“Eat,” Jaxon said.
She heard him unwrapping a candy bar. The scent of chocolate made her mouth water. “Fine.” She opened her eyes and took the chocolate he held out to her. And then a thought occurred to her. “Has anyone called my grandmother yet?”
“No. We wanted to treat you first,” Medic Williams said. “Your grandfather knows what happened. We’ll call your grandmother once you’re able to move under your own power. I don’t want her to be more alarmed than necessary.”
That was probably a good idea. Bryn tried to wrap her head around the situation. “Who found me?”
“When you didn’t show up for breakfast, Clint and Ivy came to me and asked if I knew where you were. We went back to your room, and when you didn’t answer your door, we sent for a master key. Once we knew you weren’t inside, we went to Elemental Science, thinking maybe you’d gone to speak to Mr. Stanton. When we told him about the situation he organized a search party. One of the guards found you unconscious near the stadium and brought you here.”
None of this made any sense. “Why would someone do this?” Bryn asked. “I mean, besides the obvious psychotic need to feed on another dragon’s Quintessence, why target a student in the morning? They had to know that friends or a teacher would notice that a student was missing.”
“Which leads me to believe that they targeted you on purpose,” Jaxon said. “Because of your connections.”
“Unlike the dragon-pires who attacked me,” Zavien said, “who more than likely needed to feed, this might have been more of a political attack.”
Jaxon nodded. “That would be my guess.”
“The guy whose face I didn’t see sounded sick,” Bryn said. “But you’re right. It’s weird that they risked feeding in broad daylight while other students were roaming around.” One part didn’t add up. “I was running late this morning. Normally, I would’ve been to breakfast by the time they ambushed me. There’s no way they could count on me being the one who’d stop to help.”
“Maybe it was all coincidence,” Jaxon said. “But I doubt it.”
“You do tend to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Zavien said.
“It’s my special skill.” Bryn grinned at Zavien. “Not that I don’t appreciate the concern, but what are you doing here?”
“Mr. Stanton contacted me to help look for you. I know how freaked out I was when I woke up, so I wanted to reassure you that you’d make a full recovery.”
“I appreciate that.”
“No problem.” He stood. “Now that I know you’re okay, I’ll pass word on to Clint and Ivy. I’ll leave you and Jaxon to deal with your grandparents.”
“Thanks,” Bryn said.
Zavien exited the room, and she turned to Jaxon. “Is there any way I wasn’t specifically targeted?”
“It’s possible, since you were running late, but even if you weren’t they could have lured you away by asking you for help or for information,” Jaxon said. “Which makes me think that they wanted to target someone with strong ties to the Directorate to show them that the campus isn’t as secure as they think it is.”
“Just what I wanted to be,” Bryn said. “The poster child for you’re-not-as-safe-as-you-think-you-are.”
“Try picking up the glass and taking a drink,” Medic Williams said.
Bryn managed to reach for the glass and even picked it up, but getting the straw from her glass to her mouth was beyond her coordination at the moment. “A little help,” she said.
Jaxon adjusted the angle of the glass and the straw so that Bryn could manage a drink. “Thank you.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything. Rather than wearing his everything-will-be-fine face, he seemed to be concerned.
“Should she be recovering faster than she is?” Jaxon asked.
“I don’t have a lot of case histories to go by,” Medic Williams said. “I think she’s responding appropriately. In half an hour she should be back to normal.”
“Why don’t you go call my grandmother,” Bryn said. “She’ll want to hear that I’m ready for visitors.”
Jaxon left the room to use a phone in the front office. Bryn knew she only had a few minutes and there was something she needed to ask. “The Greens who did this dumped me while I was unconscious. What would have happened to me if I hadn’t been found until later tonight?”
“I can’t answer that question,” the Medic said.
“Let me rephrase it then. Do you think they meant to kill me?”
Chapter Twenty-One
“It’s possible,” Medic Williams said. “But I can’t be sure. You could have passed out because they drugged you or because they drained you to unconsciousness.”
“I wish there was a way to know if it was an attack on my life or merely an evil way for them to thumb their noses at the Directorate.”
“I understand your frustration,” Medic Williams said, “but I have no answers.”
Jaxon came back into the room and took one look at Bryn’s face. “What’s wrong?”
Since she didn’t have an affirmative answer, she recounted her question to the Medic.
“That is a disturbing thought,” Jaxon said. “You probably shouldn’t repeat it to your grandmother.”
Fifteen minutes later, Bryn’s grandmother stalked into the room looking like she wanted to rain hell down on someone but couldn’t find anyone to take her wrath out on.
Thankfully, Bryn was sitting up under her own power and she felt almost completely back to herself. “I’m okay,” Bryn said.
“I am not.” Her grandmother stalked over and glared at Jaxon. “You are not to let her out of your sight until these individuals are caught and incarcerated. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jaxon backed up a step. “I’ll wait outside so you two can talk.”
That was a smooth escape on his part. Bryn opened her arms. “Hug me before you yell at me.”
Her grandmother hugged her tight and then sat in the chair Zavien had recently vacated. “I am angry at the world right now, but I have no intention of yelling at you.”
“Thank you,” Bryn said. “I swear I was minding my business walking to breakfast. I wasn’t investigating crazy Silver cult dragon-pires or doing anything remotely adventurous.”
“Tell me everything that led up to this event.” Her grandmother pulled a small tape recorder from her pocket. “Leave nothing out. I’m passing this information on to your grandfather since he couldn’t come himself, and I am fairly certain you don’t want to deal with Ferrin.”
“Thank you for that.” Bryn launched into her tale of a good deed gone wrong which left her grandmother looking angrier than before.
“Is that everything?” her grandmother asked.
Bryn nodded, and her grandmother switched off the tape recorder. “I meant what I said to Jaxon. I don’t care if this was a fluke or if you were targeted, since your marriage contract was approved you two are responsible for each other’s safety. And since you seem to be the one more at risk for running into trouble, he needs to keep an eye on you.”
“I’m sure he will,” Bryn said.
Once she was able to walk under her own power, and her grandmother was satisfied that Jaxon would take his caretaker role seriously, her grandmother left.
“Sorry about that,” Bryn said to Jaxon.
“She’s not wrong,” he said. “I guess it’s time for me to stop focusing on the past and start focusing on my future.”
Medic Williams released Bryn with the appropriate paperwork and a note excusing both her and Jaxon from classes for the rest of the day.
Jaxon escorted her back to the Blue dorm, stopping for some carryout food he’d ordered for her. When they reached her room, he followed her inside. She felt stressed and grimy from the drama of her day. All she wanted was a shower, food, and a nap.
“You don’t have to stay here,” she said.
“I do,” he said. “Until I know you’re one hundred percent.”
She could argue with him, but that would keep her from a nice, hot shower. “Okay. Make yourself comfortable. I’m going to take a shower and try to wash away some of this stress.”