Byzantium

Stage 10

The air was hot and sticky one moment then much too cold the next. Elise pulled the covers around herself and shook uncontrollably, a deep scowl on her face. She had clearly told Carmen that that magic salve would give her the shakes, and here she was, with the shakes. Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling of Carmen's room and counted the seconds that ticked by to try to clear her mind. It was a stupid, pointless thing to do, but she did it all the same.

Elise wasn't entirely sure how long she'd been in Carmen's care but she was getting restless. Her leg began to itch not long after she woke but she couldn't scratch it, and not because she didn't want to. Carmen had caught Elise scratching her wound and inadvertently reopening it, so Carmen forced Elise to wear a special pair of gloves that couldn't be taken off by the wearer. She also made Elise wear extra bandages on her leg just in case. It made Elise feel like a child, a destructive one at that, but she did admit to herself that she was a terrible patient.

Elise rubbed her foot over her wound since that was the best she could do but it just wasn't satisfactory. She chewed on her gloves with sharpened teeth, which she had done numerous times when she was alone, but, like before, the gloves remained intact. It was more than frustrating.

Elise growled and turned on to her side, trying to forget the itch. Someone was coming and she couldn't be caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be. She angrily eyed the doorway to the room and waited.

"Hey," Ivy said, making her way into the room, her hands full. "You're awake."

Elise growled some more and narrowed her eyes. "I'm itchy."

"Good. That means you're healing." Ivy set down a bowl of ice cream on the nightstand next to the bed, then cocked a hip, not cowed by Elise's baby anger. "Hungry?"

Elise shot up and grabbed the bowl, her itch, and irritation, pushed aside for the moment. She licked her lips. "Finally come to your senses and realize that ice cream is the perfect breakfast?"

Ivy chuckled and dragged a chair to Elise's bedside. "No. But you deserve a treat." She sat down and idly watched Elise inhale the cold treat. She smiled and crossed her legs at the knee.

Elise left an empty bowl within a minute, her hunger ravenous. She was still hungry, but the ice cream was a good start. She placed the bowl back on the nightstand then lied back down and rubbed her belly. Her relative contentment was evident in the way she exhaled, and the way her eyelids fluttered.

The two women remained in comfortable silence for a long while, and Elise's thoughts went nowhere while Ivy wondered if Elise really was okay. Sure, Elise's body was healing, but what about her mind? Elise was forced back into a world where she had almost died once a long time ago, only to come to that point again. Now she had three scars, two of them Ivy's fault. Ivy tried not to show how guilty she was feeling as she inspected Elise's ear. The tear was stitched up but the ear was forever misshapen. The top of Elise's ear now came to a point and Carmen had said that there was nothing that could be done about it, not unless Elise wanted to put herself through surgery or surgical magic.

As her belly settled and her thoughts came back, Elise slid her eyes to Ivy and wondered what the woman was thinking so intently about. "Have you checked up on Judah yet?"

Ivy perked up, shook herself mentally, and forced a smile. "What? Oh. No, not yet. I've been staying here to make sure that you'd be okay."

"Wait... how long have I been here?"

"Almost three days."

"Three days!" Elise sat up and flung her blanket away. She had been in and out of it, but three days? How could she allow time to slip by so easily? She berated herself for not being on the ball. "What if Judah burned down the house? That man doesn't have much brains, Ivy."