Chapter 24

I gaped. Part of me wanted to stop him, alert him to my presence, but another part of me (a much larger part) just wanted him to continue.

His shirt slipped off his shoulders, revealing a series of symbol tattoos across his back. It surprised me, to see ink. Jay didn’t seem like the type, but I was sure these held more significance than the usual tats I came across, which always included an enormous set of tits.

I finally cleared my throat.

He abruptly pulled his shirt back on. “I’m sorry, I thought I was alone.”

“No, it’s my fault. I didn’t mean to intrude.” I moved closer to him. “Can I, uh, see them again?”

He slid the shirt back down. I traced the pattern of the most elaborate one, on his right shoulder. “These are beautiful.”

“Thank you. They’re the kanji symbols for light, happiness, and love.” He turned to face me. “I was about to heal myself. I usually strip naked, I get so hot. But I can put my shirt back on—”

“Um…No, it’s…it’s fine. I’m fine.” Which of course was a total fucking lie. His body was more defined than his office attire had led me to imagine. I wanted nothing more than to touch his muscles, feel the heat of his skin. There were other symbols on his chest, but they weren’t tattoos, or if they were, they were flesh colored. A tapestry of kanji symbols, ingrained in his skin adorned him, and it was the most breathtaking thing I’d ever seen.

“It’s gorgeous,” I whispered, and traced one of the symbols lightly with my finger. His eyes closed and he groaned. I could feel he was as turned on as I, his thoughts of softly kissing me entering my mind. He opened his eyes and leaned closer to me. Our lips were about to touch when the sound of a cat screeching broke us apart.

“Pickles!”

The cat nipped my ankle, and a thought immediately popped into my head. I can’t believe this bitch is going to make out with yet another human when I’m fucking starving.

I couldn’t help but laugh, which only resulted in my other ankle getting bitten. I can hear animal thoughts? What the fuck… While it was kinda cool, I got the feeling that hearing Pickles’ thoughts wasn’t going to be much fun.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get you some dinner.” I found his bowl and food, and the sound of kibble hitting the bowl caused him to run and slide on the kitchen floor. He wolfed the food down, grumbling as he ate. At least I’ve got Pickles figured out anyway. Everyone else in my life? Not so much.

Somehow that thought reminded me of the reason I sought Jay out in the first place, before I was distracted by his unusual body.

I waited patiently for him to exit his bedroom, trying hard not to picture him undressed.

He emerged a few minutes later, fully clothed. His eye was completely healed.

“Jay, I was wondering if I could ask a huge favor…”

“Of course, how can I help?”

I looked off to the side, thinking about what to say. I didn’t want to lie to him, but at the same time, talking about what happened with Alex just sucked. “The cop that interrogated me…he got injured.”

“He did? You mean in the line of duty or something?”

“Or something,” I said, continuing to avoid his eyes. “Anyway, I was hoping you could heal him.”

Jay observed me for a moment. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was attempting a mind probe.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

He stated it as a fact, not a suspicion or feeling. Fucking empathy.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, hoping he’d drop it. I actually did feel like shit, so I hoped he would pick up on that and back the fuck off.

When he continued to be silent, I said, “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Yes, I will. You’ll talk about it when you’re ready.” He flashed a polite smile, which only made me feel worse. “Where is he, can you teleport to him?”

“I think he’s in the hospital. I mean, it’s not like I was really close to him, I’m not sure if I could teleport to where he is.” The worse part of that statement was that it wasn’t a lie, it was the truth. And I felt like a total fucking slut. The feeling had more to do with Jay, that he was such a good person in comparison; I usually didn’t have any problems with casual sex to relieve that ache, that all-consuming need within me to come. I wondered if he would still be interested in me, if he knew the real me.

Jay grabbed his laptop and plopped down on the couch. “Do you know what hospital?”

“Most likely Our Lady of the Divine Blessing, in Jersey City.”

It didn’t take him long to hack into the hospital database. He shook his head. “You’d think their security people would’ve read my article on the reverse login vulnerability.”

I remembered Jay bragging about discovering a new PHP hack a month ago. Apparently his article didn’t exactly go viral. “You know what most businesses think of IT. Probably got a stoner teenager running the department.”

“No doubt.” Jay smiled. “So what’s his name?”

“Alex Paxton.”

“Alex Paxton,” he repeated. “Cool name. He’s in room 701.”

“That’s awesome!” I did a little victory clap. “Now we just have to figure out how to get in there. Guessing he has a guard, with him being a cop.”

“I would think so.” He continued to look at his screen, and then he gasped. “He’s in a coma.”

“A coma?” My legs faltered, so I made my way to the couch before I collapsed like an idiot.

“I’ve never tried to heal someone in a coma,” Jay said quietly. “I don’t know if it will work.”

“I put someone in a coma?” I whispered to myself.

“What?”

“Nothing.” This isn’t the time to feel guilty, I reasoned. I spent enough time feeling like shit because I thought I killed him. At least he isn’t dead.

“I can try to heal him,” Jay said. “Probably better to slip in after hours, in case it takes a while.”

“You think? Wouldn’t they be more suspicious?”

“There weren’t as many people around at night.” Jay looked down. “I mean, when you were in the hospital.”

I took hold of his hand. “You stayed with me all night, didn’t you?”

“The nurse mentioned a strange man, I didn’t want to leave you alone.” His gaze met mine. “You scared me, blacking out like that.”

“My power activated, I guess.” I half-smiled, thinking back to that time and feeling so confused and scared. “Thanks for sticking around.”

“Always.” He intertwined his fingers through mine. The heat was substantial but not overwhelming, somehow. It sent warm shivers up my arm. I was still unsure of how I felt about Jay, but I couldn’t deny how incredible his touch felt. He was a friend, someone I knew and admired. It wasn’t such a leap to imagine dating him.

Before I got completely off on that tangent, I took a deep breath and focused on the plan to sneak into Alex’s room. I remembered the nurse’s outfit Vi wore when she visited me in the hospital. “Maybe Vi can help.”

“No offense, but Vi is not what I would call subtle. I don’t think she’s capable of not attracting attention.”

“True, but she did manage to sneak into my room. And that was for a hospital in the city – it’s gotta have more security than one in Jersey.”

He nodded. “Well, let me know when you’re ready to go.”

I let go of his hand and stood. “I should make arrangements with work. If I want to keep my job anyway.” I brainstormed a number of excuses until I came up with the best one—a communicable disease. My boss graciously allowed me to work from home when I told him I had coughing aspiritus, a highly contagious upper respiratory infection similar to the flu.

I grabbed my laptop and rejoined Jay on the couch. It was nice to get lost in the tediousness of my job again. However fucked-up their code was, it still wasn’t nearly as fucked-up as my life.