It probably shouldn’t have, but the thought made me smile. “So tell me what else I missed in my four-day coma.”
Over the next hour, he did. The day of the attack had been the shitstorm—his words—and the whole CGE mood had been kind of subdued with everyone walking on eggshells after that.
I didn’t remember it, but Linc told me no one would let him come see me, so he and Tasha had snuck in the day before. (According to him, they snuck in because they weren’t convinced I wasn’t dead or a vampire.)
The only thing I really missed was everyone’s grades being given out. The demon hunt had been my last official test, though I had no idea if I’d passed it (and my other classes) or not, because I forgot to ask Greene. I guess I didn’t really forget so much as being too comatose to ask. Considering I’d been attacked by a vampire, I wasn’t sure I’d passed, but I still made a mental note to ask Greene the next time I saw him.
Linc stayed for another hour, until my eyes started to droop. I didn’t know how I could be so tired after spending four days in bed.
Laughing, Linc tucked me in and then left. The second the door closed, I was out.
*~*~*
Flashes of memory or dreams—I wasn’t sure which—haunted my sleep.
I woke with a start, covered in sweat, and flung myself forward. My heart pounded wildly against my ribs and my breath came out in quick, harsh gasps that burned my lungs.
For a split second, I’d thought I was back on the hunt, lying on the ground, unable to move.
I stayed where I was, motionless, until my eyes focused and my heart slowed, and then I made my way to the small bathroom across the room. I stumbled once, just managing to grab hold of the doorframe to keep my balance.
Standing in front of the sink, I braced my hands on the counter. They shook violently.
More images formed and I closed my eyes against them. Running. Screaming. Someone yelling my name. Terror. Pain.
Red-blood eyes staring back at me.
The air in my lungs clogged until I couldn’t breathe. I hunched over, my hands still on the sink for support, and tried breathing shallowly.
It was just a dream. Just a bad, bad dream.
Turning on the water, I cupped my hands under the faucet until it filled and then splashed it over my face. When I looked up, I caught my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were shiny but dull, and my hair was all over the place. I splashed more water on my face and slicked my hair back so it was out of my eyes.
I glanced in the mirror again. “Crap. Doc is going to kill me.” The bandage was gone from my neck. It must’ve fallen off in my sleep. I started to turn away to find it but stopped. “What the—”
I leaned forward until my nose almost touched the mirror, and turned my head to the left.
Those weren’t scratches on my neck.
My eyes went wide and I stumbled back, falling against the door. I kept backing up, right out of the bathroom, and then the med room. I looked left, right, and realized I was on the second floor. I ran to Doc’s door and pounded. “Doc!” I pounded again. I had no idea if she was in there, but I was going to keep banging on the door until she—or someone else—found me. “Open up!”
The door opened and Doc eyed me. “What’s wrong?”
“Get Greene. Now.” I hadn’t run far, but I was still out of breath and breathing harshly.
Linc appeared behind Doc. “Jade?”
“Let’s go back to your room,” Doc said, stepping out.
“I want Greene.”
“Linc, take Jade back to the medroom. I’ll go get Greene.”
Linc did as she asked and walked me back to the medroom. “Are you okay, Jade?”
I didn’t answer him, and when he tried getting me to sit down, I didn’t move. He didn’t try again or ask any more questions. I was glad. I had too many questions of my own to answer his.
A few minutes later, Greene and another man came in. He was a doctor I’d seen around, but I couldn’t remember his name.
“Is everything okay, Miss Hall?” Greene asked calmly.
Doc stepped forward. “Sit down, Jade. You don’t look so good.”
“Oh?” A bitter laugh tore from my chest. “I guess that’s what happens when the people you trust lie to you. You knew it—you all did. I remember. Everything.” I started to pace side to side. “I ran after Felecia, killed one of the vampires.” My words were garbled, fast, but I couldn’t slow them down. “Someone yelled, and when I turned to see why, the other vampire jumped me. I remember it all!”
