Oblivion

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Her mother had been there. She’d stepped out into the waiting room long enough to thank us and to tell us she would let us know what was happening once she knew.

  That was three hours ago.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Dee said when I passed her on my ten-hundredth lap. “She has to be.”

  No. That wasn’t correct. There was no “has to be” anything in life, especially when it came to humans. Their fragility was the only thing constant. Humans were here one second, caught a fever, and could be gone in the next hour.

  Closing my eyes, I stopped pacing and reached up, rubbing the back of my neck. There was no warm tingling. She was either too far away in the hospital or…

  God, if something had happened to her, I didn’t know what I would do. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it, couldn’t fathom it.

  “Daemon,” Dee said quietly, urgently.

  Opening my eyes, I turned around to see Kat’s mom coming out of the double doors. Dee was already standing, but I beat her to it. “Is Kat okay?”

  Eyes shadowed, she motioned us back toward the hall as she held the door open. My heart pounded erratically as we wasted no time crossing the distance. Once inside, I saw a man waiting for us. I was struck by the odd sense of familiarity as I stared at the dark-haired doctor. It took me a second to realize he was the same doctor who’d treated Kat the night she was attacked at the library.

  Ms. Swartz smiled tiredly as she nodded and ran a hand over her polka-dot scrubs. “Katy is…she’s okay.”

  My knees felt weak as I stepped back, leaning against the wall.

  “Oh, thank God.” Dee placed her hand over her mouth.

  I forced my lungs to take a deep breath. “What…what is wrong with her?”

  “It appears that she’s caught some kind of virus. There are some really nasty ones going around right now,” the doctor said, and when I simply stared at him, he smiled reassuringly. “I’m Dr. Michaels, by the way. I’m not sure if we’ve officially met.” He extended his hand.

  My gaze dipped to his palm, and then I reached out, shaking it. Might’ve been my imagination but his smile faltered a bit, but then all I was focused on was the fact that I hadn’t killed Kat. “What kind of virus?”

  “That’s what Dr. Michaels is going to find out,” Ms. Swartz said, placing a hand on the doc’s arm. “It’s a really, really good thing you guys brought her in when you did. Her fever was—” She broke off with a sharp inhale and looked away, swallowing hard as she dropped her hand. “It’s just a good thing you brought her in.”

  Dr. Michaels reached over, gently squeezing Ms. Swartz’s arm. “It is. You two did great.”

  “We knew we needed to bring her in.” Dee glanced at me. “She was so…out of it.”

  “Well, we have her now,” Dr. Michaels assured us. “We’re going to keep her for observation, maybe for a couple of days, just to make sure everything is okay.”

  Ice knotted in my gut. “For a couple of days? That doesn’t sound like everything is okay with her.”

  Her mom stepped closer, patting my arm, surprising me. “She had a really high fever—still does, but it’s going down. It will be a wait-and-see sort of thing. Hopefully we won’t have to keep her in here long.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. “Can I— Can we see her?”

  “That wouldn’t be wise,” Dr. Michaels answered. “Not until we’re sure what type of virus she has and if she’s contagious.” His pale blue eyes met mine. “We wouldn’t want you or this young lady catching something and getting sick.”

  That wouldn’t be a problem.

  “Understandable,” Dee replied and then faced Kat’s mom. “Will you let us know how she’s doing?”

  Kat’s mom promised that she would and then mentioned that it was late and that we should be getting home before our parents worried. I was reluctant to leave, wanting to see Kat with my own eyes, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not without causing a small riot, and that was the last thing anyone needed. Dee looped her arm through mine, tugging me toward the doors. Dr. Michaels’s voice stopped us.

  “I’m going to take good care of her,” Dr. Michaels said, watching us with a patient smile. “Don’t you worry.”

  I was behind the wheel on the way back home, my jaw aching from how tight I was clenching it. It took everything in me not to turn back around and find a way to see Kat. Went against my very grain.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Dee said for what had to be the twentieth time. “It’s just some kind of virus. She’ll be fine.”

  I didn’t lose my cool with her, no matter how many times she said it, because I knew it was making her feel better about everything. So she could keep on saying it.

  “You know, she wasn’t acting right at lunch.” Dee was staring out into the darkness beyond the window when I glanced at her. “She didn’t eat anything. Not until you brought the smoothie and cookie in.”

  My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I flicked my attention back to the road. “She’s been tired the last two days, too.”

  There was a pause. “Poor Katy.”

