The Vigilante & The Dragon - Book 1 of the Guardians Saga [COMPLETED]

Bonus Chapter - Flu

Alex awoke with the feverishly hot aches that are the calling card of the flu. She tried to talk herself out of it, but the dry hotness of her throat and the sweaty hotness of her forehead insisted. The whole body aches shouted down her mind's denials until they curled up and whimpered in a dark corner. The temp agency hadn't called, so she was free to nap off and on all day.

She awoke to find Gabe, Rile, and Cale curled around her. Cale had stared Gabe down over their presence when he had objected.

"Easy," Cale said. "Don't blast us. We're all here in the clan bed. Just sleeping. Nothing more."

"Don't yell at me when I'm asleep and I won't wake up and blast you. If I'm not startled awake, I'm less confused," Alex said, "But I'm sick."

"Are you?" Gabe sounded puzzled. "But you're hot, not cold."

"Heat is special. We never waste body heat on our world," Rile said.

Trust Rile to have a good reason to be in bed with me. Us. Next to, not with.

"Do you want us to leave?"

Only Cale would ask that. The nice one.

Rile elbowed him with a surreptitious jab.

"No, you can stay. I doubt you're susceptible to the flu virus and if you are, it's too late now." Alex settled back to sleep but a cold sweat broke out. "Okay, now it's time for you to leave. This is the part where my body overcompensates for the fever by sweating and I'll get the chills. You don't want to be around for that."

"Sounds inefficient," Rile said.

"Tell me about it. Anyway, I don't want any of you getting damp and chilled, so out, out, out."

Gabe ran a gentle finger over her brow. "This 'sweating' is what makes you cold?"

"It's all part of the flu, this infection that's making me sick." When they all looked at her, puzzled, she asked, "Don't you have something like this back home? Surely you get sick."

"We're a pretty healthy lot," Cale said.

"Once you survive infancy," Rile added dourly.

Alex expected Gabe to be irritated, but instead he looked sad and said, "There is a high mortality rate for the very young. We're the only males that survived from each of our clutches."

"We have sisters," Cale said.

"Had." Rile progressed from sour to anger.

Cale deflated and curled back on the bed.

"You had to say that, didn't you?" Gabe sounded irritated and he poked Rile with an imperious claw.

"No family feuds in my sickbed. Go and let me shiver in peace," Alex ordered.

"Cale, retrieve some towels." Gabe no longer sounded irritated, only concerned.

Cale revived with a task and jumped up to retrieve them.

"Is this 'flu' something lethal?" Gabe asked.

Alex laughed. "No, not anymore. I may feel like dying, but I won't. As long as I don't dehydrate or catch a secondary infection that's untreated."

"Dehydrate?" Rile now looked worried.

Rile's worried? That's rare.

"Secondary infection?" Gabe asked.