by T. J. Quinn
“She’s not feeling well,” Haakon explained, in a serious tone. “I need you to check on her.”
“Take her to my office, down the hall. I have my scanners there.”
Haakon carried her there and gently laid her down on an examination table.
“Hi, Rosalind, I’m Colborn. I’m not sure you remember me, but I was the doctor on Asgar’s vessel when you were brought here.”
“Hi, Colborn. Yes, I remember you,” she replied, trying to smile.
“How are you feeling?”
“Dizzy and weak,” she confessed.
Haakon was standing next to them, with a stern expression on his face. It was evident he was troubled with what had happened.
Colborn started to scan her body immediately, going through all her vital signs and comparing them with the ones, he had from Eleanor, the human he had studied the most, so far.
“Her blood levels have diminished,” he said after a few moments. “Rosalind, do you have any idea how much blood you normally have in your body?” he asked her, concerned.
“Yes, it’s around five liters.”
“Can you show me how much that could be? I’m not familiarized with that measure.”
She looked around and spotted a vase on a cabinet on the other side of the room. “Give me that,” she asked, and when he handed her the vase, she examined it. “This can contain approximately half a liter,” she explained.
“How much can you lose before it’s dangerous?” he asked her.
“Four of these and I might die. One of these and it’s considered a mild hemorrhage.”
“Dizziness and cold sweat, along with other things I don’t remember. You would have to ask Erin, she’s the doctor,” she replied, arching an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
He let out a sigh. “He took too much blood. Almost one of these and that’s why you’re not feeling well,” the doctor explained.
“Damn,” he spurted.
Chapter Nine
“It’s alright, Haakon. It won’t kill me,” she told him, trying to appease his worry.
“Is there anything we could do?” he asked Colborn, not allowing her to make him feel better.
“We could give her some blood, but we would have to ask the other women,” the doctor suggested.
“It’s not that easy. Humans have four groups of blood, and each of them subdivides in two more. If you give a person the wrong kind of blood, you can kill her,” she explained. “But that’s not necessary; I’ll reproduce the missing blood.”
“Are you sure?” Haakon asked, taking her left hand in his.
“Yes, of course, I’m sure.”
“The other alternative would be for you to give her your own blood,” Colborn suggested. “It’s healing qualities would speed her own healing process.”
“No, that’s too dangerous,” he rejected the idea, roundly.
“Not at this stage.”
“I’m not taking any risks with her,” he insisted. His face was a perfect stone mask, showing no feelings at all.
Rosalind wasn’t sure how she felt about his rejection to help her, but she decided not to think about that. “I told you, I can’t have other blood than my type,” she reminded Colborn.
“I’m not talking about a blood transfer. You would ingest it,” he explained.
“Oh, I doubt that would make any difference,” she replied, feeling an iron fist closing around her heart, having trouble understand Haakon’s refusal. “Besides, that sounds disgusting. I’ll be alright in a couple of hours, I assure you,” she added, feeling a current need to hide her pain.
“Very well. Perhaps, you should stay here for tonight, so that I monitor your condition, just in case,” he suggested, not convinced her assertions were correct, as he helped her sit up on the examination table.
The dizziness was still there, but it wasn’t as strong as before. The last thing Rosalind wanted was to stay at a stranger’s house, but she needed time alone, and she was sure Haakon wasn’t going to give it to her.
“Of course, if that makes you feel better,” she agreed, avoiding to look at Haakon’s face.
“Do you agree, Haakon?” Colborn asked the other man.
“Yes, of course. Please let me know if anything happens,” he replied, nodding.
“You would first person I’d call,” Colborn assured her. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he added, leaving the room.
“He will take care of you,” Haakon said when the door swished shut behind the doctor.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said, standing in front of her.
“I know.” She nodded, still not looking at him, too concentrated in examining her fingernails.
“Perhaps, you should stay at the palace for a while,” he suggested.
That was enough to make her look up, startled. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t want this to happen again. It could be too dangerous for you. I’ll go back home tomorrow morning, but I really think you should stay at the palace, at least, for a while.”
The little color she still had on her face, disappeared completely. He was ditching her.
Her hands turned into tight fists, and she took a deep breath, struggling to control herself and not allow him to see just how much he was hurting her.
“Of course, if that’s what you want. I’ll be more than happy to stay here in town. I’m a city girl, after all,” she managed to utter, each word scratching her throat.
His face became harder. “Very well. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
He left the room, and she covered her mouth to muffle the sobs that shook her body.
She had been right all the time. He was not meant for her.
No pain she had experienced before was even close to the pain crashing her heart and her soul. She was shaking so hard her body slid off the table to the floor, and she did nothing to prevent it. All she wanted was to cry herself into oblivion.
Haakon bumped into Colborn on his way out of the house. “Hey, where’s the rush?”
“Please, make sure she returns safely to the palace. I’m going home tonight.”