  I didn’t respond, because I was busy mentally punching myself in the face. She’d been exhausted yesterday, not eating, and had said she didn’t feel well earlier, and I’d pushed her to work off the trace. Freaking pushed her when she had some kind of virus. I might’ve made her sicker.

  “You okay over there?”

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I…”

  A moment passed. “What?”

  “I was worried that I…that I’d done something to her,” I said after a moment.

  Dee twisted in her seat toward me. “What could you have done to her to make her sick?”

  Healed her on what had felt like a complete cellular level, bringing her back from the brink of death. That sounded about right, especially since there had to be a reason that was forbidden other than the possible exposure risk, but Dee didn’t know that and it needed to stay that way. It had to. “I was just pushing her to work off the trace.” Which was true. “So I worried that I did something, you know?”

  Silence.

  So much so, that I glanced over at her briefly, finding her watching me.

  “Did you…did you do something else?” she asked quietly, her voice small.

  “No,” I said, and I lied. “I didn’t do anything else.”

  Kat didn’t wake up.

  Not on Saturday.

  She didn’t open her eyes on Sunday.

  On Monday, her mom said that her fever hadn’t gone down far enough, but her vitals were better. Dee and I visited her, and she had…she wasn’t really there. She murmured words a couple of times. Once I thought she said my name. It was hard to see her like that.

  There was no change on Tuesday.

  I ended up staying home that day, too keyed up to go to school. Dee was worried, probably because she thought I was going to do something stupid, and I was. In the middle of the night, way past visitation time, I’d made it to the hospital parking lot before common sense took over.

  What was I doing?

  I could move fast, but even if I timed it right and got through the secured doors, I didn’t know where Kat was. I could find out, but it would be risky. If someone found me in her room, that was going to be hard to explain.

  Halfway across the parking lot, I spied a black Ford Expedition rolling into the visitors parking lot. My gut tightened. The vehicle was unmarked. Definitely DOD. Its presence could be a coincidence, but it was a wake-up call. I went home and I stayed there, feeling caged in.

  I ghosted through classes Wednesday morning, wondering what the hell I was doing in school. I could give two shits about whatever was being taught. By the time I made it to lunch, I was ready to start tossing people headfirst through windows just for breathing around me.

  Bypassing the line, I stalked over to where the Thompsons were sitting. Dee was with the girls, and I couldn’t go over there. Not just because Kat wasn’t there, but b
ecause I knew they’d be talking about Kat.

  And I…I just couldn’t sit and listen to that. Weak. Yeah, weak as hell.

  I dropped down next to Andrew and leaned back, stretching out my legs as I fixed my gaze on the Viking mascot painted on the wall.

  “You look like a grizzly bear,” Ash said.

  Raising a brow, I folded my arms. “Do I?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. “I know it’s November and some guys do that whole no-shave thing, but you should really shave your face.”

  I smirked.

  Andrew stopped whatever he was saying to the guy next to him and looked over at me, brows raised. He opened his mouth and then wisely closed it.

  “Okay,” Ash muttered. “Nice to have you here, you know, warming up the table with your sparkling personality.”

  Matthew was standing near the painted mascot with another teacher, a human, listening to whatever was being said as he kept an eye on our table. Matt had called last night, but I hadn’t been in the mood to deal with him.

  Looking away, I watched Adam get up from where Dee was sitting with Carissa and Lesa. He skirted the tables, walking over to ours, a bottle of water in his hand. He sat down next to his sister, and she said something to him too low for me to hear.

  Simon the Jackass snagged my attention. He was sitting two tables behind us, laughing loudly. My hand ached, wanting to connect with his face again. I stared at him until he must’ve sensed it, because the smile faded from his face and he looked between the shoulders of two meatheads, right at me.

  Simon blanched.

  I smiled at him and it wasn’t a nice smile.

  He quickly looked away, his throat working on a visible swallow. God, I hated that guy. What he tried to do to Kat wasn’t something I’d ever forget.

  Adam tapped his fingers on the table. “Katy’s mom texted Dee a few moments ago. She’s waiting for her to text back.”

  I stilled, a shiver of dread curling down my spine. I told myself that it had to be good news or no news, because I doubted Kat’s mom would text Dee if something bad had happened.

  “What’s going on with her anyway?” Ash’s lips curled as if she had something sour in her mouth.

  Adam sighed as he glanced at his sister. “I told you. She has some kind of virus or something. She’s been in the hospital.”

  My jaw clenched.

