Read Online Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre - Free Book Online Page B

bloodstream.
    Kian sped up, glancing at me worriedly. “Hang in there.”
    Fifteen minutes later, he found a small hospital in some small town up the coast from Boston. The place was tiny compared with the hospital where I’d visited Brittany, but there were also fewer people running around. Since it was the middle of the night on New Year’s, they were busy with drunken accidents, and our situation didn’t seem as weird as it might have otherwise.
    We waited for almost forty-five minutes, and it was getting hard for me to breathe by the time they escorted us back. They tried to take the boy back on his own, but he clung to Kian’s hand like he’d never let go. In the end, the nurse let us wait for the ER doctor on the same bed. He asked a few questions about what we’d been doing tonight, and I let Kian do the talking. He told a fairly convincing story about a New Year party gone wrong and an angry guard dog. Afterward, they tended my wounds and checked my ankle, sprained, not broken, then they set the kid’s fingers and put medicine on his cuts and bruises. The staff asked where Aaron’s parents were, but Kian said he was his brother and opted for private pay.
    â€œDid something else happen?” the doctor asked, troubled enough by my respiration to check again.
    â€œI might’ve been stung by something,” I wheezed.
    His concern sharpened. “Are you allergic?”
    â€œI don’t—” But I couldn’t finish the sentence; a vise tightened around my rib cage, compressing my lungs. My head throbbed from lack of oxygen, and everything went dark and smoky. In a few seconds, I’d be out.
    â€œAnaphylactic shock,” someone yelled.
    The medical team responded, running around and doing things to fix it. An oxygen mask went over my nose and something sharp pricked my arm. I was feeling better in five minutes or so, enough to sit up. Kian looked near death himself; he stumbled toward me and drew me into his arms, ignoring the people trying to work around us.
    â€œDon’t ever scare me like that again.”
    â€œIt wasn’t on purpose,” I mumbled.
    They kept us for another hour but when it became apparent we had no other weird or mysterious symptoms, the doctor decided our injuries weren’t serious enough to keep us overnight, so they cleared us out to make room. The boy flitted behind Kian and me, floating from the pain pills they’d given him. Kian’s story sounded dodgy to me, but none of our wounds were the kind that always required reporting, like gunshots. They asked a few pointed questions about Aaron’s injuries, but Kian lied well enough to allay suspicion.
    Aaron hopped in the back without being asked and I fell into the passenger seat. As Kian started the car, the kid asked, “What are you going to do with me?”
    â€œHuh?” My pain meds were pretty good too.
    But Kian had evidently been expecting this question. “Do you want us to drop you off at the police station? They can probably find your parents.”
    A tiny hitch of breath revealed how horrible Aaron thought that idea was. “If you want to get rid of me, it’s okay.”
    I understood his fear. Who knew how long he’d been with the Harbinger? He couldn’t remember anything else, nothing about his life before. So right now, we were the only familiarity in a weird-ass world.
    Hesitant, I suggested, “Maybe we could let him recover first?”
    Though I felt bad for his family, they’d already been missing him so long. Two more days wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme, would it? I’d feel better if we weren’t dragging him to the station while he cowered and wept.
    â€œBaby steps,” Kian agreed. “Okay, new plan. You can crash at my place until you’re feeling better. When you’re up to it, we’ll see about finding your family.”
    Long silence.
    When I checked on him, Aaron