Page 31 of Dark Island: Rescue
Edgar sat up, his heart hammering.
Was she transitioning?
They'd been together for over four months, and she'd never been sick.
He'd been careful, always using protection despite her loud protests about his paranoia. She'd wave her arms dramatically, her voice carrying through the thin walls ofthe house she shared with two of her cousins, insisting that she was on the pill and clean and that he was being ridiculous.
This wasn't supposed to be happening. "This can't be happening."
Angelica didn't know about her special genes because Edgar had chosen not to tell her, and Frankie hadn't told anyone in her family either.
There was no rush.
Well, not for Angelica or the other cousins who were Dormants but still young. Frankie's mother and her aunts were a different story.
Frankie didn't know how to approach the subject, and Edgar didn't have any words of wisdom to offer her either. Frankie and Angelica's fathers were human, and no one had figured out yet how to solve the moral dilemma of one partner being a Dormant and the other not. Breaking up marriages that had survived decades seemed wrong, but on the other hand, denying the Dormant partner immortality was wrong as well.
"Angelica, wake up." He shook her more forcefully. "Come on, Angel, talk to me."
Her eyelids fluttered. "Ed?" The word was barely a whisper. "I feel like a wreck... stock market better not tank while I'm sick..."
Even fever-addled, she was thinking about her investments, so she couldn't be in too bad of a state. Then again, his Angel could be dying and still worry about her portfolio.
Edgar grabbed his phone, then hesitated. He should call Julian and ask him what to do, but he knew whatJulian would say—that he should wait and see before bringing her in. It could be just a regular human disease like the common cold or flu. But in the months they'd been together, Angelica had never been sick, and even though he'd used protection, accidents happened.
Condoms were not a hundred percent fail-proof.
Besides, Angelica was a confirmed Dormant, so bringing her into the clinic shouldn't be a big deal. If he requested it, Kian would approve. Besides, Edgar was the type of male who would rather do first and apologize later.
Decision made, he got out of bed, grabbed his jeans and t-shirt from the floor, and put them on. Angelica was naked save for a pair of panties, but he didn't want to waste time dressing her. Her pink silk robe hung on the bathroom door, providing the solution.
The house was quiet; Angelica's cousins, both police officers, were working the night shift, so he didn't need to use stealth as he carried her out to his car.
The BMW waited at the curb, where he always parked in order not to block the access to the garage. He settled her in the passenger seat as gently as he could, her head lolling against the headrest.
"Edgar?" A moment of clarity flickered in her fever-bright eyes. "What's happening? Where are we going?"
"You're sick, Angel. I'm taking you to see a doctor."
"Did you take my purse? My insurance card?—"
He'd forgotten to take it, and he wasn't going back in the house to get it. After living with Angelica and her cousins for so long, some of their superstitions had stuck,and one of the most important ones was never going back for something that had been forgotten.
It was bad luck.
"Don't worry about that." He kissed her forehead, tasting salt and fever. "The doctor is my cousin."
"Oh, that's good." She smiled at him. "Having a doctor in the family is important. My cousin Delia is a nurse practitioner." She kept mumbling about her many family members who were, in one way or another, healthcare providers. Even her cousin Vinny, the podiatrist, was mentioned.
Eventually she'd drifted again into a fevered sleep, and the drive to the keep passed in silence and a blur of traffic violations that would probably generate tickets he'd have to pay.
Twenty minutes of weaving through morning commuters while Angelica drifted in and out of consciousness, occasionally muttering in a fevered jumble about her numerous relatives, price-to-earnings ratios, and nail art supplies she needed to order.
He pulled into the clan's underground parking in the keep and killed the engine. Despite being a civilian, Edgar had access that most didn't and a security classification that even some of the Guardians didn't have.
He gathered Angelica into his arms, cradling her close to his chest. She was so small, her weight so slight, that it was hard to reconcile it with her larger-than-life persona. Thankfully, the door marked as maintenance had a sensor that scanned his retina and opened automatically so he didn't have to perform acrobatics with the precious cargo in his arms.
He still remembered when it had a keypad lock, but technology was advancing fast, and even though he was a young immortal, the progress made him feel old.
