I was glad she cared so much—about her shoes.
My stomach started to cramp up, mildly at first, but it wasn’t long before I was doubled over, gripping my side with the worst PMS of my life. As soon as my demon mark began to throb, I knew that I wasn’t being gripped with female problems or the flu. That would have been too normal, and this was so much more and something supernatural.
God. What now?
Was I being mutated into some kind of demon lizard? Because that was what it felt like. My insides were being carved out.
“Hey, we are almost there,” Lexi encouraged, rubbing my back. “Emma, step on it.”
Emma mumbled some sort of mouthy response right before her monster of a car lurched forward.
I moaned in agony, unable to do anything else. And then I sensed him. “He’s coming.”
“Of course he is,” Lexi said in exasperation.
“What’s happening?” Emma asked. She actually sounded worried about me.
“I—I’m not sure,” Lexi replied flustered. “But Chase is on his way.”
Emma sighed. “Great. He better not rip my door off again.”
Even totally sick off my butt, that memory was a happy one. Inside I was grinning. And that was the last thing I remembered. My body just couldn’t take any more and it all went dark.
***
What is with me blacking out? That was the second time in the last few months. Coinky-dink? Probably not.
I awoke surrounded by white lace and bubble gum pink. It was nauseating, but for entirely different reasons. The room was spinning in funhouse circles. There was only one place I knew that actually looked like Candyland—Lexi’s bedroom.
Squeezing my eyes shut for another few minutes, I tried to wait out the whirling. When my eyes fluttered open a second time, Travis was standing in the doorway.
“It’s about time, sleepyhead.” His voice was light, but was deceived by worried lines wrinkling his forehead.
“Ugh. How long have I been asleep?” I asked, still feeling sluggish.
“Almost two days.”
“Two days!” How was it possible that I had been out for practically two whole days? And then as if to drive home the length of my latest blackout, my stomach promptly growled. Well, that explained the hunger pangs. I didn’t know what to make of it.
Physically, I felt… I needed a moment to take inventory.
The God-awful cramps were gone.
The hot and cold flashes had vanished.
In all honesty, I felt good. Awesome-sauce good. Possibly too good. The first thing I noticed was my eyes. Everything in the room was so sharp and vibrant as if I had just gone from black and white to Technicolor. Weird.
Travis stepped into the room, flashing me his dimples. “You are giving my cousin ulcers.”
“Where is he?” I could tell he was gone.
He leaned against one of the white dressers, watching me. “He went to speak with Ives.”
“Ives,” I echoed in disbelief, though I shouldn’t have been.
Ives was the only other Divisa that we know of who had also been bonded to a human, except we really didn’t know jack about him. He had helped us understand what was going on after the first link—soulbond. Then he had also enlightened us on the other two that would complete the binding triforce—heartbond and bodybond. But as far as anyone knew, it had never been done before. Not all three.
Chase and I would be the first.
If we ever got there.
Travis’s eyes twinkled. “Don’t worry. I am sure he is on his way back as we speak. If you’re awake, he must sense it.”
I inched up higher on the pile of pillows behind my head. “In that case, I really think I need a shower.”
Travis laughed. “I doubt Chase will care either way. He will be too busy being grateful you are okay.”
Right, but I had to scrub off this two-day-old grime for my own sanity. I felt ooey-gooey. “Travis,” I called before he could leave the room. “You guys don’t ever get sick, right?”
He shook his surfer boy head and gave me a questionable glance. “Nope, never.”
“And you heal incredibly fast.”
His sea-green eyes sparkled. “Speedy Gonzales fast.”
“So it would make sense that with me being connected to Chase I would have inherited some of that healing, but at a slightly slower rate,” I said out loud, voicing the process of thought trickling through my head.
Intrigue lit in his expression. “Okay, I’m following you.”
“Then why did I get so violently sick? So sick, it knocked me on my back for two days?”
He gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “You got me.”
Not exactly the profound response I was looking for, but then again Travis wasn’t known for his brains, unless it was combat related. “Why didn’t my body heal itself before it got to such an extreme? I swear it felt like my body was turning itself inside out. Not even as a human, have I ever been that ill.”
He grinned. “Angel, you are a new breed of freak.”
“Thanks,” I said mundanely. “You helped a ton.”