11

Cynthia examined the blood sample under the microscope. Her hands shook as she turned the dial to bring the slide into focus. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but there it was in living color. Despite what she’d said earlier, she already had all the blood from Jacquelyn she needed. And Jennifer’s blood matched it. The only difference being the number of cells that carried the gene. Since Jacque was half wolf, her blood was rife with them. Jennifer, however, had just enough to be recognizable by a person who knew what to look for.
Cynthia exhaled and picked up her phone, dialing Logan’s number.
“Tell me you have good news, Dr. Steele,” he said after picking up on the first ring.
“Yes, I can get her alone. I just received a call from Vasile’s Beta. Jacque is sick. I’m going now to see her and will have her transferred to the ICU, where visitors of any kind are not allowed after 9:00 p.m. I have a pair of scrubs for you here in my office. I will leave it unlocked so you can get in. Wait in my office for my call.” Without listening for his response, she hung up.
Cynthia changed the slides in the microscope, putting Jennifer’s away and sliding Jacque’s sample under the scope. Unfortunately for Jacque, she’d received a blood transfusion before Dr. Steele had been able to stop it. Now, the doctor looked into the eyepiece, watching as the girl’s human cells attacked the werewolf cells. Cynthia had thought something like this could happen, but watching it actually unfold was fascinating. The human blood recognized the wolf cells as a virus and attacked accordingly. She knew of only one cure, one way to stop the human cells from killing the wolf cells, which would, inevitably, kill the werewolf—more wolf blood.
As she stood up and put on her lab coat, Cynthia took one last look at the slide and then turned to go to Jacque’s room. She kept telling herself that it would be okay, that Logan would be able to heal her, that she wasn’t putting Jacque in any real harm. Before her conscience could talk her out of it, she was standing in front of Jacque’s door. She’d been able to hear the girl’s cries from down the hall and she could only imagine how painful it was for her body to turn on itself. There, see? I will be helping her by giving her the morphine to keep her under, and then she won’t feel the pain until Logan can heal her. Assuaging her guilt, Cynthia turned the doorknob and walked into a room full of worried people, an emotionally out of control Alpha, and the cries of a very sick girl. Thankfully, at the sight of a sick person, the doctor in her kicked in and she focused on that role, on doing something to help.

