Of Royal Descent (21 page)

I set that problem aside for the moment to peruse the next one.  It wasn't as if I was going to be free to do as I liked when I entered the third shad
e.  Bradbury was going to have me caged the same as the other royals.  I was going to have to figure something out. 
Maybe when I was able to communicate with the others, we could conspire on a plan to break out
. 

Hmm...
 
I grimaced.  Maybe that wasn't the best idea.  Although I felt for the royals, would it really be a good idea to set the horde free on humanity?  And if I felt that way about them, shouldn't I feel that way about myself?  I was, after all, of the same bloodline.  No obvious answers were forthcoming, so I moved on to another line of thinking.

I wondered what Chuck was doing.  I could see him making the drive back to Maine, dealing with the death of his best friend, dealing with his first real crush on a girl which had gone horribly awry, and dealing with the loss
of his El Camino.  The thought renewed my sense of helplessness.

Addy mumbled something in her sleep and burrowed closer against me.  I shifted to my side so I could put my arm around her. 

"Don't leave me," she breathed.

"I won't
, sweetheart," I said, kissing her forehead.

The opening soft notes to "Cannonball" by Damien Rice sounded through the radio.  I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of Addy's hair.  Eventually, my breathing paralleled
hers and I dozed. 

Stephen coming through the door with lunch roused us both.  He quickly set up our plates before leaving us to eat.

It was in this pattern that the rest of the week continued.  Bradbury would bring us breakfast and check in.  Stephen would bring lunch and dinner, sometimes staying to eat with us.  The rest of the time was Addy's and mine to spend alone.

Despite the fact that I was dying while suffering from agonizing pain
and
the fact that we were being held hostage by a mad scientist in a secret government laboratory, I had to admit, it could have been worse.  Having Addy with me almost made me forget why we were there.  Every morning, after breakfast, she would change my bandages and bring me a tub of soap and water to wash up with.  She would always offer to perform that activity for me, but I would decline.  Getting a sponge bath by a hot nurse is one of those things that is only erotic in your mind.  I couldn't see how her washing off my body odor because I was too feeble to do so could possibly have been arousing to either her or me. 

She did
insist on shaving me however, and this I accepted.  Afterward, she would put fresh linens on the bed and replenish the stock in my narcotic pump.

We would spend the next few hours talking until Stephen arrived with lunch.  We learned what the other's
preferences were in practically every subject.  Her favorite movie was The Princess Bride, and she loved waffles but hated pancakes.  Christmas was her favorite holiday, and she always budgeted a certain allowance for new decorations every year.  She'd had a Siberian Husky once, named Rochester, after the hero in the novel
Jane Eyre
. But he’d had to be put to sleep, and sometimes she would still have nightmares about it.

We talked a lot about Chuck and Kai and even briefly touched upon the subject of past romances.  Although there wasn't much to tell, she asked me several questions about Katie
Jacks, who I’d dated briefly my senior year of high school.  Addy wanted to know why we didn't work out and if we had slept together and who bore the brunt of the heartache when we split up.

* * *

"I ended it," I told Addy reluctantly.  Although I had honorable reasons, I felt ashamed to admit to the leaving.  "She wanted something more, and I didn't want to lead her on."

"Oh, so you didn't have sex with her?" Addy asked.  I blinked, feeling like a deer in headlights.

"Well... I mean, yeah, we slept together a few times, but I was up front with her about it.  I thought she understood I didn't want any type of commitment.  But then things got awkward when she started telling people we were dating."

Addy
squinted her eyes slightly, like she does when she's thinking really hard about something.  I began to feel nervous, so I rattled on.

"So, very gently, I told her that I didn't want what she wanted
, and I thought it would be best if we didn't see each other anymore."

"I see," said Addy, stone-faced.

"I mean, I didn't want her to develop feelings for me when I knew I wasn't interested."

"Otherwise you would have been happy to continue sleeping with her?"  Addy raised an eyebrow.  I was pretty sure I was going to be screwed no matter what my answer was.

"Okay, this isn't coming out right at all.  What I meant to say was, I made a mistake, I learned from it, and I've never since given a woman reason to believe I was interested when I wasn't."

Addy considered this.

"Baby, c'mon.  You're killin' me.  I was a stupid kid," I entreated her.

She smiled hesitantly.  "I'm sorry
.  I just don't like the thought of you being with another girl."

"Well
how do you think I feel?" I teased her.  "At least my last relationship was over three years ago.  Who's the last guy you dated?"  Now it was my turn for the arching of eyebrows.             

She held my gaze. 
"No one very recently.  It’s been at least six months ago."

I continued to stare.  "I'm going to need some details."

She laughed.  "Okay.  Well, his name was Conner Reed."

"Conner Reed?
  What kind of name is that?" I scoffed.

"Are you going to let me tell you or not?" asked Addy, clearly amused.

"Okay, I'll behave," I said, pantomiming zipping my lip.

"His name was Conner Reed
, and we dated a few times.  He turned out to be a jerk, so I broke it off."

I melodramatically unzipped my lip.  "
Dated a few times?
  So you didn't sleep with him?"

Now it was Addy who appeared uncomfortable.  "Well, when I say
dated
, I mean we only went out in public on a few dates.  But, technically, we spent a handful of evenings in."

"A handful?
  Who's hand?  Your hand?  Michael Jordan's?"

"I don't know, maybe five or six."

"Right," I said.  "So is this your way of telling me that you slept with some jerk with a comic book character name five or six times a couple years ago?"