Doc’s eyes were glassy. “Jade, let us explain—”
“What’s there to explain?” I said, cutting her words off. “I was bitten by a vampire!”
Silence filled the room.
“Jade, you couldn’t have been bitten,” Linc said after a full minute. A hint of a smile raised his lips, but it vanished before it had a chance to fully form. “They wouldn’t have held that from you…”
Director Greene shook his head. “Miss Hall, please calm down.”
“Why? Am I wrong?”
Linc’s gaze went from me, to Greene, back to me again. “Tell her she’s wrong.” There wasn’t going to be any denial from anyone, but Linc managed to look hopeful for about two seconds. “Tell her she’s wrong,” he said again, this time with a bite to his words. “She was just scratched.”
With shaking fingers, I brushed the hair from my neck. “These aren’t scratches, Linc,” I whispered.
Doc stepped forward. “Jade, just let me explain--”
“Explain what? Like, why you didn’t tell me I was bitten? Why you lied to me?” My legs collapsed under me and I hit the ground. “I’m going to die, aren’t I, or turn into a vampire?”
Doc’s eyes were glassy. “Jade…”
“Your test results weren’t normal, Miss Hall,” Greene said simply, just as calm as ever. “But you aren’t going to turn into a vampire.”
Which just left dying. I noticed he hadn’t denied that part.
The male doctor shook his head. “I see no reason to lie to the girl, Director. I told you we should have handled it before—”
“Dr. Hamilton, that’s enough.” Greene’s tone was sharp, harsh.
Linc knelt down beside me. His hand went to my back and I could feel it shaking—or maybe that was me, I couldn’t tell. “She was bitten? You said she was fine.”
“Jade,” Doc said, stepping closer to me, “I’m going to draw more blood and run the tests again. I’ll figure out what’s going on. We’ll—I’ll find a way to fix this.”
Shaking my head, I glanced up and laughed at her. “How? How are you going to fix it? You can’t cure a vampire bite.” My breath hitched and my head spun. Oh, God. I’m going to die.
Wasn’t denial supposed to be the first stage of grief, the first thing you felt when you learned you were about to die? Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. Those were the signs of grief. I’d read about them in Demonology. The book touched on them a little, on the psychology of demon attack victims, so the hunter could help them.
But how could you really help the dying?
I searched their faces, each of them, carefully studying everything I could; their eyes, their body language, their hands. The truth was there.
I felt Linc’s hand twitch. He saw it, too.
“I’m going to die.”
Doctor Hamilton shoved his hands into his pockets. His eyes met mine. “Yes, you are.”
CHAPTER 17
Laughing, I shook my head. Well, thanks for sugarcoating it, Dr. Asshat. As soon as I thought it, I decided the name was apt.
I guess the third time really is the charm. At least when it came to demon attacks.
I sighed but didn’t say anything, not for a long while. What was there to say? Everyone died.
Death was a fact of life. You lived, you died. The end. No one had figured out how to stop it yet, though I was sure there were scientists working on that. Heck, the CGE was probably working
on it.
When I was younger, I didn’t understand dying as a concept. I’d heard the words and all the ‘they’ve gone to Heaven’ stories parents told their kids to explain when someone—or something—they knew or loved died. At fourteen, I’d gotten a better grasp on it, but it’d still been a myth-like thing to me until after. Before then, I’d never lost anyone close to me except my dad, but I was young, so I didn’t really remember it. But when my mom and brother had died, I’d learned that no one was safe. No one was invincible. One day my family had been there. The next they were gone.
I was here now. Soon I wouldn’t be.
“Jade?”
Still on the ground, I barely acknowledged the sound of Doc’s voice. I blinked, but that was it.
“Jade, I—”
“Were you going to tell me?” I asked quietly. “I mean, you knew I was bitten and have since it happened. And Peter and the others—they had to know. I get why they didn’t say anything.” I looked up at Doc. “But were you going to tell me?”
“We wanted to be sure,” Doc said, her lips thin, eyes sad.
