Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 192 Ava: Mom's Legacy (V)

The hospital is eerily quiet, our steps echoing through the halls. Visiting hours are long over, and night shift reigns.

Vanessa is unfazed by the creepy quality of the place at a late hour, but I jump when the elevator dings, signalling its arrival in front of us.

"You okay?" she asks, concern knitting her brows.

Selene—who's finally out from beneath my bed, though she refuses to talk about why she avoided me for the rest of the day—leans against my leg in silent comfort. "It's just so quiet. I'm not used to hospitals without people bustling around."

There's a giant machine coming down the hall in our direction, cleaning the floor with whatever algorithm powers its movement.

I always wondered how hospitals kept their floors so clean. I guess everything's automated these days.

Vanessa nudges me onto the elevator, pressing the button for my mom's floor before we've all even made it in.

Four bodyguards flank us. Massive overkill, considering that there isn't much we're expecting to happen on this visit.

Still, Lucas—and Jericho—are taking no chances on my safety.

Marcus, at least, is getting a break, and a new guy seems to be the one to shadow me for the night. He's a little short, but his eyes are black and intense, and I wouldn't want to be found in an alley with him in the dark.

He smells like death, Selene says. To me, such words are atrocious, like I should avoid the person. To her? She speaks as though she admires him.

And that's a good thing?

Selene's ears flick toward me, and I can feel her side-eye even without her eyes moving. He is a capable guard. This is a good thing.

Right. I guess that's true.

"You seem on edge," Vanessa murmurs, looking straight forward as the elevator numbers change from floor to floor.

"Just a little." I've been avoiding thinking about my mom, or her wolf. Avoidance has always been my specialty.

But habits are

my mother's room feels longer than it should, each step heavy with dread. Selene presses close to my side, her warmth

a few turns, I realize

yet it feels as though

move her?" I ask, confusion lacing my

me, a strange smile playing on her lips. "They had to make

ease my apprehension as we enter the room. Two of our guards take up positions outside,

the silence. Vanessa makes her way to the bed where my mother lies, seemingly asleep. She

of her steals my breath. It's only been a few days, and yet she looks so much smaller, her cheeks hollow and skin

long for

voice tinged with something I can't quite

mother's eyes flutter open. They're dull, lacking the fire I've always associated with her. But when they land on me, they sharpen, a glare that pins me

curse me into the afterlife," she rasps, her voice thin

a physical blow,

arms trembling with the effort, before finally giving up. The

honesty cuts through the

vile, coming out of

so much that even the

you're here, aren't

and an impossibly

agitated if you would remove that

at the words she throws

keeps me grounded. Don't let her bait you,

the nurse, whose eyes dart around the room like a cornered animal. She scurries out, leaving an unsettling silence in her wake, broken only by the beeping machines and my mother's

I swallow them back. Now's not the time to satisfy

the clear liquid into the syringe, Selene's voice whispers through my

hollow comfort, but I'll take what

from her lips. Her features, once soft and warm, are now sharp and twisted with loathing. It's hard to reconcile this bitter

then, her smile could light up a room, and her laughter was infectious. She'd pull me into her lap, tickling me until I was breathless with

world, Ava," she'd say, tucking a strand of hair behind