Hunger Revealed (7 page)

Alice looked toward the commotion
coming not far from where she crouched. She’d been peering into a
crumpled white sack, hoping the grease stains on the outside meant
still-edible fried food on the inside. She’d stopped near the
parking lot between the two buildings in case she had to try again,
if the bag’s contents were rancid. In three days, she could afford
to shop in a grocery store, buying manager’s specials on things
past their expiration date or anything a dollar or less, but until
then she had to eat. No matter where it came from.

With a mystery illness running its
course, she didn’t make the assumption she’d live to see sunrise.
Each day was a gift. Seeing a new one was all she could ask
for.

She almost squealed in delight when
she saw the doughnut inside a wax paper holder only had a single
bite taken from it. Two gifts for the day!

A woman screamed, and there was more
noise. The sounds of someone retching. Once upon a time she might
have thrown up herself just from the gagging sounds, but after
spending so many months tending to Richard it took a lot to faze
her now. One of the many things she’d learned while living with a
junkie brother was how to clean up shit and vomit. Instead, Alice
clutched the bag tighter, intent on keeping her newfound
delight.

But the scream caught her attention.
The curiosity of a woman’s terror urged her feet
forward.

Alice followed the source, intent on
just seeing from a distance why someone needed help. The staccato
clicks of heels on pavement echoed into the lot, past cars she
couldn’t have afforded even in her employed days. It was the sound
of uncertain running, and she recognized a woman’s tiptoe dance in
shoes meant for little more than looking pretty.

The woman had stopped screaming and
decided to get the heck out of Dodge, it seemed. She’d left behind
someone still moaning and coughing though.

Alice edged closer.

A man elevated himself on hands and
knees, swaying like a drunkard. Apropos, seeing how they were just
outside the doors of a nightclub. Alice almost turned back to more
important matters, but a glint of light reflecting off something on
the ground beneath him made her gasp.

“Mister?” she called softly. “You
okay?”

There was no way he was okay. Even at
her distance she recognized the blood pooled around him. The man
tried to rise, stumbled, almost slipped in the blood. He lifted his
head, looked at Alice then began to shake.

God, she didn’t want to go to him. She
didn’t want to know if he’d been knifed or shot. It was none of her
business. But then she thought of Richard, of the times he’d been
brought home simply because of the kindness of strangers. This
could have easily been him. Richard might have forced her out onto
the streets with his backsliding ways, but he was still her
brother. Whether she wanted to get involved or not, if this had
been him, she would have wanted a stranger to help.

With a sigh, Alice ventured closer.
“Hey, where are you hurt?”

He made a noise then dry-heaved. His
mouth opened, and she grimaced, ready to watch him vomit. She
tightened her stomach, mentally preparing herself for not getting
sick with him. Nothing came out of either of them though, and she
exhaled, relieved.

“Hey…do you have a phone? So I can
call nine-one-one?”

His head lifted again, his attention
coming to focus on her. Alice caught sight of his dark eyes and
immediately thought it a trick of the light. They were eyes capable
of seeing into tomorrow, she was sure of it.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” he
asked, his voice croaking.

“My
eyes?” Under other circumstances she might have laughed.
Maybe even thought he was flirting with her.

Beads of perspiration raced down the
sides of his face, the crown of his dark hair almost black in
color. If she hadn’t seen the clear sweat, she might have
considered his head the source of all that blood.

“They’re…
wrong
,” he replied.

Ignoring their ridiculous
conversation, she crouched right next to him. The scent of copper
rushed at her, almost triggering her gag reflex. “My eyes aren’t at
issue here. I need to get an ambulance or the police for you. Can
you wait here alone for a minute? Do you know how to press on the
wound?”

“Wound?”

“Where you’re bleeding
from.”

“I’m not bleeding.” He attempted to
rise again, but he’d managed to put his hand at the edge of the
blood, where it slipped. “I don’t think.”

