8. Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Jace
T he worst part about having a day off was having to work twice as hard to make up for what I lost. Sure, considering the night I missed was spent in the hospital with Callie, it wasn’t exactly like I was fucking off while not fucking around. But I still had to cancel on clients—ones that weren’t exactly thrilled about rescheduling.
I get it. To most people, time was money. Each of my clients was important in their respective fields: doctors, lawyers; I even had a few heroes in the mix. They all paid me to make them feel good, to help them blow off stress. My popularity wasn’t just because I was the hottest whore in town—which I was. It was because I was dependable. And when I had to call off on Saturday of all nights, it was like I’d told a kid I’d postponed Christmas. While my doctor and lawyer clientele would have understood, Saturdays were for the supers. And boy, did I hate fucking heroes.
They were all self-righteous assholes who felt the need to prove they were better than everyone else—especially villains like me. But when the doors were shut, and their spandex suits came off, they were just as needy as everyone else—sometimes worse. Normally, I didn’t work Sundays. I enjoyed having a day off, and it was slower than the rest. But I’d offered it to the clients I missed.
Most jumped on the opportunity and moved on, but my last guy of the day was legitimately the worst human being I’d ever met—which was funny considering he was the current top hero at the Aegis Center. TitaniumJustice. More like CaptainLittleDick.
All his sessions were the same. He’d spend the first hour insulting me, calling my career path degrading, insinuating I wasn’t smart enough to do anything else. And while he wasn’t entirely wrong, he didn’t need to say it. Normally, shit like that was a deal breaker for me, but the jackass not only paid well—he paid on time. TJ consistently gave me a solid two grand a month. So, I always swallowed my pride and listened to his sanctimonious bullshit while he complained about having to “stoop to this level” as he unbuckled his belt.
Usually, I could endure his nonsense once a week for two hours. But after I canceled on him, he demanded more time. Something about needing a little extra because he was generous enough to overlook my "disrespect." Fucking dickhead.
By the time I left his apartment, it was way too late—or way too early, depending on how you looked at it. The sun was in that weird stage of rising, where the world became a perfect gradient of blues and oranges. The whole thing would’ve been beautiful if I didn’t feel so… dirty .
But TJ tipped well, and I used the extra money to grab breakfast for Kane and Callie on my way home. It wasn’t a gigantic gesture, but it’d be one less thing for Kane to worry about today. And, well… after yesterday, I wanted to see Callie smile.
I couldn’t place why or when my animosity shifted, but something in my soul told me I’d feel better if she let me lay beside her again. Maybe it was because she smelled so nice, or perhaps it was how she felt under my arm, but I was beginning to understand everyone’s fascination with Callie Voltaris—even if it was begrudgingly.
When I finally got home, I did my best to open the door as quietly as possible, even while balancing takeout bags. But my efforts were in vain because Kane was already up. Of course, he was; the dude probably didn’t fucking sleep last night.
He sat in the living room, a cup of coffee in hand, his dark gaze fixed on the stray cats in the distance. But it wasn’t like he was actively watching them; it seemed more like he was zoning out.
I cleared my throat before plopping the still-warm bag on his lap. “Breakfast is served.”
Kane jumped as he looked back at me, blinking twice before glancing at the bag. He touched it as if making sure it wasn’t a trap before mumbling a quick thank you. And while my boyfriend was a man of very few words, he seemed quieter than usual.
“What’s wrong? Did they steal your tongue?” I gestured to the now fighting cats just outside the window.
Kane slowly shook his head, not even bothering to laugh at my fantastic joke. “Something’s wrong with Callie.”
I paused, needing a second to process what he just said. Something about that statement hit me harder than expected, and my brow furrowed as I tried to look confused rather than concerned.
“What do you mean?” I asked slowly.
“Her alarm woke me up this morning,” he said, taking a sip of his drink. “So I snuck into the room to ask her to shut it off. She was out cold, covered in a mountain of blankets, and shivering.”
Again, I tried to pretend I wasn’t worried, but he made that impossible.
“What happened then?”
His expression tightened as he refused to look away from those damn cats. I swore to God that I was going to bring one inside one day just to see what he did.
“I turned it off and emailed her professors pretending to be her—which is probably going to piss her off.” A wry laugh punctuated his sentence. “I just… should we take her to the hospital again?”
The mention of a hospital snapped me out of my thoughts. If we took her to the emergency room again, that would be like admitting Callie was sick—which she wasn’t. Someone like Callie didn’t deserve to be sick. She was too nice, and bad things weren’t supposed to happen to good people.
