Free Dare by T.A. Foster Page A

faded and my human skin emerged. I pulled on the clothes I had laid on the bed and headed back to where I had left Zac.
    It took me longer to run as a girl, but I was still fast, quicker than most. I made sure to widen my route so that I could come up from behind him as if it were all complete coincidence.
    He was where I had left him.
    “Zac!” I ran toward him and dropped by his side.
    “Hey, you should get out of here.” He scanned the bushes behind us. “It’s not safe. Go.”
    “What happened to your leg?” I pulled the tank top over my head and wrapped it under his calf, tying it over his shin. There was blood everywhere.
    He winced. “Man that hurts.” He grabbed at the bandage I had made and looked over. “You don’t need a shirt?”
    “Sports bras have their advantages.” I didn’t know if he’d be able to stand. “Do you want me to call an ambulance?” I reached for my phone.
    “No. Don’t do that.” His hand landed on mine.
    “But you’re hurt. You’ve lost a lot of blood. What if you pass out?”
    He pushed off the ground to stand. “Can you just help me to my car?”
    I slung his arm around my shoulder. “Yeah, but I think you’re going to need stitches. You should see someone. Let me drive you to an urgent care or something.”
    “I’ve got super glue at home.”
    I stared at him. “This is not a broken plate. Something gashed you. What happened?” I almost let Noah’s name slip. I wondered if he had done something to provoke the jaguar. I doubted it. He was on tour tonight for the festival.
    He limped next to me. “I just need to get home. I’ll tell you what happened. Can you drive?”
    I nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.”
    We both noticed the flashing lights as we got closer to the park. It looked like animal control and the police were talking.
    “Do you know a way around this?” He pointed to the crowd gathered.
    He didn’t need to know why, but I wasn’t interested in getting involved in any of that either. “Yes, we can cut through here. I know these trails really well.”
    It wasn’t easy. Zac’s leg was useless, but he was strong and he didn’t mind that I helped him. We skirted the crowd and wound up on the street side of Oaks Park.
    I shuttled him into the passenger side of his car and he tossed me his keys.
    “You’ll have to tell me how to get to your house.”
    His eyes closed. I could tell he was fighting the pain. “Go straight for a while. I need to get out of here.”
    I followed his directions, taking turns as he pointed to street signs. A few times, I thought he had passed out, but then he would start steering me toward his house.
    I pulled in the driveway of a small brick house. I helped him inside, planting him on the couch.
    “Ok, where is your first aid kit?” I asked. I looked around his living room. It was dark, but sparsely decorated. There was a couch, chair, and a coffee table.
    “Yeah, I don’t have one of those.”
    Typical guy—no Band-Aids, not even a tube of antibacterial ointment. I thought about pouring a bottle of vodka over the wound, but I wasn’t sure he had that either.
    “Ok, sit here. I’ll get some water boiled so we can clean it out. Where’s the super glue?”
    “It’s on the workbench in my garage—through the kitchen.”
    I opened the kitchen cabinets until I found a pot. He seemed to only have one of everything. I guess for a guy who moved around so much it was easier if the packing was light. I filled the pot with water and left it to boil while I dug through Zac’s workbench in the garage in search of the glue. This was idiotic. He needed medical attention. I was worried it would become infected.
    I returned to the couch armed with a bowl of boiling water, a washcloth, and a tube of super glue. I would never make it through nursing school.
    He shifted on the couch, so there was room for me to sit. I looked at him.
    “I think we’re going to have to take off your pants.” I bit my lower lip.
    “All