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The doctor noted something, put the chart back, and slid her pen into her coat’s breast pocket. “You should get some rest. Come back tomorrow if you want to.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, knowing that if I came back, they would know that the story I told didn’t wash. “I probably should. I wouldn’t want to be left alone when I don’t have any family or friends around me.”
She nodded once. “Good.” With a smile, she added gently, “Now, go home.”
I rose from the chair, asking one of the nursing staff for directions on how to get out. Once I was outside the emergency department again, I found that the rain had eased off to a drizzle. I located the car and found the keys still inside. I glanced around, wondering how in the hell nobody had thought to steal it. Once inside, I reversed from the spot, flicked my lights on, and started back to the cabin.
EIGHT
ORIN
There was a beeping in the room that I hadn’t heard before … no, that wasn’t right. I’d drifted in and out of consciousness for the past who knew how long, and that beeping had always been there. I opened my eyes. Then opened them a little wider when I saw the false ceiling, florescent lights, and metal railings. Where the fuck was I?
There was a curtain wall on one side of the bed, then a window on the other. Jesus, fuck, I was in a hospital ward. I looked down, pulling at the paper-thin gown covering my body.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, noticing the cannula in my arm. I followed the transparent tube up to the side of my bed where a machine was regulating the fluids pumping into me. My stomach turned in revulsion. I had no idea what drugs they were putting through me right now, and I felt out of control.
Frantically, I began peeling the tape from my arm when a voice stopped me.
Hervoice.
The girl with the horse-head-shaped birthmark on her shoulder.
“You have to leave that in,” Fallon said.
I found her standing on the edge of my ‘room,’ arms folded, her expression wary. I had no idea what that meant.
“I have to get out of here,” I said, my voice betraying the terror running through me.
She shook her head. “No, you have to stay. Your fever has only just broken, and you need to stay on antibiotics for at least another twenty-four hours.”
Tearing off the tape, I tried to pull the plastic tube-and-needle-combo from my arm, but Fallon slapped her palm over it, stopping me. My panic, which had been building, suddenly began to recede. It was like I could breathe again. I looked up at her from under my lashes.
Fuck, she was beautiful.
“Orin, you must stay. Promise me you’ll stay for another twenty-four hours. After that you can check yourself out, but please …”
She didn’t say it, but the wordsdo it for mehovered between us. Fuck. I licked my lips, waiting to see what she would do next. She didn’t move away. She didn’t break eye contact. She was waiting me out, and I had to respect the shit out of her for that. Swallowing roughly, I nodded, and she let go of my hand.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked to the window and stared out.
“How long?” I asked her. “How long have I been here?”
“Almost twenty hours. You have a bad viral infection from your …wound. That was why you had the fever.”
“I would’ve been fine eventually,” I replied.
“No, you wouldn’t have. The fever could have killed you.” She shot me a look from over her shoulder. “And I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Why not?”
With a ghost of a smile tilting the corner of her mouth, she turned back to look out the window. “Because you’re the Reaper.”
I ran a hand through my short hair. “What the hell happened?”
“You passed out when you started showing me the bedroom. I managed to get you onto the bed. You began running a high-grade fever, growing delirious. Eventually, you seized. That’s when I knew I had to get you to the hospital.”
I ran my eyes over her petite form, trying not to let my gaze linger too long on her ass. She couldn’t have weighed much more than a hundred and twenty pounds, soaking wet. “How did you get me out of the bed and into the car?”
