Chapter 23 Edgar
EDGAR
The first sign that Angelica was waking up was the change in her breathing pattern. Edgar had been sitting beside the hospital bed for hours, watching her chest rise and fall with regularity, but now the rhythm was shifting, becoming faster.
Her eyelids fluttered.
Edgar leaned forward, his heart hammering against his ribs. He'd rehearsed the conversation he needed to have with Angelica a hundred times in his head during the long hours he'd been sitting beside her, but now that the moment was here, every practiced word had fled his mind.
"Angel?" He touched her hand. "Can you hear me?"
Her eyes opened—those enormous blue eyes that had captivated him from the first moment he'd seen her across the café at the keep. That and her laughter.
Right now, they were unfocused, confused, trying to make sense of unfamiliar surroundings.
"Edgar?" Her voice was hoarse. "Where am I? What happened?"
"You're in a clinic." He squeezed her hand. "I brought you here. How do you feel?"
"Like I got hit by a truck." She tried to sit up, winced, and fell back against the pillows. "Why does everything hurt? And why am I wearing a hospital gown?" Her eyes widened in horror. "Did I get into an accident? Oh my God, is my car okay?"
Only Angelica would worry about her seven-year-old BMW before her own health.
"Your car is fine. You didn't have an accident." Edgar took a deep breath. "You had a fever. A high one. I brought you here because I was worried."
"A fever?" She frowned, confusion wrinkling her forehead. "I don't get sick. Like, ever. My immune system is ridiculous. I haven't had so much as a cold in years."
"I know." This was it. The moment when he had to tell her the truth and hope she didn't hate him for keeping it from her for so long. "There's a lot I need to tell you, but first, the doctor should see you. You've been out for over twenty-four hours."
He was postponing the inevitable, but it was true that Julian should see her first, check her vitals, and whatever else he needed to do. Measure her, perhaps. Some Dormants gained height during their transition, but not enough time had passed for Angelica to grow in any significant way.
Her eyes narrowed. "Where is this clinic? And why did you bring me here and not to an emergency room?"
She was too smart for her own good.
"My cousin, who is a doctor, works here." That wasn't a lie. Julian was his many times removed cousin.
There was a knock on the door, and a moment later Julian entered as if summoned by Edgar's thoughts of him. It was more likely that he'd seen that Angelica was awake through the camera mounted near the ceiling, or by the change in her vitals, which he was monitoring from his office.
"Good morning, Angelica. How are you feeling?"
"Like I was hit by a bus, but Edgar says that he brought me here because I had a fever. I never get sick, doc. This is beyond weird."
Julian gave Edgar a questioning look. "You still haven't told her anything?"
Edgar grimaced. "I was about to, but I thought you should examine her first. You know, see that everything is working fine and check whether she got taller."
"Taller?" Angelica screeched. "What the hell are you talking about? Edgar, you are scaring me."
"Everything is okay, Angel." He patted her hand, which he was still holding. "You are safe, and this is all good. I promise. You just need to be a little patient."
"I don't want to be patient." She shifted her eyes to Julian. "You seem to know what's going on with me. Spill."
Julian chuckled. "I'll leave it to Edgar. I'll just take a few preliminary readings, get you something to drink, and leave the two of you alone. Everything else can wait until after you have the talk."
Edgar groaned. "You don't happen to have any whiskey here, do you?"
Julian shook his head. "Sorry. But you know where you can find some. Carol and Lokan will gladly offer you a drink from the bar in the penthouse."
Angelica looked between them with her mouth slightly agape. "Are you two for real? I'm lying here on a hospital bed, not knowing what's wrong with me, and you are talking about getting a drink?"
"My apologies." Julian pulled out the thermometer from his coat pocket. "You are absolutely right." He took her temperature. "Looks good. You still have a fever, but it's no longer so high. Your body is taking well to the transition."
"What transition?" Angelica asked.
"Patience, Angel." Edgar gave her hand another squeeze.
Once Julian was done, he pulled out a cup from the cabinet, filled it with water, and put a bendy straw in it.
"Drink slowly." He handed her the cup and raised the back of the bed. "I'll be in my office if anyone needs me." He winked at Edgar and hoofed it out of the room.
Angelica chuckled. "The handsome doctor ran out of here as if his tail was on fire. Am I that scary?"
"Yes."
She glared at him. "You could've lied."
