Chapter 82 WILD WOLVES CHASE

Chapter 82 WILD WOLVES CHASE
“Cancel the reservations.” I hear Dante say.
His fingers are following an invisible trail over my back. It sort of tickles but more than that, it grounds me.

I lean closer to him, close enough for his warmth to seep into me. The scent of his cologne fills my nostrils and I embrace the present moment with gratitude. I commit everything to memory, and I put it in an imaginary safe for the future.

He doesn't stop tracing those circles over my back and I'm grateful for it.
“Call the manager of the restaurant, tell him I'll pay for any inconvenience but something has come up tonight and I can't come.”

I wish he didn't have to cancel our date, but I can't find the strength to even get up from here. We've been sitting in the waiting room for hours.

A report came back that they'd secured her airway with a breathing tube, her oxygen levels were promising and they had administered fluid to help her kidneys eliminate the toxins. Then they had drawn her blood to look for toxidromes.

But that was four hours ago and we haven't heard anything back.

I try to hold back the tears but it slips even harder. I don't let Dante see it. I don't sob or sniff or wipe my eyes.
He's been watching me as if I'm a fragile little being and I don't want him to think that this has traumatised me to a point of no recovery, even though it has.

He had ordered the doctor to run a test on my blood and urine and when everything had come back fine, he looked like someone who just survived a tsunami.

“You're fine,” he kept saying and I felt guilty every time I heard it.

Pixie and I were together, why did the man target her? I was right there and yet she's laying helpless with tubes and wires sticking out of her, while I'm here being held by Dante.

I don't want to lose my friend and yet I have no control over this situation. So all I can do here is sit and cry.


“Find him, I do not care who he is. Get him here and deliver him in one piece. No one harms him.”
I lift my head from the soft pillow and look around to find that I'm in Dante's bedroom.

I slept off?
“Wh- Is Pixie awake now?”
Dante turns to me and whispers something into his phone.
“I have to go now, report back to me.”

He sets his phone on the night stand
“I had to carry you from the hospital because you fell asleep.”
The bed dips with his weight as he climbs onto it.
My eyes feel sore.

“When did we leave the hospital?”
“Last night.”
“It's morning already?” The curtains are shut and the only light in the room is coming from his bedside lamps.
“Yes baby, it's morning.”

What time is it? God, how long have I been asleep?
“No, Dante… I didn't want to leave her. You should have woken me up.”

I try to get off the bed but Dante holds me down by my shoulders. The look in his eyes is… it's like he's holding something back.

“Dante, we need to go back to the hospital. Pixie needs us, she needs me.” I can barely even hear myself. My blood is pounding in my ears like war missiles.
“Anya, it's…”
“Dante?” my voice comes out weak and feeble.
“Pixie is dead.”

I stare at him, not believe a word of what he just uttered.
“No.”
“Last night. She passed.”
“No, get off me.”
“Anya, please don't fight this”
“I'm going to bite your hands off if you don't get off me.”
“Do it, if that will make you feel better.”
“Dante please, I'm begging you. Please drive me to the hospital or I'll walk there myself. Either way.”

This has to be a nightmare, a lucid nightmare.

If I just got back to sleep I would wake up.
“Anya, I'm sorry.”
“Stop talking, I'm trying to sleep. Your voice is so loud and distracting.”

I force my eyes close and I try to take deep breaths.
“She's being cremated tomorrow, she specifically asked that you release her ashes.”

A sob breaks free from my throat and I lose it. It's like I'm being dropped into a void where everything bad that has happened in my life starts to pierce into my memories. I feel the pain all at once.

It stretches and twists and coils inside me like a living entity and yet I do not feel separate from it. It's deeper than grief, it's torment.

I don't remember the beginning or the end of any of it. All I remember is total darkness.