Page 159 of White Lights
“Something bad is about to happen,” Dez says.
He squints at her. “Do you need me to call someone for you?”
“No.” Dez grips her head. “No. Asher. Something bad is about to happento you.”
He looks alarmed, takes a few more steps back, away from Dez. “Look, I’m going to go finish my hike,” he says, and turns away, adding under his breath, “I knew I should’ve gone surfing.”
“Please,” she calls out, desperate. Maybe she means nothing to him anymore, but there are still people who matter in his life. Dez has seen them in his Lifeline. She thinks of the dinner scene she observed in her Lens. “If you care about your sisters, about your parents …”
He stops walking, turns to look at her, incredulous. “What are you talking about?”
Her voice is choked with tears, but she keeps going. “If you care about your research in Alzheimer’s and living forever. If you want to stay alive, you need to listen to me.”
“Please,” he says. “Leave me alone.”
“You’re in danger.”
“Not if you stay away from me,” he calls over his shoulder.
And then Dez see it. The white rattlesnake coiled on the edge of the path, inches from Asher’s feet. Now it rises, tail simmering, jaw unlocked. Dez screams, running toward him.
But not soon enough to stop it from sinking its fangs into Asher’s ankle.
“ASHER!”
He drops to the ground, writhing in pain as the white snake slithers into the brush and disappears.
Dez runs toward him, her hand moving on instinct for the phone she doesn’t have. She needs to call 911.
On the ground, Asher’s hyperventilating, his face twisted with pain and fear. He’s reaching into his pocket, trying to get out his phone. Dez takes it from him with shaking hands. No service.
“No,” she whispers. “No. No.” How could she have let this happen? Now he’s going to die on this trail. “Help!” she screams. “Somebody!”
Asher’s breath comes in short, hard gasps. His grimace tells her his pain must be immense. She drops to her knees, surveys the bite. Two tiny dots, two rivulets of Asher’s blood. Poison speeding toward his soul.
She lowers her mouth to his ankle and sucks, drawing what’s hurting him into her mouth. She spits—and the taste stops her cold.
Petrichor. Tingling on her lips … just as it had the night she took an angel in her mouth.
This bite has Rafe written all over it, making it more poisonousthan any substance in the natural world. And it’s taking hold in Asher’s blood.
Maybe in Dez’s now, too. She spits again, drags her hand across her mouth.
They’re no match for this. Not Dez, and certainly not Asher. He never asked for this. It’s all her fault.
Asher’s gone from contorting his body to slackening, growing still. His skin is turning pale, and his breath rattles so weakly, Dez fears the next one won’t come.
“Help!”she screams at the top of her lungs.
She falls on her knees beside him and puts her fingers to his throat. His pulse is heartbreakingly faint. She’s running out of time.
Emotion builds in her. For months she’s longed to see Asher. But not like this. Not ever like this.
Tears stream down her cheeks as she struggles to lift Asher. She’ll carry him down the path to his Jeep. But he cries out in such pain when she tries to raise him that she immediately lowers him back to the ground and just cradles him in her arms. The parking lot feels so far away, a hospital even farther. And what mortal remedy could save Asher from the venom of an angel?
She realizes so little truly matters. So little to save in a fire. Everything that matters is right here. She presses her face to his.
“Please hold on,” she begs. “If you can hear me, if there’s anything you can do, don’t let him take you. Stay with me.”
