Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Adeline
The storm is raging outside. Taylor is sleeping in with Maya, who keeps crying out every time the thunder cracks loudly.
Mom is out cold; storms always put her to sleep.
I lie staring out the window, trying to ignore the pain building in my stomach.
The hours are ticking by slowly, and I can feel Cyrus’s blood burning out of my system.
I feel nauseous, my stomach turning violently, and I get up, chucking the blanket off and rushing to the bathroom.
I make it to the toilet, ripping the lid up before emptying my stomach’s contents in it.
My body overheats from the retching. Placing the lid down, I stand up and flush the toilet.
Goosebumps are rising on my arms despite how hot I feel.
My blood feels like it is boiling in my veins, and I feel sweat run down the back of my neck.
Turning the shower on, I hop in, adjusting the temperature slightly, so it isn’t completely cold.
I stand under the stream when intense pain washes over me, making me double over on the shower floor.
My stomach is lurching, and I throw up bile.
My throat burns painfully, and I turn my face up, letting the shower water run into my mouth before spitting, trying to get rid of the taste.
I wait out the new wave before standing and grabbing my toothbrush off the shower caddy and brushing my teeth, spitting out the toothpaste. I rinse my mouth before turning the water to completely cold and standing under the stream for a few seconds before finally shutting the water off.
I grab my towel, wrapping it around me before walking out of the bathroom and down the hall toward my bedroom. I stumble into the door as I grab it, vertigo washing over me.
When will it stop? Why won’t it just stop?
I am at my wits’ end with it. Stumbling into the room, I grab my phone, but it has no service, making me groan. I am at the point I am willing to beg them to come over just so I could lie on one of them. Anything to stop the pain, stop the burning feeling coiling in me and searing through my veins.
I grab my clothes, trying to get dressed, giving up on even trying to clip my bra in place.
My hands are shaking too badly for me to get the two sides to clasp together.
I pull on a shirt and some track pants before sitting down and trying to catch my breath.
I am having trouble even breathing, having to really focus on taking each breath.
I get up and go to Maya’s room, having to stop several times in the hallway. My breathing is raspy, and I feel like I can’t get enough air.
I make it to her room, Taylor’s phone on charge on her nightstand. I pick it up, put our birthday in, and unlock the phone. She also has no reception, making me wonder if the cell tower is down.
“Can I borrow your car?” I ask her, shaking her shoulder.
She sleepily nods, going back to sleep. I know driving in this state is bad, but I would never forgive myself if they got into an accident driving me there in this storm. I clutch the banister as I make my way downstairs.
I should have taken them up on the offer to stay with them.
I am now kicking myself for being too stubborn.
Getting downstairs, I find her keys on the microwave before writing a note and leaving it on the counter.
I pocket my phone, hoping I can get cell service on the way instead of just showing up unannounced.
It takes me nearly ten minutes to get out of the house, having to stop every few meters to catch my breath.
I just need to get to them; they will fix it.
They can help. Opening the front door, it takes all my strength to stop it from flying into the wall as the wind pushes it toward me.
I struggle to pull it closed and lock the deadbolt with the key.
The entire street is shrouded in darkness; even the streetlights are out as I make my way to the car. I click the button, the lights flashing as it unlocks.
I get in, struggling to shut the door from the intense wind.
I sit there for a few seconds trying to catch my breath before starting it.
Even the cold wind can’t stem the burning feeling.
I am drenched in sweat. I start the car, turning the lights on before reversing out.
I drive half-hunched over the steering wheel as pain ravages my entire body.
The streets are deserted as I drive through the city before hitting the highway. The wind pulling and pushing the car makes me grip the steering wheel in a death grip to stop it from sliding off the road. I can’t even check for reception because I am scared to take my hands off the steering wheel.
Seeing the dirt road leading off the highway, I take it a bit too fast, the car sliding on the loose gravel, making my heart lurch before I manage to pull it back straight.
My vision tunnels as I continue driving, looking for the turn-off toward their driveway. I drive past it and have to reverse back before turning the car onto the long driveway. My breathing becomes worse, my heart palpitating in my chest as my breathing wheezes out of me.
