Blood Rites (18 page)

"Hello? This is mission control calling out
to all pushy, know it all friends who bullied me into telling them
something I didn't understand myself and are now acting like the
monkeys earlier referenced."

That effectively got Jacque to shut her mouth
and finally acknowledge Jen.

"I'm sorry, I was sort of thrown off for a
moment. I just can't believe he said that."

"What does it mean?" Jen asked, her voice
uncharacteristically soft.

Sally looked at Jen and then at Jacque. "Does
it mean what I think it means?"

"I don't know, Sal. I mean why else would he
care what her virginity status was?" Jacque answered.

"Maybe it's a little sister thing, like he
feels he needs to be her big brother," Sally said, nodding her head
as if that would somehow make it true.

"I've seen him looking at her, and if he sees
her as a little sister then Fane needs to beat the crap out of him
cuz he looks like he's considering incest."

Jen watched the exchange between her two
friends as they communicated as if she wasn't sitting right in
front of them.

"Hey, Ricky, Lucy, I'm sitting right here.
Would you please stop talking like I'm not in the room."

"Right, sorry Jen." Sally kneeled down in
front of Jen and placed her hands on her knees for balance. "Jacque
and I think Decebel's being possessive towards you."

"That's your sleuthing in action? Really?
Well bloody hell, why don’t you guys go clear up the mystery behind
Stonehenge seeing as how ya'll are so good at figuring things out
and all."

"There's more to it than just possessiveness,
Jen." Jacque stood up and started the pacing that Sally had
abandoned. "He's treating you like…" Jacque was motioning her hands
as if trying to encourage someone to spit out what she couldn't get
her mouth to say.

"It's like he thinks, maybe…" Sally began but
then aborted her thought.

"Just spit it out already. He thinks and is
treating me like what already?"

"Mate," Jacque blurted out so fast it looked
like someone had slapped her on the back to make the words come
out. "He's treating you like a mate would."

Jen felt like she had been punched in the
gut. She tried to take in air but her lungs wouldn't work. She
thought she could hear voices but they sounded muffled, as if
coming from the other side of a closed door. Her thoughts were
jumping from one image to another like one of those flip picture
books making the pictures look alive the faster you flipped them,
only this wasn’t a book, this was her life. She saw Decebel coming
towards her bed when he asked her if she was alright, flip, he was
kneeling next to her looking at the skin on her legs, flip, he was
standing in the hall of the hospital all but growling at her, flip,
he was laying a blanket over her as she lay in the hospital bed
shivering. On and on the images came. There was one common
denominator in each image: Decebel was nearly snarling at her in
all of them. All of a sudden, she felt cold wetness on her face.
She gasped, trying to get her bearings, filling her lungs with
precious, life-giving oxygen.

"Crap, Sally," Jen sputtered. "There better
be a stinking, world-changing reason that you threw water in my
face."

"You weren't breathing and you wouldn't
respond to us saying your name. I was going to slap you, but Jacque
decided a hand mark marring your skin might not be the wisest thing
right now," Sally explained nervously.

"I have found a flaw in your reasoning," Jen
said, looking for all the world like they had better agree with
her. As Jacque handed her a towel to dry her face, she explained
her theory. "Any time Decebel is in the room with me he looks at me
like he wants to throttle me. Not once has he ever appeared to be
interested in me in
that
way."

"You of all people should know that a look of
intense desire can be mistaken for the look of throttling," Jacque
said, matter of fact like.

Jen cocked her head to the side, one eyebrow
lifting. "Oh really, do tell, Jac. At what point in your long, full
of incredible opportunities, mystifying life have you experienced a
guy looking at you where you thought, is this desire for me, or for
the throttling he just might be thinking about giving me? Really,
please tell me so that I could possibly fan the tiny flame of hope
that my common sense is desperately trying to douse with the cold
reality that Decebel is NOT AND NEVER, IN MY 'I'M NOT A FREAKING
WEREWOLF' LIFE, WILL BE AN OPTION!" Jen cursed the damning tears
that revealed the depth of her emotions regarding the brooding wolf
who was a constant shadow in her mind.

