Masked

CHAPTER 23 | stan lee has left the building

Payette, Idaho

A lump was lodged in Parker's throat, making it impossible to swallow. Everything had happened so fast, she couldn't think straight. How was this possible? Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head in denial. "No! You can't, I won't stand for it. There must be something we can do."

Bobby winced, and the effort sent his entire body into a fit of spasms. When it subsided, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Parks, you know as much as anyone, there is only one endgame here. Even Stan would be hard pressed to come up with a way through this. I don't have superpowers to make this all go away."

Parker clutched his hand. She would never let it go. Her throat constricted, making it hard for her to breathe. She couldn't accept this. She wouldn't.

Bobby gave her hand a shake. "Look at me, Parks."

She hesitated, then looked up, and her heart ached. Her cousin, who had been more like a brother, lay broken, fighting for his life, on a bed soaked in sweat and blood. Black blotches ravaged the side of his face. The rest of his body was covered in them, too. He was already struggling to remain lucid. At this rate, he would have very little control over what he or his wolf did, within hours.

The Brandenburg pack's doctor had pumped Bobby full of morphine to dull the pain, to allow her the time she needed to get to Idaho.

"But I don't understand how." Her vision blurred, and she wiped away the tears. "You were fine when I saw you last." She hauled in a breath and her eyes opened wide. "Please tell me you didn't try the stuff."

"Give me credit. I didn't take Wildfire."

Her brows pursed together. "Then how did this happen?"

Bobby shook his head. "I don't know. I started feeling ill when we were in Montreal. By the time we had followed Matheo to Mexico City, I knew something was wrong, and I came home."

Unlike the progression of the others she'd seen, Bobby's deterioration was supercharged. Blood had already begun to seep from his ears and nose. His internal organs were shutting down in record time.

"B-but if you would just hold on, maybe we could find something to fight it." She fought to control her emotions, unwilling to think this was the end.

Bobby tightened his grip on her hand. "I want to do this on my terms, before I am too far gone to make the decision."

She let out an involuntary whimper, covered her mouth, and looked at Morgan and Clara, who were standing nearby. Parker wiped her tears. "No. Tell him this isn't the way."

Morgan's lips set into a grim line. "It is his decision. You must respect that. Let him have the dignity to choose the way in which he leaves this world."

Her bottom lip trembled uncontrollably, and she turned back to her cousin. "You can't leave me like this, Bobby."

He let out a cough that wracked his entire body with pain, but he attempted to relax his features and smiled at her. "Be strong. I'll always be with you, Parks, no matter where you are. You may be my little cuz, but you've always looked after me. I never thanked you for that."

She covered her mouth with her hand to stop sobbing. It was bad enough she couldn't control her tears, but to let him see her so distraught was more than she could bear. She choked on her words. "But that's what family is for. You know I love you, Bobby."

A tortured moan erupted from him, and his shoulder popped. His eyes widened and he gasped. "Get her out of here, I don't want her to see this."

The Brandenburg pack's doctor rushed to Bobby's bedside and injected another vial of morphine into her cousin's neck. "He's going to turn, we need to strap him down," he said. "If we are going to do this, we need to do it now."

She fought Clara tooth and nail as she pulled her away from Bobby's bedside. "No, let me go!" She screamed and struggled to return to her cousin. "Let me go!"

As Clara pushed her out the door, Morgan said, "I will let you know when it's done."

Her heart burst, and she let out an ear-piercing wail as her legs gave way. Trevor, her ever constant bodyguard, reached her before her body hit the floor.

Clara's face was stony, though her tears ran freely. "Let's get her up to the house."

Trevor placed her on the couch in the family room. Clara's sudden indrawn breath told her everything she needed to know. Bobby was gone.

"Liebe, it is over. He is at peace now." With that, she pulled Parker into her arms. "Mein hertz, I am so very sorry."

She buried her head in Clara's shoulder and sobbed uncontrollably for so long she turned numb. This wasn't happening. Bobby wasn't dead. He had just met his idol, Stan Lee, for Christ's sake, he couldn't be dead.

The hollow feeling of loss overwhelmed her, and she lay in a stupor, unable to speak.

A long time later, she stared blankly at the slew of missed calls from Daniel, Jessica, and Alice. Instead of answering, she roamed around the house like a zombie. Bobby had been taken from her too soon. She shouldn't have outlived him. He was a werewolf—he was supposed to live a dozen of her lifetimes. She'd promised his mother that she would look after him, but she had failed.

Memories from their childhood replayed like an old movie. She recalled the summers they spent at the beach before she lost her parents. The time he carried her the entire way home after she'd cut her foot on a broken bottle, and how he'd stayed with her while the doctor stitched the gaping wound, even though he was petrified of needles. How he held her upright at her parent graves as they were lowered into the ground. All her most meaningful memories included him. He had been part of every major event in her life. With Bobby gone, there was no one left who knew where she came from, or who remembered her parents before they were taken from her.

She collapsed to the floor and sat staring into space. She was alone and completely empty.

Morgan and Clara, mindful she needed space, kept vigil with her the entire night. They watched over her as she broke, and held her tightly as she raged against the injustice. They encouraged her to drink when they felt she had become too dehydrated, and they sat with her when she was spent. For once, Clara did not push her to eat.

By morning, she was exhausted. She had run the gambit of every emotion possible in a few short hours. Through it all, she discovered a truth she already knew deep inside. While her biological family was well and truly gone, she still had a family that, while not blood, were there for her, and they would always catch her when she fell.

Bobby's loss hardened herresolve. She wasn't going to lose another loved one to this disease. Someoneneeded to pay for Bobby's death. The bastards behind Wildfire had picked thewrong person to fuck with.