Blood Rites

"Jen, I'm sorry," Jacque whispered as she sat down on the bed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I didn't know you had feelings for him."

"Of course I have feelings towards him. I feel like he is a pompous, hairy, flea infested butt head." Jen thought if she said it out loud then maybe she could believe it. No such luck.

The room was quiet without Jen's loud voice to fill the empty spaces.

"So, how 'bout this weather we've been having?" Sally said, forever the one trying to smooth things out.

Suddenly Jacque stood up, causing Jen to nearly fall in the floor. "What the crap, Jacque?" Jen spat. Then she looked at Jacque's face and could see something was very wrong.

"I'm going to be sick." Jacque's voice was desperate and pained.

Jen put her hands on Jacque's shoulders and began guiding her towards the bathroom, all the while shouting orders at Sally. "Go get Fane, get some towels and cold washcloths, then get Dr. Steele." Sally headed for the door but it flew open, thankfully before she was close enough to be hit with it. Fane came in a storm of power. He walked past Sally, following the painful sounds of the sickness coming from his mate. Decebel came in behind Fane and stopped beside Sally.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice as authoritative as ever.

"We were just sitting, talking about," Sally paused, remembering what they had been talking about before Jacque had gotten sick. "Nothing important, and then Jacque stood up and said she was going to be sick. Jen took her into the bathroom and I was coming to get Fane but he was already coming into the room." Decebel just nodded in response. Sally realized then she was supposed to get towels and a wash cloth. She headed out the door of the room and then paused to look back at Decebel. "Can you get in touch with Dr. Steele somehow?"

"Yes."

"A 'man of few words' would be an understatement in describing that wolf," Sally muttered as she continued on her quest for towels.

"What happened?" Fane growled at Jen as he maneuvered himself into the spot she had just occupied. He took over holding Jacquelyn's hair as she retched up anything and everything from her body.

"I don't know what happened. We were just talking and everyone was fine and then bam, Jacque was getting sick." Jen slapped her hands together in emphasis.

"Luna, can you tell me what's wrong?" Fane asked her, his voice full of the anguish he was feeling at seeing her so sick.

"It feels like my insides are trying to crawl out of my mouth. How's that for descriptive?" Jacque sent her thoughts and moaned out loud at the same time as another spasm gripped her stomach, and she began to dry heave because there was nothing left inside her.

Fane placed his hand on her forehead as she began to shiver. "You're burning up, Jacquelyn." Fane didn't know anything about fever but he was sure that her temperature was beyond the point of being just a minor fever.

"Here, I have washcloths." Sally came into the bathroom and turned on the cold water, pushing the washcloths under the flow, then she squeezed out the excess and handed one to Fane.

"Put it on her neck," Jen instructed, then took a towel from Sally and folded it placing it on the floor and pushing it underneath Jacque so her knees wouldn't be on the hard, cold floor.

"Decebel got in touch with Dr. Steele, she is on her way here," Sally informed them.

Jacque finally slumped back against Fane, exhausted from being sick. Her face flushed from the fever, and her breathing was shallow. Fane picked her up and carried her to her bed. As he gently laid her down he spoke to Decebel. "Get my father."

"Done, my prince, I've already called him. He and your mother and Lilly were down in the cafeteria. They are on their way up now."

Fane nodded. "Thank you."

Without warning Jacque screamed out, "FANE!" Jen and Sally jumped. Decebel flinched because of his sensitive wolf ears.

Fane rubbed Jacquelyn's forehead."I'm here, love. What can I do?" Fane was gritting his teeth, frustration and fear coursing through his body.

"Make it stop," Jacquelyn whispered to him. "Please make it stop."

Chapter 20

Cynthia dialed Logan's number as she continued to examine the blood sample she had under the microscope. Her hands shook as she turned the dial to bring the slide into focus. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but there it was in living color. Jennifer's blood matched Jacque's blood. The only difference being the amount of cells that carried the gene. Since Jacque was half wolf her blood was full of them. Jennifer, however, had just enough to be recognizable by a person who knew what to look for. Logan finally answered. "Tell me you have good news, Dr. Steele."

"Well, if you mean can I get Jacque by herself, then yes I have good news. I just received a call from Vasile's Beta. Jacque is sick. I'm going now to see her and will have her transferred to the ICU, where visitors of any kind are not allowed after 9:00 p.m. I have a pair of scrubs for you here in my office. I will leave it unlocked so you can get in. Wait in my office for my call." Cynthia was changing the slides in the microscope, putting Jennifer's up and sliding Jacque's sample under the scope. As she looked into the eyepiece she ceased hearing anything Logan said. She'd thought that this could happen, but thinking and reality are very different.

"Okay, Logan, I will call you when I'm ready. Bye." And without listening for his response she hung up. She continued to examine the blood as she watched the human cells attack the werewolf cells. Jacque had received a blood transfusion before she had been able to stop it. That was what she was watching on the slide in front of her. The human cells from the blood that did not belong to Jacque were attacking her cells. She had heard that this could happen when a wolf received human blood because human blood recognized the wolf cells as a virus and attacked accordingly. She knew of only one cure, one way to stop the human cells from killing the wolf cells and inevitably killing the werewolf.

As she stood up and put her lab coat on, she took one last look at the slide then turned to go to Jacque's room. She kept telling herself that it would be okay, that Logan would be able to heal her, that she wasn't putting Jacque in any real harm. Before her conscience could talk her out of it she was standing in front of Jacque's door. She'd been able to hear her cries from down the hall and she could only imagine how painful it was for your body to turn on itself. There, see? I will be helping her by giving her the morphine to keep her under, and then she won't feel the pain until Logan can heal her. Assuaging her guilt, she turned the doorknob and walked into a room full of worried people, an emotionally out of control Alpha, and the cries of a very sick girl. Thankfully, at the sight of a sick person the doctor in her kicked in and she focused on that role, on doing something to help.