"Jen, I'm sorry," Jacque whispered as she sat
down on the bed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I didn't
know you had feelings for him."

"Of course I have feelings towards him. I
feel like he is a pompous, hairy, flea infested butt head." Jen
thought if she said it out loud then maybe she could believe it. No
such luck.

The room was quiet without Jen's loud voice
to fill the empty spaces.

"So, how 'bout this weather we've been
having?" Sally said, forever the one trying to smooth things
out.

Suddenly Jacque stood up, causing Jen to
nearly fall in the floor. "What the crap, Jacque?" Jen spat. Then
she looked at Jacque's face and could see something was very
wrong.

"I'm going to be sick." Jacque's voice was
desperate and pained.

Jen put her hands on Jacque's shoulders and
began guiding her towards the bathroom, all the while shouting
orders at Sally. "Go get Fane, get some towels and cold washcloths,
then get Dr. Steele." Sally headed for the door but it flew open,
thankfully before she was close enough to be hit with it. Fane came
in a storm of power. He walked past Sally, following the painful
sounds of the sickness coming from his mate. Decebel came in behind
Fane and stopped beside Sally.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice as
authoritative as ever.

"We were just sitting, talking about," Sally
paused, remembering what they had been talking about before Jacque
had gotten sick. "Nothing important, and then Jacque stood up and
said she was going to be sick. Jen took her into the bathroom and I
was coming to get Fane but he was already coming into the room."
Decebel just nodded in response. Sally realized then she was
supposed to get towels and a wash cloth. She headed out the door of
the room and then paused to look back at Decebel. "Can you get in
touch with Dr. Steele somehow?"

"Yes."

"A 'man of few words' would be an
understatement in describing that wolf," Sally muttered as she
continued on her quest for towels.

"What happened?" Fane growled at Jen as he
maneuvered himself into the spot she had just occupied. He took
over holding Jacquelyn's hair as she retched up anything and
everything from her body.

"I don't know what happened. We were just
talking and everyone was fine and then bam, Jacque was getting
sick." Jen slapped her hands together in emphasis.

"Luna, can you tell me what's wrong?"
Fane asked her, his voice full of the anguish he was feeling at
seeing her so sick.

"It feels like my insides are trying to
crawl out of my mouth. How's that for descriptive?"
Jacque sent
her thoughts and moaned out loud at the same time as another spasm
gripped her stomach, and she began to dry heave because there was
nothing left inside her.

Fane placed his hand on her forehead as she
began to shiver.
"You're burning up, Jacquelyn."
Fane didn't
know anything about fever but he was sure that her temperature was
beyond the point of being just a minor fever.

"Here, I have washcloths." Sally came into
the bathroom and turned on the cold water, pushing the washcloths
under the flow, then she squeezed out the excess and handed one to
Fane.

"Put it on her neck," Jen instructed, then
took a towel from Sally and folded it placing it on the floor and
pushing it underneath Jacque so her knees wouldn't be on the hard,
cold floor.

"Decebel got in touch with Dr. Steele, she is
on her way here," Sally informed them.

Jacque finally slumped back against Fane,
exhausted from being sick. Her face flushed from the fever, and her
breathing was shallow. Fane picked her up and carried her to her
bed. As he gently laid her down he spoke to Decebel. "Get my
father."

"Done, my prince, I've already called him. He
and your mother and Lilly were down in the cafeteria. They are on
their way up now."

Fane nodded. "Thank you."

Without warning Jacque screamed out, "FANE!"
Jen and Sally jumped. Decebel flinched because of his sensitive
wolf ears.

Fane rubbed Jacquelyn's forehead."I'm here,
love. What can I do?" Fane was gritting his teeth, frustration and
fear coursing through his body.

"Make it stop," Jacquelyn whispered to him.
"Please make it stop."

