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.

are really,

with dread. Selene presses close to

turns, I realize that nothing seems

and yet it feels

I

back at me, a strange smile playing on her

room. Two of our guards take

the silence. Vanessa makes her way to the bed where my mother lies, seemingly asleep. She checks the IV bags hanging beside the

eyes drawn to the frail figure beneath the sheets. The sight of her steals my breath. It's only been a few days, and yet she looks so much smaller, her

not long for this

taking its toll," Vanessa murmurs, her voice tinged with

my 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 in

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

hits me like a physical blow, but I stand

here?" She struggles to sit up, her arms trembling with the effort, before finally giving up. The vitriol in her eyes never fades, though. "To gloat? To see

cuts through the air

sound is vile, coming

that even the sound of her cough is filled

yet you're here, aren't

down, Mrs. Grey." Vanessa finishes checking her medicine as a nurse steps in, holding a syringe and an impossibly tiny vial filled with clear liquid. "We're about to

agitated if you would remove that filth from my

to flinch at the

against my hand keeps me grounded. Don't let her bait you, she whispers

eyes dart around the room like a cornered animal. She scurries out, leaving an unsettling silence in her

on my tongue, but I swallow them back. Now's

syringe, Selene's voice whispers through

I'll take

mother's face, trying to block out the vitriol spilling from her lips. Her features, once soft and warm, are now sharp and twisted with loathing. It's hard to reconcile this bitter shell of a woman with the mother I remember from my earliest

was infectious. She'd pull me into

little girl in the world, Ava," she'd say, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "You've been