He winced, thinking of all the lies he'd told her during the time they'd been together. Over four months had passed since he'd met her in that café, and this talk was long overdue.
She took a break from slowly sipping on the water through the straw. "You have that guilty expression on your face. Start talking."
He swallowed. "What I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy. You're not going to believe me at first, and that's okay. But I need you to listen and not freak out."
"Edgar, you're scaring me."
"Don't be scared. You're fine. Better than fine, actually." He ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles.
"Did you notice anything unusual about Frankie after she returned from the Perfect Match cruise? About how she looked?"
Angelica's brow furrowed. "She looked great.
Amazing, actually. Like she'd been working out and having expensive facials.
I asked her what her secret was, and she said it was love, which was a bullshit answer, but if the girl had some procedures done and didn't want anyone in the family to know, that's her business. "
"She had a procedure, but not the kind you imagine." Edgar paused, trying to remember the speech he'd prepared. "Frankie has a genetic trait that runs in your family. On your mother's side. You have it too."
"What kind of genetic trait? Are you telling me I have some genetic disease?" Panic crept into her voice. "Is that why I'm here? Oh my God, is it cancer? It's cancer, isn't it?"
"No! Nothing like that. Angel, you're not sick. You're transitioning."
"Transitioning to what? I'm not transgender, Edgar. I love being a woman."
Despite the tension, Edgar laughed. Trust Angelica to jump to that conclusion.
And she did love being a woman. She was so incredibly feminine, soft in all the right places, always dressed to the nines.
She had a huge heart and an even larger mouth, and she had no problem hurling profanities in English and in Italian.
There wasn't a boring moment with her around.
She was incredible.
"It's not that kind of transition. You're becoming immortal."
The words hung in the air between them.
Angelica stared at him. Then she laughed. "Okay, you got me. This is payback for that prank I pulled on you at Rachel's birthday party, right? Is Frankie in on this, too? Because it's not funny, Edgar. I feel like crap and I'm in a hospital and—"
"It's not a prank." Edgar kept his voice as calm as he could. "I know it sounds crazy. But it's the truth. There are immortals living among humans. I'm one of them. Frankie is one now, too. And you're in the process of becoming one."
"Immortal." Angelica's voice was flat. "Like vampires?"
"Not exactly. We don't drink blood or turn into bats or any of that movie nonsense. But we do live for practically forever if no one kills us. We heal incredibly fast, we're stronger and faster than humans, and the males have fangs."
"Fangs." She was looking at him like he'd lost his mind. "Edgar, I've been sleeping with you for months. If you had fangs, I would have seen them."
"They're retractable. They only extend when we're aroused or threatened."
"You know what?" Angelica put the empty cup on the side table. "I'm done with this crazy conversation. I don't know what kind of fever dream I'm having, but I want to go home. Where are my clothes?"
"Angel, please—"
"Don't 'Angel' me!" Her voice rose to the volume Edgar was very familiar with. "You bring me to some weird clinic, I wake up feeling like death, and you're telling me some crazy story about immortals and fangs? What's next, you're going to tell me you're secretly a superhero?"
Edgar made a decision. Words weren't working. He needed to show her.
He leaned down and kissed her.
Angelica responded automatically, her lips soft and familiar against his and her arms winding around his neck. This was something they knew, something real and true between them. Edgar deepened the kiss, letting himself feel the desire that was never far from the surface when he was with her.
His fangs descended, and he leaned back, smiling with an open mouth.
Angelica gasped. Her eyes were wide, locked on his fangs.
"What the—" She scrambled backward on the bed. "What the hell, Edgar! You have fangs! And your eyes are glowing! It's like in those stupid movies about aliens."
"I'm not an alien. I'm immortal. And so are you, or you will be once the transition completes." Edgar's fangs retracted slowly as his arousal faded. "I know this is a lot to take in—"
"A lot to take in?" Angelica's voice climbed higher. "You just grew fangs! Out of your mouth! And your eyes are doing that creepy glowing thing! How did you hide it from me during all the times we've been together?"
Now she was going to be really mad. What came before was merely a dress rehearsal.
"First of all, my glowing eyes are not creepy. All immortals have eyes like that, and so will you once your transition completes."
She shook her head, her blond locks bouncing around her beautiful face. "You didn't answer my question. How did you hide it from me all this time?"