Cian

The hospital was the last place I wanted to be. Last time I'd been here, I had been watching my life fall apart. I never wanted to feel that hopeless again—yet here I was, rushing through the bleach white halls, my footsteps echoing off the polished linoleum. I didn't know what I was running for, either. Lucie hadn't told me anything. Despite my request, she'd ended the phone call, and all I'd gotten after that was an urgent message from my mother telling me to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Whatever it was, it had to be serious, and the thought sunk inside of me like a rock.

No.

Vinny was too much of a fighter to leave me again; he wouldn't. Yet, no matter how many times I told myself that, my blood still burned with fear.

When I came into the waiting room, my eyes flitted around for anyone I might recognize—and caught on my mother. She was seated in a chair in the far corner, her shoulders hunched over, her face in her hands. Tangles of silver-gold hair hung down around her wrists; she looked so hopeless, so unlike the woman I was used to seeing everyday, that the cold feeling in the bottom of my stomach seemed to spread. I came towards her, my pace slow, one tentative hand reached out towards her trembling shoulders. "M-Mom?"

She sniffled and wiped her eyes. Mascara smeared across her cheek as she did, but for once, she didn't care. "C.J.," she gasped, closing my hand in her own and succumbing to one more sob. "God, C.J..."

"Mom," I said. I knelt in front of her, my knee touching the cold tiles of the floor. "Mom, what happened? Where's Dad? Is Vinny okay?"

She hesitated, then shook her head, averting her gaze from me. I felt like throwing up. "I haven't...been able to contact your father. And no, I don't think your brother's okay. I...I heard screaming, and when I went up to his bedroom, he was...he was on the floor, and Lucie was holding him..."

I pulled her hands from her face, wiped another tear away, just as one of my own fell. "Lucie," I said, then looked up, searching for her. I saw nothing, however, nothing but the busy strides of doctors and nurses, the dismayed faces of loved ones, senior citizens in hospital gowns rolling by with their IVs. "Lucie. Where is she, Mom? Have you seen her?"

"She's down the hall," Mom managed, "outside Vincent's room."

I nodded, tapping my mother's knuckles, which were damp from tears and ruined makeup. It's like she'd given up, like she couldn't hide behind her money or her reputation anymore. Even though I'd been waiting for her to let her mask fall, here, now, all I felt was pain. It had been a long time since I'd seen her so broken, and a part of me felt bad for leaving her, but she didn't know enough. I had to find Lucie, had to see Vince. I hated being so clueless. "I'll be back. Stay here, alright?"

She nodded, and seemed reluctant to let me go. Nevertheless, her fingers slipped from mine, and I planted a kiss on her forehead before bolting for the halls again.

It was a few feet before I laid eyes on her. Lucie was leaned back against the wall opposite the hospital room's door, seated on the floor, her knees pulled to her chest. The closer I got to her, the more I saw of how distraught she was. Her ebony curls were limp and greasy, tear tracks stained against her walnut-colored skin. Most of all, her eyes were different. They were sunken in, desolate, fractured. I was not looking at Lucie, but merely a shell of her.

When I reached her, she didn't look up, but her flinch let me know she knew I was there. "He's not okay, is he?" my voice was soft.

Lucie didn't move; in fact, all she did was close her eyes. "He hasn't woken up yet. They have to pump his stomach, Cian. Worst of all, they think he's suicidal."

She wiped her eyes. I sat down next to her. "Tell me what Nick did."

It was silent for a moment, yet it felt more like eternity. Lucie turned her head, her eyes, large and dark, meeting mine. Her lip quivered; she bit down on it, then looked away again. "I'm sorry I dropped the phone, but I...he couldn't hear me. No matter how many times I called out to him, he ignored me."

"Lucie?"

"He took sleeping pills, Cian," she exhaled, hiding her face in her hands. Her hair fell around her shoulders. "I watched him do it. He just stared right at me—through me—and took them, a whole handful. Just when he'd came back, it seemed, that's when he saw me. He tried to say my name, but he was already gone. And if I...and if I had just been there a second sooner..."

I slipped an arm around her shoulders, and she whimpered and pressed closer to me, her face hidden in the threads of my shirt. "Shh," I said, though my own throat was tight with a million emotions—rage, terror, disgust. "There's nothing you could have done. Vinny didn't have control of himself."

Her sniffling stopped, if only for a fleeting minute. "You think he was possessed?"

"It was Nick's doing; I know it was. See...right before I called you, he and Eden came to find me. Nick kept telling me to go check on Vinny, and that's when I realized something was wrong," I told her. It was more than I'd ever said about Nick, but how else was I supposed to explain it? I'd dug myself into a pit, it seemed, and Vinny and Lucie were in danger of falling in, if Vinny hadn't already.

"What does Nick have against Vinny?"

We stared at each other for a moment. "He's just using Vinny as bait. I'm really who he wants, but I don't know why," I confessed. There was no sense, I realized, in hiding this from her. So what if she knew Nick was out to get me. Soon, it would be over, anyway.

