she’s paralyzed.” He paused and felt awful as he admitted, “Heather didn’t make it.”
Tears welled up in her clouded eyes and spilled down the sides of her head as she blinked furiously. Jack wiped them away, whispering that he was sorry over and over, that it wasn’t her fault. This was all too much for anyone to deal with her investigator had and sudden anger struck him. He hid it by closing his eyes and putting his head on her shoulder, whispering for her to remain calm because of her punctured lung. She seemed to hear him, for her breathing became shallower.
He straightened and looked her in the eye, “You know I am here for you. Whatever you need.”
Anna looked at him calmly, eyes clearing, and after a few moments, said something he wasn’t expecting.
“Get me a priest.”
If there was anyone Daniel trusted, it was Ryan, and yet part of him thought that his brother, Matt, Eric, and even Jack were bullshitting him and Quincy, with whom he had just shared more than one dubious look. And yet their demeanor suggested they were telling the truth about these Ellorian Champions and their disappearances. And of course, he knew about the various vanishings and footage. And reports of healing or magic working around Earth. That they were having this talk in the family guest house, surrounded by the swords, shields, crossbows and more that his brother had purchased, added a welcome, tangible sign that this outlandish stuff was real. Or at least, they certainly believed it. If he had only just seen this stuff now, he might have still thought it was an elaborate put-on, even though Ryan had never done anything even remotely like that. Accepting it was still an adjustment.
Quincy had gotten Ryan out of the police station, then picked up Matt and Eric somewhere. Someone grabbed Jack away from the hospital, and it was from him that they had learned of Anna’s situation. Arriving at the LaRue estate, they had avoided the media mob outside the main gate, but Quincy’s SUV with its darkened windows was seen entering the grounds, though too late to be intercepted, at least this time. They finally reached the guest house where they were now, calling Daniel down to it without his nurse, Susan.
Daniel felt a weird kinship with Anna on hearing she was paralyzed. It was one that he didn’t want. He had also never felt it for another person destined to live their life in a wheelchair like him, maybe because he didn’t know them, and he resisted much of the sentiment about this because too much pity had come his way over it long ago. Never before had he understood—not really—the depth of Ryan’s concern for him, having just assumed guilt at causing Daniel’s paralysis was behind it. Now he knew that personally caring for someone so grievously wounded was enough to make one want to hover. His heart ached for Anna and he already knew he would give her all the emotional support and encouragement he could muster, whether or not she wanted it. Resisting that seemed to come with the territory, at least for him, but he wouldn’t let her get away with it for long any more than his physical therapists had let him.
Daniel’s thoughts returned to the silent men awaiting his reaction and Quincy’s to their story. He sighed. “Okay, I believe you. I think. But don’t push your luck. No fucking with me.”
Ryan sighed from where he sat on the pile of rugs in between Matt and Jack, Eric comfortable on the floor. “Fair enough.”
“So what now?” Quincy asked, leaning against a wall. “We need some priorities.”
“We?” Eric asked with a small smirk. He sat barefoot, sandals near.
Quincy nodded. “Yeah.
