Page 25 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

Abril woke up with a splitting headache and some confusion about where she was. It was the quick glimpse she had of what appeared

to be a kitchen cupboard in front of her face before pain made her close her eyes again that had her bewildered. There had

been no kitchen cupboards in her bedroom when she’d gone to sleep.

When had she gone to sleep? She wondered about that suddenly, and then wondered if she was dreaming. That thought had her

recalling the dream she’d had, and she squirmed a little where she was lying as she remembered the sweet passion she’d enjoyed

before Crispin had suddenly disappeared from her dream. His sudden absence had startled her awake only to be startled again

as she saw a dark shape creeping across her room.

Abril had only managed one short scream before the intruder had turned toward her and—

“Abril? Are you awake?”

It was a woman’s voice, one she didn’t recognize, and Abril opened her eyes immediately, only to find herself meeting the

concerned gaze of a striking blonde she’d never seen before.

“How do you feel?” the woman asked, some of the concern on her face easing as she saw that Abril was conscious and looking

at her.

“Who are you?” Abril asked with a frown, and then glanced around and asked, “And why am I in the kitchen?” She looked down

at what she was lying on. “Are these the cushions from the wicker couch in the pool room?” Her confused gaze returned to the

woman then and she complained, “My head hurts.”

“Let’s take each point one at a time, shall we?” the blonde said with a faint smile. “I’m Dr. Dani Argeneau-Pimms. I am not

sure where the cushions came from. You were already lying on them when I arrived. Apparently, Crispin didn’t want to leave

you on your own after the attack, and he had to be in here watching the monitor and the bones in the tent, so he made up this

bed for you to keep you here with him and comfortable. And finally, on a scale of one to ten, how badly does your head hurt?”

“Twelve,” Abril answered unhappily as she absorbed everything that the woman had said. A quick glance around showed she was

lying on the floor between one side of the island and the adjacent counter. She couldn’t see much of anything. “Where is Crispin?”

“Your dog needed to go outside so he took her,” Dr. Dani Argeneau-Pimms answered absently as she began to dig through a black

bag on the floor between them.

“She’s not my dog. She’s my boss’s,” Abril muttered, shifting to a sitting position.

Doing so sent sharp pain stabbing through her head, but she simply ground her teeth together and continued until she was upright.

Then she jerked her head around with a gasp of pain at a sharp sting in her arm.

It felt like someone had stabbed her, and she saw that the good doctor had.

.. with a needle she was just finishing pushing the plunger home on. Abril glared at her. “What—?”

“It will help with your headache,” the doctor explained as she removed the needle.

Abril just continued to glare at her, mostly because she couldn’t do anything else in that moment. Swinging her head around

as she had done had sent even worse pain roaring through it, and she was fighting a sudden urge to vomit.

“Deep breaths in through your nose, and exhale slowly through the mouth,” Dr. Dani instructed as she put away her weapons

of torture. “It will help you fight the nausea.”

Abril continued to scowl at her, but followed her directions, breathing in through her nose and then exhaling slowly through

her mouth. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked, and the need to vomit slowly eased and then disappeared. Once she felt

a little better, Abril asked, “Where is Roberts?”

“He’s in the living room talking to Lucian and my husband, Decker,” Dr. Dani told her, and then turned to meet her gaze again.

For one moment, she seemed to be examining Abril’s eyes.

Although she had no idea what the woman might be looking for, Abril held perfectly still and kept her eyes wide open for her

anyway.

“You’ll be good,” Dr. Dani said finally, fully relaxing now. “Crispin took you in to the hospital to have your head x-rayed while they waited for me to get here. Fortunately, there was no damage done to your skull, which would’ve been bad.”

“Definitely bad,” Abril agreed dryly.

“So, we brought you back here to recover,” Dr. Dani continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You’ll need to get a lot of sleep

for the next little while. A full eight hours a night at least, and then naps throughout the day. No physical activity beyond

slow, short walks outside with your dog. No sex. No excitement of any kind, and I’ll leave some pills here for your headache.”

Abril blinked at the rapid-fire list of dos and don’ts, but was almost afraid to speak.

“I’ll give Crispin and Roberts a list of symptoms to watch out for in case of a hematoma putting pressure on the brain. Those

can end in brain damage or even death, so you should watch out for them yourself. They are slurred speech, weakness, numbness,

decreased coordination, difficulty waking up, confusion, repeated vomiting, shaking, or twitching—things like that,” she announced,

and then added cheerfully, “But I’m sure you’ll recover fine.”

Abril just stared at her with disbelief, thinking the woman had a horrible bedside manner. She was shit with shots too.

“I don’t normally give shots,” Dr. Dani said apologetically. “Or talk much to patients really. I’m a gynecologist. Most people

don’t like to chat when you’re giving them pap smears.”

“You’re a gyne—Why are you treating me then?” she squawked with dismay.

“Because Rachel wasn’t available,” Dr. Dani said as she picked up her bag and got to her feet. “She’s much better with patients. Which is kind of weird when you think about it, because at least I work with living people. You’d think I’d be better with patients than her.”

Abril just gaped at her, wondering what the hell that meant. At least I work with living people?

“Rachel works in the morgue,” Dani said as if she’d asked the question out loud. “Anyway, your thoughts seem clear, so I really

believe everything will be fine. It was nice meeting you, Abril.”

She watched the blonde disappear from sight around the island, and then listened as her footsteps faded away. She was alone

in the kitchen. For now, Abril thought. Crispin and Lilith should be back soon though.