“What are you doing? You can’t leave her.” The other man protested.
“It’s for the best. At least, until we find a way to prevent this from happening again. I wouldn’t survive if I caused her death,” he explained, in a stern tone.
“We’ll find a way to prevent that. But leaving her is not the answer,” Colborn tried to convince him.
“It’s for the best. I can’t risk hurting her again,” he said, walking around his friend on his way out.
“Don’t you think leaving like this will hurt her more?” he asked, astounded, grabbing him by the arm.
“She’s a strong woman, she’ll be alright,” he assured him, releasing his arm from the other man’s grip.
“You’re making a mistake,” Colborn warned him.
“Staying would be a bigger mistake,” he replied, displaying his wings and flying away, headed to the mountains.
Colborn watched him disappear in the dark night before he returned inside, not sure what to do with the woman in the other room. He wasn’t used dealing with females, and something told him this one would need comfort.
Cursing Haakon’s stubbornness, he returned to his office, just to find her on the floor, sobbing her heart out.
He approached her and picking her up in his arms, he carried her to one of his guest rooms, laying her on the bed.
She barely noticed he had moved her, so lost in her own grieve as she was. He let out a sigh, before looking for his scanner. He needed to monitor her the whole night, to make sure she was recovering her normal blood levels.
She was still crying when he returned, and he wished his válkana were there with him. She would know what to do with her.
After he had installed the scanner, he took a seat next to her. “Rosalind, this won’t do you any
good,” he murmured.
She ignored him, burying her face in the pillow.
Unsure of what to do, he decided to call Erin. He knew she had arrived at Zuvrak with Rosalind and she might know what to do.
He left the room and went to the living room to call her. He couldn’t give her many details on what had happened, but he didn’t have to. The minute he told her Rosalind was in trouble, she announced she was on her way with Fritjof.
Colborn ended the call with a deep sigh. It was going to be a very long night.
The couple arrived only a few minutes later. “Where is she?” Erin asked, as soon as she saw him.
“Third door to the left,” he informed, showing her the hallway.
She didn’t ask anything else.
After a few minutes, the tears finally stopped. She was drained. She felt so weak, she wasn’t able to move a muscle, so she just closed her eyes and stayed there, finally numbed.
Behind her, the door swished open, but she didn’t move.
“Rosalind, what’s the matter, baby?” Erin’s voice surprised her, but not enough to make her move. “What happened? Are you alright?” she caressed her arm, in a comforting gesture.
“He left me,” she finally muttered.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“He went back home, saying it was better if I stayed here,” she explained, in a monotone.
“But… why… I mean… it doesn’t make any sense,” she mumbled.
Rosalind laid on her back and faced her friend with her eyes still swollen and her nose still red.
“Of course it makes sense. He’s not my soulmate, that’s all,” she was beyond the tears now.
“I can’t believe that. What happened that changed everything between you two?” she was astonished.
“Nothing important, not really, but it doesn’t change the facts, Erin. I knew this was going to happen, I simply chose to fool myself into believing fairy tales did exist.”
“Baby… I’m sure this whole thing is nothing more than a misunderstanding,” she tried to convince her.
“No, it isn’t. Please, don’t worry about me I’ll survive. I always do,” there was so much bitterness in Rosalind’s tone.
Erin frowned.
“I’m sorry Colborn called you. I guess he freaked out when he saw me crying,” she said with a self-deprecating scowl.
“I’m glad he called me. You know I’m here for you.”
Rosalind squeezed her hand and smiled, thanking her for saying that.
“Can you come back to the palace with us?” Erin asked, noticing, for the first time, the medical scanner installed in her bed. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I wasn’t feeling well, so he brought me here. Colborn wants me to stay the night so that he can monitor me,” she explained, without going into more detail.
“Are you sure? I could look after you,” she suggested.
“Thank you, sweetie, but I don’t want to bother you any longer.”
“You don’t bother me, silly.”
“I’ll be alright, and I’ll be back to the palace in the morning,” she assured her, feeling suddenly too tired.
“Alright, I’ll see you then. Get some rest.”
“Thank you for coming. It means a lot to me.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” she said, and with a warm smile, she left the room.
Rosalind closed her eyes and finally surrendered into the arms of Morpheus.
Erin joined the men in the living room. “What the hell happened here?” she asked Colborn. They had become good friends, as they worked together trying to find an answer for the Drogons’ problem.
“I have no idea, I left them alone for a few minutes and the next thing I know, he is flying away, back home, claiming it was the best way,” Colborn explained, avoiding giving many details on the subject.
“This whole story stinks, but I’m not going to insist tonight. It’s late, and we all had a terrible day,” she said, with a deep frown. “Rosalind fell asleep of sheer exhaustion, so I’ll see you in the morning.”
They said goodbye and left.
Colborn went to his guest’s room to check on her vitals before he called it a night.