Chapter 20

Cynthia
dialed Logan's number as she
continued to examine the blood sample she had under the microscope.
Her hands shook as she turned the dial to bring the slide into
focus. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but there it was
in living color. Jennifer's blood matched Jacque's blood. The only
difference being the amount of cells that carried the gene. Since
Jacque was half wolf her blood was full of them. Jennifer, however,
had just enough to be recognizable by a person who knew what to
look for. Logan finally answered. "Tell me you have good news, Dr.
Steele."

"Well, if you mean can I get Jacque by
herself, then yes I have good news. I just received a call from
Vasile's Beta. Jacque is sick. I'm going now to see her and will
have her transferred to the ICU, where visitors of any kind are not
allowed after 9:00 p.m. I have a pair of scrubs for you here in my
office. I will leave it unlocked so you can get in. Wait in my
office for my call." Cynthia was changing the slides in the
microscope, putting Jennifer's up and sliding Jacque's sample under
the scope. As she looked into the eyepiece she ceased hearing
anything Logan said. She'd thought that this could happen, but
thinking and reality are very different.

"Okay, Logan, I will call you when I'm ready.
Bye." And without listening for his response she hung up. She
continued to examine the blood as she watched the human cells
attack the werewolf cells. Jacque had received a blood transfusion
before she had been able to stop it. That was what she was watching
on the slide in front of her. The human cells from the blood that
did not belong to Jacque were attacking her cells. She had heard
that this could happen when a wolf received human blood because
human blood recognized the wolf cells as a virus and attacked
accordingly. She knew of only one cure, one way to stop the human
cells from killing the wolf cells and inevitably killing the
werewolf.

As she stood up and put her lab coat on, she
took one last look at the slide then turned to go to Jacque's room.
She kept telling herself that it would be okay, that Logan would be
able to heal her, that she wasn't putting Jacque in any real harm.
Before her conscience could talk her out of it she was standing in
front of Jacque's door. She'd been able to hear her cries from down
the hall and she could only imagine how painful it was for your
body to turn on itself. There, see? I will be helping her by giving
her the morphine to keep her under, and then she won't feel the
pain until Logan can heal her. Assuaging her guilt, she turned the
doorknob and walked into a room full of worried people, an
emotionally out of control Alpha, and the cries of a very sick
girl. Thankfully, at the sight of a sick person the doctor in her
kicked in and she focused on that role, on doing something to
help.

By the time Dr. Steele walked into the room
everyone was there, lining the wall of the room. Every face was
draped in worry and fear for Jacquelyn. Fane heard the door open.
He turned to see Dr. Steele walk into the room, and before anyone
could ask her a question she held her hand up and headed for
Jacquelyn's bed. The only sound was the whimpering and cries of his
mate.

"Please do something for her." Fane found
himself pleading with Dr. Steele desperate for something, anything
to help Jacquelyn.

Dr. Steele listened to Jacquelyn's heart, and
then she shined a light into each eye. She moved Jacquelyn's hands
away from her stomach and began pushing on it in various locations,
causing a cry to erupt. Fane growled but Dr. Steele was not
intimidated. "Save it, wolf. I can't help her if you expect there
to be no pain." She reached into her pocket and pulled out
something Fane didn't recognize. He watched her run it across
Jacquelyn's forehead and then look at a small screen on the
side.

"It's a thermal scanner to take her
temperature. She's at 105.2, which means if we don't get her temp
down she will either have a seizure, go into a coma, or both." Dr.
Steele looked over to Vasile. "I'm going to have to take her to the
ICU. No one is allowed in there, the patients are all too sick to
be exposed to the germs people would innocently bring in. You
understand what this means?"

Vasile nodded. "I will take care of it."

They watched as she pushed a button that
caused an alarm to sound, then they all heard footsteps moving fast
towards the room. The next thing Fane knew he was being pushed out
of the way. Decebel and his father grabbed him before he could
lunge at the hospital staff as they transferred Jacquelyn onto a
gurney. He couldn't focus on what Dr. Steele was saying as he
watched his mate being taken from him to where he could not
go…again. Once Jacquelyn was out of sight he finally looked at the
doctor.

"What is wrong with her?" he growled.