That thought raised alarm in her. Not because Crispin would be back soon, but because Lilith would. She knew damned right

well that if she was still on the floor when Lilith returned, the Lab would be all over her, licking her face, bumping against

her... Abril could almost feel the pain all of that would cause her head. It was enough to have her shifting to her knees

and grasping the edge of the counter to help her slowly stand up. As careful as Abril was, and as slowly as she moved, it

didn’t prevent her head from complaining by sending agonizing pain through her skull.

Leaning against the counter, Abril desperately began to suck air in through her nose and release it through her mouth as she

wondered how long it would take for the shot Dr. Dani had given her to kick in. She hoped it was quick. She’d never experienced

a headache as bad as this and would be happy not to experience it again.

The sound of the front door opening and closing was quickly followed by the tap of nails on hardwood as Lilith rushed into the kitchen, either in search of a treat, or looking for her, Abril supposed.

She was actually surprised when Lilith came straight to her rather than sitting down in front of where the dog treat container resided on the counter on the other side of the island.

“Hi, baby girl,” she said softly, reaching down to pet the Labrador’s head. “Would you like a treat?”

“I’ll get it,” Crispin said quickly as he entered the room.

Knowing it would cause her pain, Abril fought the urge to turn her head quickly to look at him. Instead, she turned it very

slowly. He was standing with his back to her and digging treats out of the container by the time she was able to see him.

Abril wasn’t sure if she was happy or not over the fact that he was dressed now. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been wearing

nothing but a towel. Actually, no, she realized. He’d lost even that in her room when he’d... she killed that thought immediately

since the memory of what they’d done wasn’t just making her blush wildly, but was making her slightly hot and bothered.

Really, the last time she’d seen him had been in her dreams. He’d been wearing dress pants, she thought now in the hopes of driving the image of a naked Crispin out of her mind.

But the memory of the wet dream she’d had about him did not ease her embarrassment or make her less hot and bothered.

While their passion in the dream had been a little gentler and more of a slow burn, it had just been ratcheting up to volcanic levels when Crispin had suddenly disappeared from it.

The only saving grace was that he couldn’t know what she’d dreamt of after he’d left her.

“How are you feeling?” Crispin asked as he turned to give the treats to Lilith. The Labrador had abandoned her the moment

she heard him open the ceramic container and was now sitting pretty in front of him. Tramp , Abril thought.

“Abril?” Crispin queried, starting around the island now that Lilith was taken care of.

“I should feed Lilith,” she murmured rather than answer his question. If she told him how she was really feeling she’d sound

like a crybaby, because she felt pretty horrible just then.

“I already fed her,” Crispin said solemnly. “Both breakfast and lunch.”

“Wait. What? It was nighttime when last I...” She started to shake her head, and then caught herself. “Now it’s not just

the next morning, but after lunch of the next day already?” she asked with dismay. “Where is my phone? Gina usually calls

after lunch. She’ll freak if I don’t answer.”

“It is all right, sweetheart. Your phone is right over here on the island,” Crispin said reassuringly and ushered her down

the island to the seat she’d been using since the men’s arrival. Abril suspected she should be offended that he did so by

taking her arm like she was a little old lady he was helping across the road, but at the moment her brain was taken up with

the fact that he had called her sweetheart.

“Here, see, she has not yet called. You did not miss anything. All is well.”

Abril just stared at him. The man was talking to her like she was a wild horse he was trying to keep from bolting. Or a crazy person, she thought. But even that didn’t overly distress her. He’d called her sweetheart.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Crispin said suddenly, sounding almost alarmed.

“Like what?” Abril asked, her gaze moving over his lips as she recalled the pleasure they’d given her.

“Like you want me to kiss you and caress you and—”

“I do,” Abril breathed, interrupting his list of all the things she liked best about him so far. A list that was making her

hot and wet. A sensation that only increased when his head began to lower toward her. Knowing he was going to kiss her, she

licked her lips and started to tilt her head slowly upward to meet him, then let her eyes close. A bare moment later, she

opened them again because he hadn’t given her the expected kiss.

“Dani said no sex,” Crispin told her with regret.

“Maybe you could just kiss me,” she suggested, suddenly almost desperate for him to do so.

“She also said no excitement,” he announced. “And kissing you is one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced in

my very long life. Hopefully, the same is true for you.”

Abril stared at him wide-eyed, quite sure she never heard anything so sweet in her life.

“Are you hungry?” he asked suddenly.

She briefly considered saying yes in a suggestive manner, but then remembered she would soon no doubt have a phone call from

Gina. The last thing she wanted to do was answer that call sounding all out of breath from messing about with Crispin, so

she let the idea go.

For one minute, she didn’t answer his question.

Instead, she concentrated on her body and any messages it might be sending her.

But she wasn’t feeling any hunger pangs.

In fact, she was concerned about whether chewing might hurt her head right now too.

That thought in mind, she decided waiting a little bit before she ate might be a good thing.

Hopefully, once the shot Dr. Dani had given her kicked in, the pain would ease enough to allow her to try to eat.

Before she could say as much to Crispin, the soft drone of voices coming from the living room grew louder and then Roberts

led two men into the room. Four men, she realized, when Roberts and the other two were followed a moment later by two additional

strangers. No—she corrected as another man now entered—five. There were five new men she’d never seen before now in the kitchen

with her besides Crispin and Roberts.

“It cannot be a coincidence,” one of the newcomers insisted firmly. He was a tall man, with ice-blond hair and an air of authority

about him. She eyed him with curiosity as he moved around Roberts to get to the coffee machine. Retrieving a cup from the

cupboard as if he lived there, the man poured himself some coffee and added, “You know how I feel about coincidences.” He

shook his head and turned to lean against the counter, the freshly poured coffee in hand as he said, “First, there are bodies

found in the garden and then an immortal breaks in?” He shook his head firmly. “They have to be connected.”

“What is an immortal?” Abril asked, making her presence known.