And then I fall.
Chapter Twenty-Four
SEB
I catch Zoe before she hits the floor, and I immediately sense something is different this time. This is so much worse than before. She’s not breathing, and my inner dragon is losing his shit, sending cascading scales up and down my arms.
“Zoe! Come on, Zoe, don’t do this to me.” I pinch her nose, tip her head back, and fill her lungs with two breaths, then follow up with some chest compressions.
She gasps like she’s swum from the bottom of the deep end and just reached the surface. Thank the creator. I draw her into my arms, relieved when she continues to breathe. In and out. In and out. My dragon is still on high alert, but she’s with us.
Something warm and wet spreads out across my lap, and I realize she’s soiled herself again. And her skin is ice-cold. She shivers in my arms, and then her eyes roll back in her head and her entire body seizes. I hold her on her side. Hold her hair back as she purges everything from her stomach, and it comes up black as tar. Fuck.
“Should I call 9-1-1?” Patrick asks. He’s standing in the doorway, clearly horrified. I’m not sure he’s ever looked so pale. “Or I could call Morwyn.”
“No. She’s going to be okay. Only, can you clean this up after we leave this room?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And we’ll take food and drink in the bedroom in an hour or so. Lots of calories.”
He nods. “I’ll take care of it.”
I lift her off the floor and start for the bedroom, but Patrick stops me as I’m passing him. “You have calls from Crew and from Ellison.”
“Tell Crew I have the flu and I’ll call him back as soon as I’m well enough. Tell Ellison to come as soon as he can and to bring Lucas.”
Patrick nods and heads for the closet where we keep the cleaning supplies. I carry my mate into my bedroom and then the bathroom. When we’re beyond this, I’m taking her on a real date. Hawaii or Europe. Anywhere but this fucking bathroom.
I fill the tub with hot water because she’s still shivering, even though her skin is slick from sweat. While it’s filling, I undress her and then myself. We both sink into the tub.
I didn’t do it this way last time. Before she was my mate, I cleaned her up quickly and efficiently while all my clothes were on. This time, I climb into the tub with her, sinking deep into the water with her head on my chest. Now that she’s my mate, the skin-to-skin will heal her faster, and I can monitor her better with my arms around her.
I soap up the bath sponge I keep on the side of the tub and start running it over her arms, her chest, her stomach, the rest of her. Steam rises up around us. She’s finally stopped shivering.
“You’re going to be okay,” I whisper in her ear. “I’ll take care of you. Whatever it takes.”
I wrap my arms around her and close my eyes, and that’s when my dragon sends me a picture of the deconstructed ring. What the hell? I open my eyes again. My beast is restless, but for once, it’s not after sex. He’s as concerned for our mate as I am. When I close my eyes again, I see the ring again—not just as it exists in this world but the view from the Gold Room, through Zoe’s magic.
“Creator, bless! She showed the ring to you.” Carefully, I stand from the tub and take Zoe with me. I have her dressed in a pair of my pajamas and tucked into bed in a matter of minutes. Once I’m sure her breathing is even and she’s sleeping peacefully, I rush to the office and retrieve her drawing along with a blank piece of paper and a pencil. I return to the bedroom and grab a large book from the bookshelf to use as a lap desk. I never work in here, but I won’t leave her.
I place the blank paper over hers so that I can see her drawing under mine, and I start to add to it. This would go faster if my dragon could hold a pencil. He remembers what Zoe told him clearly, but he can only show me a little at a time. We are one being. One soul. But he’s an aspect of myself that lives in a deep part of my consciousness. I can hear what he thinks, but in order for me to see what he remembers, I have to enter a state that’s something like daydreaming, then come back into my conscious mind to transmit what I saw to paper. It’s a slow and daunting process, but by the time Patrick comes in with a tray, I’ve made incredible progress.
“Ellison and Lucas will be here in the morning. They say they have news,” Patrick says.
“Great,” I say with dread. I’m not sure I want to know what their news is. I have enough to think about with my mate sleeping much too soundly in my bed.
I turn my attention back to my drawing, but Patrick clears his throat.
“Is there something else, Patrick?”
“Zoe left this in the dining room. It’s been…busy.” He hands me her phone. I can’t open it, but there are twenty-four missed messages on the screen. All I can see is the top one. Why aren’t you responding to Jeremy’s texts? What is going on? Call me right away.
I frown and look up at Patrick. “I’ll handle it,” I say evenly.
He removes the dome from the tray, offers me a shallow bow, and leaves.
My inner dragon goes eerily calm as we look down at the phone. We are of one mind on this. I don’t know who Jeremy is or why Zoe’s parents want her to call him, but she is mine. And I’m a jealous and possessive bastard. I don’t deny it for a second. Mom and Dad, I’d love to know. Jeremy needs to find another hobby, and it’s time they understood as much.
