Page 77 of Ace
The compulsion in the voice was strong, certainly enough to intimidate. But Gran Mere had neither been dimwitted nor foolish. She’d always said to stand up for what you knew was right. If you didn’t, if you let yourself be cowed, and if you ran away from your battles, you only delayed the inevitable. The day would come when you faced that bully again, only then, he’d believe you were weak. Because you had given your power away.So, don’t be weak to begin with. Be fearless and strong and spit in that bully’s eye the first time around. Make him remember you for courage, never cowardice.
Savannah lifted to her feet, shaken but not diminished. Forewarned, not intimidated. This voice belonged to the real warlock, but that person was not RJ nor anyone else she knew. None of that mattered. She would fight this entity head on. Only then would Keller be safe.
She was going to Sanctuary.
Keller woke wound as tight as a drum and ready to fight. He was choking. Suffocating. Two shadows loomed over him, talking to each other. Giving orders. The larger shadow held a thick heavy arm across his chest, fastening him to the bed. The other, a woman, had her elbow stuck in his pillow. Telling him to lie still, that this wouldn’t take long.Like hell.
“Get the fuck off me,” he meant to yell, but it was hard to breathe. He couldn’t think. He needed to vomit. Reaching between his clenched teeth, the woman pulled a fuckin’ snake out of his throat! They were killing him!What the hell?
“There, that wasn’t so bad,” she soothed as she stepped back to dispose of the writhing reptile. The big guy eased his weight off Keller’s chest. Blinking sleep as thick as glue out of his eyes, Keller saw the snake then. Okay. Not a snake. Just tracheal intubation tubing. These people weren’t killing him. They were nurses. Just nurses. He was in a real hospital, and it was just another day in fucking paradise.
Keller tried to growl, but a weak man couldn’t manage much intimidation. Damn, his body felt like he’d been run over by both tracks of an Abrams tank. He couldn’t move his left hand where his shoulder had been hit, and with two IVs taped to his right hand, he didn’t want to move that one. For once, he settled back and just breathed. There were times in a man’s life when that was the best he could do. This was one ofthose moments. Keller was alive and that was good enough. So he breathed and he panted and he reoriented himself to his new reality.
The lights overhead were too bright. They hurt his already pounding headache. He was whipped and he knew it. He was injured. That much he remembered. He’d survived getting shot, then hijacked by that bastard Doctor John who’d faked being a first responder. Keller remembered Savannah hovering over him like an angel, blessing him just by being there. Wherever there was. Faint recollections of riding Sand Dollar, of waking up in a barn, no, make that a stable, drifted to mind. But what happened afterward was a muddled mess Keller couldn’t make heads or tails of.
The orderly offered him the straw of a bright pink plastic water mug and said, “Take it slow. Baby sips until we’re sure your stomach can handle it.”
Keller accepted the straw between his dry lips, so damned thirsty. But the cool water burned like fire going down. He was forced to sip less, even slower. Baby steps were not his favorite speed, but he was too parched to stop. “Where is she?” he rasped once he’d swallowed what little he could.
“There you go, Mr. Boniface. That should help you feel better,” the nurse said instead of answering his question. “We’ll be moving you out of ICU and into a regular patient room in a few minutes. Is there anything I can get you while we wait for that room to be ready?”
She leaned over him, wiped a cool damp cloth over his face, then over his entire scalp. Instant relief. Blonde and competent, she seemed to think she was in charge,but she was also gentle around his mouth and nose, and…Ahh, that feels good.
Closing his eyes, Keller retracted his opinion of hospital help. “Savannah,” he whispered as his tougher-than-most, FBI persona grew weaker by the minute.
“Who? That pretty little thing who’s been by your side for two days now, waiting for you to wake up? I’m not sure where she went, perhaps to the cafeteria or maybe home. She hasn’t left your side until now, so I don’t imagine she’s gone far.”
What the nurse said before finally registered. “I’m in ICU?” That sounded serious.
“Yes, sir, ever since your lungs filled with blood, and we thought we lost you that first night. Which is why you’ve been on a ventilator until now. I know it was painful having that tube removed, but you were a regular health risk when you first arrived. Where on earth have you been, China?”
“Huh? Me?” What the hell was this woman talking about? Him a health risk? Must be a mistake. He hadn’t been out of the country in months.
Her head bobbed as she straightened his blankets. “Oh yes, sir. You arrived here with one of the rarest strains of avian flu in the world, and China’s on the top of our avian flu watch list. Let me tell you,” she said through a chuckle, “you had every scientist and pulmonary specialist from here to Georgia jumping. I’ve never seen so many CDC doctors and investigators descend on our hospital at one time. But they sure did, and they all came to see you.” She said that with pride in her voice. “Only you showed them.”
Keller held his breath. Avian flu? CDC, as in the Center for Disease Control? Holy Christ, what happened while he’d been sleeping? When one of the many machines at his bedside beeped an alarm, his talkative nurse turned her attention to that. He had to ask, “I showed them?”
“Yes, Mr. Boniface, you certainly did,” she said softly as she quieted the alarm and turned her sharp gray eyes back on him. “It took all those doctors the entire first morning just to agree which super antibiotic to give you. But by then, the antibodies in your system were already fighting the infection. Your doctor decided which antibiotic to use, and then he intubated you to help you breathe. You’d lost a lot of blood by then, and you were nearly on your deathbed. I dare say he’ll be in to see you by and by. Doctor Singh’s from India. You’ll like him.”
Keller’s nurse looked up as the door opened. “Ah, here she is. The pretty woman of your dreams. I’ll leave you to get reacquainted then.” On her way out, she stage-whispered to Savannah, “He’s all yours.”
How Keller wished. But Savannah stayed at the closed door dressed in jeans and a pale-yellow button up blouse. Her exotic complexion was somehow pale, and her slender fingers trembled. She was frightened? Of who? He opened his arm to her, needing her body next to him.
She came to him easily, out of breath as she took hold of his hand instead of letting him wrap his arm around her. Probably just as well with all the wires andtubes in his way. “You’re shaking,” he murmured, his voice more wimpy whisper than manly baritone.
“They’re moving you,” she said, her eyes not yet settled on him.
Keller resorted to their private channel.‘Talk to me, Savannah. What’s going on?’
She shook her head, still not making eye contact.‘Later, okay?’
‘No. You’re scared now. Tell me.’
She looked around as if someone might be hiding in the corner.‘I’m not scared. Just worried. I thought I could locate Rudy John. I thought I could help your team track him. I said all the prayers. I blessed myself, b-b-but…’Her throat convulsed as if she couldn’t swallow. It took a full minute before she said,‘I have to go to Sanctuary.’
‘No,’he declared with certainty.
‘Yes, I have to. Only—’
