Page 60 of Born Chaos

One curse after another slips from my lips as I turn and start running. I practically burst through the door, the hinges shrieking in protest. I don’t pace myself as I point toward downtown. I don’t put on a show for any human that might see me. I’m a blurred dart streaking down the sidewalks. “Where are you?”

“At the Tower,” Mason reports, panic rising in his voice. “Do I take her to the hospital?”

“No!” I blurt instantly. “She and Sebastian had a blowout at the meeting. There isn’t much he can do for her anyway. I’ll be there in five minutes!”

“Juliet, hurry,” he begs, fear in his voice.

I end the call and pull my hood over my head. And without hesitating, I streak into the first drugstore on the corner.

If the cashiers see a blur race past them, they give no indication. I rip down the aisles and reach the door to the actual pharmacy. I’m lucky it’s a Sunday. It’s locked, but with a twist, I break the knob and push it open with my hip.

I comb through the shelves, through the refrigerators. I start stuffing things into a bag. Fever reducers, anti-seizure medications. Finally, I am the luckiest woman in the world that they have one, I grab a portable ventilator. Only twenty seconds after breaking in here, I’m streaking back out the front doors like I was never even here.

I’m not even breaking a sweat or breathing hard when I explode through the front doors into the lobby.

“Elevator’s open, go on in!” Poe instructs immediately.

I dart inside and smash my hand to the close button.

Not Elena.Not Elena.

One by one, the vampires in this city are getting sick. And there’s nothing we’ve been able to do to stop it. We have over two dozen vampires in comas lying in the ICU at the hospital, and as far as I know, Sebastian is no closer to knowing how to cure them and wake them up. And we have no idea what’s causing this.

I can make Elena a tiny bit more comfortable, but there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to stop what’s coming for my best friend.

Finally, the elevator dings at the penthouse level. When I step out, I see the door to Elena’s is wide open, and Mason calls out to me from inside it.

I follow the sound of Elena’s coughs and gasps all the way back to her bedroom, and there, I find her lying on her bed.

“Elena,” I call as I drop the bag and ventilator on the bed beside her and pull her face toward me. Her skin is blazing hot, and her eyes are red, black veins sprouting from them.

“Juliet, I can’t—” she gasps, trying to suck in air. “I can’t—”

Breathe. She can’t breathe.

“It’s going to be okay,” I promise her, even though I know I absolutely shouldn’t. “I’m going to figure this out. I will. Mason, hand me that syringe.”

He combs through the bag and hands me what I asked for. I plunge the needle into the fleshy part of Elena’s arm.

But only one second later, Elena’s eyes roll into the back of her head, and her body starts shaking uncontrollably.

“Elena!” Mason cries in terror, gripping her by the shoulders.

“She’s seizing,” I say, grabbing the next vial, something to stop it. I inject that into her arm, only able to hold her still enough because of my superhuman strength. “She’s going to fall unconscious in a minute or two, so, just be prepared.”

“Unconscious?” Mason questions, his tone rising with fear. “You mean, like, like a coma?”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” I say as I work. “This is textbook with all the other cases. I’m going to have to put her on a ventilator to keep her breathing.”

Tears prick my eyes as I watch my best friend thrash on her bed. Her eyes seem glazed over, even though they’re glowing so damn bright. Her head presses back into the pillow, her heels digging into the mattress.

“Can’t you do something?” Mason demands. His panic is rising.

I shake my head. “The injections will kick in soon. Her fever will come down, and the other will help the seizing to stop. But other than that… We don’t know what this is yet.”

“That’s it?” Mason asks. I hate that look on his face, like he’s so completely disappointed in me. Like for the first time, he’s finally seeing me as the good-for-nothing orphan no one wanted to adopt from the trailer park. “You can’t do anything else?”

But I don’t answer because Elena suddenly stops, the seizure over. She falls flat against the bed, her limbs limp now.

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