by J. R. Ward
"What's that?"
"You have migraines, right?" When he nodded, she pointed to her eyes. "And you get an aura about twenty to thirty minutes before the pain hits, yeah? Well, sometimes sufferers get numbness and tingling in their arms or legs; others have sensory anomalies, like smelling things that aren't there or hearing things. With Selena's disease, there is no warning that an acute phase is about to happen. The freezing up seems to occur out of the blue."
"Have you spoken with that Havers fool?"
"Actually, he's never heard of such an illness. The closest he's come is dealing with arthritis-related symptoms." She shook her head. "It makes me wonder, if we were able to do genetic sampling from the Chosen, whether there would be a recessive gene in them somewhere. With a captive breeding population, such as they have been, you'd expect to find exactly this kind of a disease cluster." She shrugged. "But back to Selena, I wish I could tell you what was going to happen, or even what to look for. I can't, though. I've done a complete blood panel on her, and her white cell count is slightly elevated along with her inflammatory markers--but other than that? Normal. All I can say is that if she's up and moving around, her joints are by definition functioning well, and they will let us all know when they aren't."
He cracked his knuckles, one by one. "Is there nothing we can do for her?"
"Not that we can think of so far. One of the challenges is that we don't understand the mechanism of the disease. My suspicion is that after the bone growth is triggered by God only knows what, her immune system somehow rebounds and attacks the offending material, destroying it as if it's a virus or infection. And her body's defensive mechanism knows when to stop, as her original skeleton is intact afterward. There probably is something inherently different about the 'bone' growth, but I wouldn't know unless we did a biopsy."
"So why does she have to . . ." Shit, every time he blinked, he saw Selena lying on the table, her body in that god-awful contortion. "Why can't she just keep fighting things off and recovering?"
"My guess is, the immune system fails. When you think about it, it's an extraordinary series of events on the cellular level. When I saw the first set of X-rays, I would never have guessed her body could come back from that to any kind of functioning."
He fell quiet, and stared at the tile floor. "I want to take her out tonight. You know, for a date." When the doctor stayed silent, he glanced up. "Not a good idea, huh?"
Doc Jane crossed her arms over her chest, and pushed her chair back and forth on its little black wheels, the seated version of pacing.
Fuck. He should have had this conversation before he'd suggested an excursion--
"How frank do you want me to be?" Doc Jane asked.
Trez had an image of Vishous's goateed profile highlighted under that ceiling fixture outside in the corridor. "I need to know where we're at."
Even if it killed him.
It was a minute or two before Doc Jane answered, and he guessed she was running scenarios in her head. "The most conservative route is for her not to leave the compound, and for me to do a total work-up on her, one that involves multiple biopsies, a CAT scan, an MRI out in the human world, and consults with human doctors through Manny's contacts. And then we'd probably want to start her on an aggressive course of steroids--even though that's more a hunch than anything certain, I have to believe the inflammatory process has something to do with all this. There could be other drugs to try, maybe some procedures, but it's hard to guess at them with any certainty from where I'm sitting right now." She rubbed at her short hair until the stuff stuck straight up in blond spikes. "We'd have to get moving fast because we don't know how much time we have, and everything would be trial and error, with probably more of a prolonging goal than a cure. Although again, that's just a hunch, nothing concrete."
He closed his eyes and tried on for size telling his queen that instead of going to that restaurant she was so excited to eat at, they were going to--
"But that's not what I would do if I were her."
Trez popped his lids and looked over at the physician. "So there's another way."
Doc Jane shrugged. "You know, at the end of the day, I think you have to consider quality of life. I'm not sure how far we'd get in treating or understanding this disease even if we climbed all over her. I'm basing that on the fact that she is, to borrow an infectious disease term, 'patient zero' for us. Nobody has seen this even though a minority of her sisters have suffered for generations from it. There is a very complex series of things going on, and I just . . . there's a lot to try to get a grip on. And for what? Do you want to ruin her last nights--"
"Nights?" he blurted. "Jesus Christ, is that all we have?"
