A World of New (A Shade of Vampire, #26)

I was glad when Shayla returned to the room before I could make further headway in my response. She emerged in the doorway, holding a tray filled with a plate of sandwiches, a jug of water and a glass.

Shayla first gave him some water to drink, which he downed readily. Then she handed him the sandwiches. He raised a slice to his lips and took a bite, chewing slowly. He finished the first sandwich, then reached for the next, but as he was halfway through this one, he retched and upchucked all over himself.

“Oh, dear,” Shayla said, hurrying to take away the sandwich plate and clean him up.

I wondered when the last time he’d ingested solid food was.

“All right,” Shayla said, after she had finished cleaning him. She walked over to a closet and returned with a syringe. “I’m going to take a blood sample from you, if that’s okay. I need to begin a full diagnosis. We will try to feed you something again later. Sandwiches were too much of a shock to your system.”

Looking weaker than ever, he allowed her to take his arm. She inserted the needle and filled up the syringe halfway with his blood. Then she left the room again.

He appeared too worn out even to talk after vomiting his guts out. He had a pained expression on his face as he sank back against his pillow. His eyelids drooped. I thought that he might be on the verge of falling asleep, but then he murmured in a low voice, his eyes still closed, “I need more answers.”

I thought back to the questions he had asked me before Shayla entered. I guessed that I could give him a brief overview and try not to go into too many details. And so I began to explain more about the IBSI, as well as supernaturals in general and the state of the world today.

He did not speak a word the whole time, and by the time I was finished with my brief overview, he looked shell shocked.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He stared blankly at the opposite wall, not acknowledging my question. I hoped I had not just blown his fragile mind. Of course the truth of the world around us was so much to take in, even a watered-down version.

Then Shayla returned to the room again. I wondered whether she had had time to inspect the blood sample yet, but since she did not offer information, I didn’t ask. She took a look at the young man and leaned over to take his temperature and pulse again before turning to me. “I think we should let our guest rest for a while,” she said to me. “Give him some time on his own.”

I nodded before grabbing another blanket, since he was still feeling ever so cold, and placing it over him.

“I’ll be back to check in on you soon,” Shayla said as the two of us headed for the door. “For now, get some rest.”

He didn’t respond.

The two of us left the room, closing the door gently behind us.

Shayla breathed in deep before taking my hand and vanishing us from the spot. We reappeared in one of the apothecaries on the ground floor, where I spied the man’s blood in a test tube next to a myriad of other bottles of multicolored liquids.

“So?” I asked, raising my brows.

“I need more time to examine the sample,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “Hopefully I’ll be able to get a better idea of what the hunters were doing to him, and start working on a cure for his legs and memory… There aren’t a lot of other witches on duty right now, so I will be taking full charge of him for all medical issues. You, however, Grace, I would like to appoint as his caregiver for when I’m not treating him. He’s suffered a severe loss of memory, and likely a lot of psychological damage too. More than medical treatment, he needs mental and emotional support. You’ve been trained well by Corrine and me during your preparation for joining the League. I know that this is something that you can handle. What do you say?”

“Oh, um…” The truth was, the idea really excited me. I’d never been given such a big responsibility before. I’d merely been an assistant, both in medical matters and in caring for patients suffering from trauma. I’d never been appointed as a caregiver in my own right. “I would love to… but what about school?” Now that I’d returned, I didn’t have any reason not to resume my classes.

Shayla smiled. “I’ll talk to your teachers and say that I’ve offered you work experience. You can always work harder over the weekends or holidays to catch up on things that you’ve missed. I’ll volunteer Eli to help you, if you like.”

I grinned. “Sounds like a deal.”

“Good,” Shayla said, clasping her hands together “I’ll keep an eye on him for the rest of the day, and I’ll appoint Tom to check on him during the night.” Tom was one of the male human nurses who worked at Meadow Hospital. “And tomorrow morning, you can arrive here at, say, 7 AM?”

“Sure.” I usually woke up at around 6 AM, anyway.