The Soul Summoner (The Soul Summoner Saga Book 1) (28 page)

Gloria Marx was about to collapse onto the floor. 

The nurse stepped out of the room. "Jamie, call Dr. Wilson. Adrianne Marx is awake."

"Awake?" another voice asked.

"You heard me," he said.

I practically ran back to the waiting room. When I went through the door, I slid to a stop so fast I almost lost my footing. Warren—and Nathan—stood up. Nathan looked down at my shirt, raised an eyebrow, and scrunched his mouth over to the side.

My eyes doubled in size as I cautiously moved forward. "Hey," I said. "You're back."

Nathan nodded. "I got back last night. I heard about Adrianne this morning, so I thought I would stop by and see if you were here." He held up a bag from McDonald's. "I brought breakfast."

I smiled and stopped in front of him. "Thanks."

He looked down at the shirt again and back up. His eyes were asking,
Really?

Warren folded his arms over his chest and nodded toward Nathan. "I filled him in while you were gone." 

"Oh my gosh. She just opened her eyes. Like, just now while I was in there!" I clapped my hands together. "The nurse said it was impossible, but she did it! She actually did it!"

"That's awesome," Nathan said.

Warren bit his lower lip and looked up at the ceiling. 

"What is it?" I asked.

He nodded toward the corner. "Come over here."

"All of us?" Nathan asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Warren said.

We stepped to the empty corner of the room. 

I folded my arms across my chest. "What's up?"

Warren ducked his head and lowered his voice. "Do you remember what I said earlier about not wanting to visit her?" His eyes narrowed. "About how I might make her worse?"

I nodded.

"I think this might be one of those situations where you do the opposite," he said.

Nathan's eyes darted with confusion from me to Warren. "Huh?" 

"Do you think I'm healing her?" I asked.

Warren shrugged, but his eyes were affirmative. 

Nathan held up his hand and stared at me. "Wait. Now you can heal people?" 

I turned my palms up.

Nathan pointed at Warren. "Are you saying that you make people sick?"

I elbowed him in the side. "Keep your voice down."

"You certainly make me sick," Nathan grumbled.

Warren laughed and I elbowed Nathan again.

Warren shrugged. "I think it's an idea worth exploring." 

Nathan shook his head and walked back across the room to our seats. "I haven't had enough coffee for this shit." 

We followed him, and he handed me a cup of coffee as I plopped down in the seat between them. 

"Thanks," I said. The coffee burned my throat. "How are things going with the case?" 

Warren passed me a sausage biscuit out of the greasy paper bag. 

"Really good," Nathan said. "Search teams are starting to look today in the game lands close to where the abductions happened."

"I hope they find the rest of them," I said. "You guys aren't dragging me through the woods again."

"I thought you did pretty well," Warren said.

"Minus the whining, complaining, and constantly trying to con us into carrying you," Nathan said.

I shot him a glare and pointed my finger at him. "You know, you're pretty hateful considering you'd still be sitting in your office with your thumb up your butt in front of that bulletin board if I hadn't come along. The FBI must think you're a genius for coming up with the hunter thing."

He laughed. "They actually do. They're talking about bringing me on."

I straightened. "Really?"

He sat back in his chair. "Yeah. If we solve this thing, I may be moving again."

"Warren got offered a new job too," I said. "Everyone is just trying to run away from me, I think."

Nathan looked across me to Warren. "What's the job?"

"Permanent field training position out in Oregon," he said.

Nathan perked up. "You gonna take it?"

Warren sipped his coffee. "I doubt it."

"It sounds like a good opportunity," Nathan said.

Warren cracked a smile. "For me or for you?" 

I jumped in to redirect the conversation before it escalated. "What's Shannon think about the FBI thing?"

"I haven't told her yet." He paused. "She probably won't be too excited since she hated my stories about being on the
S.W.A.T. team
," he said, over enunciating his words.

I tried to sit back against the seat, but Warren grabbed the back of the sweatshirt I was wearing. 

