Page 102 of The Hunted
I licked my dry, chapped lips. “I’ll feel better in a day or two. Where’s Jordyn?” I hadn’t seen much of her since our convo in the bathroom two days prior. Then again, I hadn’t seen hardly anyone since I’d been in bed and sleeping most of the time.
“She went to the store for something,” Rianne said.
I pushed myself up. “Can you adjust my pillows?”
Once she propped me up, I grabbed the glass of water Aunt Tab had brought me. She’d been giving me water and chicken broth and nothing else.
Speaking of my aunt, she ambled in, carrying a tray of toast and what looked to be hot tea with a stick of rock candy in it. Her salt-and-pepper hair was piled on top of her head. She wore an apron around her waist, and her red V-neck sweater clung to her petite frame.
I smiled weakly. Mom had used that very remedy to break our fevers when anyone in our house had gotten sick.
Rianne moved to the foot of the bed.
Aunt Tab set the tray on the empty nightstand then handed me the cup of tea. “It has whiskey in it, which should help zap the fever.”
I usually loved whiskey in my coffee, but the sound of alcohol made me want to throw up. I took the cup, anyway, and sipped. As soon as the hot liquid coupled with the burn of the whiskey went down my throat, I gagged.
She grabbed the cup as her dark eyes filled with worry. “We should get you to a doctor.”
“No. The chicken broth is working. The whiskey, not so much.”
She returned the cup to the tray. “If the fever doesn’t break by the morning, I’m taking you to get checked.” Her tone permitted no argument.
I wasn’t in the mood to protest, so I just gave her a nod and plopped my head on the pillow.
She kissed me on my temple. “I’ll come back later to check on you.” She started to leave but turned around. “Layla, you know Jack loves you and cares about you.” She regarded Rianne. “All three of you. He’s still not over your father’s death, and he won’t come out and say this, but he gets spooked with vampires because of what happened to your father, which is one of the reasons he’s not hunting them anymore.”
“Why hasn’t he told me that?” I asked.
She smiled sadly. “He’s a big ogre and a man. He doesn’t do feelings. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have gone to Massachusetts to make sure you were okay. He promised your dad he would look out for you girls.”
“He has a funny way of showing it,” I mumbled.
“I know. I’m glad you girls are here. And you can stay as long as you like,” Aunt Tab said. “Get some rest.” Then she left.
Jordyn’s voice peppered the air as she said hi to Aunt Tab before running in and locking the door behind her. She smiled from ear to ear, her rosy cheeks growing redder as she swung her brown gaze from Rianne to me.
Rianne climbed on the bed and crossed her legs underneath her. “What’s with stealth mode?”
Jordyn placed her purse on the bed. “Don’t freak out.” She curled her hair around her ear as she dug into her purse.
I rolled my eyes. “What did you do?”
“Ooh, do you have a joint in there?” Rianne lit up like a Christmas tree.
“No.” Jordyn pulled out a pregnancy test.
Rianne snagged it from her. “Layla’s not pregnant.”
Rianne and Jordyn had been arguing and analyzing my situation since yesterday morning when I started feeling worse. They had me explain everything I’d been through with Sam since arriving on base. I’d left out some of the sexy parts.
“If she’s not, that test will tell us.” Jordyn grabbed the box from Rianne. “Okay, you said your period is just about due. Right?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, in about five or six days maybe.”
Rianne read the box. “It says here this test can detect a positive or negative reading six days before you start your period.”
“It can also give a false positive,” I said.