“She’s probably just a little worn out and caught a cold… plus, she has an appointment on Wednesday.” I said, placing the bag with Callie’s breakfast beside Kane. “I’ve seen enough Symptom Zero to know how to fight off a cold.”
His gaze slid to me as an insulting level of skepticism crossed his face. “This isn’t one of your medical dramas.”
“Oh, come on!” I groaned, a smug grin crossing my face. “Give her some fluids, a little rest, and maybe a dash of love, and she’ll be better than before.”
But again, Kane didn’t laugh. He just kept staring at me with an expression that I knew meant he was overthinking. Or maybe he was just doubting the abilities of Dr. Jace.
“I’m serious. Give me a day. I’ll get her to eat, force her to stay in bed, and if she’s not any better tonight, we can consider alternative routes of treatment.” I did my best to sound like Dr. Hall, the main doctor in Symptom Zero .
Kane’s jaw tensed as he finally gifted me with his full attention. That’s when I noticed just how exhausted he looked. Usually, he was an honest man, but instantly, I knew he wasn’t up because of Callie’s alarm.
“If she’s not better by tonight, I’m dragging her to the hospital. No ifs, ands, or buts,” he warned.
I gave him a lazy salute. “I swear on my Ph.D. from Symptom Zero University that I, Dr. Jace Rossi, will have our girl on her feet by sundown.”
He rolled his eyes, but the small twitch in the corner of his lips told me I’d helped lighten his mood. So, I blew him a kiss and grabbed the bag before heading into Callie’s room.
I slipped in as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake the princess if I didn’t have to. The room was dark, thanks to the blackout curtains Sulien had invested in just before he died. Still, even in the low lighting, I could see her nestled in a mound of blankets. Sweat caused her forehead to glisten; the whole thing was heartwarming in some weird fucked up way.
I sat the bag on the nightstand before kneeling beside her. Her cheeks were flushed, and even from here, I could feel heat radiating from her. For a moment, I considered telling Kane I was wrong, that this was definitely hospital territory. But… she didn’t smell sick.
Normally, someone’s blood would turn rancid when they were under the weather, but Callie just smelled spicy, kind of like Sulien and Shin.
I ran a finger along her forehead. Her sweat stuck to my skin as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her gaze was hazy, a far cry from the normal, intelligent glint in her eyes. But, seeing as her skin felt hot enough to fry an egg, that tracked.
“Jace?” She croaked my name, and I fought a frown.
“I hate to disappoint you–but I’m actually a hallucination.” I wiggled my fingers in her direction, trying to hide my mounting anxiety under humor.
She let out a soft sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper before burrowing deeper into her cloth cocoon, and that simply wouldn’t do. But… I also didn’t want to yank the blankets off of her. That felt rude.
“You’re late for class.”
Instantly, the nest shifted. Although I was sure if I had shown her just how sluggish her movements were, she wouldn’t have fought like she did. With the blankets off, she did her best to sit up, but between her violent shaking and apparent lack of energy, all she could do was allow her body to sag back down to the sweat-saturated mattress.
Just as I prepared to tease her again, she let out another whimper. Tears followed this one. She desperately tried to cover her face as my eyes widened in shock.
What the fuck was I supposed to do now? I knew from our Saturday hospital adventure that she liked to be held. But I also wasn’t super into the idea of being drenched in her sweat.
Slowly, I reached out, softly patting her on the head. “There, there.”
That felt like an appropriate reaction.
But apparently, it wasn’t. Because if it were, she would have stopped crying. Her hands muffled her sobs, but they didn’t even slow down. Why the fuck was she even crying? All she did was wake up. Like, listen, sister, I understood that feeling, but there are real things to cry over.
“I need to go to school.” She croaked.
My brow furrowed. “... School has you bent out of shape?”
That was kind of fucking dumb but to each their own.
“If I don’t do well in my classes, my mom and dad will never want me back. We’re getting our hero assignments in Wearable Combat Systems! I can’t do well if I have a terrible partner.” Her words came out between panicked breaths as her tears flowed far too freely for my liking.
“Callie…” Was now the time to tell her that her folks were shit-bags who didn’t deserve her. Probably not. “When’s the next time you have that class?”
“Tomorrow… It’s my last class every Monday and Tuesday.”
