Chapter 27

“F’k off!” he moaned in its direction before remembering that he wasn’t in his own room, and the intruder was probably the man he was after in the first place.

So he sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and scowled at the towering shadow on the threshold.

“Either get the fuck in here,” he snarled, “and shut that fucking door. Or fuck off.”

Rob snorted and shut the door behind him. The chilly waft of air was cut off, and Eli dragged the duvet up to his shoulders as Rob shed his clothes and opened a drawer to rummage for fresh ones. The sky outside was grim, the window so wet with rain it could have been underwater, and as a result Rob was barely more than a silhouette in the gloom. Eli sighed, and switched the bedside lamp on.

“Oh Jesus,” he said.

Half of Rob’s face was damp and pale. The other half was bruised a vicious purple, deepening to a pure black around the eye socket. The eye in question looked more ethereal than ever.

“What happened?”