"I don't know." She lifted her palms. "No one does, and that's the point. Would you--would she--rather spend whatever time she has living, or simply waiting to die? I'll tell you right now, if it were my choice, it would be the former. That's why I'm not going to make her come down here or try to have her feel bad because she's not in a big hurry to lie down on my table."
Trez blew out the breath he'd been unaware of holding. "Rehvenge went up North. To the colonies. To see if there was anything in the symphath tradition that would help."
"I know, Ehlena told me. We're hoping to hear something soon."
He could tell by the professional tone of the female's voice that she wasn't holding out much hope. "What happens if Selena gets into . . . a situation . . . and we're out to dinner?"
"Then you call us. Have I shown you Manny's new toy?"
"I'm sorry?"
She got to her feet and patted his knee. "Come with me."
Doc Jane led him out of the exam room, into the corridor, and then down, down, down, past the unused classrooms to the parking garage's heavy steel door. Opening the thing wide, she indicated through the jambs with her arm.
"Ta-da."
Trez stepped out into the cooler, damper air. The enormous ambulance was shiny as a penny, boxy as a LEGO, bigger than Qhuinn's Hummer. Bigger, actually, than the human ones he'd seen out and about in Caldwell.
It was a goddamn RV.
"That is some serious shit," he said.
"Yup. One of the things Manny and I have been worried about--"
The back doors of the vehicle burst open, and Doc Jane's human partner hopped out. "Thought I heard voices." The man grew grave as soon as he saw Trez. "Hey, man, how you holding up?"
The two shook and Trez nodded at the vehicle. "So this happened, huh."
"Come see inside."
Trez shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and walked around to the back. Through the open double doors, he saw . . . a large center aisle with two gurneys, one after the other, surrounded by all kinds of medical equipment stored in glass-fronted, locked cabinets that lined the side walls like bookshelves on steroids.
"It's like a miniature operating room," Trez murmured.
Manny nodded and jumped back in. "That's the plan. We want to be able to treat serious, potentially mortal field injuries quickly. Sometimes, getting patients back here or to Havers's is too risky."
The doctor started opening up those cupboards and cabinets, showing an array of sterile dressings, sterile operating tools, even a microscope on an extending arm that could pivot around to either of the beds.
He patted the thing like it was a pet. "This baby is also a portable X-ray machine, and we have ultrasound technology. Oh, and as a bonus, the RV is bulletproof."
"That was my husband's contribution," Doc Jane added in.
"And V also did the computer systems in here."
"As he would say, true that." Doc Jane glanced at her partner. "So listen, Trez is taking Selena out for a date tonight."
"That's a great idea. Where you two headed?"
Trez made a circular motion with his forefinger. "The thing in the sky. That goes around and around."
"Oh, yeah, I know the one," the guy said. "At the hospital we called it Engagement Central, 'cuz that's where the doctors took
their girlfriends when they were ready to put a ring on it. Very romantic."
"Yeah."
Trez stared at the expanse of the mobile OR, trying to decide whether it made him feel relieved or depressed as shit. The good news, he supposed, was that with the flashing lights over the cab of the vehicle and Manny's legendary lead foot, they could make it to downtown in about ten minutes. Especially with there being little traffic.
But what if that wasn't enough time? What if Selena needed--
"Trez?" the male doctor said.
He shook himself out of his ambiant panic. "Yeah?"
"How 'bout I go with you--no, not as your chauffeur," he cut in as Trez recoiled. "I'll park in the rear of the building and just hang out in case you need us. This thing has counterfeit badges on the doors and the hood and the back, and I've got all kinds of forged papers. No one will bother me, and I'll bring a Brother with me in case I need to scrub any humans."
Trez blinked. "God, I can't ask you to do that--"
"You didn't. I volunteered."
