“How much do we need?” She limped back in with a bleach-white face and fear-soaked eyes. I rarely cried in their presence, so when I did, she rightly thought the world was ending. “How close are we?”
“I’ve got three hundred and two. I get paid on Friday.”
She waited until I had muscled Mordecai to a sitting position before putting the steamer on the edge of the bed. “What about rent?”
“It’s mortgage, not rent, and…the bank will give us a couple months before kicking us out. They always gave my mother a grace period when things were tight. And I’ll try to get some overtime at work.”
“Your boss hates you. He won’t give you an extra dime if he doesn’t have to.”
“Then I’ll sell fake drugs to your friend. We’ll figure it out.”
Mordecai slumped forward. A cough tore through his chest and he hacked on the liquid building up in his esophagus. Air stopped. His chest worked, but nothing was happening.
“Oh God, Lexi, he’s not breathing!”
“Help me straighten him,” I yelled, getting behind him and pulling on his shoulders. “Never mind. I got it. Plug in that steamer. Set it to full blast.”
She knocked over the air purifier in her haste, extremely clumsy from panic. The prongs of the steamer’s plug hit off the wall, then the plastic panel of the outlet, before finally finding the holes and slipping into place.
Wrapping my arms around Mordecai to keep him upright, I sobbed again, this time in relief, when he sucked in a wheezing breath. Daisy fiddled with the settings of the steamer, nearly knocked the thing off the bed, and then straightened it and angled it toward his face. Tears dripped down her cheeks.
Minutes trickled by. I held Mordecai. She held the steamer. Together we cried softly as he labored for breath through the violent coughing episodes. But finally, finally, the wetness of the coughs eased. His breathing evened out.
He wiggled in my arms and coughed some more.
“Oh, thank God.” Daisy flung her arms around him, thwapping me in the face as she did so.
“What happened?” I asked, afraid to let go, lest he slump over and fall off the bed.
“He opened his eyes. His eyes are open!”
“What’s going on?” Mordecai said quietly, his voice scratchy from all the coughing.
“Get him the syrup.” I pushed my captured hand against Daisy’s chest. “Get him the syrup.”
“Why can’t we just take him to the emergency room and pretend we have money until after they treat him?” Daisy asked, unscrewing the cap. “No one can pay upfront. They bill people.”
“They run credit, and I don’t have any,” I said, guilt tearing at me. “I’ve tried.”
“Then fine. I’ve got a new plan.” She wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing tears across her cheek. “I’m going to find someone with magical medical and marry them. Then I’ll claim Mordie as a dependent, and we can take him to the hospital.”
“Your plan needs work,” Mordecai said weakly, and I struggled to hold my sobs back. He didn’t need to know how much we worried about him. He’d feel guilty for causing us grief. He didn’t need to expend energy on anything other than staying alive.
“We got this. Just hang tight for a few more days, Mordecai, and we’ll have medicine for you.” I chanced easing up the hold. He tipped forward, but caught himself.
“I don’t know why it’s getting worse. It’s only been a week since my last dose,” he said softly.
“Puberty.” I rubbed his back. “Your body is probably going through some big changes right now, bud. A growth spurt, maybe. I’ve heard that your dad was a big guy. And shifters feel puberty harder than humans.”
“We don’t have the money to support my habit—”
He barely got to finish the word.
A slap rang out and he fell back into me. Daisy kneeled in front of him with new tears streaking her face, her expression screwed up in anger. “Don’t you talk like that. We do have the money. It’s just a matter of finding it. You two are my family. I need you. Both of you. So, don’t you dare give up. We’ll get you that medicine. And fuck you for scaring me.”
Silence fell over us, gooey and thick with emotion. I should’ve berated her for slapping him. I should’ve yelled at her for swearing.
But as the chuckles bubbled up through my middle, all I could do was laugh and hold on to Mordecai for dear life.
“Fuck you, too,” he said, reaching out for her.
She was right—it was only the three of us. Our family was all we had in this world, and it was unthinkable for us to lose him. We couldn’t.
Somehow, I had to get that medicine.
10
Alexis
Eyes puffy and fatigue dragging at me, I lugged my tired butt into work the next morning. Mordecai hadn’t made any kind of recovery, but the syrup had eased his coughing enough to let him sleep soundly.
Neither Daisy nor I had gotten a wink. We’d sat on her bed, hugging each other, watching over him to make sure he was okay.
Stale air greeted me as the glass doors slid open. The cream floors shone in the bright fluorescent lights attached to the ceiling overhead. Racks of clothes spread out in front of me, and shelves of undergarments rose up behind them. Toiletries were to the right, and way in the back was my section—the bed and bath section.
In a national chain that had everything, why had I gone to that other store for a blanket? Because this particular store was owned by a bunch of magic-hating jerks, run by another jerk, and its products were designed by jerks to break or fall apart within a few months so customers would have to come back for more. Still, it was a job I sorely needed, so I dealt with it.
You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.
I sighed. I hated when my mother’s sayings randomly crowded into my head to sour my already bad mood.
After dipping my timecard into the time-stamp machine, I made my way to my section and stared for a moment at the utter destruction only a few hours had wrought. Bathroom mats lay trampled on the ground, towels were wadded up, the colors mixed, and a toothbrush holder littered the floor in pieces—people were slobs when it came to perusing the wares of a cheap store with no personality.
Or maybe they treated every place with this level of disrespect. I had no idea, but if Daisy and Mordecai treated our house like this, they’d get a thumping.
Thinking of Mordecai dashed my righteous annoyance. With a heavy heart, I went about my managerial duties in a “department” of one, working from one end of my area to the other, cleaning up after patrons. When that was finished, I started over, cleaning up the same amount of destruction I’d just set to rights. It was an endless loop.
A few hours into the mindless daze, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Hoping it was my alarm signaling lunch, I dug it out of my too-tight pocket and looked at the screen.
Fear blasted through my chest. It was home calling, and since Daisy and Mordecai knew I wasn’t allowed to look at my phone or take calls on the floor, it meant this was an emergency.
“Hello?” I said, hurrying toward the stockroom.
“It’s me.” Daisy’s voice was filled with fear and determination. “He’s at it again and I can’t get him to wake up. Alexis, he’s going to die if we don’t do something. He can’t last two more days. You know it as well as I do.”
Bands of steel squeezed my chest, but I swallowed my fear. It wouldn’t help this situation. “Get him sitting upright and use the steamer. Give him the cough medicine. I can ask for a cash advance. That’ll buy us time.”
“The fees for doing that are enormous.” I had no idea how she knew that, but it was true, so I didn’t say anything. “Besides, you’ve tried that before and they wouldn’t let you. You’re magical, remember? They don’t trust you. But that bitch Denny does owe me two hundred bucks. That’s our play. Grab a sword or something from the store. If I call again, it means everything went to shit, and we need to fight back.”
“No! No.” I lowered my voice when a guy on a forklift looked up. I scurried toward a large stack of unopened boxes. A woman in a different uniform stood idly in the far corner, picking her nail while watching me with solemn eyes. I had no idea what she was doing there. “I’ll apply for the cash advance. You take that job with Denny’s dad. And please don’t call that boy a bitch to his face. People don’t take kindly to that. He is a boy, right, not a man? He’s your age?”