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.Court obligingly filled in the missingparts he couldn t remember, like how he d found him, and the little details thathad been niggling in the back of his mind.Once again, there was thatreluctance the shying away from discussing the accident overly much.Was it aprofessional defense mechanism of some sort? A way to do scary, gruesomethings and not dwell on it later and regret certain outcomes, the ones he failed tosave or failed to find? The ones who died&That was the trick, warming up and getting to the subject he couldn t let go.Maybe Court could understand how much he wanted needed to talk about hisnear-death experience.And maybe he d find if Court had heard similar thingsfrom other people he rescued; there really was no one better to ask.Sitting besidehim now, he saw no trace of that beautiful aura he d seen or of the unnatural44 www.samhainpublishing.comForever in One Secondbrilliance sparking in Court s eyes.Today, the eyes looked normal.A stunningsummer blue, but normal.Would Court think him deluded if he mentioned it? Or worse crazy? Hell,he was beginning to think he was crazy.No matter if he was nuts.He felt frickin fabulous.Court s lips were moving, and Dane forced his mind back to theconversation. You appear to be all healed up now, he was saying. I feel fine.Wonderful, in fact.Just have an ugly scar now, but it s alreadyfading. Reaching up, he unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, intending toshow him, but Court held up a staying hand. Uh, no need to show me.I ll take your word for it.Dane grinned shamelessly. Sorry.I m pushy  he winked  andimmodest.Court swallowed what seemed to be a large lump in his throat. Modesty sgood, you know and vastly underrated these days.But I m glad you re doingwell.Dane was one of those people who couldn t keep a secret.Things burst out ofhim as if under great pressure.All his friends had long ago learned not toconfide in him too much, unless they actually wanted the whole world to know.Right now, endless questions ached to burst out, and he plucked the mostimportant from the jumble. Court? Hmm? I need to ask you about something.Having not only expressive eyes, Court had expressive brows as well, and heraised the corner of one. So ask.I may be taking a stab in the dark here, but I massuming you re not shy.www.samhainpublishing.com 45Finn MarloweDane s mouth turned up at one corner in a wry grin. No.Not shy.I ll neverbe accused of that. The question ask the question, damn it! The grin died away. Was I dying?Court pressed his lips together in a grim line.Lying was not something he dever warmed to.Perhaps the time had come to get over that little moralconundrum? Wasn t the best place to hide a lie in the middle of two truths? Well, I wouldn t say dying. Liar, liar. But you weren t doing well, no.It was agood thing the ambulance came as fast as it did.But I don t know what to say.My job is to tag  em and bag  em and ship  em out fast. That peculiar coolnesssettled over him again; his veins suddenly felt full of ice water instead of blood.Fear, that s all it was. Why do you ask? I thought I was dying.I was sure of it.Bothers me. I would think that would bother anybody. I saw a light. Dane took a deep breath. I m not crazy either, if that s whatyou re thinking.But I did see one.Very bright.It was so& so awesome!The ice water in Court s veins began solidifying.How else could he explainthe fact his blood stopped flowing? All of sudden, he felt light-headed.Just theheat.Time, then, for a touch of truth and a bigger touch of lie. Oxygendeprivation? You were having difficulty breathing, as you would with that kindof injury.Hypoxia. You think so?He faked up a shrug. I m not a doctor. I looked it up on the Internet.Of course he did.Court got a sinking feeling. Most people die from the kind of injuries I had. But not all, he added hastily. Good thing I m a great paramedic, eh?46 www.samhainpublishing.comForever in One Second I guess I just got lucky. Maybe luck played its part. Keeping his eyes downcast, Court toyed withthe can in his hands. You were lucky it was only a small tornado.You got luckyagain that the building was solidly built, all steel and cement, and the groundyou landed on was soft.Luck helped again in that your boss Leo, was it?  wasunhurt and just happened to run into us at the exact moment we drove by, and Iwas lucky I found you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]