My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Get a Headache

She's been swimming in blood and rain for seven days.

Hearing Caligula's call is like plunging into icewater instead. She comes back to her body so quickly that her mind spins, and the first thing she does is roll onto her stomach to throw up.

What comes out of her is black. Blood? Who knows. It tastes rotten and foul.

Juliette's arms and legs are trembling. She can barely hold herself up enough to spit up onto the floor without falling into it. She's fevered. Dangerously so. She can hear Will's voice in her head reminding her the dangers of just high body temperature.

Chills run down her spine. Juliette wipes her mouth on her arm and looks up.

Lightning.

Her voice comes out without her permission. She can't help the embarrassing whine, sob that escapes her as she looks at him.

"Jason?"

It's been six months. He's only twenty feet away.

Jason is the only thing in this room that is shining. He's sweaty, dirty, bloodied, and his eye is turning purple. There's a slice across his nose and several scattered over his upper arms and chest. He's in some preppy school outfit - dress pants, dress shoes, and a white button down pushed up to his elbows. In another time, Juliette would likely tease him for the getup. She'd tell him that he looks like an armed and dangerous bank clerk. A hot one.

But he's taller. He's broader. His blue eyes are warm, healthy, angry, concerned. Jason looks strong. His arms look strong. His hands look strong.

Strong enough to take her away from here. Juliette feels tears pour down her cheeks. She tries to reach him, but her body collapses only inches from where she started.

She doesn't have any words, but Jason doesn't need them. His gaze hardens at the sight of her desperation, and he kneels.

Not to Caligula behind her.

To Juliette.

To her height, sprawled on the floor of the throne room, just as she's woken up countless times in the past week.

"I'm here, Rosa. You're not alone anymore."

Not alone.

She's been alone for so long.

Even when she had Lityerses, she was alone.

She's wanted Jason.

She's missed Jason so much.

Gods, she-"I love you," She chokes.

Jason smiles at her. It's forced. There are tears in his eyes. But the sight of it makes feeling start to come back to the tips of her fingers and toes. A feeling other than pain.

"I love you too. You sit tight, okay, baby? You're going to be just fine."

"Actually, I think I am the one in charge here," comes Caligula's voice.

The sound of it returns the fire to Julie's skin. She cries out, hunching back down, and watches, stomach turning, as the veins in her wrists change color. Stemming from the cuffs on her arms, her blood beneath her skin, once violet, turns to black and then to gold.

It burns brightly. Julie digs her forehead into the tiles of the mural floor. Just over the visage of Caligula's depiction of her mother.

"What are you doing to her?!"

Is that Meg shouting?

Julie can't focus enough to tell. She's doing all she can not to scream at the smell of her own flesh cooking underneath her skin.