Ambrosia (Nectar Trilogy, Book 2) (9 page)

She opened her eyes. They felt so heavy. She blinked a few times. Her mouth was so dry.

“Princess?”

“Heyyy. My Prince,” she smiled.

She felt a little bit like she was drunk.

“Thank fuck.”

“My beautiful vampire-prince boyfriend.”

“Baby, drink.”

“Hm?”

“Drink this.”

“You’re beautiful, Tristan. I can’t believe you love me.”

“Shh, drink. Tell me after you’re better how much you love me.”

He put a water bottle to her mouth. After a few sips, he went fuzzy.

Then later, she didn’t know how much later, she felt something else against her lips.

It tasted like chocolate milk but there was a weird taste in it. It was a meal replacement shake. She’d drank enough of these while she was apart from him that she never wanted to drink them again.

“Yuck.”

“Keep drinking, princess. You need nutrients.”

As soon as she swallowed it down it came right back up and she projectile vomited on both the bedspread and the rug.

Tristan carried her to the adjacent bed and got her a cool cloth for her face.

“Stay sitting up. Don’t go back to sleep, Kyla.”

She watched him stripping the other bed and then he started going fuzzy again.

“Baby, please try to stay awake for me?”

“Fuzzy…” She passed out.

Later, she didn’t know how much later, she heard him on the phone,

“No. She skipped dinner.

A few times. Some big feeds. She’s been coming in and out. A bit delirious. Puking.

Fuck. I know.

Okay, alright.

You don’t have to fucking tell me that, alright?

I’ll call you back.

No. Fuck.

Whatever.

Bye.”

She was on her side. He was beside her, sitting, his hand on her back, rubbing sweetly. She drifted back under.

Then she woke again and he was talking to a woman in a maid’s outfit. She was handing him a paper bag. A phone rang. She started to wade in to sharper consciousness slowly.

She heard him say, “Right, we’ll be there in a few hours.”

“Where?” she asked softly.

He lifted her hair off her face gently.

“Hey, how’re you feeling?” He looked so relieved.

“Hey. Really tired. Thirsty. I have to pee.”

“I’ve packed up. I’m gonna carry you to the car.”

“Why? What’s going on?” she felt so groggy.

“I’ve chartered a plane to get us the rest of the way. It’s risky but this is the best way for us to get to Adrian’s quickly after what’s happened.”

“What’s happened?”

“Fuck, baby…”

“What?” She tried to sit up. She felt so weak. Her head was pounding.

Tristan looked tormented.

“It was an accident. You didn’t eat, didn’t replenish your strength and I fed too much. Your emotions kept urging me to take more and I…” he shook his head, “I had trouble stopping.”

Kyla felt spinny. Tristan passed her a bottle of water.

“Just a few sips. Go slow,” he said, “Take this.” He passed her three different pills with a bottle of Gatorade.

“What are they?”

“B vitamin. Multivitamin. Gravol, to help you keep it down.”

It seemed, after a few sips and a few breaths, that it would stay down so she got up to go to the washroom, feeling really weak.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Yuck. The horror! Her hair was a rat’s nest. Her skin was ghostly white.

“You put clothes on me?” she called out.

“Twice. You’ve been burning up, cold sweats. It was bad. You were out over 24 hours, close to a day and a half.”

She poked her head out from the bathroom and gave him a small smile. He didn’t return it. He looked stressed.

“Can I get a shower before we go? My hair is like a rat’s nest.”

“Yeah, we have a few minutes if you’re quick. I’ll join you. I don’t want you alone in case you faint again.”

The shower was all business. Tristan was attentive, though, washing her back, scrubbing her hair while she leaned, sometimes against him, sometimes against the wall, still feeling weak.

She got out and then he did his own washing while she dried off, sitting on the toilet lid. After she got dressed in black short cargo shorts and a new red tank top with a crocheted light cardigan hoodie, he loaded the rental car with their bags and she told him she was fine to walk, so he held her hand as she followed him to the front desk to check out.

Half an hour later, they were at an airport and then not long after that they were on a small plane with a dozen seats, just the two of them with the pilot and co-pilot.

He was quiet, staring out into the abyss outside the small window, still holding her hand. He hadn’t let go. He hadn’t cracked a smile. He was so tense that she felt herself cowering at the overpowering tension emanating off him.

“Hey?” she asked after a long while.

He looked at her. His face was filled with what looked like pain.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. How you feelin’?” He straightened and his expression relaxed a little.

“Okay. Like I have a hangover a little. But okay.”

He nodded but flexed his jaw a few times.

“What’s happening, anyway?”

He shrugged, “Just wanna get you there and figure out what’s what. I don’t like what happened. I… got carried away. You hardly ate anything that day. You were pissed off at me in the car so you barely ate anything, the way you tend to do when you’re pissed, and even though you skipped dinner I took a big feed and then again in the morning, and …” He shook his head, looked supremely pissed. “Your body wanted it, wanted me to keep going and I listened so I lost control. I can’t let that happen again, no matter what emotions you give off. You need to look after yourself and I need to look after you. I need to check my fuckin’ self.”

He ran his hand through his hair, “I was so fucking scared,” he said in barely a whisper, “This last day has been one of the longest in my life. Called Adrian. He recommended I rush you there. That’s what we’re doing. I don’t like the breadcrumb trail with Liam on the loose and I sure as fuck don’t like Adrian getting any sort of upper hand before I can truly suss things out, but fuck.”

She winced.

“I’m so fucking sorry, princess. So sorry.”

He put his head down in a defeated posture.

She snuggled into him, “I’m okay.”

