Fourteen
“Christ,” Galen said. He bit down on the tough leather of his belt and closed his eyes.
Joshua held held the bloody bullet between his fingers. He regarded it briefly and then tossed it aside, focusing on closing up the coin sized tear in Galen’s shoulder.
Galen felt the tug on his flesh as the needle and thread burrowed through again and again. It was hot and unceasing. He wanted to lash out, to strike Joshua away. But he knew to just bite the belt and endure it. They’d done this before.
When at last he felt the final tug he opened his eyes again. Joshua was kneeling over him, sweating, his hands caked in blood.
“All done,” the boy said.
Galen panted. “All better?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But it’ll hold me.”
Joshua nodded. “Until we get out of here, yeah. You’ll need someone professional to look at it, though.”
Galen sighed and let his head rest against the hard earth of the salt flats. The sun was as unrelenting as it had been yesterday. Had he expected it to change? No. Not really. But he’d hoped it would.
He felt Joshua’s fingers on his collar bone. He tilted his head up and saw the boy pulling his already open shirt farther off his chest. Joshua was looking at Galen’s pale flesh. More accurately, he was looking at the demon tattoo.
Galen batted his hand away. “Stop it,” he said.
Joshua looked him in the eyes. “Does it still hurt?”
“I just got shot. Course it still hurts.”
“No,” Joshua said, looking at the black wheel on Galen’s chest. “The mark.”
Galen sat up, a motion his body was not happy with. He grunted in exasperation, panted for a moment, and then looked over at Joshua. The boy was still kneeling next to him, and their faces were only inches apart.
“What have I said about talking about that?” Galen said.
“But I thought—considering what we just… with the angel, I mean. Shouldn’t you tell me now?”
“No,” Galen said. There wasn’t even a trace of playfulness in his voice.
Joshua blinked and leaned away from Galen’s rancid breath. “But I just—”
“You have an angel inside of you, Josh. That’s what you believe. And if that’s true, then I’m even farther from telling you what this is. Just drop it.”
“But—”
“Josh,” Galen said. He put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Thank you for patching me up. Now I don’t wanna waste no more breath speaking about things that shouldn’t be spoken of. We got no water and even less food. You follow me?”
Joshua stared at him for a moment, and then he sighed and nodded his head. “Okay.”