He looked at Nathan, tugging on the back of the hoodie. "So, this is yours?" 

I dropped my head. 

Nathan smiled. "It looks good on her, doesn't it?"

Warren just slid his hand across my shoulders. "I must have thought so because I picked it out for her
in her bedroom
this morning."

I covered my face with my hands. "Will you two stop it? I'm about to make you both yank out your junk and having a pissing contest right here in the waiting room."

An older couple a few seats down from us turned their wide eyes our direction. I just gave them an apologetic smile.

Nathan got up and stretched his arms. "I'm going to take off anyway. Give Adrianne my best. Keep me posted."

"Thanks for the breakfast, Nathan," I said as he walked across the room.

"No prob," he replied.

"Later, Nate," Warren called.

Nathan gave him the finger before walking out of the room.

Adrianne kept improving throughout the day, particularly when I was in the room with her, so Warren and I went home that evening. I was so tired my brain felt like it was fogged with tear gas. We both fell onto my bed in unison. 

I groaned and tugged the comforter over my legs. "I don't think I've ever been so exhausted in all my life."

He flopped back against the pillows and draped his arm across his eyes. "You think you're tired? I've been up since four yesterday."

I rolled over toward him and rested my head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around my back and then shook his head. "Nope. This isn't going to work," he said. "Sit up."

"What?" 

He pushed me off of him. "Sit up."

We both sat up in the bed. 

"Arms up," he instructed.

I put my arms in the air and he pulled off Nathan's shirt and sent it flying across the room. He pulled me back down against his chest. "Now, you can go to sleep," he said.

I laughed and closed my eyes.

17.

I WOKE UP alone again in my bed the next morning. The alarm clock read 8:07 in the morning. Rolling over and sleeping for another hour was a tempting idea, but I wanted to check on Adrianne, and I could smell fresh coffee downstairs. Before sitting up, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and saw a new message from Adrianne's mom.

She's off the ventilator. Vitals are good. 

I closed my eyes and smiled. 

Reluctantly, I pushed myself off the bed and shuffled to the bathroom. Warren's toothbrush was in the holder next to mine. With butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I brushed my teeth and then my hair. I applied a light coat of lip gloss before heading downstairs in my sweat pants and sports bra. 

Warren looked up from the couch where he was watching television. He was showered and dressed for the day. He put the remote control down on the cushion beside him and smiled. "Good morning, sexy."

I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind.  "Am I always going to wake up alone?" 

He looked at his watch. "If you always sleep in till eight, most likely."

I shook my head. "I don't like it."

He pulled me around in front of him and down onto his lap. A mischievous grin slowly crept across his chiseled face. "Trust me, I lay there for a very long time before I finally got up. I kept contemplating seriously disrupting your peaceful sleep." 

I put my arms around his neck and pulled his ponytail holder out. His black hair fell around his shoulders. "Why didn't you? I would have had no objection." I ran my fingers through his hair which was still slightly damp from the shower.

He squeezed my knee. "Well, I knew you would wake up wondering about how your best friend is doing. Call me sentimental, but I don't want you to be thinking of anything else the first time we are together. That's why I left the bed." 

"Oh, that's actually really sweet." I rubbed my nose against his.

He shrugged. "I'm a big softie. What can I say?"

I laughed. "Right."

He rubbed his hand up my thigh. "Get dressed. Let's go check on your friend."

I smiled. "I need a shower. Want to join?"

He dropped his head backward and groaned. "I try to be a good guy with you, and you go and say crap like that." 

I pushed myself up. "Fine. Fine," I said. "Give me ten minutes."

"Hey!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. He kissed me, then released me. "Now you can go."

I smiled and skipped back upstairs.

When we got to the hospital, Gloria Marx and my Dad were talking in the waiting room.

 They both stood up when we walked in. "Hey Sloan," she said smiling.

"Hi, Gloria. Hey, Dad. What are you doing here?" I asked as I stepped underneath his outstretched arm.

Dad smiled. "I just came by to see how she's doing. I admitted a patient last night, so I was here this morning anyway. Hi again, Warren."

