Dance with Me (Rise of the Fallen Afterword Collection)
Chapter 1
The noise, smells, intense levels of physical pain, and nausea roiled through Uriel as he woke.
Where the hell was he? And when? He blinked at the bright lights, tears forming from the overwhelming blurriness of his surroundings.
Beeping came from unfamiliar boxes running with hundreds of strings.
Machines, that’s right. He’d seen some in the past, but never imagined they’d be hooked to people. A human hospital?
“Oh,” someone said from nearby and a moment later hovered over him. “You’re awake.”
Uriel stared up at her, his heart pounding, which made the machine beeping increase. But he couldn’t move as some sort of cuffs tethered him to the bed and a dozen strands of tubes and strings connected to him.
“Calm down,” the woman said, her gaze darting from him to the machines and back. “Can you breathe, okay? Let me take the mask off.” She slid a clear dome off his face and the scent of the room strengthened.
Uriel gagged.
“Oh, are you going to be sick? That has been happening to a few of our otherworld residents.” She found a blue bag of some kind and held it toward his mouth. “Turn your head and do what you need to. You’ll feel better once it’s all out.”
He’d feel better if he were unbound and not in some human hospital, but his guts agreed with her and expelled everything he’d probably eaten for the last three or four centuries.
It took a long time and several bags for him to finish.
His brow dripped with sweat and his heart slowed as the nausea trickled away with each expulsion.
“How’s he doing?” Another voice asked. Uriel found himself too tired to turn his head.
“I’ve increased his fluids, and his vomiting finally stopped. I think he needs more rest, but doesn’t seem a danger to us,” the woman responded.
“Too early to tell,” the other voice remarked. “One of his kind is on the next shift. Have them talk to him, find out what his intentions are.”
Uriel flinched at the tone, mortal suspicion. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d wandered among the humans, but had always found them wary. Too much of the dark released into their world. A mistake of the catalyst in part, but a curse from Uriel’s brethren as well.
He didn’t know how he made it to this place among the humans in a battered building with cobbled together resources.
The boarded-up windows and mishmash of supplies made him wonder if he'd been dropped into a war zone, though he didn’t recognize all the mechanical items. It wouldn’t be the first time he found himself in the middle of a human fight in an unknown century.
They seemed to really enjoy murdering each other.
“Rest,” the woman said. “We can try some broth or something to soothe that upset stomach of yours after you sleep.”
The idea of food made his stomach grumble and his heart churn.
Hungry. He identified that as though he’d been very hungry for a long time, but whatever memory attached itself to the emotion was met with a barrier.
Uriel sighed and closed his eyes imagining sleep would be nice, even if he feared he’d lost everything he ever loved.
The memory of a face flitted through his mind as the noise of the busy hospital faded into a dream, but he couldn’t latch on fast enough to clarify who it might be, only the intense ache of loss that burned his gut remained as he sank into unconsciousness.