Page 47 of Immortal By Morning
“Abril! Abril!”
There was more than one voice calling her now, which immediately raised anxiety in Abril and guilt that she wasn’t responding when she felt she should. But it felt like her mind was soaked in mud, the sticky slushy kind, clinging to her brain and making it slow and fuzzy. She was still struggling to get past that sensation when someone grabbed her arm and jerked her around on her feet. She found herself staring at a very wide chest, and then she raised her head and took in Crispin’s concerned face.
“What are you doing out here? We were looking for you everywhere. We were shouting when we spotted you. Did you not hear us?”
She blinked at the barrage of questions and then glanced around, surprised to see that she was outside, standing on the edge of the yard with the woods at her back. She must’ve been looking into the trees before Crispin had turned her, but she didn’t recall that. She couldn’t remember why she’d come out here either.
“She has been controlled, Crispin,” someone said, and her gaze slid to Cassius as he continued, “She is barefoot and not wearing a coat. We should get her inside and warm her up.”
Abril didn’t say a word. Frankly, she was still trying to sort out what had happened. When had she come outside? And why? And why on earth hadn’t she at least put on shoes before coming out? Because Cassius was right, she was freezing. Had he said something about her being controlled? What the heck did that mean?
She was still fretting over this when Crispin scooped her up, crossed the yard, and carried her into the house. He took her to the kitchen without slowing or stopping.
Cassius was following them, and Lucian was in the kitchen when they entered. But the other men were coming from different areas of the house to join them as well.
“Where was she?” Lucian asked “What happened? Has she been hurt?”
“She was standing out at the back of the yard, staring into the woods behind,” Crispin said, his voice tight.
“Parts of her memory are missing, including how she ended up standing in the backyard without her coat or shoes,” Cassius added, his voice grim.
Abril was trying to ignore her aching head andabsorb what the man was saying when she felt Lucian’s stare as if it were a physical touch. Shifting her attention to him, she scowled slightly. The man was staring at her with a concentration that was discomfiting.
Rude asshole, she thought with irritation, and then became aware of a shuffling sensation in her head that she’d never experienced before.
For one minute, she was afraid that this was all something to do with her head wound. Her confusion, her lack of memory, and whatever else they were talking about. At that moment, she couldn’t even recall how she’d hurt her head. There was definitely something wrong with her, she thought unhappily.
“The injury to your head is from getting tossed around like a rag doll by someone who broke into the house through your bedroom window last night,” Lucian said firmly.
The moment he spoke those words, Abril could recall the incident. Waking up to find a dark figure in her room. Screaming. The intruder almost seeming to fly around her bed to grab her. Their hand covering her mouth to silence her, and then they were cursing and tossing her aside like garbage when she bit their hand to make them remove it. That part of the memory was new. She was quite sure she hadn’t recalled it before, but now she did. Abril even remembered her impact with the wall, but nothing after that until she had woken up with Dr. Dani leaning over her.
“Set her down, Crispin,” Lucian ordered abruptly, his gaze on her becoming more natural and less intense.
Crispin hesitated, but then carried her to the islandand set her in the chair she had been using since the men’s arrival. He then took the chair on her left and smiled soothingly when she turned her worried gaze to him.
“Everything is fine,” he reassured her.
“Everything is not fine,” Lucian growled, dragging one of the chairs over to her so that it faced her and then sitting in it before turning her chair to face his so that her back was to Crispin. “Tell me what you remember,” he ordered.
When Abril hesitated, he said, “Tell me what you remember from when you woke up on the couch this afternoon until right now.”
Abril swallowed and then cleared her throat and said, “I woke up, sat up on the couch, gave Lilith a pet, and then came into the kitchen and made myself a coffee. Then I went to the door, Crispin saw that I was up...” She glanced over her shoulder at him then and he gave her another reassuring smile. Her return smile was a little uncertain before she turned back to Lucian and continued.
“Crispin came inside. He told me that the forensics team had got what they needed, and you guys were taking over removing the bones. He said you’d probably be another twenty minutes, then you’d come inside and we’d have dinner.”
“And then?” Lucian prompted when she hesitated.
“And then I went over and opened the oven and saw the lasagna, which smells really good by the way. My compliments to the chef.” She smiled around at the room, because she wasn’t sure which of the men had made it, and then continued, “I saw the lasagna and then looked at the time. It was 5:50.I realized I had to feed Lilith soon, but she wasn’t in the kitchen with me, so I thought I better look for her. I headed out of the kitchen to find her and sat down at the island with my coffee and took a sip. I thought about turning on the TV, saw the time was 5:58. I needed to feed Lilith, realized that she wasn’t around, and thought I better go look for her, so I did, and then I heard Crispin shouting my name. He asked me why I was outside with no shoes on and brought me in here.”
A moment of silence followed her explanation, and the men were all exchanging glances as if saying things she couldn’t hear. She found it disturbing.
Abril immediately began to feel stressed out and confused. She wasn’t sure what was happening and turned instinctively to peer at Crispin. He quickly offered her a reassuring smile and said, “Everything will be fine.”
“Everything will not be fine,” Lucian snapped. “And she definitely should worry as should you. She needs to be told what is happening here.”
“She is not ready,” Crispin insisted.
“When will she be ready, Crispin?” Lucian asked grimly. “When the rogue who attacked her in her room, and obviously controlled and forced her outside for some reason, finally kills her?”