The following morning, Colborn was pleased to see her blood levels had increased slightly, so he allowed her to go back to the palace. “Even so, I’ll come check on you every day. Haakon would kill me if anything happened to you,” he said as he drove her back.
“Of course not,” she dismissed his words.
Colborn opened his mouth to add something else but reconsidered at the last minute. It wasn’t his place to add anything else.
Back at the palace, Rosalind went straight to her room, while Colborn went looking for the king.
Erin was waiting for her, sitting in one of the puffs in her living room.
“How are you feeling this morning?” she asked her.
“Much better, thank you,” she replied, throwing herself on the puff next to her.
“What are you going to do? Will you let him walk away from your life, just like that?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I don’t think I have a saying in that, Erin,” she replied, getting up and walking towards the window, avoiding her friend’s scrutinizing eyes.
“I have a theory, you know?” she said, getting up as well and closing the distance between them, standing next to her. “You know men aren’t very creative and that seems to be a universal rule. When we got here, we were told we would be mated with our soulmates, and according to what I was able to pull out from Fritjof, the men recognize their mate the minute they see them, right?”
“Yes, supposedly, but what does that have to do with Haakon and me?”
“Bear with me,” she asked. “If every woman has been mated, why assign them, male tutors? Wouldn’t it be easier to assign them to their own mates?”
“I asked that same question to Haakon, and he said they had no idea when the mating would take place and that meanwhile, we needed someone to show us around.”
“Does that make sense to you?” she asked her, arching an eyebrow in disbelief.
“No, not much,” she admitted.
“Then you’ll agree with me on this. The so-called tutors are the women’s soulmates. It’s the only explanation that makes real sense, and I’ve confirmed it in my case. Fritjof is my soulmate, and he has been next to me since the first moment.”
“I know what you’re saying makes sense, but if that’s true, why did he leave me? If he’s my soulmate, why did he kick me out of his life?” she asked, determined to crush any stubborn hope from settling in her heart.
“That’s what I need you to help me understand. What happened yesterday that triggered all this?” she asked, in a serious tone.
Rosalind sighed, rubbing her eyes, not sure how to explain things to her friend. “How much do you know about the Drogons?” she started by asking.
“I know they can fly, they are self-healing, and they live a lot longer than us and not much more,” she replied.
“Their mating rituals include drinking blood,” she explained.
“What do you mean? Fritjof never has… I mean…” she blushed, and Rosalind chuckled.
“I guess he has been holding back that part, trying not to scare you off,” she said, sighing. “He only did it twice and yesterday was one of them. Apparently, he took too much blood, and that’s why I started feeling a bit ill,” she explained.
“How much did he take?” Erin asked, furious.
“Not even half a liter.”
“Enough to make you feel ill.”
“I know, and when he realized that, he changed completely, and decided to leave me here, alleging it was the best for me,” she said, with a scornful tone. “He simply decided it wasn’t worth the risk. The king wouldn’t be euphoric if he killed me by accident.”
“I’m sure there’s more to this story than we know,” Erin insisted. “Was this blood dr
inking something he did on purpose?”
“No, not according to what he told me the first time. He said he had lost control,” she explained.
“Rosalind, darling, that’s it. He’s protecting you from himself. He’s afraid he might lose control and really hurt you next time,” Erin concluded.
“It doesn’t make sense. If we were soulmates as they say, why would they have a ritual that’s potentially harmful to their partner?”
“They are self-healing, remember? I’m sure they wouldn’t have many problems with blood loss.”
“Then, we’re not as perfect matches as they thought we were.”
“I insist, we’re missing something important here,” she said, frowning. “But you have to admit my theory makes sense. He only went away to protect you.”
“Let’s say you’re right. Then, what? He’s my soulmate, but I still get to lose him because he’s afraid he’ll kill me?” Rosalind stated, too distressed to think straight.
“Go after him, make him face the truth and find a solution together as the couple you are, as the two halves of a soul should do,” Erin suggested.
“What if we’re wrong?” there was so much doubt, so much pain in her tone, Erin leaned forward and hugged her hard.
“Then you’ll know for sure, and you’ll be able to move forward.”
Rosalind nodded as she rested her forehead on the cold glass of the window. “I know you’re right. I’m just too scared,” she confessed.
“I know you have been through a lot, Rosalind, and that has made you hide away from the pain, but this time you have to take the bull by the horns,” her friend warned her.
“You’re right. I’ll go after him,” she decided, determined to get to the bottom of that situation.
“That’s the spirit. As soon as you’re fully recovered, I’ll ask Fritjof to get you a vehicle able to take you there.”
She shook her head, with determination written all over her face. “No, I’m not waiting another second. I can’t live like this any longer.”
“You’ve lost a considerable amount of blood… I don’t think that’s prudent.”
“Their vehicles are the easiest things to drive I’ve ever seen. Haakon taught me, while we were up in the mountains,” she explained.
