I noticed movement behind me and then a hand stroked my hair and moved it out of my face. I wasn't sure if I could handle being near him, but I had no strength left to say or do anything, so I just let him take care of me. I heard him breathe as if his face was right near my face, but in fact he wasn't all that near. He had put my hair in pony tail and had moved away a little, I presume to give me a bit of privacy. To me, however, it felt like he was right next to me still. Another wave of nausea came over me and for a moment all I could do was retch and not give a damn about where he was.
“Hey, here's some water. Take a swig." I heard him say to me, but I couldn't move.
Next thing I knew I felt the water touching my lips and I took a little swig.
Then everything went black.
CHAPTER 12
“Fuck!" I cursed when she collapsed.
She didn't lose consciousness for very long, but it totally disoriented her. She looked at me with dozy eyes, I wasn't sure if she registered who I was or whether she even noticed someone was there at all. I lifted her up and put her back in bed. I called the resident doctor to come and check up on her. He looked her over and managed to talk to her a bit to which she responded. A good sign. He took me to one side and reassured me she was fine, just a bit dehydrated and slightly low blood sugar levels. I was just to keep an eye on her and make sure she drank and ate.
As if I wasn't going to do that anyway.
In the mean time Eliza had fallen back to sleep, so I decided to text my sister to keep her up to date. I also ordered us some breakfast, for when she woke up. Whether Eliza felt like it or not, she was going to have to eat it. I wasn't having her pass out again.
Zaphire texted straight back, sounding worried. She was going to try and come over this evening rather than wait till tomorrow, if Markus would allow it. I welcomed that but I found myself feeling slightly annoyed too. She probably thought I wasn't looking after Eliza properly.
After about forty-five minutes breakfast arrived which was perfect timing because Eliza just stirred to wake up. It smelled gorgeous; I could really do with some food myself. There was scrambled egg, grilled tomatoes, deliciously smelling bacon, fried mushrooms and some toast. I looked forward to tucking into that.
“Zack?" I heard Eliza mutter.
She hardly dared look at me, I suspect she was still feeling embarrassed about trying to kiss me and then fucking puking in front of me. Poor girl. I would let her know what's happening to her as soon as she woke up a bit.
“Hey, sleepy head. How are you feeling?" I tried to coax her out of her shyness.
“I ordered us some breakfast and before you even think about saying you don't feel like it, it's doctor's orders. You will feel better after, I promise.”
She sat up a bit and looked at me from under her big eyelashes.
“What's happening to me? I feel...overwhelmed, I think is the right word.”
She looked quite lost.
“Your senses are awakening, Eliza. Everything will be magnified and I'll help you deal with it. Zaphire will join us later this evening as well, to support you through this." I tried to reassure her.
“I'm scared, Zack. I'm scared I won't be able to deal with it. Everything is so weird.”
Her eyes started to get moist. I needed to make her focus on something else.
“Close your eyes for a minute, Eliza. Concentrate on the smells around you. Try and sort out in your head what it is you can smell and tell me.”
She closed her eyes and sniffed in deep. Then I saw a slight panic on her face but quickly followed by a smile.
“Mmmmm, I can smell tomatoes, bacon, toast , mushrooms, egg, but not fried egg, there are herbs in it."
She opened her eyes and I smiled at her.
“Fantastic, isn't it? But what made you panic to start with?”
I needed to know exactly what went on in her head. I could hazard a good guess, but I wanted her to talk through her worries. Her nose wrinkled up and she looked at me furtively. Her cheeks went rosy and it was obvious she didn't want to tell me, but I insisted. We needed to talk about this to avoid it standing between us, like the proverbial elephant in the room.
“Do you enjoy making me feel awkward?" she said accusingly.
I had to nip this in the bud. I couldn't allow her the freedom to question me on every occasion.
“Eliza, I don't need to explain or defend myself with everything I ask you. I have no ulterior motives, apart from getting you to deal with the return of your senses. Just answer the bloody question.”
I looked her straight in the eyes which glimmered with defiance. She wasn't going to budge easily. But I just held my stare and waited. I had time. She broke first.
“It's you. Your smell drives me mad! Don't you dare smile! It's not funny. You saw what it made me do!"
She looked exasperated.
I had to really suppress the smile forming on my lips. I had to stay professional or else my words would mean nothing.
“Don't worry. It was a perfectly normal reaction. It's your sense of smell picking up male hormones and pheromones. It's not me specifically; it could have been any male in the room that you would have gone crazy for. You'll be able to tune out and get more discerning in what you like once you've got used to the scent.”
It was a little white lie, which