  “Whatever,” Ash muttered, turning her attention to her plate of what I thought might be a burrito.

  “She’s been out of it for days,” Adam added.

  Ash poked the burrito with her fork. “Like in a coma?”

  “She’s asleep,” I corrected, ignoring the tightening in my chest.

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Andrew replied, low enough for only us to hear. “And she won’t wake up.”

  I reacted without even thinking.

  Springing out of my seat, I grabbed a fistful of Andrew’s shirt and hauled him out of his seat. He didn’t get a chance to blink before I introduced his face to the shiny surface of the table. The thump was nice and fleshy and wholly satisfying. Andrew popped up and whirled around, facing me.

  Ash gasped as she pushed back from the table. “Daemon!”

  In a damn heartbeat, Matthew was by my side, grabbing my arm. He tried to shove me back, but I wasn’t going anywhere. “Go,” he said.

  I ignored him as I got all up in Andrew’s face and warned, “You better hope she does.”

  Matthew grabbed my arm, this time using the strength he had, and hauled me back a good inch. He shoved again. “Go.”

  Eyeing Andrew for a few more moments, I pivoted around. A lot of eyeballs were on me. I didn’t care. As I walked out of the cafeteria, Matthew was right behind me, waiting until I got out in the hallway before he jumped my ass.

  “What in the hell was that?” he demanded.

  I didn’t say anything as I paced in front of the lockers. Blood pumped through me. I was itching for a fight, for something to work out all the frustration pounding through me.

  “You went after one of your own.” Matthew spoke low as he planted a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “After Andrew of all people. What has gotten into you?”

  Kat had gotten into me.

  And I had been scared when I couldn’t get Kat to open her eyes and I was scared right now, because she hadn’t woken up. Those words didn’t come out as I stared at Matt. Not exactly. “He said he hoped we got lucky and Kat never woke up.”

  Matthew blinked slowly, his hand spasming on my shoulder. “This is over her?”

  Looking away, I shook my head as my jaw worked. He didn’t get it. None of them did. Things had changed.

  “I thought we agreed that you would take care of this with Kat.”

  I met his stare. “I don’t know what you think we agreed on.”

  Surprise flared in his bright blue eyes. “You said—”

  “It doesn’t matter what I said, Matthew. Things have changed.” I stepped back, out of his grasp. “I…I care about her, and that’s all you need to know. That’s all any of them need to know.”

  Shock gave way to trepidation and then dawning understanding. Blood drained from Matthew’s face, but I turned away from him. I started walking down the hall, having no idea where I was going, but anywhere other than here was a better choice.

  “Daemon,” Matthew called out, but I kept going.

  The cell phone in my pocket vibrated. I reached in and pulled it out. The text was from Dee, and it was only two words. The two best words in the history of mankind.

  Kat’s awake.

  Chapter 5

  Kat came home from the hospital on Thursday. Dee had gathered up all her missed assignments and spent the better part of Thursday evening with her. From what I gathered from my sister, Kat was feeling fine. She didn’t act sick or look it. None of this was from firsthand observation.

  I stayed away Thursday.

  I wasn’t even sure why. Maybe it was because I didn’t trust myself if I did see her. Okay. That was probably it, because there was a good chance I would be all over her in a second, touching her, feeling her. Making sure that she was alive and well. That would be too much for her.

  It would be too much for me.

  Dee said Kat was coming back to school this morning—Friday—and as I walked toward trig class, my heart was pounding like a steel drum and the back of my neck was warm. Tingling. Kat was here.

  I walked into class, and my gaze found her without even trying. Seeing her sitting there talking to Lesa and Carissa was like taking a punch to the chest to restart the heart. And she looked more than fine. Kat looked beautiful. Dark-chocolate-colored hair fell over her shoulders, thick and shiny. The centers of her cheeks were flushed in a pretty, healthy way. She was smiling, and goddamn, she was beautiful.

  I wanted to walk right up to her, yank her to her feet and against me. I wanted to feel her warm breath on my skin and taste her lips. Maybe I should’ve gone and seen her last night, but I had no idea my reaction to her was going to be so damn intense.

  Walking became a little difficult at that point. Doing what I wanted wouldn’t be entirely appropriate, and I was also a bit distracted by a very important observation. Strangely, there was no trace around her.

  Kat twisted around in her seat, facing me. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “In private,” she whispered.

  Perfect. Because what I had in mind required privacy. “Meet me in the library at lunch. No one really goes in there. You know, with all those books and stuff.”