Every face in the room was draped in worry and fear for Jacquelyn. Fane heard the door open. He turned to see Dr. Steele walk in, and before anyone could ask her a question, she held her hands up and moved to Jacquelyn’s bed. The only sound was the whimpering and cries of Fane’s mate.
“Please do something for her.” Fane found himself pleading with Dr. Steele, desperate for something, anything, to help his Jacquelyn.
Dr. Steele listened to Jacquelyn’s heart, and then she shined a light into each eye. She moved Jacquelyn’s hands away from her stomach and began pushing down on it, emitting a cry from its owner. Fane growled but Dr. Steele was not intimidated. “Save it, wolf. I can’t help her if you expect there to be no pain.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out something Fane didn’t recognize. He watched her run it across Jacquelyn’s forehead and then look at a small screen on the side.
“It’s a thermal scanner to take her temperature. She’s at 105.2, which means if we don’t get her temp down, she will either have a seizure, go into a coma, or both.” Dr. Steele looked over to Vasile. “I’m going to have to take her to the ICU. No one is allowed in there. The patients are all too sick to be exposed to the germs people would innocently bring in. You understand what this means?”
Vasile nodded. “I will take care of it.”
They watched as she pushed a button that caused an alarm to sound, then they all heard footsteps moving fast toward the room. The next thing Fane knew, he was being pushed out of the way. Decebel and his father grabbed him before he could lunge at the hospital staff as they transferred Jacquelyn onto a gurney. He couldn’t focus on what Dr. Steele was saying as he watched his mate being taken from him to where he could not go…again. Once Jacquelyn was out of sight he finally looked at the doctor.
“What is wrong with her?” he growled.
“I don’t know yet, Fane. You will have to be patient and let me do my job. Growling and throwing massive Alpha fits will not help Jacque get better.”
Fane was taken aback by the doctors’ boldness but found that he respected her for it.
“Just make her well again. Please.”
Dr. Steele put her hand on Fane’s shoulder. “She will be fine.” She stepped back then so she could look at the whole group crowded into the little room. “I will let you know as soon as I know something.” And then she turned and walked out.
The room was quiet, no one daring to break the silence, for then they would have to acknowledge the fear that was threatening to consume them one by one. The silence was broken by a cursing Jen. Everyone turned to look at her and watched as she wrestled with the tape that held her IV in place. She wasn’t paying attention to the fact that everyone was focused on her. “Hey, moron nurse number one said, look at this IV I just put in this chick, do you think I used enough tape? Absolutely not, said moron nurse number two, you have to wrap an entire roll around her arm so that nothing short of a miracle will get it off.” Jen muttered the dialogue under her breath as she finally got the tape off the IV in her arm. “Finally!” she announced triumphantly as she pulled the IV from her arm, blood trickled down towards her hand. She looked up and noticed everyone watching her.
“What?” she asked. Her eyes got bigger as Decebel began to walk towards her. He got so close that she had to strain her neck back to look up at his face.
“Why did you take that out?” His face was hard, unreadable.
“Because if I’m going to have to have a pole attached to me I would prefer it be one that I could get some use out of. But as it was this particular pole as my constant companion, it just wasn’t doing it for me.” Jen batted her eyes at him. “Besides, what the hell does it matter? My best friend has just been rushed off to the ICU and you’re worried about my stupid IV?”
“Put it back,” His eyes glowing gold as he took hold of her arm.
“Oh, yeah, sure thing. I’ll get right on that,” she said sarcastically as she pried his hand from around her arm. Paying him little more attention than if he were a gnat, she stepped around him, so she could see the others.
“What’s the plan, Vasile?” She heard material ripping and as she turned towards the noise she watched as Decebel tore a piece of the sheet from the bed off and brought it over to her. He took her arm, gently this time, and wrapped the material around the spot that was still bleeding from where she had ripped her IV out. Without a word, he went back to the spot he had previously been standing while Jen watched his retreating back.
Vasile answered as if the peculiar scene had not taken place. “For now, you and Sally will stay here, and I will put a guard on the door. Fane and Decebel will stay in the waiting area for the ICU. Fane,” Vasile looked directly at his son, “you will not attempt to defy what Dr. Steele has said. Are we clear?”
“As you say, so shall it be,” Fane gave the formal response, neck bared in submission.
“Good,” he continued, “Alina and Lilly will go home and rest.” Lilly started to interrupt but Alina stopped her with a hand on her arm and gave a sharp nod of her head. Lilly swallowed the words she was about to say.
“Lilly, I understand that you want to be here for your daughter, but you need to rest, and you won’t get it here. Trust me, okay?” Vasile waited for her response before continuing.
“Okay,” she answered, her voice resolute.
Vasile looked at his watch, it read 9:30 p.m. “I think it’s time to call it a night. As soon Dr. Steele has information she will contact me, and you will all know within minutes.” Vasile turned to leave and Alina followed him. Lilly came up to Jen and hugged her and then did the same with Sally.
“Don’t worry Ms. P,” Jen told her, “Jacque’s the most stubborn person I know. She will be fine.” Lilly nodded and with eyes full of unshed tears, she left as well.
Fane gave them each hugs as well and told them to call him if they needed anything, to which Jen threw out, “I think Jacque would kick my butt if I called you for what I need.” Decebel growled, but at least it got a small smile from Fane. That was what Jen had been aiming for. Jen turned to Decebel and stuck her tongue out at him like a petulant child.
As he and Fane left, Decebel turned back one more time. “You two. Don’t do anything that you consider brilliant. The rest of us will consider it stupid.” He shut the door just as Jen threw the nearest thing she could get her hands on, which happened to be the box of tampons that Sally had absently set out, so naturally tampons went flying everywhere.
“Arrrrrgh, I’m so going to skin him the first time I see him as a wolf and make him a nice rug to lay on in front of the fire place,” Jen growled.
“Um, Jen, you don’t have a fire place,” Sally pointed out.
“My hypothetical fire place, Sally. Come on, keep up, will you?”
“Oh, my bad. I forgot that I’m supposed to be taking notes on your hypothetical life so that when you make references to it I will know exactly what the freaking A you are talking about.”
“Well, at least you are able to admit when you are wrong. That’s a step in the right direction.” Jen patted her friend, then jumped back just before Sally’s fist could connect with her shoulder. “Man, it’s nice not to have that stupid pole stuck to me.”
Sally sat down on the bed and looked at Jen, her face no longer playful. “What’s the plan, Jen? I know you’re cooking one up because that’s what you do best, so what are we going to do?”
“Sneak into the ICU of course,” Jen said, matter of fact like.
“Nice.” Sally smiled conspiratorially and then listened intently as Jen laid out her plan.