“Barely.”

She put a hand on his neck and tried to give him a little massage. The tension didn’t leave his body. At all.

“I’ve gotta stretch my legs and powder my nose. Is that the bathroom over there?”

Tristan waved in the direction of the washroom. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “I’m okay, babe. I am.”

He nodded but didn’t smile. She gave his bicep a squeeze and made her way to the bathroom.

After doing her business as the toilet flushed she glanced in the direction of the bowl, and at that glimpse she flinched. Was that a reddish streak on the disappearing toilet tissue? She did a double take but it was too late. The toilet had emptied.

“Oh my god!” she gasped and yanked her clothes back down and got a wad of toilet paper and dabbed and then looked. Nothing.

Was that her mind playing tricks or was her period back? She stood there, heart thudding hard against her chest wall, freaking right out.

She wiped again trying to dip in a little. Nothing on the toilet paper.

She righted her clothes, zipped up and stood still, looking in the mirror, handfuls of her hair in her hands, having a total freak out.

After a minute there was a knock at the door and then she heard Tristan’s voice, “What’s wrong?”

He obviously felt her fear.

She was afraid to open the door. What if she set him off, what if she was about to get her period? He handled feeding but what’d happen if he was faced with her menstrual blood again?

If that was the start then within a very short time she’d be gushing again.  He’d said she’d been out for over a day. Did she miss the dose of the period prevention pill? How the heck would she survive on a tiny plane up in the air if Tristan transformed to black-eyed gray hulky vamp? She’d be dead, the pilot and co-pilots would probably be killed, and then the plane would go down and kill Tristan, too.

Fuck!

“Kyla!” 

The lock thunked open.

Shit!

“Tristan, wait!” she shouted, pointing at the door stupidly, as if he could see her pointy finger, “Stay there. I’m okay, just wait a second.”

She leaned against the door, unzipped, got more toilet paper and checked again.

Nothing.

“I need to know what the fuck is happening!”

She opened the door but just peeked out.

“I thought I saw blood in the toilet. I don’t know, though. It was as it was disappearing down the drain. I’m not sure.”

His eyes went round but remained blue. His skin tone was normal. Nothing was changing with him other than him appearing concerned. Very concerned.

She watched him a beat. “Did I miss a dose of that pill to stop my period?”

He shook his head, “No. I got it into you and you didn’t throw up that time. You haven’t thrown up since.”

She winced, “Barely even been a week since it stopped? I thought we’d have a month…”

“You don’t know for sure if it was blood?”

She shook her head, “No. I thought it might be, but the toilet was flushing when I saw what might’ve been blood, but I don’t know for sure. I’m not sure. A plane’ll be a very very bad place to be if this is what it is and it sets you off again!"

“Fuck.” He squeezed his eyes shut tight

After a beat he shook it off, “Okay, we land soon. Come sit down and let me think for a minute.”

She hesitated, “Let me check one more time. Get me my purse? I’ve got tampons in there. I’ll put one in, just in case. Maybe it’d stop it from coming out, stop you from scenting? I dunno. It’s worth a try.”

He nodded, “Good idea.”

She shut the door.

When he returned with her purse she checked again and nothing. She put a tampon in. She walked back to him and cautiously sat.

Kyla’s heart was racing. She hoped and prayed that she was mistaken with what she thought she saw, that the nectar was not about to make another entrance. She hadn’t been crampy, no zits or anything like that that often accompanied a period. Maybe she hadn’t seen what she thought she’d seen.

Tristan fidgeted until they were told that they had to buckle up for landing.

When they got out into the airport he said, “I’m putting you in a hotel room while I figure out whether or not Adrian’s is safe. I’ll get us disposable phones. If you start bleeding, you call me and we’ll go from there.”

He hailed a cab and got her to a ritzy hotel. He checked in under an alias and then left to get a rental car and head to Adrian’s. He did this with focus, despite Kyla feeling like the world crumbling around her was imminent. When she was finally alone with her bags, with the rest of Tristan’s bug out bag money, just in case (he’d insisted), with two large boxes of super tampons that the concierge had delivered, and with a disposable phone that had been programmed with Tristan’s disposable phone’s number and thankfully, no sign of bleeding, she collapsed onto the king-sized bed and took slow breath after slow breath.

He’d kissed her sweet and long, running fingers through her hair and holding her close before he left, “I’ll see you soon, okay? As soon as I can.”

She’d nodded, feeling emotional.

“Order room service. Eat. Don’t leave the room. Take the vitamins. If I’m not back by morning, take the hormone pill, too. I’ll talk to the concierge and make sure they know to get you whatever you need.”

“Be safe,” she’d pleaded, worrying, hoping, praying he wasn’t walking into some sort of a trap.

He’d kissed her again, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

And then he was gone.

She was alone.

Wow.

Alone.

Weird.

He trusted her. He wasn’t afraid she’d run. Or, maybe he was scared to death she would but had no choice. She was very apprehensive about what might be next. She had a bad feeling but she was trying to shake it off.

When she undressed to take a bath she noticed a red thread on her stomach, and another one fell onto the floor when she was changing. The new tank top? Could a red piece of thread have been what went down the toilet bowl in the plane?  Maybe all this panic was for nothing. She was still planning on watching vigilantly to be sure.

She took a long bath and then ordered a pizza and some grape Crush, which wasn’t Fanta as they didn’t have any but it was still grape pop so would do the job.  She watched a sugary sweet, totally predictable romantic comedy, and then fell asleep after two episodes during a True Blood marathon on HBO. She woke up to the disposable cell phone ringing.