Page 36 of Omega's Flight

Except for Bram. It was pretty hard to forget him.

And this giant hint that Holland had dropped in Cas's lap, without giving him anything with which to decode it. Jerk.

Cas pulled a chair over beside Raleigh's bed. "If you want, I can go find a deck of cards. Pretty sure Cale has some up in his apartment."

"You have a key to Cale's apartment?" Bram asked in surprise.

"He has a cell phone," Cas told him in a dry tone. "And this isn't the most stimulating environment."

"He should rest," Bram said firmly. He came over to check the bowl of ice and shook it thoughtfully. "I wonder if ginger tea would help."

"Tried it," Raleigh said shortly. "Didn't help." He'd gone white around his lips and his breathing had sped up. "Bucket, please," he added in a tight voice. "Now."

Bram got the little dish into Raleigh's hands just in time, and he and Cas rolled Raleigh up onto his side. The bones stuck up under his skin—not starved, but Cas was certain he'd be better with at least another fifteen pounds on him. Maybe even more, from the point of hip currently under Cas's palm.

Bram's eyebrows had drawn together and when Cas got his attention, he grimaced and shook his head. So this was definitely not normal. Another complication.

Eventually the heaving stopped and Raleigh was able to lay his head down on the pillow again. "I'm sorry," he said weakly. "I don't know why this is happening. I was never sick with the others."

Bram said nothing, which Cas instantly read as a dire sign. When Bram slipped away to whisper in Adelaide's ear, he was sure of it. Maybe. Bram did have a tendency toward the dramatic, even now as a supposedly settled-down, mated shifter with three pups.

Adelaide returned to the bed and smiled down at Raleigh. "I'm going to take some more blood samples and do a couple of quick tests," she said kindly. "It won't take long."

"Okay," Raleigh said faintly.

Cas wasn't sure what it was, but something drove him to move up on the other side of the bed and take Raleigh's hand, the one that didn't have IV tubing hanging over it. "Need anything?" he asked.

Raleigh's fingers tightened on his, but it was Adelaide who spoke. "I'm going to need that arm. Can you come around to the other side?"

"Sure." He hurried around the head of the bed and took Raleigh's hand. "So, how did you know to go looking for Laine?" he asked, figuring a distraction would be good.

Raleigh's mouth fell open, then he closed it and licked his lips. "I remember the talk about the lawyer. The name stuck, especially since Bax disappeared right after." He winced and out of the corner of his eye, Cas saw Adelaide filling a small glass tube with blood.

Cas's stomach lurched and he turned his eyes back to the omega in the bed. Definitely a better view. "I'm impressed that you found him. Garrick says he's got a new office now, left his uncle's practice and set up his own."

Raleigh laughed weakly. "It was pure luck, or maybe divine intervention. We were walking down the street and I was trying to figure out how I could find him, or find the house Mercy Hills is supposed to have in Memphis, and I saw the sign." His eyes widened, then he let out a soft breath of relief. Adelaide was holding a square of something white against his elbow and giving low-voiced orders to Bram, who nodded, and took over at Raleigh's side.

"Adelaide's going to go run those tests," he said with a friendly smile. "You sure you don't want a TV? Or maybe we can borrow a computer. We do have Internet in this building, if you want, but we have to hook you up with a cable." He gestured at a small square box on the wall near the floor.

"I think I'm just going to lie here for a while," Raleigh said. Cas noticed that he waited until Bram had nodded and moved away before he let his eyes fall shut. His mouth was tense and a small frown line had appeared between his eyebrows. Cas kept hold of his hand for lack of anything better to do and leaned against the bed, watching as Bram moved around the room, tidying and doing other things that made no sense to him but which Bram worked through with an assurance that was surprising in someone so young.

About twenty minutes after Adelaide had left, just when Cas had decided that Raleigh must have fallen asleep, the omega made a noise deep in his throat and shifted on the bed.

"You okay?" Cas whispered.

"Fine," Raleigh told him, but his scent floated up into the air, bitter at the back of Cas's nose.

"Bram," Cas called in a low voice. He tried his best not to alarm Raleigh, but he absolutely wanted Bram's attention.

"Yeah?" Bram came at the jerk of Cas's head and frowned as he looked Raleigh over. "Can you step back?" he asked, then pushed in between Cas and the bed without waiting for an answer. His nostrils flared, confirming Cas's guess that the change in Raleigh's scent wasn't normal, and his fingers sought the hollow of Raleigh's wrist, where his pulse beat so feverishly that Cas caught a glimpse of it, a flickering vibration against the skin, before Bram's fingers covered it. "Cas," Bram said a moment later. "Can you go get Adelaide?"

"Sure." he opened his mouth to ask where she was, but the expression on Bram's face sent him right out the door, Bram on his heels. "What is it?" Cas asked when they were safely outside the room.

"Go get Adelaide, okay? His blood pressure's dropping. It might be nothing, but I think we need her."

Cas knew a little about blood pressure, just from common chat about the university. And from the grim set of Bram's mouth, whatever it was he'd sensed, it was nothing good.

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