I snorted. “What’s there to be sure about? Vampire bite,” I repeated, turning my head to the side and pointing at the fang marks. “Deadly. Always. Incurable.” She flinched and tried to hide it, but I saw. “What do you know now that you didn’t know days ago, or even a few hours ago?” No one answered. I started to push up off the floor and immediately felt Linc’s arms go around me. I tried shrugging away. Linc didn’t let go, not even when I was upright. My legs were jelly and I had to force them to stay steady. “You’ve known this entire time. When were you going to tell me? When!”
Doc flinched away. “I wanted—”
“I trusted you.” Part of me knew that it probably hadn’t been Doc’s idea to lie to me, but I couldn’t make it matter. I couldn’t see past the betrayal. “I’m dying and you’ve known this entire time and you never said anything.”
“Miss Hall, please sit down.”
I rounded on Greene. He hadn’t moved at all since he’d come in. His expression never really changed either, and he didn’t seem at all bothered by my words or the fact that I was dying. He didn’t exactly look pleased, but couldn’t he at least look bothered by lying to me? Couldn’t he at least pretend to be upset? “I trusted you, too, and you look like you could care less.”
“Please sit down,” he repeated, in the same usual tone.
I glared. Part of me wanted to argue, just to spite him, but I listened and walked over to one of the beds to sit down. Not because he ordered it—I didn’t care about that. I did it because I wasn’t sure how long my legs would hold me and because Linc had been supporting my weight this entire time.
Linc stayed by my side and sat beside me on the bed. He wrapped his fingers around mine, squeezed, and held tight.
Speaking softly, Greene said, “Your results weren’t normal. Even after—or perhaps especially after—a vampire bite. Before we concerned you, we wanted to run more tests.”
“Oh, sure. Don’t concern me with the fact that I’m dying. Why should I be worried about something so trivial? I’m just a P1. I’m sure you’ve got others lined up and ready to take my place.”
I was angry with everyone, including myself. Them, definitely, for hiding this from me, and myself for not remembering it immediately and for letting it happen in the first place.
And Felecia. If she hadn’t run off, I wouldn’t have gone after her.
“Jade, we’re going to keep working on this.” Doc walked up to me and took my other hand in hers. “I haven’t given up and I won’t. I promise.”
I wanted to tell her it was pointless, that there was nothing she could do. Scientists had been working on this problem for years, before I ever arrived at the CGE, and they were no closer to a cure. And if the books were right, they wouldn’t be. Not in time to save me.
“How long do I have?” I asked without looking up.
In a no nonsense tone, Dr. Asshat said, “A few days. Maybe less, maybe more. There’s no way to be certain, but from all of our records, a week is the max.”
“A week?” I repeated, my tone low. “I’ve got maybe a week and you didn’t tell me? You kept me in a coma for four days of that!”
“Because we haven’t given up,” Doc said, her tone hard. “I haven’t.”
I looked up then, gave her a small smile. It was all I could manage. Maybe she had lied to me as much as the others, but at least she seemed to care. Greene and Dr. Asshat both seemed completely uncaring to my would-be demise.
No one said anything else for a long while and I stared straight ahead.
What was I supposed to do now? I let out a long sigh and ran my free hand over my face and then through my hair.
“I want to get more samples from you, Jade.” Even as she spoke, Doc was busy gathering supplies. She bounded around the room, back and forth, grabbed this and that. “I’ll run some comparisons. I’ll think of something.”
I still found myself wanting to argue, but I saw the determination in her eyes. It made them bright and fierce. I knew she wouldn’t find anything, and I think she did too, but she wanted to try. “Thanks, Doc.”
Briskly, she nodded and got to work. Once she’d finished and had the samples labeled and ready, she said, “I’ll run the tests immediately.”
“Shouldn’t I be in the South Tower?”
Doc shook her head. “No.”
“Yes,” Dr. Asshat said.
Doc whipped her head around in his direction. “What? She’ll be fine in a med room. She doesn’t need to go over there.”