"Well, when you say it like that, it sounds worse than it was," she huffed.

"
Uh huh
.  So in what way was he a jerk?"

"I had the feeling he was cheating on me, so I sent Kai in undercover one night when I knew he was out with friends.  She flirted with him
, and he tried to take her home."

"Well... not only is Conner Reed a jerk, he is also very stupid," I said, pulling her down beside me.  "Clearly, he was not worth your time."

She smiled up at me.  "I like you Doyle Hawthorne.  I might have to keep you around."

* * *

As the end of my first week at the clinic approached, my energy began to diminish.  I required more naps throughout the day and was unable to eat most of the meals I was brought.

Addy fussed over me, making sure I ate a minimum of twenty percent of each
plate, even if she had to feed me herself.  I let her, although I felt emasculated by the act.  She draped thick quilts over me when I napped and manned the pain button for me while I slept.  Every hour, she would medicate me.  She said it kept me from crying out in my sleep, which I had apparently picked up the habit of.  Addy and I both knew all the tenderness in the world wasn't going to keep me from dying, but I think she liked to pretend.  And I liked to let her.

All the long hours of staying awake finally caught up with Addy.  On the eighth day, when Stephen delivered lunch, she lied fast asleep in the bed next to me.  I pressed my forefinger to my mouth when he opened the door.  He nodded and put one of our plates in the refrigerator.  The other, he set up on a hospital table and rolled it toward me.  Sitting quietly in the bedside chair, I realized he was preparing to feed me.  Letting Addy do it was one thing, but this was quite another.

"Thanks, but I'm really not hungry," I told him, speaking softly as not to wake Addy.

"That's too bad.  You're eating anyway," he said, cutting my steak into bite-size pieces.  He also kept his voice low.

"No, really.  This is awkward."

Stephen looked up at me.  "Here's the thing, Doyle.  You have to eat as long a
s you have the strength to chew, because when you don't, your pain will intensify.  Now, I can wake up Addy if I have to, but we both know she needs to sleep.  And if she wakes up and finds out I didn't feed you because you were too proud to let me, we’re both going to wish we could go back in time to this moment and just get it over with.  Now, do I need to wake her or not?"

I wondered if I looked as sheepish as I felt.  "No need.  I would appreciate your assistance," I said.

He forked a piece of steak and brought it to my mouth.  While I chewed, I realized that was the most stern I'd ever seen Stephen.  I smiled.

"What?" he asked softly.

"You're afraid of my girlfriend," I said, the smile broadening.

"Have you ever seen her when she's mad?" he asked, breaking out into a grin himself.

Hmm
.

"I don't know that I have.  Is it bad?" I asked

"The worst," said Stephen.  I couldn't tell if he was joking.

He brought another bite of undercooked steak to my mouth
, and I accepted it.  I might not have been hungry, but the meat did taste good.

"What's the second shad
e like?" I asked.  I had been wondering for a while, but I never wanted to bring up the subject in front of Addy.

"In some ways, it will be easier for you.  You won't feel physical pain.  You'll gain your strength back plus some.  You'll begin to understand the language of the royals, although you won't be able to c
ommand MZs until the third shade."

"So what's the bad news?"  I braced myself.

"For one thing, you'll be dead.  And as such, your body will begin to decompose."

Although I knew the laws of basic biology, for some reason, this struck me as a surprise.  "Wait, I thought I was supposed to have self-healing abilities?"

"Oh you will, in the third shade."

"How long will the second shade last?"

"There's no set time.  But I can tell you, the royals before you spent anywhere from one to four weeks before entering the third shade."

I did a mental shiver as I took another proffered forkful of steak.  Four weeks trapped in the second shade wasn't acceptable.  Since the moment Bradbury forced me into the first shad
e, I'd found myself harboring and nourishing a desire for the power of the third shade. 
Some people are just born with a dark spot on their soul
, Chuck had once told me.  I now understood him.  Edgar Bradbury was as villainous as they came.  Bizarro Santa Claus had to go, and when I killed him, I would be doing the world a great service.

"What does the time f
rame depend on?" I asked.

"Due to the low number of royals we have and the wide variance in their second shades, we haven't been
able to pinpoint anything definitive.  Right now, we can only hypothesize it's largely based on the potency of the virus.  And if we're right, you won't be spending long in the second shade.  The cells we pulled from your blood sample show your viral count to be off the charts."

Stephen had said this last line so off-handedly
, and yet, it felt as if this was somehow very important.  "Wait, nobody has told me this.  Does that mean I'll be stronger than the others?  More out of control?"

"Again, we can only guess.  But if I were a betting man, you'd be my pick to usurp William as alpha."

"What?" I said louder than I intended, causing Addy to stir momentarily before falling still once again.  "I don't want to be the alpha," I said through clenched teeth.

"It won't matter.  Generally speaking, the more potent the virus, the bigger the royal will be once shaded.  The bigger the royal, the more likely the alpha will feel threatened.  If William is threatened by you, he will confront you so he can show you and the other royals
who's boss.  And with your viral levels being so high, I imagine you would stand a chance of beating him."

"I'll refuse to fight," I said defiantly.

Stephen didn't look convinced.  "You can try, but don't bank on it.  The third shade changes more than your physical appearance.  It's not going to be easy for you to submit once the challenge has been made.  And William
will
challenge you in order not to lose the respect of the colony.  He's been the alpha since the beginning."