“I wouldn’t ask you to,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You need to rest now, and the doctor wants to run some tests on you.”
“No!” I shrieked. That was the last thing I needed. Being in the hospital, strapped to machines and surrounded by orderlies, would make it impossible for me to find Abram.
I turned on my heel and bolted for the podium. I needed to tell everyone the truth. I needed to stop them before they left and did something that couldn’t be undone.
I stumbled up the stage steps, nearly tripping, but I caught myself on my hands and clambered the rest of the way up. I darted to the podium. My hands fumbled on the microphone.
“Everybody! Attention, everybody.”
I stared at the microphone in disbelief. It wasn’t on.
“Everyone,” I shouted, louder.
Dalton came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Stop this, Char.”
No one could hear me. I needed them to hear me. “Everyone, please!”
As Dalton pulled me back, I gripped the podium, but he was too strong. My fingers slipped. He tugged me aside, set me down, and put his hands firm on my shoulders.
His face was inches from mine. “Enough, Char! Pull yourself together.”
If I couldn’t get them to listen, I needed to stop them, or find Abram and warn him. Help him. Somehow. I pushed Dalton off of me.
“I have to go!” I yelled, and I spun on my heel to run.
It was crazy, the sheer amount of running I had done since all of this started, and something told me this was far from the end of it. I just needed to find Abram, though. I needed to save him the way he had saved me. After that, we would figure the rest out. So long as we were together—
Hands latched onto me again, driving me to the ground.
“Let me go!” I yelled, struggling against Dalton’s weight.
“Doctor!” he yelled, pinning me down at my shoulders. “Doctor, I need your help! She’s not well!”
“No!” I screamed, struggling futilely to get up. I pounded my hands against his chest, but he was not fazed. Steps settled near me, and I saw brown shoes.
“Stay still,” a stranger’s voice said calmly. “It’ll all be better soon.”
Something pricked my arm and sent a burning sting through my veins. The world darkened. My body got heavy, and my eyes struggled to stay open.
God, they had drugged me. Could they do that? I struggled to hold on to my consciousness. They were doing all kinds of things they shouldn’t do. None of this was right. Nothing in my world made sense anymore.
I was going to pass out. This was it. Abram would die out there without me, and I would lay helpless in some hospital until the other beast found me and drained every drop of blood from my body.
This shit never would have happened in New York. But I wasn’t in New York anymore.
***
I woke slowly, aching and with the worst headache I had ever experienced. The lights on the ceiling, bright and white, buzzed the way only hospital or school lights ever did.
I knew where I was. I could feel it in the uncomfortable bed and paper thin gown that scraped against my skin. I could hear it in the steady rhythm of a heart monitor. I could see it in the plain white walls and the dry erase board that displayed my name and condition.
Charisse Bellamy: Shock
The patient is to confined to bed rest
and remain under constant supervision.
Looking forward, I saw that ‘constant supervision’ took the form of an officer standing guard outside of the door. At least he didn’t seem to be very attentive. His head was slouched forward and an awkward angle.
I sighed as loudly as my sore throat would allow. Lulu was slouched over and sleeping on the chair adjacent to my bed. We were in the hospital. Her newborn was probably a unit or two away, and here she was with me. Guilt clawed its way up my chest.
“They’re all asleep.”
The voice startled me. Jumping, I turned back. I didn’t see her before, but Satina, still trapped in the body of the first missing girl, stood at the foot of the bed, flipping through my chart nonchalantly.
“Lulu?” I asked. “She’s the only one here.”
“It’s amazing what they’ve done with parchment in the last two hundred years,” she mused. “This would have all been done by quill in my day, and without near the penmanship. I’ll tell you that much.”
“You have to help me,” I said. “You have to get me out of here.”
“Do I?” she asked, arching her borrowed eyebrows.
“Abram is in trouble,” I said quietly. “He’s hurt, and the entire town is looking for him, not to mention that other beast. Have you told them the truth about yourself, about who you are? Maybe that’ll help them understand.”
“And why would I do that?” She shook her head. “So that I can spend the rest of this shell’s life beating against padded walls? No, thank you. It was hard enough dodging the police without a scene. I’d rather ride it out. I hear something called ‘spring break’ is right around the corner.”
“But Abram!” I said with tears in my eyes.