Chapter 20
Cass
“Iwant her at the hospital,” Demiguel repeated stubbornly.
“And yes, I know that Ethan could outfit a clinic for her at the Mountain House, but not fast enough to help her now. We need to run tests now, and I have four different specialists on their way here to examine her. We save time if she’s at the hospital. We don’t have time to waste.”
My body was as tight as piano wire at the thought of leaving this small paradise of safety and going back to the wide-open setting of a public hospital. Not that the last one had actually been a hospital at all, but still. Trauma never listened to logic.
In any case, in Reggie’s condition, she wouldn’t know the difference.
“I have to stay with her,” I told Demiguel. “That was my mistake the last time. I got bullied and strong-armed into leaving her there. That won’t happen again.”
“Stay if you want,” Ethan said. “She’ll have a private room. And a two-man guard detail outside, at all times. Darius and Amos volunteered to go watch her.”
Things moved fast after that. Angela and Kat packed for me and Reggie, which was great, because Reggie and I had no possessions or toiletries of our own to pack.
Holly gathered up books, which I hoped that Reggie would soon be well enough to read.
Then Shane wrapped Reggie up in a blanket and soon we were rocking and swaying in the back of an ambulance.
If there was paperwork needed to admit her, someone else dealt with it, thank God, because I was useless.
All I could do was hang over my sister, who was unresponsive to any attempt to talk.
I tried to brace myself, but I just couldn’t do it.
I’d gone through this with Mom, and that had been horrible, but this time, it was uniquely horrible in fresh new ways.
I sat there near her hospital bed, doing my best to stay out of the way of the hospital staff, as they drew blood, gave her oxygen, set up an IV.
Watching that made every muscle in my body contract.
Reggie’s poor little arms and wrists and hands hadn’t even had a chance to heal from the last attack of needle-wielding hacks.
But so far she hadn’t woken up to protest, and hopefully these nurses weren’t hacks.
Shane was squeezing my shoulder. “Earth to Red? You there?”
“Sorry. What?”
“I’m going back up to the Mountain House to work with Ethan while he digs for that cure,” he said.
“Freya, Jed and Remy will be up there with me. Rose is coming over to join us. Darius and Amos are right outside your door, and Kat and Holly will be here first thing in the morning. Will you be okay if I go back to work with Ethan?”
No, no, no. don’t leave me please. I swallowed the words back and stared into his beautiful, worried dark eyes. “I’ll be fine. Thank you. I’m very grateful that you’re working on this for us. Will you call me if you find anything?”
“Right away,” he assured me. “And call me if anything happens with Reggie.”
“Sure thing,” I said.
And so it was that I found myself alone in the dim lit room, my chair scooted up to the bed, clutching Reggie’s clammy hand. I’d gone from heaven to hell, in the space of just a few hours.
It seemed that heaven and hell weren’t all that far from each other after all. All it took was one hard shove, and there you were. Dodging the pitchforks and the flames.