Trez stared into the state-of-the-art ambulance. He couldn't believe the guy was prepared to--
"Trez?" Manny said. "Hey, Trez, look at me."
Trez swung his eyes back to the human. Manny was well built for a non-vampire, with an athlete's body that he continued to keep up after mating V's sister, Payne. But the strongest thing about him? His confidence. Trained in the human world, the former Chair of the Department of Surgery at St. Francis Hospital downtown radiated the kind of my-way-or-the-highway attitude that meant he fit right in with the Brothers.
"I got you," the guy said gravely. "I got you and her."
Manny extended his palm, and for a moment, all Trez could do was blink. But then he clasped that which had been offered him.
Trez's voice cracked. "I don't how I can repay you."
"You just go and enjoy your woman. That's all I care about."
As Doc Jane put her hand on his shoulder, Trez was humbled by the support. And hopeful, too, that maybe Rehvenge would come up with something from the symphath side of things.
After thanking both of them again, he went back into the training center, Doc Jane staying behind with her partner as if she knew he needed a minute to get his shit together.
God, his head was spinning.
And it was funny, he had no impulse to drink away the angst. At all. He didn't feel the need to go out and bang a hundred random chicks, either. He also didn't have any interest in checking in with Big Rob and Silent Tom about the club and its opening night, or following through about those packs of drugs they'd found on that lesser. He didn't even want to go upstairs to the mansion's third floor, wake up his brother, and give iAm an update.
He was curiously hollow. And that scared him.
Tonight was supposed to a special one for his queen.
Had to be.
THIRTY
It was around six in the evening when Selena stepped out of the shower in Trez's bathroom. She had slept like a young all day long and into the night, aware only of Trez coming in and checking on her from time to time. As a result, she felt better than she had for . . .
Dearest Virgin Scribe, she didn't know how long.
Toweling herself off, she wrapped up her hair and put on Trez's black robe. The voluminous weight dwarfed her body, falling to the floor, the tie so long the ends nearly tangled in her feet. But it felt so good to have the thing on her, his scent wrapping around her as an embrace, the folds offering warmth.
Over at the double sinks, she picked up a hand towel and wiped free the condensation on the mirror. Under the lights, her skin was glowing, a flush to her cheeks and a blush to her mouth--all the result of the sex they'd shared.
And there would be more tonight. She knew that because every time Trez had entered the room, that dark spice of his had been an intense promise of what was to come.
Unraveling the towel on her head, she let her dark hair loose, the wet strands flopping down her back. She did the best she could to get the lengths pre-dried, rubbing the terry cloth over everything she could reach without straining too much. Then it was hair-dryer time--except . . .
No hair-dryer.
Looking around, she checked the cupboards under the sinks, but only found a whole load of backup toilet paper, soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Razors. Hand towels and bath towels. Moving over to the storage area on the wall, she found . . . more towels. Which smelled expensive and were as soft as fresh-baked bread, but would not get her where she needed to be.
Bone-dry was the ultimate goal. Ever so slightly damp was her second choice.
Okay, she could be in trouble here. The two of them were leaving at seven-thirty and her hair, unaided, took about eight hundred hours to dry--
A knock on the outside door brought her head up. "Hello?"
"Is that a 'come in'?" a female voice asked from in the hall.
"Yes? Please?" Tucking Trez's robe in tighter, she went out into the bedroom proper--then stopped as the heavy panels opened. "Oh, hello . . . ah . . ."
Beth, the Queen, walked into Trez's room. And with her were Marissa . . . Autumn, Mary . . . Ehlena and Cormia. Bella. Payne. Also Xhex, who, with her short hair and her leathers, seemed a little out of place in the group.
Or maybe that was because of her awkward stance, as if she were unsure what she was doing with the pack of them.
"Is there something you needed?" she asked the Queen. The others.
Even though she had been aware of just Cormia and Layla coming to see her, it was a fair guess that everyone in the house had been told about her difficulties--she really hoped the females hadn't made the trip to offer condolences before she actually died.