How much had he been drinking? He was
too stoned to know he’d been shot or worse? “Why don’t you tell me
your name?”

“Sebastian—Bast.”

Who took a perfectly good name like
that and shortened it into something so ugly? Bast, indeed. “Look,
Sebastian, I’m going for help.” If he was talking, he seemed okay
enough to leave for a minute. “Stay here.” As if that might be a
problem. He looked weaker than a wet kitten.

Sebastian’s hand, the same one that
had just been slicked down with blood, shot out and caught her arm.
Alice cried out at the grip, which would surely leave behind a
bruise. “No!” he said.

“No?” She tried to wrench her arm away
to no avail. “You need some help. I don’t think—”

Sebastian glanced up into the night
sky. He scanned the stars, as if searching for something. “My car.
Just to my car. I can’t stay out here like this.”

His paranoia catching, Alice couldn’t
help but look around them. “Dude, I’m not trying to get in the
middle—”

“My car. That’s all.”

For the first time, she noticed the
way her skin heated beneath his hold. “I’m going to get you there,”
she said slowly. “But then you need to do something about that
fever and wherever you’re bleeding from.” No doubt his injuries
explained his behavior. The blood was a mystery he was content to
leave alone, and so was she. Good Samaritan duties only went so
far.

If he heard her, or if he cared, she
couldn’t tell. Sebastian wrapped his arms around her neck and used
her as leverage. Alice almost toppled over as he rose, the solid
weight of him enough to drag her back down to the ground. By the
time he stood, he towered over her.

Wanting to weep for her meager
clothes, Alice pressed herself against him, into the wall of muscle
and heft and simultaneously into his own bloodstained clothing.
Beneath the overpowering scent of blood, she smelled some cross
between clean linen and coconut coming directly from him. Had they
been at the beach, slathered beneath sunscreen, she could
understand the memories of summers by the waves he conjured, but
this man was sinfully sexy and erotically dark. Nothing summery or
beachy about him.

She recognized him now. The man from
not even twenty minutes ago who’d stopped to look at her while on
the way into the club. Now that she knew he was in serious shit or
at least seriously sick, she pushed aside stirrings of attraction
and focused on getting one foot in front of the other without
allowing him to bring them both down.

Sebastian reached into his back pocket
and retrieved a key fob. He pressed it in the general direction of
a row of cars, and they made their way forward to the one that
chirruped back at them. Richard’s old toy collection, and the
unforgettable prancing horse medallion, were the reasons she
recognized the Ferrari Sebastian leaned against when they
stopped.

“Help me. Inside.” His voice sounded
shaky again.

She realized she’d been gawking at the
silver vehicle worth more than she used to make in five years
combined. Maybe more than five.

Between the blood, the
shakes and the car, he had to be a drug dealer or something
close.
Had to be
.
“I’ll get you inside and then I’m gone.” Her damned conscience
pinged. “And you need to get on a phone. Get to a
hospital.”

Sebastian unfolded into the
passenger’s side he opened. “No hospital. Just…inside…”

“Hey Sebastian?” She shook his
shoulder and unresponsive, he slumped forward. “Bast?”

Shit.

Alice looked around. Despite being
outside a crowded nightclub, no one else loitered in the parking
lot. An unconscious man slouched inside an insanely expensive car
next to her. They were alone at night in what wouldn’t be
classified as the best part of town. She could leave him and hope
to heaven someone with a kind heart found him before he died. Maybe
he wouldn’t even die; his car might be stolen with him left on the
cold ground in nothing more than his shirt, but that was okay,
right? He’d be alive at least.

The night had begun to chill
noticeably, and she still hadn’t picked a place to sleep until
morning. She couldn’t stay here and wait for him. Her own survival
took precedence.

Alice scanned the lot again, let out a
breath and studied Sebastian’s profile.

Double shit.

~ *~

For more information about
Hunger Awakened, please visit
Dee’s web site
.