There’s a brief moment of silence over the comms, and I can picture the expressions of confusion and alarm on the others’ faces as if I was standing beside them.
“Look at the map. The medium security wing is really close to the tree line, and there’s got to be a blind spot in the cameras over here,” Cross says, not that I can see what he’s referring to.
They start to debate the plan further, but I can see shapes moving behind the frosted glass of the door across from me.
“Joker out,” I mutter quickly, reaching into my ear to turn off my comms.
As the door opens and Delilah walks out under her own power, I let out a relieved sigh. But then I catch the glare of Dr. Stuart over Delilah’s shoulder, which makes me grin. He doesn’t like me, not that I’ve given him a reason to. He’s canceled our sessions until a med schedule can be worked out to make me more “receptive.” Too bad for him I haven’t swallowed a single thing any of these quacks have tried to shove down my throat over the last week orso.
Delilah finally notices I’m there, and my heart does a little flip as I watch her entire face brighten, a smile pulling up the corners of her lips. I can’t help but smile back, pushing off the wall and striding toward her.
“There’s my beautiful little wisp! I missed you,” I chirp, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and guiding her away.
The color of her cheeks when I make her blush is becoming my favorite color in the whole world. I smile a little brighter, laughing when she tries to hide her face.
“I missed you, too, Joker,” she mumbles, still fighting her smile.
“Good. You should miss me. I’m a delight,” I reply, throwing her a wink that makes her roll her eyes.
“You are impossible,” she says with a little laugh in her voice.
“I am impossible not to love. There I finished that thought for you,” I fire back, not missing a beat.
That only makes her laugh harder, which in turn makes me laugh. Whatever shadows might have fallen over my wisp while she was in that room with that fart cloud with a psychology degree fade away by the time we reach the common room and our favorite spot. It’s raining today, so we’re stuck inside, which only makes me want to be outside more. I’m sure one of the weirdos I’ve spoken to here has probably made a note of that in my chart. I’ll have to ask Siren to look at what they’re saying about me later.
When we reach our couch, I flop down in Delilah’s usual spot and open my arms for her to come cuddle. And to my surprise and relief, she doesn’t hesitate, curling up into my side and resting her head on my collarbone. We’re quiet for a while, which I’ll admit freely is new for me. Usually, I can’t sit still for more than a few minutes without having something to focus on. But I find myself enjoying the peace my little wisp brings to my restless soul.
Oh, yeah. I’m definitely keeping her now.
“Have you ever thought about what you’d do when you get out of here?” I ask softly, twirling a piece of her silk-soft hair around my finger.
Delilah hums thoughtfully, pausing before she speaks. “I haven’t. If I’m being honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever recover enough to be released. And even then, I don’t want to endup…”
I growl softly, reflexively holding her a little closer. Little does she know she’s never going to worry about being sold to the highest bidder again. Not while I’m around.
“But just dream with me for a minute. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”
She looks out through the window, the rain pattering against it softly, drowning out the constant background chatter of the staff and other patients. I give her room to gaze out, while playing with her hair and leaning my cheek against the top of her head.
“I’d like to be near the ocean, I think. Or another big body of water. Being able to put my feet in the water whenever I want might be the closest that I’ll get to heaven,” she answers after a few more long moments of silence.
“Oh, sweetness, I’m sure we can find other ways to get you close to heaven,” I say, a low chuckle undercutting my words.
I don’t miss the catch in her breathing, or the brief but distinct scent of chocolate in the air around us. I lean closer, nuzzling into her neck, searching for the sweetness under the ash and bitter tannins I normally smell, but it’s gone.
“Joker,” she exhales breathlessly, a little anxious tint to my name even as she clings to me like I’m going to float away.
“Too much? Or…not enough?” I whisper in her ear, running my fingers down the outside of her arm.
She shivers, and I see the goosebumps rising on the skin of her throat. God, she’s so responsive to these simple touches. I can’t imagine how starved for closeness she must be.
But as I look closer at her skin, I see the fading but still distinct scars of her old bond marks: three sets of teeth marks clustered right where her right shoulder meets her slender throat. My own bond mark pulses on my inner thigh, a tugging in my chest accompanying it. Bones needs me, but I don’t want to let Delilah go. Not when she clearly needs me, too. But every moment I delay, the tugging in my chest becomes more insistent, like a meat hook in my navel.
“Wait right here for me, okay beautiful? I’ll be right back,” I whisper, dropping the lightest of kisses on her throat before I pull away and head toward the bathroom.
Once I’m inside I tap my comms back on with a growl.
“This better be good,” I snarl under my breath.