Fortunately, Beth smiled--as opposed to break out the tissues. "We need you to let us do you up."
Selena popped her brows and looked at her feet. "I'm sorry. Am I down and don't know it?"
"Well, we heard through the grapevine--"
Marissa spoke up. "My hellren told me, actually. And he heard it through Vishous."
"That you're going on a date," Beth finished. "And we thought you might like some beautification."
Cormia put her palms out. "Not that you aren't beautiful enough."
At that point, there were lots of oh, no's, totally beautiful's, and only if you wanna's--and all Selena could do was put her hands up to her cheeks. "I was just going to put on robing and do my hair as prescribed."
"Boring," Xhex said. As all the girls sent her looks, she threw up her hands. "I told you I'm not good at this stuff! God, why did you make me come up here?"
Beth turned back around. "Selena, you always look lovely, but we have some contemporary clothes for you to consider, ones that are maybe a little more--"
"You'll look like something other than a window drape." Xhex rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, I'll shut up from now on. But it's the truth."
"I look like a drapery?" Selena said, glancing over to the swaths by the windows that had just un-shuttered themselves. "Is that bad?"
Beth came forward and took her hands, squeezing them. "Do you trust us?"
"Oh, of course, my Queen, it's just . . . I don't know--I can't find a hair-dryer, and--"
Marissa stepped forward with a canvas tote full of . . . every conceivable makeup and hairstyling whatever. "Worry not, I have you covered!"
And that was how Selena ended up sitting on a stool in the middle of Trez's bathroom with a bunch of females circling her with hair-dryers, hairbrushes, something called mousse, and curling irons.
In the midst of the makeover, her eyes watered.
"Oh, am I too close," Autumn said over the din of the dryers.
Selena brought a hand up, hoping to hide her tears. The kindness was so unexpected; she literally felt as though the entire house was getting behind her and her male.
Xhex, the hard-ass, was the one who brought over the Kleenex box. And when Selena's hand was shaking so badly she dropped the tissue she took, Xhex was the one who did the
duty, snapping another soft white square free and dabbing under eyes that leaked.
Selena looked up into that gunmetal stare and mouthed, Thank you.
Xhex just nodded and kept discreetly mopping up, her gentle touch at odds with that harsh face and masculine dress--and the gun she wore holstered at her waist in spite of the fact that they were all safe in the compound.
Selena had no thoughts in her head, only emotions too big to hold in her heart.
As the dryers were finally silenced, she knew it was time to pull herself together. All that sound and fury as her hair was blown around had offered a kind of buffering to hide behind, even if they had all seen her cry.
"Your hair is so lovely," Cormia said as she ran her fingers through the waves. "I think we should leave it down--"
"Thank you all," Selena blurted. "Thank you for this."
Beth knelt in front of her. "It's our pleasure."
A hand landed on Selena's shoulder. Another on her forearm. More on her back. And Xhex was right next to her with that Kleenex box.
Looking in the mirror, she saw herself surrounded by the females of the house, and none of them were pitying her--for which she was so very grateful. Instead, they were standing with her, doing what they could to show her that she mattered.
And for some reason, that seemed indescribably important.
Probably because it dawned on her, for the first time, that she would be remembered by these people after she was gone--and to be mourned by good folks was the best legacy anyone could leave behind.
"Down?" she heard herself say. "Really? You think I should wear my hair down?"
"Allow me to introduce my little friend." With that, Marissa held up a silver wand that was plugged into the wall via a black cord. "And now the warfare shall begin."
Selena had to laugh. Glancing up at Xhex, she said, "Have you ever--"
"Used one of those?" The female yanked at her short hair. "As if. But I think you should do what they say. You're looking at the species' brain trust here when it comes to being hot."
"Then submit I will." Selena found herself lightening up at the idea of a transformation. "Do with me what you wish."
Beth grinned. "You think this is gonna be good? Wait'll you see the dress."
*
"I'm sorry. I tried."
