Page 36 of Immortal By Morning
It was a woman’s voice, one she didn’t recognize, and Abril opened her eyes immediately, only to find herself meeting the concerned gaze of a striking blonde she’d never seen before.
“How do you feel?” the woman asked, some of the concern on her face easing as she saw that Abril was conscious and looking at her.
“Who are you?” Abril asked with a frown, and then glanced around and asked, “And why am I in the kitchen?” She looked down at what she was lying on. “Are these the cushions from the wicker couch in the pool room?” Her confused gaze returned to the woman then and she complained, “My head hurts.”
“Let’s take each point one at a time, shall we?” the blonde said with a faint smile. “I’m Dr. Dani Argeneau-Pimms. I am not sure where the cushions came from. You were already lying on them when I arrived. Apparently, Crispin didn’t want to leave you on your own after the attack, and he had to be in here watching the monitor and the bones in the tent, so he made up this bed for you to keep you here with him and comfortable. And finally, on a scale of one to ten, how badly does your head hurt?”
“Twelve,” Abril answered unhappily as she absorbed everything that the woman had said. A quick glance around showed she was lying on the floor between one side of the island and the adjacent counter. She couldn’t see much of anything. “Where is Crispin?”
“Your dog needed to go outside so he took her,” Dr. Dani Argeneau-Pimms answered absently as she began to dig through a black bag on the floor between them.
“She’s not my dog. She’s my boss’s,” Abril muttered, shifting to a sitting position. Doing so sent sharp pain stabbing through her head, but she simply ground her teeth together and continued until she was upright. Then she jerked her head around with a gasp of pain at a sharp sting in her arm. It felt like someone had stabbed her, and she saw that the good doctorhad...with a needle she was just finishing pushing the plunger home on. Abril glared at her. “What—?”
“It will help with your headache,” the doctor explained as she removed the needle.
Abril just continued to glare at her, mostly because she couldn’t do anything else in that moment. Swinging her head around as she had done had sent even worse pain roaring through it, and she was fighting a sudden urge to vomit.
“Deep breaths in through your nose, and exhale slowly through the mouth,” Dr. Dani instructed as she put away her weapons of torture. “It will help you fight the nausea.”
Abril continued to scowl at her, but followed her directions, breathing in through her nose and then exhaling slowly through her mouth. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked, and the need to vomit slowly eased and then disappeared. Once she felt a little better, Abril asked, “Where is Roberts?”
“He’s in the living room talking to Lucian and my husband, Decker,” Dr. Dani told her, and then turned to meet her gaze again. For one moment, she seemed to be examining Abril’s eyes.
Although she had no idea what the woman might be looking for, Abril held perfectly still and kept her eyes wide open for her anyway.
“You’ll be good,” Dr. Dani said finally, fully relaxing now. “Crispin took you in to the hospital to have your head x-rayed while they waited for me to get here. Fortunately, there was no damage done to your skull, which would’ve been bad.”
“Definitely bad,” Abril agreed dryly.
“So, we brought you back here to recover,” Dr. Dani continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You’ll need to get a lot of sleep for the next little while. A full eight hours a night at least, and then naps throughout the day. No physical activity beyond slow, short walks outside with your dog. No sex. No excitement of any kind, and I’ll leave some pills here for your headache.”
Abril blinked at the rapid-fire list of dos and don’ts, but was almost afraid to speak.
“I’ll give Crispin and Roberts a list of symptoms to watch out for in case of a hematoma putting pressure on the brain. Those can end in brain damage or even death, so you should watch out for them yourself. They are slurred speech, weakness, numbness, decreased coordination, difficulty waking up, confusion, repeated vomiting, shaking, or twitching—things like that,” she announced, and then added cheerfully, “But I’m sure you’ll recover fine.”
Abril just stared at her with disbelief, thinking the woman had a horrible bedside manner. She was shit with shots too.
“I don’t normally give shots,” Dr. Dani said apologetically. “Or talk much to patients really. I’m a gynecologist. Most people don’t like to chat when you’re giving them pap smears.”
“You’re a gyne—Why are you treating me then?” she squawked with dismay.
“Because Rachel wasn’t available,” Dr. Dani said as she picked up her bag and got to her feet. “She’s much better with patients. Which is kind of weird when you think about it, because at least I work with living people. You’d think I’d be better with patients than her.”
Abril just gaped at her, wondering what the hell that meant.At least I work with living people?
“Rachel works in the morgue,” Dani said as if she’d asked the question out loud. “Anyway, your thoughts seem clear, so I really believe everything will be fine. It was nice meeting you, Abril.”
She watched the blonde disappear from sight around the island, and then listened as her footsteps faded away. She was alone in the kitchen. For now, Abril thought. Crispin and Lilith should be back soon though.
That thought raised alarm in her. Not because Crispin would be back soon, but because Lilith would. She knew damned right well that if she was still on the floor when Lilith returned, the Lab would be all over her, licking her face, bumping against her... Abril could almost feel the pain all of that would cause her head. It was enough to have her shifting to her knees and grasping the edge of the counter to help her slowly stand up. As careful as Abril was, and as slowly as she moved, it didn’t prevent her head from complaining by sending agonizing pain through her skull.
Leaning against the counter, Abril desperately began to suck air in through her nose and release it through her mouth as she wondered how long it would take for the shot Dr. Dani had given her to kick in. She hoped it was quick. She’d never experienced a headache as bad as this and would be happy not to experience it again.
The sound of the front door opening and closing was quickly followed by the tap of nails on hardwood as Lilith rushed into the kitchen, either in search of a treat, or looking for her, Abril supposed. She was actually surprised when Lilith came straight to her rather than sitting down in front of where the dog treat container resided on the counter on the other side of the island.
“Hi, baby girl,” she said softly, reaching down to pet the Labrador’s head. “Would you like a treat?”
“I’ll get it,” Crispin said quickly as he entered the room.
