Damn, I was doing pretty good.
They seemed to think so too, because they all came at me at once. I went to leap out of the way, but it was as if I were fighting a monster with unlimited hands. I was tugged down, and the mob devoured me. There was kicking and swinging, and I wrapped my hands around my head, hoping my magic would kick in. I couldn’t think of a single rationale that I could use to twist the situation into me saving them.
I hit the ground as I was getting pummeled in every direction. My head took a blow. My ear took the toe of a boot. My stomach was kicked, only to be propelled backward. Bibbi had only had a minute or two lead, and we were on the other side of Xest. How long would it take for help? Would I make it? My vision was getting black spots and my ears were ringing.
A deafening roar filled the alley. A boot was about to hit my nose when it was yanked backward. Another body flew, and then there was the sound of screaming and footsteps retreating.
White paws filled my vision as Bautere knelt beside me. He leaned down, sniffing at my head and grazing it with his nose.
I unfurled my body slowly, each move causing pain. I coughed, some blood hitting the ground and causing a splatter of red on the white. I used my arm to wipe away the moisture from my face.
“I taught you better than this,” he said, as if appalled I’d let a horde of deranged lunatics beat me.
“In my defense, I did really well with the first two. Thanks, though. Appreciate the help.” I got to my feet and realized one leg wasn’t working so well. I put a hand on the building to keep myself up, realizing every movement was going to cause pain somewhere.
“Where are they?” Hawk yelled, racing down the alley toward us, looking much scarier than Xazier ever had.
“They ran off, but I know their faces,” Bautere said.
Hawk scooped me up in his arms, giving Bautere a nod. I didn’t bother struggling, since I couldn’t walk anyway.
“What were you thinking? Why did you send Bibbi away?” Hawk asked as he walked through the door he must’ve taken here.
“Because it wasn’t her fight, and she wasn’t going to be able to help anyway.” Another person angry at me that I’d been beaten up, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that we wouldn’t be walking around Xest for all to see me weak and vulnerable. I had a reputation to protect.
“She would’ve tried, and when they hurt her, your defensive magic would’ve kicked in.” He kicked the door closed and we were in the upstairs hall of the broker building.
“Is she okay?” Bibbi yelled.
“You can tell everyone she’s fine,” Hawk said, before he opened the door to his room. After he crossed the threshold he edged the door closed with his shoulder, shutting everyone else out.
“So I’m supposed to keep her around to get beat up so I can protect myself?”
“She would’ve been fine. You would’ve made sure of it.” He dropped me onto his bed and went to the trunk he kept his potions in.
“I’m not using her like that.” I took a break from arguing with Hawk to try to breathe past the pain in my chest. I shifted left, hunched over, and then tried a different position. Didn’t seem to matter how I sat. The pain was still there. “You’re not supposed to get angry at the person who was attacked.”
He rifled through the trunk as if I hadn’t spoken then walked back over with a couple bottles and rags. “Pull your shirt up so I can see your ribs.”
I didn’t argue, as every breath was another stab of agony. I couldn’t be down and out for long. I needed to be in fighting shape, especially if this happened again. This wouldn’t do at all.
I lifted my shirt up to just under my breasts, and his anger grew palpable.
“All this magic and what did you do? Curl into a ball like you’re defenseless when you’re not.” For all his anger, he barely touched my skin as he coated it with smelly white lotion.
“I was protecting my head.” At the time, it had seemed like the best move.
“You had the upper hand. You rolled over and let them hurt you when you didn’t have to.”
“I tried to protect myself because my magic doesn’t work like that, and won’t no matter how you wish it to be different.”
“That’s a bunch of bull. You can’t protect yourself because you don’t value yourself. That’s the problem here. That’s what we keep skating around and avoiding.”
He had a lot of nerve lecturing me on self-worth. Xazier’s words, the ones that seemed to be stuck in my head, kept haunting me as he spoke.
“And you helped make me feel like I mattered? All you’ve ever done was try to push me out of Xest to a place I didn’t belong. Don’t act like you care.” Our eyes locked, my anger boiling as hot as his now.
“That’s right. It’s my fault again. You just keep finding reasons to hoard and be angry about instead of facing the truth.”
“Your truth.”
He stood and walked a few steps away from me. I would’ve done it myself if I could’ve moved better, but crawling away wasn’t the look I was going for.
A minute or so stretched out in silence before he said, “Let me check your—”
“I’m fine. I don’t need anything else from you.”
He walked closer anyway. “You’re so stubborn it borders on stupidity.”
“You’re so pushy it borders on bullying, so I guess we’re even,” I said, looking up at him.
He abandoned his room, leaving the door open. Great. I already knew from the throbbing in my leg that I wasn’t going to be able to walk. Yelling for help was about as dignified as scooting downstairs on my ass. This was not a convenient location to be abandoned.
I waited until the sounds of his steps had completely faded and then another twenty minutes before I yelled, “Zab? Bibbi? Anyone?”
18
I tried to get off the couch in the back room, but as soon as I put my leg down, the throbbing got worse, like my heart was pumping pain into it instead of blood. Maybe I’d been a little too quick to send Hawk away. It was taking longer than normal to bounce back without him, and could I really afford to be out of commission like this for long?
He might’ve had something with that “stubborn and stupid” comment, at least this time. I wasn’t feeling particularly sharp at the moment, but that might also be because of the blows to the head. At least he’d fixed my ribs before it got ugly.
Either way, Bertha’s food might be on the menu, but Hawk’s offer to help seemed to be off the board. He’d walked through here several times and hadn’t said a word.
After an hour of sitting in bed, I’d hobbled downstairs to sit at my desk and do about as much as I’d accomplished in my bedroom. I’d then hobbled to the back room, where I could elevate my ankle with company.
Zab brought me a plate of cookies. Bertha put another throw blanket on my legs.
Oscar dropped down onto the couch opposite me. “You really know how to take a beating, that’s for sure. Hawk couldn’t fix you up a little?”
Hawk had left again, thankfully, because there was way too much awkwardness in this conversation already.