No Dominion The Walker Papers - By CE Murphy Page 0,66
against my side. We were quiet a while, until she sighed. “Gary, if magic is real…what do we do about it?”
“Whatcha mean?”
“You’ve already fought that starlight demon, and the thing at the hospital tonight. If those are real, there must be other…other monsters out there, right? You’re taking care of me, but who’s taking care of the other people crossing the monsters’ paths?”
I felt my eyebrows climbing. “What’re you saying, darlin’? I finish up college like most guys do, then instead of getting a factory job or selling cars, I go out an’ what, become a hunter?”
“Sweetheart,” she said, an’ she was teasing because she never used the nicknames I did, but there was something deadly serious in her at the same time. “Sweetheart, you weren’t just hunting that thing tonight. You were a reaper.”
“A reaper.” I gave her a quick grin. “You sayin’ that’s what I do now? I reap monsters? I don’t think that’s gonna pay the bills, darlin’.”
“That’s all right.” Annie looked as proud as she ever did, right then. “I can pay the bills.”
A week later she got sick.
CHAPTER TWELVE
She was used to that. We both were. She was a nurse, working around sickness all the time. Whenever something new came in, she’d get it, just like most of the other nurses, and like most of ‘em, she shook it off fast. This one, though, crept up on her and not anybody else, and insteada getting better quick, she kept getting just a little bit worse. It started in her throat like most colds, then settled in as a bright red rash in her armpits an’ behind her ears. That was when she recognized it, an’ checked herself into the hospital with scarlet fever. They hustled her up to a bed and gave her a shot of penicillin, promising she’d be a whole lot better by morning.
“You’re already infected, if you’re going to catch it,” she told me with a kinda macabre cheer, “but there’s no sense in me spreading it around more. I’ll be fine in a few days. I’ll feel much better in the morning, now that I’ve got the antibiotic in me.”
“Uh huh. And I’ll be sitting here until you are.” It wasn’t a bad bedside chair, plenty comfortable for a young guy to sack out in for a couple nights. Annie settled in and went ta sleep quicker than her light-hearted words accounted for. I watched her sleep for a long time, counting her breaths and assuring myself she was still alive, before finally falling asleep myself.
Her whimpering woke me up before dawn. Didn’t have to be a doctor to tell she was worse, not better. Her skin was just about blue from paleness, all except for hot spots on her cheeks and the rash standing out like flares in every crease and crook of her body. I hollered for help and three doctors came running, along with more nurses than I could count. They loved my Annie, maybe just about as much as I did. One of the doctors went through her chart, scowling so hard his eyes disappeared. “There’s nothing in here about a penicillin allergy. Do you know of anything else she might be allergic to, Mr. Muldoon?”
“Long haired cats is about it.”
The doctor’s eyes reappeared, sympathetic. “Probably not the cause here, but we’ll keep it in mind. Nurse, can you get her an IV? She’s…” He touched her forehead an’ the frown came back. “Much too warm. Take her temperature every five minutes. If it’s not dropping in twenty, prepare a cool bath. We want that fever to break before there’s permanent damage.”
I caught his arm as he tried heading out. “Whaddaya mean, permanent?”
“Very high fevers are dangerous in adults, Mr. Muldoon.” He took my hand off his arm without making a fuss about it. “If they go on long enough there can be brain damage, or other physically detrimental effects. We won’t worry about it just yet, all right? Anne is young and strong, and I’m sure we’ll bring her fever down with some liquids.”
Half an hour later she was shivering in a bathtub, her nightgown stuck to her body an’ making the rash look paler than it was. The nurses tried ta keep me out, but Annie whispered, “No, please, let him stay,” and they let me through to kneel beside the tub and hold her hand. It went like that all day, in and outta the cool water, until she was looking like a drowned