Reaper's Lily

40

Kaiden's P.O.V:

Barreling through the door, I saw her clothes on the bathroom floor. Lily was under the water, but she didn't move. I lunged towards the bathtub, seeing her under the water, and reached down to pull her out of the water. I held her close as I tried not to throw her out of the tub. Lily didn't move, the color from her face drained. She was stiff, not breathing as I laid her flat on the tile. Nate was probably losing his mind since I'd drop my phone at the sight of her not being in the hotel room.

I started CPR, trying to resuscitate her. I started the chest compression, counting to five with each compression, then tilted her head up. I blew air into her mouth and kept trying to resuscitate my soulmate. It felt like eternity, trying to get her to breathe and cough up some water.

Lily started to stir and not before long, she coughed up the water. I grabbed one of the towels, placing it around her body as she kept coughing up more water. She slowly sat up, I made sure that it stayed around her body. Lily leaned against me, shivering, and I noticed the color hadn't returned to her face.

Fuck!

The nightshade poisoning was taking full advantage of her immune system. It attacked the body as if it were the flu on raged filled steroids. I picked her up in my arms, rushing to the bed with her in my arms. I laid her down, covering her, then hurried to my phone. Nate had hung up, and I quickly called him back.

"You okay?! I thought I was going to have to call one of the ambulances there in Florida!" Nate shouted.

"Get on the first flight to come here. Bring Gia. It's the poisoning. It's starting to give her the fever," I breathed, trying to hold back my panic.

Nate called for Gia, then reminded me, "Keep her temperature down as much as possible. If it reaches over one hundred, take her to the nearest hospital owned by the hunters there. We should be there before the morning."

Gia took the phone, calmly reminding me, "Kaiden, stay calm. Lily's probably experience the first fever of the poisoning. She can't be moved until I can get there to give her something to break it."

"The first fever? You're telling me there's more?!" I exclaimed.

She explained, "Nightshade poisoning to someone of a magical bloodline can be fatal, depending on how much the person was injected with. If she's not broken the fever in a few days, she will die. Nate's almost done packing, and we'll be on the next flight out. I'll have Aimee come with me so we can work on some potions to help her."

"Do you really need Aimee?" I questioned.

Gia grumbled, "If you want me to come up with a way to break her fever faster than yes, I need her help."

I looked at Lily, wondering if there was water still on her forehead or sweat as I whispered, "I can't lose her, Gia."

"You won't. I'll text you a list of how to keep her temperature down until we can get there," she promised.

I hung up with her after agreeing to the list, taking off my coat, then touched her forehead. Lily's forehead was on fire. I hurried to the bathroom, running a hand towel under some cold water, then ran back to her. Using the hand towel, I started to wipe the sweat from her forehead. I peeled her wet bandage off her left shoulder and instantly regretted it. Her wound looked infected and the veins around it were blacker than before she ran from Texas.

You need to save her, I heard the reaper calling out to me.

"No shit, Sherlock," I murmured in response.

Lily coughed, sitting up, and I rubbed her back until her cough became more violent sounding. She covered her mouth, pulling her hand away, and I stared in pure horror as did she. She was coughing up blood. I laid her back down, using the hand towel to wipe the blood from her hand and mouth. This was bad. I wasted too much time and instead of jumping on a plane back to Texas, I wanted to let her rest up and explain why she left me alone in San Antonio the way she did without forcing her to come back.

I left the bed side, getting another towel wet in the bathroom, then stepped out the bathroom to see Lily was coughing again. I charged at her, using the towel to help her clean the small amounts of blood off her bottom lip. Lily leaned against me, gripping onto my shirt for dear life. I fought with her on holding onto me, to lay down by herself so I could make sure that I had everything for her on the list that Gia texted me.

"Stay," Lily's voice was barely a raspy murmur, but I heard it.

Sliding her over, I laid next to her and felt her slamming herself into me. Lily's breathing was a bit uneven. She shivered at the small breeze from the AC. I pulled the blankets up to cover her, almost tucking her in more. I hoped Gia would be here soon as I grabbed my phone. I read over the list Gia sent me, looking at another text from my brothers in our group chat asking about her. I scoffed out a single laugh then I felt Lily snuggling closer to me. She nearly melted into my side, letting me wrap my left arm around her. I was careful to not touch her wound but staring at the wound, I couldn't take my eyes off the way it looked.

"Kaiden," Lily breathed, holding onto me.

I felt her trembles with each breath she took. Her temperature was still high, but it wasn't concerning the way it was before. I felt completely and utterly...helpless. Seeing her like this, it made me feel like I was...human. My strength wasn't going to help her get the help she needed right now. The speed I had wasn't going to help me get her some help any faster than a normal human. The powers of the grim reaper inside of me wasn't going to do anything either. Is this how a human felt watching their loved ones suffering?

It was about ten o'clock at night when my brothers, with their soulmates, had started to bang onto my hotel room door. I'd let them in, seeing that Gia brought half of her potions from her small store in San Antonio in two duffle bags. Aimee crashed through everyone at the door, nearly flinging herself to the bed where Lily was still sleeping. I'd gotten a text from Nate an hour before they came which let me get one of my button up shirts to put on her along with a pair of my smallest shorts.

Gia took one of the duffle bags as Jace had me help him bring some suitcases in, then she asked as I closed the door behind everyone, "Has her fever spiked since we last talked?"

"No, it's stayed at 101." I jerked my head in the direction of the thermometer on the nightstand.

Gia took a pair of rubber gloves out one of the bags Nathan set on the empty side of the bed, then said to Aimee, "Get the other bag and start mixing together some herbs for a remedy, please. Nate, you and Jace keep Kaiden out of here."

"What? Why?! I'm staying with Lily!" I demanded.

Aimee started to chant as both of my brothers started to drag me out of my hotel room. I looked back to see Lily slowly opening her eyes. The terror and agony in her milk chocolate brown eyes were shining brightly through. The bond was saturated in those two emotions as she watched me being dragged out. Lily slowly reached out her hand for me to take as I did the same. My brothers closed the door as I was pretty sure my eyes were mirroring hers.