I took a deep breath as I tried to look at this whole ridiculous thing through her eyes. To me, she was willing to kill herself over classes and assignments that didn’t matter… But, from what I knew about Callie, she was not only a high-achiever; she was a people-pleaser. So, to her, this probably wasn’t just a missed day.
And, if her special brand of anxiety was like Sulien’s, this probably felt like the end of the world. If she didn’t go to school today, she fucked up everything. Even if none of that was true, she didn’t need to hear that.
“Callie,” I said her name slowly, drawing out the time I had to think. “If you’re sick, you’re not going to learn much today… one of your professors might even send you home.” Did they do that in college? “Taking a day off won’t kill you, even if it feels like that.”
Her hands fell away from her face, revealing wide, impossibly blue eyes, ones filled with a desperation that didn’t fit the Callie I knew. She nodded slowly as she took a shaky breath, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. If she had, she wouldn’t have resorted to trying to get up again.
So, I laid an arm across her chest, anchoring her to the mattress.
“I know you want to make your parents proud… but some people just aren’t worth killing yourself over,” I whispered, the words spilling out before I could second-guess them. “Anyone worth your time would want you to be okay. Right now, you need to worry about you and the baby.”
Her bottom lip quivered as fat tears continued to roll down her cheeks, her sadness causing her freckles to glisten like stars. She lay in her defeat, allowing me to sweep the damp strands of golden hair away from her face. We stayed in that silence for a moment, but after a moment, she cleared her throat and wiped her eyes.
“Why do you have to be right?” Her voice was laced with so much vulnerability that it barely sounded like her.
“First of all–I’m always right.”
She shot me a glare before focusing her gaze back on the ceiling. “Do you know what it’s like to have to earn your place in your family?”
Tell her about your dead parents. Nope. Don’t do that—bad idea. I just shook my head instead.
“My siblings are Heroes. They’re everything my parents wanted… but I’m not enough. And even though they’ve never said it, I know their love has always been conditional.” Her fingers curled around the edge of her blanket, turning white as her hands shook. “I can’t be a hero… If I can’t make them proud, what good am I?”
I knew I hated heroes… But that little comment just solidified how terrible they were.
“You don’t exist to make your parents happy. You think that not being what they wanted means you’re worthless? That’s bullshit. You’re more than enough, regardless of if they see it.” I reached out, taking her hand in my own and squeezing it softly. “If you want to go to school tomorrow, for you, not to make anyone else proud, I’ll take you myself. But today, you’re staying in bed and letting me wait on you hand and foot.”
She stared at me; her gaze wide and unblinking. But she wasn’t crying, so that was a plus. It looked like she was probing my mind, trying to find anything that would undermine what I had just said, but there was nothing of the sort. I meant it, every last word. Especially the ones where I told her she was enough. Her hand tightened on mine.
I’d already figured that Callie’s life had been a series of impossible hoops her parents expected her to jump through. And somehow, she’d done it again and again and again. I wasn’t sure how much of herself she’d sacrifice in the name of earning their love, but she’d never do it again, not while I was around. And it felt like just the idea of that had her on the edge of breaking down.
A watery smile tugged at her quivering lips.
“Can we cuddle?” She pleaded. “This happened a lot when I first got pregnant, and I always felt better when my mom or sister held me.”
My eyes burned as tears threatened to form. Not because I was sad but because I was so inexplicably angry. How the hell could her family abandon her if they knew she needed them?
I swallowed down my anger. Right now, she didn’t need it.
“Of course.” I tried to keep the shake out of my voice as I climbed into bed beside her.
The concerningly-wet sheets stuck to me, and instantly, I wanted to get up. But that was the thing about caring for someone… sometimes, you had to sacrifice your wants for their needs, and that, unfortunately, was a lesson her parents never learned.
I pulled her close, allowing her to relax into me. The heat of her body caused me to all but immediately start sweating. Even so, I stayed. Her fingers twined into my shirt, almost as if she feared I’d leave the second she inevitably passed out.
“I was right. You’d be a wonderful nurse.” She mumbled into my chest.
“... Who’d you tell that to?” I asked, trying to piece together where her latest, yet somehow most unexpected compliment came from.
But sleep had claimed her far before she could answer me. And, as the steady rhythm of her breathing cascaded across my chest, I let the idea marinate.
Callie was the kind of person I wanted to make myself better for. Not because I specifically wanted to make her proud but because she deserved someone she could feel proud of… even if I didn’t exactly know how I’d do that.