Call of Night

by Emily Goodwin

  His jaw tenses. “Fine. Have her bring Advil then.”

  “I can go get it,” I say though I don’t feel like moving from this bar stool.

  “No, you need to rest. You were hot last night, but you’re even hotter now.”

  Eliza calls Monica, putting the call on speaker.

  “Eliza, hey! Hi! How are you?” Monica answers.

  “I’m fine. I need you to run an errand for me.”

  “Sure, of course! What do you need?” Monica has no idea her vampire boyfriend is fucking Eliza and part of me feels like I should tell her. But a bigger part wants to stay out of it.

  “Advil and a thermometer.”

  I turn my head and cough, and it instantly burns through my chest, like I’m breathing fire. There’s phlegm in my lungs, and I can’t get it up. I cough again, and even I know I can’t deny how awful I sound.

  “And cough medicine. Something strong so I don’t have to listen to that anymore.”

  “Sure. Who’s sick? I mean, never mind. I know it’s none of my business.” She’s been groomed on how to interact with vampires and it’s kind of sad. That, and I’m sure Lucas has held her spellbound on more than one occasion. “And where do you want me to bring this?”

  “Lucas’s house on North Orchard.”

  Monica hesitates and I remember her saying she’s still a little afraid of Lucas and doesn’t want to go into his house out of fear that he’d be mad at her for it.

  “Oh…okay. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  “Thank you,” I add before Eliza can hang up. Lucas takes me upstairs, tucking me in bed like a baby. I’m not going to lie, it’s nice right now. I’m coughing hard again, and my throat burns. I know colds can hit you all of a sudden, but do they get this bad in only a few hours?

  Lucas fluffs the pillows for me again and sits next to me, looking intently at something on his phone.

  “This says you should sleep sitting up.” He grabs another pillow to stick behind me. “And drink water. I’ll get you more.” Leaving his phone on the bed, he zooms out of the room. I pick it up and feel warm and fuzzy inside when I see that he Googled “how to take care of someone with a cold.” Medical treatment has changed a lot since he was last alive, and he’s told me before that he never cared for a human the way he cares for me.

  “I’ll find a delivery service to bring you chicken noodle soup.” He comes into the room and gives me the water. “It said that helps too.”

  “It does, but I’m not hungry right now.” I take a sip of water and set it on the nightstand. “I’m tired and I’m sure once I take a nap I’ll wake up and feel better.”

  “I hope you do.” He slips back under the covers and I lean on him, eyes falling shut. “What are your symptoms?”

  I lift my head up just enough to look into his eye. “Every human knows not to look up symptoms on the internet. You’ll fall down the WebMD rabbit hole of thinking you have a rare jungle disease you contracted from infected fruit or something like that.”

  “But what if you do? How will you know?”

  I rest my head on his chest again. “I don’t get sick very often,” I start. “But normal people will power through it at home first, doing the basics. Resting, taking over-the-counter meds, and drinking lots of water. Usually after a few days, you either feel better or you don’t. And if you don’t, you go to the doctor for medicine.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?”

  “Lucas, stop worrying. I have a cold. The stress of everything paired with the lack of sleep finally got to me.” Heat creeps down my neck, but my body is chilled. I cough again, feeling more phlegm getting all sticky inside my lungs. I sit up, coughing so hard it’s hard to breathe. I bring a hand to my chest, lungs burning.

  Lucas, looking a little panicked, sits up with me and grabs the glass of water. Once I can breathe again, I take a drink and fall back against the pillows.

  “You feel hotter.” Lucas puts his hand to my forehead. “From what I read online, you should have a low-grade fever with a cold. What I’m feeling is a significant temperature difference than how you usually are.”

  A shiver runs through me and I curl my legs up against my body. “Can you turn the heated blanket on?”

  “You have a fever, you shouldn’t bundle up or use the heated blanket.”

  “Just for a minute?” I ask, shivering harder. Lucas leans over and presses a button.

  “I’m keeping it on low.” He folds the blanket around me and encases me in his arms. “You’re trembling.”

