Chapter 7 - A Spark in the Dark
By four o'clock in the morning, the gunfire had stopped, the bodies had been cleared away, and silence had settled back over the Mercer estate like a heavy shroud.
Lawson walked down the corridor of the east wing, his boots leaving faint tracks of melted snow on the polished marble floors. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing the corded muscles of his forearms, stained with a faint smear of dried blood from one of Crosby’s men who had gotten too close.
He pushed open the door to the medical suite without making a sound.
The room was lit only by the soft, amber glow of a single desk lamp. The harsh overhead fluorescent lights had been turned off.
Aveline sat in a wooden chair beside Jonah’s bed, her head resting against the mattress, her eyes closed in utter exhaustion. Her hand was tucked gently under the boy’s palm, her fingers interlaced with his tiny, fever-warm ones.
Blythe was sleeping peacefully on the adjacent bed, her breathing regular, the frantic, jagged spikes on the heart monitor smoothed out into a slow, steady rhythm.
Lawson stepped into the room. Aveline’s eyes snapped open instantly—the sharp, instinctual reaction of someone who had lived too long on the run.
“How is he?” Lawson asked, his voice rough and quiet.
Aveline straightened up, rubbing her temples with her free hand. “His fever broke twenty minutes ago. The spleen count is stabilizing. Whatever compound was lingering in his bloodstream... I managed to flush it out with the herbal wash and an intravenous saline drip.”
She looked up at Lawson, her amber eyes searching his exhausted face. “He’s going to make it through the night. Both of them are.”
Lawson felt the breath leave his lungs in a long, shuddering exhalation. For two years, he hadn't allowed himself to feel relief—not truly. Relief was a weakness; relief meant you believed the world could be kind.
He walked over to Jonah’s bed and looked down at his son. The terrifying gray pallor that had haunted the boy’s skin for weeks had receded just enough to show a hint of natural warmth beneath.
“You saved them,” Lawson said, and the words felt strange in his mouth, heavy and unaccustomed.
“I bought them time,” Aveline corrected softly, withdrawing her hand from Jonah’s grip and standing up. Her legs wobbled slightly, and she caught the edge of the mattress to steady herself. “Leukemia doesn't just go away because of a good night, Lawson. The real work starts tomorrow. If we’re going to beat this completely, I need laboratory equipment that your Dr. Yates doesn't even know exists.”
Lawson reached out, his large hand catching her arm to steady her before she could sway.
May you like
“Ask for whatever you want,” Lawson said, his voice absolute. “If it’s on this earth, I’ll have it here by noon.”
Aveline looked down at his hand on her arm, then up into his dark, intense eyes. For a brief second, the walls between them dropped, and she didn't look like a mysterious fugitive or an unwelcome intruder. She looked like a woman who had carried an impossible burden across a frozen wasteland, finally finding someone strong enough to share the weight.
