“Where’s my fiancée?”
The woman in blue pulled the blankets back over me. “Donovan, what do you remember?”
“I don’t—”
The room grew fuzzy—out of focus—as voices faded into the static.
My eyes grew increasing heavy as I watched the woman in blue inject something into a tube at my side. “What? Why?”
She was talking but not to me.
She was speaking to Liv.
“Fuck that. Talk to me. I’m Donovan Sherman.” The words were there, and still I wasn’t sure I’d said them aloud.
When had I ever let someone else speak for me?
Never.
Sleep.
“Van, do you hear me?”
I blinked. The unfamiliar room around me was filled with beeps and odd sounds.
“Van?”
My head ached and my side throbbed. I remembered. I’d been told I was in the hospital.
Why?
The bed below me moved, inclining me forward.
“Shit,” I growled as my teeth clenched at the soreness in my side. Holding my breath, I tried to reach for the source, but my left arm was secured with tubes and needles. My line of sight followed tubes upward to bags hanging on tall silver stands.
Liv’s palm came to my forehead. “Your fever is down. Van, talk to me.”
With concerted effort, I turned toward my sister’s voice. “Damn it, stop doting.”
My sister stood straight, her shoulders squared. “You’re infuriating.”
I squinted to focus. The room was brighter than I remembered. “What the fuck happened?”
“Are you going to stay awake this time?”
Pulling the tube away from my nose, I asked, “Why am I here? I need to go home to Julia.”
“I’m going to get the nurse. Try to stay awake.”
Liv was gone, leaving me alone with strange noises and sensations.
The man who entered a few minutes later wasn’t the same person in blue. For one, he was a man. Two, he was wearing green. Dreadlocks peeked out from below the cap. His smile broadened as he came closer. “Well, hello, Donovan.”
My response was more of a grunt than word.
After washing his hands and putting on gloves, he laid me flat on my back and did as the woman in blue had done, pulling back the blankets. Lifting my head, I tried to see what hurt. My skin was covered by a large bandage. I flinched and clenched my jaw as he pushed here and there.
“Is this sore?”