  “You get chills when you have a cold.”

  “I don’t think this is just a cold.”

  It doesn’t feel like it, granted I haven’t been sick in forever. Maybe I’m just a big baby? And nothing else can come on that fast. Most illnesses take time. You feel crappy for a day or two and it slowly gets worse.

  Well, unless it really is some rare jungle disease.

  Lucas holds me, gently running his fingers up and down my arm. I’m coughing nonstop now, and each time I inhale it hurts worse than the last. The doorbell rings, and a minute later, Eliza comes upstairs holding a bag. She takes out a bottle of Advil and turns on the thermometer.

  “Look this way,” she says, and I’m surprised by the gentleness in her voice. Maybe I look as bad as I feel.

  “One-oh-three point four,” she reads.

  “That’s not a low-grade fever.”

  “No, it’s not.” I reach for the Advil and start coughing again. Eliza opens the bottle and gives me two pills. I wash them down with water and lay back down only to sit up again because I’m coughing.

  “How long does that stuff take to work?” Eliza picks up the bottle and reads the words on the side.

  “About twenty minutes,” Lucas answers. “Or at least that’s what one website said.”

  Eliza nods and goes out of the room, leaving me alone with Lucas. He holds me against his chest, keeping me upright.

  “Try and get some sleep. I’m taking your temperature again in nineteen minutes.”

  Every time I get close to falling asleep, I start coughing. It’s incredibly frustrating, and I’m feeling worse and worse by the minute. I don’t understand what’s happening.

  I’m never sick.

  And what I thought was a cold is something else, I just know it.

  “Callie?” Lucas whispers. “Are you awake?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s time to take your temperature again.” The thermometer beeps and he puts it to my forehead.

  “What’s the verdict?”

  “One-oh-three point seven. It’s going up.”

  “Maybe from the blanket?”

  “Maybe.” He puts the thermometer down and turns the heated blanket off. It hasn’t done anything to rid me of the chills anyway. Groaning, I snuggle up against Lucas, shivering hard. My joints ache and my head is still pounding.

  Lucas waits another twenty minutes to check my temp again. It hasn’t changed.

  “You said if medication doesn’t help then you go to the doctor.”

  “Yeah, but you need to be sick for more than a few hours.” I slowly push myself up, needing to use the bathroom. I’m all wobbly on my feet and every second out of bed is too long.

  “Are you hungry?” I ask Lucas, getting back into bed.

  “I am not taking anything from you tonight, my love.” Lucas pulls the blankets back up over me. “You need it more than I do.”

  “I can spare a little.”

  “No.” He tucks my hair behind my ear and puts his lips to my neck. “Your heart is beating faster than usual.”

  “Lucas, I’m fine,” I press and bring my hand up, cupping it around his chin. His skin is cool in my palm. “I’m human and humans get sick every now and then. We rest, take meds, and get better.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I close my eyes. I hope I’m right too.

  Chapter 28

  “How is she?” Eliza sits at the foot of the bed
.

  “She’s not getting any better,” Lucas tells her. “I don’t understand what’s going on.” He gently runs his hand over my hair. He thinks I’m still asleep, and I don’t have the energy to open my eyes and tell him otherwise. “I’ve read everything I can about human colds and even the flu. Her symptoms don’t match either.”

  Eliza moves up and feels my cheek. “She’s burning up.”

  The sheets rustle and Lucas sits up, getting the thermometer. He doesn’t say what the temperature it out loud, but it can’t be good.

  “It’s been hours and it hasn’t gone down at all?” Eliza sounds concerned. “I’ll be right back.”

  Binx, who’s been on my pillow, nuzzles his head against me. He’s worried too, able to sense that my fever just won’t go the fuck away.

  “Uncover her a bit and it will help her cool off,” Eliza tells Lucas, coming back into the room. I force my eyes open.

  “Callie,” Lucas breathes. “How are you feeling?”

  “Shitty,” I croak out and then start coughing. Lucas sits me up and Eliza gives me a cool washcloth to put on my forehead. “What time is it?”

