Hunter's Moon

Seven: Riley

By the time Nadia had gotten me home, my fever was worse and I could barely stand, let alone keep my eyes open. Luckily, Kate wasn't home; she'd left a note for me on the coffee table saying she'd been called in to work, some kind of trauma. Made sense, seeing as she was a trauma surgeon, though in an area like this it was likely due to an animal attack.

"Great," I heard Nadia sigh in relief as she finished reading the note. "My dad's working all night as well, trying to find out who, or what, killed Nancy."

I could almost smell her anxiety over the situation. I swear, I could also hear her heart beating rapidly, a rhythm that stuttered out a quick, nervous staccato. That was crazy, though. There was no way I could hear her heart beating...

Nadia helped me stumble up the stairs and to my room. I'd barely stepped through the door before my hands were reaching for the fabric of my sweater, ripping it off my body to weakly throw it into a corner of the room. My glasses ended up somewhere on the floor while I crawled onto the bed and under the covers, curling into a tight ball to try and hold in any shred of heat I could. A throbbing, fiery pain penetrated my gums, similar to when my adult teeth were growing in as a child. Only this was much worse.

"I'm sorry, Rye," Nadia moaned, crouching at the side of my bed. She sighed and hung her head, fingers raking through her hair in frustration. "It's got to be the bite," she muttered.

"Is it infected?" I asked, whimpering as a wave of nausea rolled through my stomach. My canines began to throb, and without realizing it I grabbed a pillow. Hugging it close to my chest, I bent my head and bit into the corner, trying anything I could to relieve the pain.

Nadia's fingers pressed on my bitten shoulder, checking to see how swollen it was. A frown pulled at her lips while she shook her head. "No, it's fine," she said. "Other than being way hotter than the rest of you, anyway."

I moaned again.

"Look," Nadia sighed, "I'm going to be right here with you the whole time. This might be a twenty-four hour sort of thing..."

"A thing that takes my temperature up into the hundreds?" I asked, my question ending on a growl.

She only shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered.

The next several hours passed in agonizingly slow motion. The pain and heat continued to build and spread throughout my body, settling deep into my bones and teeth. Nadia came and went from my room several times, bringing in blankets, soup, or juice each time she returned, but my body couldn't stomach it. Each time I tried to eat or drink, my gut would convulse and I'd end up dry-heaving over the side of the bed.

"I'm sorry," Nadia whispered again at some point, her fingers stroking my sweat-soaked hair out of my face. "Look, I don't know what else to do. I need to call your aunt.

Part of me didn't want Kate anywhere around to see this, but at this point there was nothing else to do. My temperature had been climbing for hours, while pain rolled through my body with each breath. It was as if my bones were on fire, boiling the blood as it rushed through my veins. Before I could do or say anything, a loud banging echoed from the front door, echoing up the stairs and into my room. I moaned as the sound cut through my skull, as if someone was taking a hammer and chisel to my brain.

I must have been feverish, because I heard Drew's voice follow after the banging. "Black! Belmont!" She roared. "I'm coming in!"

As if I were right next to it, I heard the front door open, then someone was bounding up the stairs. Seconds later Drew Fischer, queen bitch herself, strode into my room as if she owned the place. I watched her through bleary eyes as she took one look at me before turning her attention to Nadia. "You need to get out of here," she snarled. The hallucinations must have started setting in; I swear I could see her eyes glowing.