“Jade isn’t contagious,” Greene said. “We’ve never found that to be a side effect of a vampire bite. She doesn’t need to be isolated from her friends.” He turned to Doc and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I see no reason she can’t stay in her own room and be as comfortable as possible, as long as we’re all willing to make a few compromises and take some precautions.”
“It’s not protocol, Director,” Dr. Asshat said, like his was the only opinion that mattered. He strode forward. “If she were anyone else, she would have been quarantined immediately and—”
Director Greene’s eyes flashed. “I’m well aware of the protocol, Doctor. Miss Hall is not a security risk. She can return here for scheduled tests, or I’m sure Miss Jones wouldn’t mind going to Jade’s room to collect the samples.”
I jumped to my feet. If Linc hadn’t still been holding on to me, I probably would’ve fallen over. “I’ll come back when I’m needed.”
“And I’ll keep an eye on her,” Linc said beside me.
Greene nodded. “Very well.” He glanced around the room. “Dr. Hamilton, Miss Jones, I believe you both have things to see to, correct?”
“Yes, Director,” Doc said. She gathered the blood she’d drawn, sent me a small smile, then left the room quietly.
Dr. Asshat didn’t move, but his gaze went to me. “I think this is a mistake. We all know she’s going to end up back here in a matter of days. I see no reason why she shouldn’t stay now.”
“I’d like a word with Miss Hall. In private.” The tone may have been mild but the demand was still there.
On a huff, Dr. Asshat left the room. Linc started to follow behind, but Greene motioned for him. “I believe you can stay for this, unless Miss Hall objects.”
I shook my head. “I don’t.” Linc knew what I knew. I was dying. What could be more private than that?
“I’m relying on you, Mr. Stone, to be our eyes and ears. And I’m relying on you, Miss Hall, to be careful. We’re all aware of the causes and symptoms of a vampire bite. However, since your preliminary tests weren’t conclusive, we shouldn’t discount unusual signs.”
“We won’t,” Linc answered before I had a chance to comment.
“While his bedside manner leaves something to be desired, Dr. Hamilton does raise a valid point. You should be in the South Tower as you said, especially considering your test results. None of us can be certain
what will happen, or when, so until we do know, I am going to ask something of you.”
I didn’t really want to know, but I figured he’d tell me either way, so I just said, “What?”
“I’m going to ask that you stay in your room until we know exactly what is going on. We’ll make sure meals are delivered to you, and since Mr. Stone has all but refused to leave your side after sneaking in to see you, he’ll be permitted to visit. I’m likely being over-protective here, but in case I’m wrong and you may be infected, I’d like to keep you from the general population. It’s not very fair of me to ask this of you, but—”
“It’s fine. I’ll stay away from everyone.” It wasn’t like I really wanted to see anyone besides Linc, anyway. I turned to face him, made a face. “You shouldn’t have stuck around.”
He rolled his eyes. “Someone had to make sure you didn’t turn into a vampire.”
It really shouldn’t have, but it made me laugh. It was just so…Linc.
Greene took a step forward. His gaze was darker now, like he had more bad news deliver. “You won’t be able—or likely want—to stay in your room for more than a few days.”
Understanding his words, I nodded. “I know.” Meaning: you’re going to be in a lot of pain.
He moved over to me, his footsteps quiet. I looked up, his eyes, slightly narrowed, met mine. “You’re free to leave, Miss Hall. As mentioned earlier, I’d like for you to have tests run periodically for the next few days. If you don’t feel up to coming here, other arrangements will be made.”
“Okay.”
“And at the first sign of anything out of the ordinary—and I mean anything, however small or unrelated you think it may be—you’re to report back here immediately.”
“I’ll make sure she does, Director,” Linc said.
Greene nodded. “Very well. I’ll try to come by tomorrow—or,” he added when he glanced down at his watch, “later today, as the case may be—and talk with you more, if you’d like.”
Breed of Innocence (The Breed Chronicles, #01) Page 23