  “Almost nine.” Lucas readjusts the pillows again. “Are you hungry?”

  “Not really.”

  “You should eat.”

  “So should you,” I counter.

  “I’ve already healed. You haven’t.”

  My eyes fall shut and I grimace from the pain. My whole body hurts.

  “I think it’s time to call a doctor.” Eliza looks me over with a mixture of worry and disgust on her face.

  “I’m calling your sister.” Lucas takes the washcloth from me and flips it over to the cool side.

  “She might be at work,” I say, teeth chattering. These fucking chills are awful. My body hurts enough as it is, and adding in the nonstop shivering makes everything hurt that much more. “I’ll text her.”

  “Get her phone,” Lucas tells Eliza.

  My phone is still in my purse, and the feather is still hidden in there. “I’ll get it.”

  “No.” Lucas puts one hand on my shoulder, keeping me from getting up. “You’re not going anywhere, Callie.”

  I try to give him a pointed look but end up coughing and choking on my own mucus. I don’t realize Eliza left the room until she returns with my phone. I send Abby a text, asking if she’s at work today, and then lay back down. Just sitting up for a few minutes was exhausting.

  “Can I do anything to help you feel better?” Lucas asks.

  “My back hurts,” I say, voice muffled from my face being smashed into my pillow. Lucas starts to massage my back right away, and if I weren’t coughing so much, I’d fall asleep.

  My phone dings with a text, and Lucas hands it to me. It’s a text from Abby, and I have to squint my eyes to be able to read it. Everything is kind of fuzzy.

  Abby: Yeah, I am. What’s up?

  Me: I think I’m sick.

  Abby: What’s wrong?

  Lucas, looking at the phone, takes it from my hands and calls my sister. “She doesn’t think she’s sick, she knows she is,” he tells Abby. “She’s had a hundred-and-three fever all day and has a terrible cough.” He pauses, listening to what Abby is saying. “I agree. Tell her that because your sister is as stubborn as she is incredible.”

  Lucas hands me the phone. “I’m fine, right?”

  “A fever that high is dangerous, Cal. You need to come in right away so we can get it down. You’re probably dehydrated too.”

  There’s no use arguing. I feel awful and I know I’m not going to be able to beat this on my own. “Okay.”

  “We’re pretty busy in here today, but I’ll do my best to come to you as soon as I can. Text me when you’re checked into the ER.”

  “I will. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

  “Love you, Callie.”

  “Love you, too.” I end the call and need Lucas’s help to get up, go to the bathroom, and put on leggings and a t-shirt. He carries me into his car, and Binx shadows in with me, shifting into a black cat and settling on my lap. He’s warm when he’s in cat-form, and his body heat feels wonderful.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you can’t take cats into hospitals.” Lucas pulls out of the parking space.

  “I’ll say he’s my emotional support cat.” I grit my teeth before swallowing, knowing it’s going to hurt my throat.

  “Don’t you need paperwork to prove that?”

  “He can go unnoticed, trust me.”

  Lucas grips the steering wheel tight with one hand and keeps his other on my thigh. My eyes flutter shut, and my body continues to shake the whole way to the hospital. Lucas parks and gets out, zooming around to my side.

  “I can walk,” I protest when he picks me up.

  “You look like you’re going to pass out.”

  “I feel like it too.” I let my head fall against him. “Don’t go too fast,” I say and hate the words coming out of my mouth. I don’t want anyone giving Lucas shit for being a vampire. Not now when I need him most.

  Because I feel awful and I’m still terrified of hospitals.

  Lucas sets me down near registration, and I text Abby once I fill out all the paperwork. Lucas offers to take it to the desk for me, and I put my head in my hands, coughing hard again.

  “You’ll be better soon,” he tells me, taking a seat next to me. I shift my weight in the uncomfortable chair and take his hand.

  “Thanks for coming with me.”

  “You don’t have to thank me, Callie. You’re mine, and we go through shit together.”

  A door opens and a nurse calls my name. That was fast. Too fast.

