“Yyyourrgglowwing,” she managed to drag out. Worse slurring than before.
Sebastian’s face became deadly serious. He leaned closer to clasp her hands. “Alice, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”
“Glowww...”
He called her name again, she thought. Couldn’t tell. His voice floated away before her ears managed to grasp the sound. It didn’t matter anyway.
All she knew was the brilliant light, a beautiful glow, filling the room.
And then she knew nothing at all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A very distinct beat, rhythmic in its evenness, aroused her first. The sound was annoyingly loud, as if it beeped next to her ear, and Alice had a hard time figuring why anyone in his right mind would use it as an alarm.
She’d fallen asleep, but God, it was hard to think straight coming out of it. Must have been one hell of a nap.
The sheets had been pulled high up on her chest, tucked in with a firm hand. The cotton was clean but lacked a distinct smell. No. That wasn’t quite right. Obviously clean, the sheets smelled bland. Kind of disappointing, really. And the pillow beneath her head? Not nearly comfortable. In fact, she could use another one to stop being so damned flat.
“Awake?”
Sebastian’s gentle voice made her smile. “Yeah, but still tired,” she replied before his tone made her replay the one-word question. He said it with care, but there was a simmering anger beneath it. Or was that her imagination? Alice pushed open her eyelids to look at him. “Oh God!”
Her heart hammered as she took in Sebastian first, and then their surroundings. The stark walls. The crucifix with a white board beneath announcing, Hello, Your nurse today is Cathy. A tall metal pole loomed over the bed, holding a clear bag filled with fluid. Tubing ran from the bag, snaking over the bed to abruptly end at a mish-mash of tape bunched on the back of her hand.
“I’m in a hospital?” she asked, tamping down the rising panic.
“Hope Haven.”
“Why? What happened?”
“How many times did I watch you stare off into space? How many times were you having an absence seizure, and I didn’t know it? I watched you deteriorate and had no idea.” He glanced toward the closed door, as if hoping to be rescued from this conversation. But her warrior, true to form, tackled the problem with aplomb. “You had another seizure. This one was grand mal.”
Oh God. Her breathing picked up as panic pushed past a barrier and began to squeeze her lungs, holding them within an iron grip. All of her seizures to date had been very minor in the scheme of things. Absence seizures that made her lose usually only up to a minute of time. Not one that fully wracked her entire body such that she had the potential to accidentally hurt herself.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?” he asked. It was back—the low simmer of anger and, more so, disappointment.
“I...it...” She struggled to find the right answer. One that wouldn’t hurt him more than he appeared to have been. “They don’t know why I have seizures. I’ve never had a grand mal before, I swear.”
“Never mind,” he said sharply. Sebastian visibly went still, as if collecting himself, then tried again. “Your doctor says you haven’t kept your appointments.”
“I couldn’t afford to go. I kept taking my meds and hoped for the best.”
“Hoped for the best? Did you think that would be enough? Why didn’t you tell me you needed to see a doctor? I would have given you whatever money you needed.” He began to pace the small room as his anger hit full, rolling boil. “If you’d been keeping your appointments, you would have continued to have MRIs and whatever other tests you’d needed.”
“When should have I asked you for a few hundred dollars? The day I found you sick and barely hanging on? The day I tried to steal from you? When?”
“Fuck, Alice! I can’t believe you kept something like this from me. Did you think I wouldn’t understand? I would have helped you.”
“You can’t help me,” she cried. “Didn’t the doctor tell you? No amount of doctor’s visits or money or anything can help! It is what it is. I didn’t think it would get worse.” Hoped it wouldn’t.