I feel on the verge of passing out when I stop in front of their house, ripping the handbrake up as I put it in park.
I sit back, turning my head to look at the dark house.
I just need to get to the door, but that task seems impossible as I clutch the handle, trying to push the door open against the wind.
I honk the horn, trying to see if it would wake them, my vision going in one eye while the other has black dots filling it.
I climb across the seat, trying the other door, which isn’t as hard to push open.
I manage to get out, feeling my way along the car.
My hair is being whipped around my face when I see the light turn on inside.
I stumble toward the door, tripping over something and hitting the gravel painfully.
I feel something trickling down my face as I get to my hands and knees, my head throbbing painfully. I hear a bang and then their voices.
“Addie?” I hear one of them scream as my vision worsens, seeing only black.
Sparks rush over my skin when I feel a pair of hands grab me.
“Addie?” Cyrus says next to my ear.
“Bring her inside,” Eli says, and I feel movement just before I pass out.
When I wake to the sound of hushed voices, sparks rush across my chest and face, yet my eyes feel too heavy to open.
“The only option is either mate her or change. She is human. There is only so much the human body can take before her organs shut down,” says a man’s voice I don’t recognize.
“Neither of them is an option right now,” I hear Eli say, his voice low, but I have no doubt it is him I am lying on, as it is close to my ear.
“I know you don’t want to change her till it’s her choice. The council may understand, given the circumstances.”
“And if they don’t? I will spend the next fifty years in the pit,” Cyrus says with a sigh.
“What’s fifty years when immortal knowing she lives, Cyrus?”
“No!” Eli says.
“Eli?” Cyrus says to him.
“I said no. I already lost you once, and I am not doing it again. She will be fine. She will choose. She just needs time.”
“Time she may not have left. Three weeks of heat… I am surprised she is still alive as it is, Eli. Humans can’t survive with temperatures this high.
If she wasn’t marked already, she would be dead.
She should be dead, given she hasn’t let you mate her yet and hasn’t been around you for so long,” the man tells him.
My heart skips a beat at his words. Am I dying as he claims? Could being in heat really be killing me?
“She is waking. I should go, but think of what I said, Eli. Either let Cyrus change her or—”
“We are not doing that to her. I won’t be a monster like him,” Eli spits at the man.
“Well, then she dies. Sometimes, Eli, you have to make a decision even if it means hurting the ones you love.”
“She will choose. If not, I will choose for her,” Cyrus says.
Eli growls, the noise rumbling through his chest making me jump, and I know they now know I am awake.
Turning my face, I press it against Eli’s neck, breathing in his scent. His hand is rubbing up against my back when he suddenly stands up. His hands under my thighs hold me against him as he walks off. I hear Cyrus and the man talking when I feel him sit back down.
“Did you hear all that?” he asks, and I nod against his chest.
“Am I really dying?” I ask him, but he says nothing, his hand rubbing over my back soothingly. I run my hand over his bare chest.
“You should have rung us. We would have come to get you instead of you driving in the storm,” Eli says.
“I had no cell service. I tried to ring,” I tell him.
Even awake, I am still unwilling to move, the sparks rushing across my skin soothing the heat and the pain no longer unbearable.
“Doc said to give her these. They will help for a bit but not forever,” Cyrus says, walking into the room.
I feel the bed dip and open my eyes to Cyrus prodding my head, making me hiss. I realize I have a cut there. I try to touch it, but he pulls my hand away.
The cut is throbbing now that he has pointed it out. Cyrus bites his wrist, offering it to me.
I grab his wrist, sitting up a bit and bringing it to my lips, his blood trickling into my mouth before I pull away from him while I still have my wits about me, knowing the effects of his blood.
Yet even the few drops make me want more, but I shove the feeling away, knowing it is just the effects of it. I touch my head to find the cut closed. I have no pain there.
Eli is staring at me with an indecipherable expression on his face. Then I realize I have no top on.
“That man didn’t—”
“No, you had a sheet over you. Besides, you had your back to him anyway,” Eli says.
“And he is a doctor of sorts, nothing he hasn’t seen before,” Cyrus adds. Cyrus has some crushed herbs in a jar sitting next to him. He notices my stare grabbing them.