“I know . . .”
“No,” said Chong, “you don’t. I told her that she should stay away from me. She shouldn’t ever touch me; she shouldn’t ever get close to me. Dr. McReady told her the same thing. . . .”
“What did Lilah say?”
Chong gave a short, rueful laugh. “She threatened to punch Dr. McReady’s teeth down her throat and told me to stop being a stupid town boy. She said that if I ever tried to go away from her again, she’d break my legs. She’s very romantic, that girl. Sweet as a kit
ten . . . if a kitten was a Siberian tiger with mood issues.”
Benny grinned. “Yeah, but for some inexplicable reason she loves you.”
“That only proves how crazy she is.”
Benny looked around. “Hey—where’s Nix?”
“Nix was here until like a minute before you woke up. I think she went to the bathroom. They have actual bathrooms here. No squatting behind bushes and wiping your butt with poison ivy.”
“That’s not exactly what we did.”
“Felt like it.”
“And where’s Lilah?”
“Ah,” he said, his smile fading. “The doctors wanted to give her something called an MRI. No idea what that is, but they said that she might have a skull fracture.” He shook his head. “I can’t have anything happen to her, Benny. Nothing.”
Benny reached out to try and give him a reassuring pat on the arm, but then winced as pain shot through his back.
“Owwww! What the hell?”
Chong nodded. “Yeah, they said the painkillers would be wearing off pretty soon.”
“Painkillers . . . ? For what?”
“Aww, it’s so cute that you thought of me first before remembering that you had a big ol’ sword fight with a psycho killer. That little twinge you’re feeling is a knife wound, genius. They said that the anesthetic might make you a little slow. Not that this is a new mental state for you.”
“Bite me,” said Benny through gritted teeth.
“No thanks,” said Chong. “From now on I’m going to explore that whole vegan thing.”
“This . . . hurts. How bad is it? What happened?”
“Basically you got stabbed in the wrong place,” Chong said, and he told Benny enough so that the door of memories opened up. The fight with Brother Peter replayed in Benny’s mind with painful clarity.
“How am I not dead?”
“Because fortune favors the stupid,” said Chong. “The knife hit your ribs at the wrong angle. Didn’t puncture anything important enough to kill you. More like a scratch.”
“Could have freaking fooled me. If I’m only scratched, why did I pass out?”
“Because you’re a girlie-man?”
“Really, seriously, bite me.”
“They said it was blood loss, shock, and something about nerve compression. They put in a crapload of stitches. They said that you’ll be able to get out of bed today, though only for a couple of minutes at a time. The armor you were wearing kept the knife from going in too deep. And they examined Brother Peter’s knife. There was no infectious matter on it. Not like on the arrow I got shot with.”
“That’s something.”
“I can’t believe you agreed to a duel with a guy who makes Charlie Pink-eye look like a punk.”