Page 17 of The Unraveling

And then, a few days later, Dr. Todd made one last call.

“I’m terribly sorry to deliver this news, but Isla has died. I found her in bed this morning. She passed peacefully in her sleep.”

I could hear the crying—how much they loved me. Knowing I would die anyway even without the lie kept the guilt away. Isla, in their world, was doomed. It was an unavoidable truth. At least this lie gave them peace. Gave them the comforting thought of me dying peacefully in my sleep, rather than seeing me waste away in a hospital bed. Gave them a last conversation—that I could overhear they were so thankful for—rather than haunting memories.

How special—what a gift from Dr. Todd—that our final words to one another were “I love you.”

Nothing could change the foundation of their reality, but Dr. Todd did the best he could to make it more palatable.

From the time I left California, my illness didn’t cost them another cent. He apologized for not being able to deliver their healed daughter when they agreed it was more rational—more affordable—to have me cremated and flown home in a beautiful little box. Told them he was thankful for their trust in him and his experimental research despite the secrecy surrounding it, and that if he’d known my cancer would be so resistant, he wouldn’t have dared give them false hope. I was relieved when they accepted his check for the funeral as payment for my participation, knowing even in my passing I was no longer burdening them.

Sometimes I wonder if they leave daisies beside my urn.

The phone slipping from my grip draws my attention back to Daisy, and my stomach cramps. I gag—sandwich wanting back out—so Daisy rushes me to the bathroom. Distantly, Victor calls out behind us. I drop to my knees in front of the bloodied toilet and throw up.

I groan, resting my arm across the toilet seat and leaning my head against it, bowl now full of more blood and chewed up sandwich. Victor strokes his fingers down my back while Daisy’s hands grip my hair in a makeshift ponytail.

The memory of puking venom and blood only hours ago, the disorienting panic as I leaned over the toilet to empty myself for the first time since I was sick and human, hangs in my mind. I try to grab it, unfurl it, but it’s out of reach before I can fully pinpoint where it came from.

“Oh, my love,” Victor sighs. “Why did you eat human food?”

“I thought it would help me feel better,” I utter.

“The immortal blood has only come up with it . . .”

“It was the last, I know,” I squeeze out. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll call and see which fledgling is available and nearest.”

My hair falls around me as Daisy straightens and says, “I’ll go find your phone, Dr. Todd.”

There’s a smile in his voice. “Thank you, Daisy.”

I’m unsure if time slips away from me, but she takes far too long to retrieve what was on the table.

I crack an eye open as she steps into the bathroom, phone screen black despite how she taps it. “It’s dead.”

Victor says, “Put it on the charger, please.”

She vanishes from the room as I try to recall whether the battery was low or not.

“Isla, love,” Victor starts, tucking hair behind my ear. His soft touch sends a warm shiver down my spine. “Why don’t we go sit in the garden for fresh air?”

“But the samples?” I counter. “They’re important. You have to study them.”

He gives me a strained smile. “You’re ill, Isla. I should be caring for you.”

“But you’re sick, too,” I remind him.

Victor stares at me for a long second and blinks. “Yes, but . . . I’m all right at this moment. I think whatever ailed us is slowly passing.”

I groan, empty stomach feeling like an open wound, though I have the sense only immortal blood can mend it. “Do you really think so? How can you know?”

“We’re . . . vampires,” he whispers. “There are only three ways we can die, and this is not one of them.”

My heavy gaze trails to the white bandage around his wrist, pale pink with creeping blood. “Yet you’re not healing. How are we supposed to feel better if at least one of us is not healing?”

He strokes his hand through my hair. “I just need a bit more blood, is all.”