At my statement he huffs, but he seems to have run out of steam as he complains, “you need to communicate with your colleagues,” before he turns and makes his way towards his changing room. Because of Kane leaving, we did all the scenes that were needed with him. Now the others shouldn’t take as long.
“I’m just going to change, Eirik, I’ll be right out,” I announce as I walk into my changing room and close the door behind me. The quiet surrounds me. Taking in a deep breath, I shut my eyes for a minute before opening them again. Walking towards where Janine left my usual bottle of water, I uncap it, take a seat on the chair before the mirror, and take a sip of the cool water. The best thing I like about shooting a scene is when I get to come back to the dressing room, away from everyone, and relax for a couple of minutes with my thoughts.
After drinking half the bottle of water, I sigh and start to get ready. I don’t like making anyone wait for me. As I start towards the door, I feel such a strong cramp that I double over gasping. What the hell was that? Is this still because I mated with Dane? When I can finally walk again, I step carefully towards the door just in case it decides to hit me again.
“You ready?” I nod at Eirik’s question, but I’m not feeling well at all. Is this my nerves thinking over if Dane will go after Kane? I can feel myself breakout in a cold sweat, and my vision is starting to blur. What the hell is wrong with me? We make our way to the car. Once inside, I lay my head back and close my eyes.
“Are you okay?” I hear Eirik’s concern, but my eyes are too heavy for me to open them.
“I’m okay, only tired.” I feel like all my energy is being depleted.
“I don’t blame you; they are like a school of piranhas in there. I’ve never seen so many fake people in one room, like I did with that bunch.” I try to smile at Eirik’s displeased tone, from what I’ve gathered from being with the men for such a short time, is that they say what they mean. I doubt no one ever questions what their intentions are.
“Dane phoned earlier, wanted to know how you were doing. Are you going to tell him about Kane?”
I frown at Eirik’s question.
“I thought he could tell when someone touched me?”
“Yes, he can, but as you know, he will want to kill him for the simple reason that he placed his hands on you. If he thinks that he kissed you, nothing will stop him from going after Kane.”
I sigh, my head feeling woozy like I’m coming down with the flu, the last thing I feel like doing is thinking about this.
“It will be fine,” I whisper.
“You don’t seem too hot, sugar, are you sure you’re okay?”
My legs feel so heavy, I don’t know why I’m feeling so sick. “I’m just so tired,” I murmur. My whole body is starting to feel heavy now.
“Freya, look at me!” I hear Eirik snap, but for the life of me I can’t open my eyes, it feels like lead weights are pulling them down. “Freya!”
“Tired,” I whisper.
“Dane, there’s something wrong with your woman.”
What? What’s happening?
“I don’t fucking know, but I think she was poisoned, Brother.”
Poisoned? No, I’m fine. I’m just tired. I try to open my eyes again, but they won’t open. Was I poisoned? Who would have done something like this to me? I know that there is a lot of rivalry on set, but surely no one would go this far. I can feel myself start to panic, but the more I try, the heavier I seem to be getting. I sense my consciousness start to slip. No… no, I can’t be poisoned. I’ve just met Dane. I don’t want to die like this.
“Freya, hang in there we’re nearly home,” I hear Eirik say as if he’s far away. I know that I’m going to lose consciousness, and the only thing I can think about in this moment is that I didn’t even get to see Dane one more time.
I must have passed out because the next thing I know, there is a roaring in my ears—thudding. What is making such a racket? Then it sounds like something rips followed by a grunt before silence again.
“Three days… three fucking days and nothing?” Dane’s roar has me awakening from whatever poisoned stupor I’m in. But I still can’t open my eyes. I try to move my fingers, but the pain that shoots through my muscles has me instantly stilling. How did they poison me?
“Calm the fuck down. You will be no good to your woman if I have to knock you out.”
Tor? What is Tor doing here?
“I know this is messing with your head, but now more than ever you need to keep your shit together because we need to catch who did this and make them pay.” I feel the darkness try to pull me down again, but I fight it. I want to hear Dane’s voice—feel his touch, but the darkness has no mercy and soon everything is going black again and silence is reigning.
Heat is what wakes me up. There’s a burning sensation deep in my stomach. It feels like I’m burning from the inside out, then I feel a cool breeze on my face and the heat on my cheeks starts to cool. “She’s still burning up. Shouldn’t she be better by now?” The sound of Dane’s voice has me calming, the heat starting to diminish. I feel Dane’s hand in mine… wait… I can feel his hand. My heart starts to race, I try to open my eyes, and again, I find it difficult to lift them because of the heaviness, but at least I’m starting to feel everything around me.
“Bion just phoned earlier and promises me that the only thing I can do for her, is carry on giving her my blood and touching her as much as I can.”
“Tor said the worst was behind you, and that she will start to get better now.” Whose voice is that? Doesn’t sound like any of the men I’ve met before. I’m curious to know who this voice belongs to. Its deep timbre has me calming. His voice seems to radiate peace which has my tense muscles relaxing. Only now do I realize that my muscles were taut, but more importantly, I’m feeling my body again. The heaviness that has been with me from the moment I started to feel ill is now gone.
I try to call out, but my throat feels so dry that at first nothing happens and then after another two tries I manage to croak out, “Dane.”
The conversation that the two men were having suddenly stops.
“Freya?” There is a hesitant note in Dane’s voice. “Can you hear me?” I want to nod, but my muscles still feel stiff and achy.
“Yes.” The word is barely a whisper, but at least I’m communicating. I try to open my eyes, and this time they open just a slit, which has me still seeing everything in a blur.
“Here, take a sip of this,” Dane slips a straw between my lips, the water burns my dry throat, but I’m so parched that I can’t help myself but to drink it. His fingers are stroking my hair as I drink. “Slowly,” he encourages. I just want to be able to open my eyes and see his face again, but instead of widening my vision, my eyes once again close. I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. I’m so tired, but I know that the poison must be working its way out of my system, and hopefully soon, I will be back to myself and then I’ll be able to look at Dane for as long as I like.