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“Blackbird,” I called again, and finally touched her shoulder to turn her toward me when she didn’t respond in any way.
Her eyes were shut and jaw trembling, but for once, I had a feeling she wasn’t avoiding looking at me.
“Blackbird,” I said sharply and shook her shoulder. “Girl!” I rolled her fully onto her back and pressed my fingers to her neck.
Her pulse was weak, but felt like it was going as fast as a hummingbird’s wings.
“No, no, no, no, shit,” I roared, and brushed my hand over her face then paused. Placing my hand on her cheek again, I moved it up to her forehead and swore.
I grabbed at my pockets, biting out another curse when I remembered throwing my cell phone against a wall, and took off out of the room to grab one of the landlines.
William answered on the second ring. “Lucas, wha—”
“Get a doctor here now!”
There was a pause, then, “Did you already go back to check on her? How long has it be—”
“Did you hear me?” I yelled as I ran back to the girl’s room. She hadn’t moved. “Get a doctor here. Have him bring the IV drip and anything else he can think of.” I hung up and dropped the phone on the bed and ran my hands over the girl’s face again. Her skin was on fire. “Shit,” I whispered, and moved one hand to her throat and the other to her wrist.
I hurried into the small bathroom attached to the room and ran two washcloths under cold water, then wrung them out and folded them as I rushed back to her. I placed one on her forehead and held the other to the back of her neck as my free hand gripped her wrist until I found her rapid pulse again.
I felt helpless waiting for a doctor to show up, but I knew I had no other option. Taking her to a hospital right now wasn’t possible. Not when she had just been taken from her home days before. Not when she would scream for help as soon as she regained consciousness. No . . . I couldn’t risk everything for this girl, but in the ten minutes it took for the doctor to arrive, I considered it more and more.
“Leave the room, Lucas,” William called out as he entered the girl’s room behind the doctor.
I looked up in surprise, and growled as my eyes went back to the girl. “No. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Lucas—”
My head whipped back up, my eyes already narrowed. “Don’t tell me to leave.” My tone was a mix of warning and plea, and it shocked my mentor.
His eyes traveled over to my blackbird. There was hesitation in the way he looked at her, as if he were suddenly afraid to. His gaze lingered on where I was now gripping her hand, and one eyebrow rose in disapproval. “I see.”
The doctor didn’t ask questions. He just checked her vitals, hurried to find a vein in Blackbird’s dehydrated body and started pumping her with fluids, then checked her vitals for a second time. The entire time murmuring things to himself that he needed to remember before he finally stopped to write it all down.
“When did she last eat or drink?” he asked suddenly.
“I have no idea. I’ve been trying to get her to do both for two days.”
He nodded to himself as he wrote. “Has she been sick?”
I ground my jaw. “No.”
The doctor continued nodding, then pointed to her with his pen. “New one?”
“Yes,” William responded for me.
“Then we wait,” the doctor said as he turned to check the speed of the IV. “Her body is in shock. A few more hours, she would have slipped into a coma.”
I rubbed my hand over my face, then rested my elbow on my knee and my mouth on my fist. My eyes shut and my stomach churned when I thought about how close I had been to leaving her for the night.
“Lucas.”
I opened my eyes and slowly slid my gaze over to William.
He shook his head subtly. I didn’t need his words to know what he meant.
I shouldn’t be reacting this way. Even though only William was present—doctors like this one were the best around, and were paid to keep quiet . . . be invisible—I shouldn’t show this kind of emotion over a girl. It showed weakness.