  “Did you—?” I start but get cut off from all the coughing. Lucas wraps his arm around me and doesn’t answer, which alone is a dead giveaway he held the people at the registration desk spellbound to make them get me in right away.

  The nurse eyes Lucas and her cheeks flush. He has that effect on women without even trying. He’s incredibly good-looking, but the ancientness surrounding him is alluring. Even if you don’t know he’s a vampire, you feel its pull, making you want to find out more, ignoring the little voice in the back of your head telling you he’s dangerous and you should stay away.

  Which makes him even more appealing.

  The nurse takes my vitals and writes down my symptoms, and then leaves, saying the doctor will be in shortly. Binx shadows in as soon as the nurse leaves, settling on the hard foam bed. He curls up in my arms, purring. Lucas paces back and forth in the little room.

  “I’m going to be fine,” I tell him. The pacing is getting annoying. “Sit down with me?”

  He comes to the side of the exam bed. “You will be fine. You have to be.”

  “People get sick. It’s not a big deal.”

  “It feels like it to me.” He crouches down and takes my hand. “I can fight demons with you. Kill vampires who try to hurt you. But this…I’m helpless and it’s making me realize how precarious things are. If I lose you…” He trails off, eyes heavy with emotion. “I can’t. And I won’t.”

  “You won’t,” I promise him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He kisses my fingers and stands, rubbing my back until Abby comes in.

  “You brought Binx?” She closes the door behind her and goes over to the computer.

  “He brought himself.”

  She looks over my chart and then gets up. “You still have a really high fever, Cal. Can you sit up?”

  “I think so,” I say with a cough, feeling like my body is about to give out. She puts her stethoscope in her ears and listens to my chest on both sides.

  “Normally, I’d order an x-ray to confirm, but you have pneumonia, Callie. Your lungs are full of crackles, and here...” She puts the stethoscope over my lower ribs and tells me to deeply inhale, which hurts like a bitch. “I’m hearing rubbing.”

  “What does that mean?” Lucas asks, pacing again. He’s so tall that it only takes a few strides to cross the room.


  “Pleurisy.”

  “Is it serious?”

  “Not usually. With treatment it typically clears up pretty fast.” She listens to my lungs again and goes back to the computer.

  “Are you sure I have pneumonia?” I lean back against the bed.

  “Yeah. You sound awful. I want to admit you and get you started on IV meds.”

  “But I was fine yesterday. Like, completely fine. People don’t just wake up with pneumonia, do they?”

  “No, not typically.” Abby looks up from whatever she’s typing. “You were probably sick and didn’t realize it. It happens sometimes or we’re just so used to functioning worn out we don’t even notice we have a cold.”

  “I don’t get colds very often,” I say between coughs. “I’d notice if I had one. I wasn’t sick, right, Lucas?”

  “She was perfectly healthy. Sick people have more white blood cells and it gives the blood a different taste. Callie’s blood tasted perfectly delicious yesterday.”

  Abby is really trying, but that might be too much for her. “You never got sick when we were kids.” She looks back at the computer and quickly types something. “I’m going to order you some blood work and will start you off on with an IV. That fever is my main concern right now. You’ve taken Advil and it did nothing?”

  “It didn’t even lessen my headache.” I bring my arms in around my body, shivering. Abby opens a cabinet above the desk and pulls out a thin white sheet.

  “It’s not much, but you can’t be bundling up with a fever that high.” She drapes it over me. “Do you have any allergies to antibiotics?”

  “I’ve never taken them.”

  “Never?” Abby asks skeptically. “Do you have witch-medicine you need instead?”

  “Witches are human,” I remind her, turning my head away to cough. “And for as long as I remember, I’ve never taken them.”

  “Are you okay with getting blood drawn today?”

  I’m not, but I feel so awful I don’t argue. I just nod and wrap the thin sheet tighter around my shoulders. I never knew being sick felt this bad. Abby start saying something else about the nurse coming in and doing my IV, but her voice is lost in a sea of echoes. Binx stands and meows, and Lucas zooms over, saying my name over and over. I want to answer him, really, I do.