Closer: Bay City Paranormal Investigation, Book 4

empty road in the wake of the ambulance. Now that the immediate need for action was over, reaction had set in, leaving him weak and shaken. Everything had happened so fast. A few hours ago, he and Bo had been safe in bed. Now, Bo was lying unconscious in the back of an ambulance after having been attacked for the second time by one of those fucking things from the other side. And this time, Sam had no idea how or why the portal had come into existence.
    Another mystery to solve. Another twist in the sketchy tale of the interdimensional gateways and the beings who called the other side home. Why had the portal opened this time? What did Bo have to do with it? And why, why , did those creatures keep coming here in the first place? What did they want?
    Sam didn’t know, and wasn’t sure he wanted to. But something told him he’d eventually learn those answers whether he was ready for them or not.
Chapter Fourteen
    It was fifteen minutes after midnight when Sam, Dean and Kyle finally reached the Baldwin County Medical Center. They’d lost the ambulance in the string of lights and surprisingly heavy traffic along Highway 59 between Gulf Shores and Foley. By the time they entered the emergency room doors, nearly forty-five minutes after leaving Fort Medina, Sam was frantic with worry and ready to explode at the least provocation.
    He marched up to the desk at the far side of the crowded room, Dean and Kyle at his heels. “We’re looking for Dr. Bo Broussard,” he said to the young man on the other side. “Where is he?”
    The man raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know a Dr. Broussard. You sure you’re at the right hospital?”
Dean’s hand on his arm stopped Sam’s angry outburst. “He’s a patient,” Dean explained. “The ambulance should’ve brought him in not long ago. I’m Dean Delapore, and this is Sam Raintree and Kyle DuPree, we’re Bo’s friends.”
“Oh, yeah. Julia said y’all would be coming in.” The nurse gave them a critical look. “You can’t all go back there. Two at the most. Sorry, but there’s not much room back there.”
“I’ll stay out here,” Kyle offered. “Y’all go on back.”
Sam gave the boy a nod and a smile. “Thanks, Kyle.”
“No problem.” Kyle brushed his fingers against Dean’s hand. “Let me know if you need me to do anything, okay?”
“Sure thing. Thanks, babe.” Dean pressed close to kiss Kyle’s chin. Kyle blushed to the roots of his hair, but his eyes shone.
After clipping on the white plastic “Visitor” badges the triage nurse handed them, Sam and Dean hurried through the double doors leading to the ER treatment rooms. Any other time, Sam would’ve teased Dean about Kyle’s transparent adoration. Right now, however, he was too worried about Bo to concentrate on anything else.
Julia the paramedic was standing at the nurse’s station, filling out paperwork. She nodded when they approached her. “Bo’s in room twelve,” she said. “He wanted to see you both as soon as you got here.”
Relief made Sam’s knees weak. He put a hand on the desk to steady himself. “So he’s awake?”
“Not exactly. He’s been fading in and out, but he woke up and was fairly lucid for a minute right before we got here. That’s when he told Pete—that’s my partner—to make sure y’all came to see him the second you got here. He was sort of fixated on that.” She scrawled her name on the bottom of the form, clicked her pen off and stuck it in her shirt pocket. “I know it’s kind of frightening, but try not to worry too much. It’s normal to be drowsy and confused, or even completely out of it, for quite a while after a generalized seizure like the one he had. He’ll come around.”
Dean nodded. “Thanks, Julia. Where’s room twelve?”
She pointed to her left. “On the corner there. I think they’re getting ready to take him to the OR to clean and stitch that wound, so you better hurry.”
Sam pushed away from the desk and strode off in the indicated direction. He managed to mumble a thank you to Julia on the way. He heard Dean saying something to her, but couldn’t make out the words. His attention was completely fixed on getting to Bo’s side.
He walked along the row of cubicles to number twelve. The curtain hung open, revealing a tiny room packed full of people and equipment. Bo lay on his side on a narrow stretcher, his lower body covered by a white blanket. A clean bandage was taped across his back. IV lines snaked into both arms,