***

“Start her on IV Vancomycin and Fentanyl twenty-five micrograms bolus, f/b continuous infusion of three micrograms per hour. Then cover her with cooling blankets. Let’s try to get her temperature down. If she starts shivering, replace them with regular blankets.” Dr. Steele was issuing orders as she continued to monitor Jacque’s condition. She had no problem deciding to sedate her given the amount of pain she was in. The fact that it would make it easier to move her was just a plus.
While the nurses followed out her orders, she stepped into an empty room and called Logan. He picked up on the first ring.
“I had to bring her to the ICU. I need to get her stable and then I will get the nurses out of the way, so you can come up and move her,” Cynthia explained.
“What do you mean get her stable? What’s wrong with her?” Logan’s voice was low, and Cynthia couldn’t tell if it was worry in his voice or something else.
“The human blood she was given through a transfusion is attacking her body.”
“Can you fix her?”
“Yes, I will tell you how once you are on your way to Denver. I’ll text message you when I’m ready.”

Logan heard the line cut off as Dr. Steele hung up. He couldn’t believe that something really was wrong with Jacque. Was it his fault? No, he told himself, you didn’t make them give her the transfusion. That was just something that happened, one of those no-fault situations. Besides, Dr. Steele said she could fix it, that’s all that mattered. Jacque would be fine, and she would be his. He sat down in a chair as he waited in her office for the text that would bring him one step closer to his goal.


“Are you sure this is going to work?” Sally whispered to Jen as they walked down the hall. They’d had a lucky break when Skender, the wolf Vasile put on the door had stepped away to go to the bathroom.
“Of course it’s going to work, it’s my idea,” Jen said confidently.
“Right, like that summer you decided it would be a good idea to sneak out and go camping?”
“Hey, everything turned out fine. It was just a little fire,” Jen said carelessly.
“A little fire, Jen? Really? You burned three acres, the freaking fire department had to get one of those crop duster planes to pour water over it, and you say that turned out fine?” Sally’s whisper was now more of a whispered shout.
“Okay, so it got a little out of control. This is nothing like that. It’s a simple in and out op.”
“Did you just say in and out op?” Sally asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, you know, op like operation. We get in and we get out undetected.”
“Oh, well once you put it like that, I don’t know why I was ever worried.” Sally rolled her eyes, clearly not comforted in the least by Jen’s words.
They continued to walk down hall after hall. All of them were beginning to look the same.
“Do you even know where the ICU is?” Sally finally asked.
“No, but I figured they would have signs with arrows that said ‘you are here’, and then pointed you the way you needed to go. You know, like in the mall.”
“Says the genius who planned our in and out op.” Sally took a deep breath and let it out slow.
As Jen rounded a corner, she saw a guy in scrubs coming towards them. Before Sally could be seen she pushed her back. “Go,” she whispered.
“What?” Sally gasped.
“Go, there is a nurse or doctor coming this way. I will distract him. You go on like we planned.” Sally hesitated. “Are you going to let Jacque down, Sally? Leave her all alone, scared in that unfamiliar room?” Jen knew the guilt trip would do the trick and sure enough…
“Sometimes I want to punch you in the face, Jennifer Adams,” she ground out as she turned and walked the opposite direction.
“I love you too,” Jen whispered, then quickly added, “Its 11:00 p.m. Now, meet back in the room in an hour and a half.” Sally lifted her hand in acknowledgment but kept walking.
Sally walked as quickly as she could down the hall and, rounding the corner, nearly ran into two huge doors with the letters ICU labeling them. Well, ask and you shall receive, she thought as she gently pushed on the doors to see if they would open. They didn’t. Wishful thinking never did anyone any good but it was worth a try. She looked along the walls on either side of the door because she had noticed that a lot of the hospital doors were automated with a button so that you didn’t have to push them open. As she examined the wall to the right of the doors, the hairs on the back of Sally’s neck began to rise. She felt like she was being watched. She began to turn but before she could she felt pressure on her neck, and then darkness and silence engulfed her.