My choices were narrowing.

I offered Lucie a small smile, moved a curl from out of her eyes. "But don't worry about it," I said. "Vinny's going to fight through this, and from here on, Nick's not touching anyone else."

"I hate him," spat Lucie in a sudden spout of wrath. I felt her tense against me, and sighed, laying my head on top of hers. We both scrutinized the door in front of us for a while. Beyond there was my brother, barely grasping on to his life, for all I knew. And why? Because of one certain fallen angel.

I understood Lucie's anger; it had its own spot inside of me, a flame somewhere deep in my fractured heart. "He did this to Vinny," Lucie continued. "He took my brother and now he's taking my best friend, too. I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill him, Cian, if you don't."

"Lucie," I started to say, but all words died on my lips when the door before us swung open. Out came a middle-aged woman clothed in scrubs and a white coat, her expression weary and her posture unable to hide her exhaustion. When she laid eyes on us, she strode over. I hoisted Lucie to her feet, still holding her against me.

"You're both here for Vincent Horne, correct?"

I nodded. "I'm his older brother. Is he okay?"

The doctor mopped her brow. "He was in critical condition; we were forced to intubate him and perform a gastral lavage."

I glanced at Lucie to see if she was picking up on any of this medical jargon, and she didn't appear to be. Needless to say, I got the gist of it. I asked, "But he's going to live?"

To my relief, the doctor nodded her head. Lucie exhaled, leaning further against me and dropping her head. I, too, felt like collapsing, I was so overjoyed. "He'll need to stay overnight, and see a psychiatrist as this was a suicide attempt, but I'm happy to tell you your brother's going to recover fully."

I reached to shake the doctor's hand, grateful for both her assistance and for my brother's safety. "Thank you so much, doctor."

Her lips opened into a brilliant smile. "He's awake, you know," she told me, and seemed pleased at the surprise on both Lucie's and my faces. She gestured towards the open door. "And chances are he's waiting for you."

I thanked her for the millionth time, and then she walked off down the hall, leaving Lucie and I facing the open door to Vinny's room.

Lucie stood up, and I turned a grin in her direction. Ruffling her hair, I told her, "I told you he'd be fine, muffin. Vinny's stronger than that."

She nodded in agreement, and I let her precede me into the room. Vinny looked up as we entered, and a tired smile stretched his lips, his eyelids drooping and his skin pale. I shut the door behind us, as if the space weren't already cramped enough. All the barren place consisted of was the bed Vinny rested in, an open window beside him, and a counter with drawers likely stuffed with medical supplies.

Vinny certainly looked as if all his energy had been sucked from him. His hair was wild, pale strands plastered to his forehead with sweat, others splayed out across the pillow. His lips were chapped and washed of color, and there were plum-colored semicircles underneath each of his eyes. In spite of his condition, however, he kept that smile on his face, reaching out for me when I approached his bedside. "Hey, Vince," I said softly, folding his fingers gently into mine. "How do you feel?"

He laughed, but it turned into a cough. Flicking his gaze from me to Lucie, he replied, "Honestly, I've seen better days. But I figure it's better than being a ghost again."

I frowned, but decided not to comment. "Do you want anything? A drink, or..." I trailed off when he started laughing again.

"They just ran a tube into my stomach, Cian. You really think I have an appetite right now?" he taunted, his eyes then settling on Lucie, who was standing at my side. "Lucie?" he said. "I, uh...thanks. You're part of the reason I lived."

Lucie made a choked noise, her gaze landing on the floor. I heard her sniffle. When she spoke, her voice sounded scraped hollow. "Sorry," she replied, "but you're not allowed to die in my arms." To my relief, there was a small giggle at the end of the sentence.

The smile on Vinny's face grew, yet his eyelids were beginning to flutter. His words slurred, he turned his head towards me, emitting a small yet painful groan. "Cian, are Mom and Dad here? Can I see them? I don't want them to worry about me."

I stared at him. Geez, this brother of mine. He's hospitalized after a demon tried to make him overdose, and he's worried about our parents? It only fuels my anger, that someone would try to hurt him, this pure and perfect part of my life. Vinny's life should be easy. These kinds of things shouldn't happen to people as faultless as he was. I lifted my hand, mopping the sweaty clumps of his hair back from his forehead. "Mom's in the waiting room; I can get her for you."

Vinny's eyes turned plaintive, his smile vanishing. "What about Dad?"

I heard the jingle of his keys as he'd come in late that night, saw the disheveled appearance to his costly suit. I'd always known something was off about that man, but even putting work above his own son was unusual for him. So where was he? Lucie glanced at me, but I didn't look at her. "I don't know. No one's been able to reach him."

Lucie looked pained, and put a hand on my shoulder. "Cian..."

"Watch Vinny, alright?" I said, then turned and started to head out. "I'll go grab Mom."

Lucie said my name again, but I shook my head, vanishing out into the hall.