Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

There was nothing. "Daren? Stick with me. What is the first album you listened to nonstop for a month?"
    " Elephant ."
    "White Stripes. Good choice." He started carefully working his way across Daren's face with just the tips of his fingers. Daren winced and then whimpered. "Sorry." Nothing seemed horribly broken; though he was sure there were tiny fractures he was missing. Along Daren's throat, there was swelling and red blotches the size and shape of large fingers. They must have choked Daren as well. Maybe to keep him quiet. Daren's eyes started to flutter. "Keep talking, Daren. White Stripes. Ever see them live?"
    "Madison Square Garden."
    Sebastian could tell that Daren was fading fast. "Madison Square Garden? That must have been a good show."
    "Yeah." Daren coughed, then spit a ball of blood and mucous. He kept coughing, bringing up more blood until he vomited about a cup of it across the floor. Sebastian hoped it was just runoff from a busted-up mouth. He slipped his hands down to Daren's chest as the coughing eased. Any idiot could tell just by looking that he had broken ribs; Sebastian was more worried about a lung punctured by one of those ribs. "Are you having trouble breathing?"
    "Hurts."
    "Hurts how? Does it feel like someone is pressing on your chest?"
    "No."
    Sebastian ticked a minor panic off his list even though Daren was wincing at nearly every touch. He probably didn't have a punctured lung or, worse, a punctured pericardium. "You're doing really well, Daren. How are you feeling?"
    "Cold."
    Shit . Sebastian knew shock was a given, but the real question was, was it shock from internal bleeding or shock from just having the shit kicked out of him?
    Sebastian brought his focus back to what was in front of him. "Daren, I'm going to touch your stomach now. I need to determine if you have internal bleeding." Daren whimpered and tried to curl in on himself a bit. "I'll be careful. I promise. I'll make it quick. We're almost done." Daren tensed up then relaxed the smallest amount; Sebastian took it as permission. He carefully removed the last shreds of Daren's black shirt and laid his hands onto the nicely defined abs. He pressed carefully. Truth be told, it was almost impossible to diagnose internal bleeding this way unless it was really bad, but he had to try something. The muscles were firm, if very bruised. Daren winced and whimpered at every touch, but everything under the muscles seemed to be squishy in the right ways.
    After that, he quickly ran his hands over Daren's legs, then arms. One shoe and sock was missing, kicked into a corner, and two toes were already bandaged together with black-and-blue toenails from some earlier injury. He was pretty sure the right wrist was fractured along with a couple of his right fingers. The left shoulder was wrenched around, possibly even torn. The left knee didn't seem to be in much better condition.
    "Daren, you need to go to a hospital."
    "No!"
    "You need x-rays and probably an MRI on your head."
    "They'll find me again. They'll kill me. They won't let me live." Daren tried to push himself up as if he could just walk out the door. He collapsed, and the makeshift bandages started to shift.
    "Okay, calm down, no hospitals." Sebastian tried to think quickly. Just his luck, the guy he was hoping to pick up was on someone's shit list, hard core. "Is there anyone I can call for you? Any place you can go?"
    Daren shook his head, his face falling. Or at least the parts of it that weren't swollen.
    "No one at all, no one you trust?" Daren started to curl in on himself again.
    "Okay, my car is out back, and I live alone. I've got a proper first-aid kit there. I can take care of you some, and you want to come with me because I promise, if you stay here alone, you're not going to make it." The one blue eye blinked at him. "But if I do take you home you are so not allowed to die on me. Deal?"
    Daren tried to swallow a few times. "Yes," he finally choked out.
    "Can you stand?" Daren tried to push himself up, but his legs twisted under him. Sebastian caught him before he could crash back to the tiled floor. "Okay." Sebastian pulled on his own shirt then laid the ruined jacket over Daren's body, and after doing his best to pull up what was left of Daren's jeans and underwear, scooped him the rest of the way off the floor. "We'll do it this way." Sebastian headed quickly to the bathroom door, truly amazed someone had not walked in on them already. He looked both ways before