Chapter 62

My hand shot up to my head and I grabbed West’s forearm while the room seemed to tilt.

“Yes, I’m just dizzy.”

“Dizzy? Come, sit on the bed.”

Each step sent my heart racing faster. The floor seemed to move beneath my feet and a cry left my mouth as ringing pierced my ears. I knew West was talking, but it was so far away. So distant. Even as I tried to focus, I knew I wasn’t in the room anymore. I was gone. Disappearing.

Pressure tapped against my cheek and West was suddenly inches away. “Everleigh, wake up. Come on, open your eyes. Fuck,” he growled, pulling me into his arms. “Something’s not right.”

Tears slipped free and my arms locked around my enemy’s neck. Fear had me grasping at the one person I should have avoided at all costs, and yet, I couldn’t.

“I’m scared. I …” The room blurred and the next thing I knew, white was all I saw. White ceiling, white walls. And …” I blinked, heavily, taking in Eli’s worried expression not inches behind West. We were still walking and I was wet. Soaking wet and shaking. “What’s happening?”

“Shh. I’m taking you to Medical.” West pulled me in closer, but I wiggled in his arms. I knew what would be coming from my suddenly caring husband if I didn’t fight this.

“Let me walk. I am not weak.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Please. I want to walk.”

Something flashed in his eyes as he slowed. Without saying a word, he came to a stop and lowered me to the ground. My legs were wobbly as I tried to fight whatever was happening. Sickness, some sort of weird insanity episode? Both? I wasn’t sure, but I would not go down like this. I would not be the slave he and everyone else thought I still was.

My body trembled and an odd spasm left me twitching. I clung around West’s waist as he wrapped me in close and helped me walk. The halls seemed to stretch forever as I tried to stay awake and moving. As we branched off to turn onto a new one, pressure on my back left me glancing behind us. At the very end of the hall stood the one person who seemed to trigger my episode. Bram. He was gone so fast that I wasn’t sure I’d seen him at all. He moved just like the shadows. There and gone.

Had he been angry at me? Had he been glaring like before?

“Whoa. Whoa. Okay, you’re done.” West barely caught me as I hit the floor. My mouth was opened and all I could do was take deep breaths as I reached out to an empty hall. It had been so real. It had been him. But it hadn’t. Just like he hadn’t been West in the room.

****

“We’ve been in here for over three hours. Rest, that’s what you’re suggesting. Do you not see my wife!”

The doctor shifted uncomfortably as he looked between me and West. “Master Harper, you declined my suggestion of medication. I believe your wife to be experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If she’s not put on something, these episodes could continue. I will, probably continue. Since there’s not a therapist in Whitlock, which I would have also suggested, rest is the best thing I can come up with. Low stress. She needs to be kept out of situations that may trigger her anxiety, although … you said she was eating when this happened.” He paused, his brow creasing as he seemed lost to say more.

“She doesn’t need medication because this is not PTSD. For one, her mind is stronger than that. For two, she fucking sick. Look at her! What about poison? Did you check her for fucking poison?”

“We ran the blood work. We did a CT Scan. We’ve done every test in the book. Everything came back to normal. I’m sorry, Master Harper.

Perhaps you’d like another opinion?”

“What I would like is for you to get the hell out of this room and recheck your fucking results.”

The doctor didn’t hesitate to rush through the door. The moment he was gone, West closed his eyes, running his fingers through his hair. I couldn’t stop shaking as I held the cover up to my neck. I was so cold. So sleepy and yet nauseous. My mind kept going over Bram. I knew he couldn’t have been there, but I wanted him to be, despite that he seemed mad. I wanted to escape the black hole that I knew was sucking me down— West. Even now, there was an odd sense that I needed his presence close. “I’m sorry for being weak. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Before he could reply, the door reopened. The doctor hesitantly walked over to the bed, studying me as he pulled out a digital thermometer and placed it in my ear. With the click, he was pulling it back just as fast.

“Forgive me. I … it appears I missed some of the results that weren’t in yet. The strand is surprising, but—” “What is it?” West growled.

“The flu, Master. It looks like she’s getting the flu. That’s the only test that came back positive. She was so early, her fever hadn’t even kicked in when you arrived. I’m sorry, but I stand by what I said before. She’s not just ill with a virus, she has symptoms of Post Traumatic—”

“One more word about that, I swear you’ll never speak again. Tell me how to make her better.”

“It’ll have to run its course. I suggest lots of fluid and—”

“Let me guess. Rest?” West shook his head, walking to the bed. “We’re leaving. If she gets worse, we’ll be back. I suggest you not be the doctor on call if that happens.”

He scooped me into his arms, covering me up with the sheet as he headed us for the door. The vertigo of the fast movement had my eyes nearly rolling as he swept us through. Nurses buzzed around the station toward the back in their blue uniforms and my head swayed as we passed a patient’s room. Color blurred on the glass window and my hand shot to West’s chest as Bram’s figure flashed in the reflection. My head tried to turn to look behind us, but when I managed to finally see over West’s shoulder, he wasn’t there.

“Hang on, baby. We’re going home. Everything’s going to be okay.”

I buried my face in his chest, trying to push away what I knew was becoming true. Flu or not, my mind was broken. What I had seen. What had been done to me, and what I had done, somehow made a permanent stain on my mind. And the horrors weren’t over. They’d never end …