Warren waved hello.

I looked between Gloria and my dad with wide eyes. "How is she this morning?" 

She nodded. "I was just telling your dad that she's doing really well. They took her off the ventilator late last night because she kept trying to wake up. So far, so good. They are talking about maybe even moving her out of ICU later today and into critical care."

"Really?" I asked surprised.

"Yep. I swear it's a miracle," she said. "You can go on back there if you want."

I smiled. "Thanks." 

"Gloria, I'm going to go with Sloan if you don't mind," Dad said.

"Of course not. I need to make some quick phone calls," she said.

I looked up at Warren. "Are you going to wait out here?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'll be here when you get back."

I gave him a quick peck on the lips and walked with my father down the hallway. 

When we were out of earshot, Dad leaned down close to me and lowered his voice. "So, is it safe to say that I can reasonably assume why you were happy that Warren wasn't your brother?" 

I felt my face turn red. "Yes, I think you can assume correctly." I hoped he wouldn't push the topic any further.

"Well, I do hope you bring him over to the house soon so we can get to know him better. He's kinda fallen out of the sky as far as we're concerned," he said.

"I will, Dad. Soon," I said. 

When we got to Adrianne's room, a nurse was changing out one of her I.V. bags. I was amazed at the difference in Adrianne's appearance. A lot of the machines were gone, some of the tubes had been removed, and her cheeks were a more natural pink. "Wow, she looks so much better," I said to my dad.

"Well, with her blood pressure being so low before, and with the drugs they give to keep the pressure on her brain down, it sort of sucks the life out of a person. The pressure in her brain has significantly decreased, so everything in her body is working much better than before. It's a drastic improvement in two days, really. I'm very surprised," he said.

I walked over and touched her hand. She felt much warmer than she had the two days before.

Her eyes opened ever so slightly and she tried to contort her mouth into a smile. "Witch," she whispered.

I laughed. "You almost die and the first thing you say to me is call me a witch?" I asked. "That's some crap."

She wiggled her fingers in my hand. 

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

She slightly shook her head and closed her eyes. Tears rolled back onto her pillow. I wiped them away while fighting back my own.

"Well, my dad is here and even he can't believe how well you're doing. You're going to be fine, Adrianne. The worst of this is over. Well, maybe not..." I scrunched up my nose. "They screwed up your hair pretty bad. You're going to be pissed." 

She tried to laugh, but it was obviously too painful for her.

"Stay," she whispered.

I smiled down at her and lowered my face toward her. "I'm not going anywhere." 

Dad stepped over by the bed. "Hi, Adrianne. Sloan is right. You're doing incredibly well. Each day it's going to get better." He patted her leg—the one that wasn't in a full cast. "I'm going to check on you every time I'm at the hospital and make sure they are taking the best care of you."

She didn't respond, but she followed him with her eyes. 

He put his hand on my shoulder. "She's going to have a hard time talking because her throat is really sore from the ventilator, but she's surprisingly coherent."

"Did you hear that? Dad says you're coherent, but you can't talk. That means you have to listen to me and for once keep your mouth shut," I said.

Dad was chuckling to himself. "I'm going to let you girls talk." He leaned over and kissed me on the head. "I love you, Sloan."

"Love you too, Daddy," I said.

When he was gone, I gently sat down on the edge of her bed and held her hand. "You're not going to believe what you did," I said. "I was half naked in my bedroom with Warren—for the very first time, mind you—when my
mother
showed up and barged in on us to tell me that your ass was in the hospital. Who's really the witch here?" My eyebrow rose with skepticism.

She tried to smile again. 

I folded my arms across my chest. "I really hate you, you know?" 

She reached her hand toward my face and I bent to meet her fingertips. "Love," she whispered. 

I grasped her hand and kissed it. "I love you, too."

* * *

Warren and I left the hospital around lunchtime and went to Papa's and Beer Mexican restaurant to eat. I frowned at him over my fajitas. "I just realized I have to go to work tomorrow. Today is Sunday."