The Apple of My Eye -Kaz Brekker (Complete)

Chapter Five

CROWS

Kaz found himself living out of fear by the next morning when he woke up in his chair by the small sound of a cough and the choking that came after it. He, however, didn't awake at first.

"Kaz?" called a woman's voice. "Kaz, help me."

He opened his eyes quickly, looking for the culprit for the noise.

Jordan was lying alone in the middle of his bed, eyes open, though she didn't look very awake. Her skin was almost as light as Kaz's, though it was coated with a thin layer of sweat over her exposed face and neck, though the rest of her body was hidden under her pyjamas and the thick blankets that had been thrown over her.

Laura was leaving the bathroom, face pale too, but completely awake and completely terrified. She had a mid-sized bowl of water in her hands that Kaz quickly recognize to be his basin that he used to wash himself sometimes. Her hands were shaking as she put it beside the bed and she wet the cloth, putting it over Jordan's forehead.

"What's going on?" he asked, pulling his cane and getting up from his seat.

"I don't know. I just woke up and she was burning up," Laura explained. "She just started coughing out of nowhere."

"I don't understand. She was fine yesterday!" Kaz said, limping towards the bed.

Taking off his glove, he touched the top of his daughter's head, pulling his hand back at once. The mixture of heat and sweat made the waters hit his ankles without warning. It had been a long time since the waters felt so real when he touched his daughter.

"I don't know," repeated Laura.

Laura pulled the covers away from Jordan as Kaz sat on the corner of the bed, watching the girl's eyes flutter, but not open through the change of temperature.

Jordan coughed again, body trembling with the strength of the twitch of her muscles. She moaned in pain. The little hand that had been under the blankets now appeared, she was holding the stuffed tiger tightly, knuckles whiteish by her grip. Kaz had not noticed when she moved in the middle of the night, taking the small tiger she had seen her mother hiding so she could find some comfort in her sleep in a new bed.

Kaz took the stuffed animal away from her, causing her to whimper as her hand relaxed.

"We need to take these clothes off, put fresh clothes on and wash her. Maybe that'll cool her down," said Kaz, eyes worried.

Laura nodded as Kaz got up and walked to his table, going straight to the bags under the table.

The mother was quick to undo the buttons of the pyjamas, but froze in place as the shirt was open, exposing the pale, sweaty skin of her chest filled with small red blisters and white pustule over her skin. It looked like a rash at first in the centre of her flat chest, but soon she saw it had taken over her shoulder and ribcage, going to her hip too.

"Kaz, we need a doctor!" Laura exclaimed, jumping back, away from Jordan.

He looked up from where he was getting an underwear and a dress to Jordan, dropping the clothing when he saw the familiar rash he had seen on his own skin before.

Had he been religious, he would have started praying right then and there, but Kaz was not. Kaz was the leader of the feared gang of the Dregs, the man that kids would hear about before going to sleep so they would obey their parents; he was logical, cold and he was fearless... or at least he pretended to be so.