An Eternity of Change

Chapter 20

January 7, 1919

Adam sat at Jaylyn's side as her raspy breathing filled the small room, a few days ago when she'd collapsed with shivers wracking her body he had just thought she'd had a bad fever, but now he knew it wasn't. She had the flu that many people had died of recently, how she got it... well it wasn't that hard to guess after her failed attempt to hide her dip in the icy lake. The only reason he wasn't sick yet was because of the fact he was immune to nearly every disease, someone could list them off and he could probably say he'd gotten it. He couldn't risk killing her either with all the unrest in Berlin it was becoming too dangerous, but at the same time their progress towards a quieter part of the country was slowed down now that she was too weak to walk.

He felt her shift and glanced down at her as she groaned in pain and curled up in a tighter ball. That was the only thing he couldn't place, how much pain she seemed to be in, though she also displayed some signs of memory loss back when it first started. Other reports he'd read about stated that most symptoms were chills, fever, and fluid filling the lungs. None of them mentioned anything about pain. Adam saw her eyes flicker open and glance around in confusion and panic as they settled on him before closing half way as she lost the strength to look around. He tried to comfort her as she fell into a troubled sleep, her skin was burning to touch, but she didn't even seem to notice he was there anymore. Eventually he stood up and started pacing, they didn't have many options at the moment. He couldn't kill her to make her better, allowing her to die here would be just as bad, and traveling might not be possible. Of course, they could get lucky and no one may notice her coming back, but that was unlikely with a large body of water right beside a busy part of the city.

"Adam?" Jaylyn's weak voice whimpered as she winced at the sound of her own voice.

He walked over and sat back down, her eyes weren't open and she was shivering again despite that seeming to cause her more pain. "You're going to be fine, just rest so we can leave tonight."

She continued to mutter and twisted around only to cry out in pain a second later. That made it very obvious she hadn't actually been talking to him and he easily held down her weak form until she stopped moving around and once again went as limp as a corpse. He sat back and glanced out the window as the sky darkened, they would have to start leaving soon while it was harder for anyone to see them. Adam started pacing again impatiently as the night slipped away, with Jaylyn's conditioning worsening they had to leave now, as he doubted she would last another day.

A door creaked and Adam whirled around as Jack jumped in surprise. "Oh, you're still here... you aren't supposed to be."

"What are you doing here?" He stepped between Ripper and Jaylyn.

The younger immortal grinned, though it looked like a snarl. "Finishing the job I started."

"Stay away from her." Adam reached for his dagger and displayed it threateningly.

Ripper seemed unimpressed as he took out a syringe. "I will admit, lead poisoning is a more disappointing way to kill someone, but after she made me lose my knives... She'll pay."

That explained the strange symptoms. Adam glared at Ripper and made a warning gash on the killer's forearm. "This petty squabble you two have is getting on my nerves."

"No need to scold me like a child." Ripper glowered back like a cornered animal. "Unless you want gutted too."

"I'd love to see you try." Adam backed towards Jaylyn as he got into an offensive position. "I was killing people before you were even born."