Between Here and the Horizon(55)

“I’m sure that’s really accurate,” Sully grumbled.

“Accurate enough to tell me that you’re burning up. Jesus, Sully, you should never have left the medical center. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I had a better chance of survival at home, where Gale couldn’t shoot me up with adrenalin instead of morphine by accident.”

“Yeah, well. I suppose that’s a good point.” Rushing back into the kitchen, I grabbed a clean dishcloth from one of the drawers and ran it under the cold tap before taking it back into the living room with me. Sully’s chest was rising up and down so fast, it looked as if he’d just run a full marathon. I held the cool, wet material to his forehead, keeping it in place when he tried to push it out of the way. His arms were made of rubber, though—easy to fend off. He didn’t seem to have any strength left in his body at all.

“Can you call Ronan, please? Tell him I need him to come get me? I’m sorry, Mags, I shouldn’t have drunk so much.” He was slurring like he had been drinking. Way more than two glasses of whiskey. More like he’d drunk the whole bottle.

“Sully? Hey, Sully, can you sit up for me?”

“Not really.” He tried, though, gave it a valiant attempt. He strained, flexing his abs, rocking forward, and then he howled in pain, eyes shooting open, what little color that was left in his face draining to leave him ghostly white. “Oh, shit,” he hissed. “That was dumb.” He seemed to have returned to himself, but when he looked up at me, pupils swallowing his irises in the darkening room, he looked like he was vanishing again just as quickly.

Frowning up at me, he reached up with one hand, fingers outstretched. “You…you’re not her, are you?”

“I’m Lang.” I shook my head, correcting myself. “I’m Ophelia. Remember?” He looked hazy, like he couldn’t really hear what I was saying properly.

I got my cell phone out of my bag and dialed Rose’s number as quickly as I could. She answered on the fourth ring. “Hey, O. Kids are fed and watered. Amie’s already passed out, and Connor’s reading his book in bed. You on your way back?

“No, actually, I’m still at Sully’s.”

“He’s not at the medical center?”

“No, he refused to stay there apparently. Long story. Listen, I’m not really sure what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he was lucid when I got here but he’s burning up now, and he’s pretty confused. He asked me to call Ronan to come get him and take him home.”

“You should call the medical center. Have Collin come get him in the ambulance or something.”

“I was going to, but I was there earlier and there were posters everywhere saying out-of-hours treatment was only available Monday through Thursday until nine. And it’s Friday.”

“Shit, you’re right.”

“I can’t believe you guys don’t have a proper emergency room here, Rose. It’s so damned dangerous!”

“I know, I know, let me think.”

I’d been watching Sully the whole time I was speaking to Rose, but I turned away for a moment now, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and my index finger, so he couldn’t see how freaked out I was. He might not know which way was up, but he still didn’t need to see me panicking this hard. I was about to ask Rose if there was even a doctor on the Causeway I could drive Sully to, but then I heard a wet, retching sound behind me and I didn’t get the chance.

Sully was balled up on his side, curled as small as he could go, and he was throwing up onto his plain cream rug.

“Ahh, Jesus. I have to go Rose. He’s puking. I’ll call you back in a sec.” I hung up, and dropped to my knees, narrowly avoiding the mess he’d made.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming,” Sully moaned. “Goddamn it, help them. We have to get them out of there!”

“What? Hey, you’re okay. Try and lean back a little. Don’t worry. I’ll clean this up. Just rest a moment. Come on, that’s it.” I didn’t think about what I was doing. I just did it. I slowly brushed my fingers through his hair, shhhing him, trying to make him feel better. “It’s okay, just breathe, Sully, just breathe. I got you. I got you.”

“It’s too hot. The tanks are gonna blow. We have to get them out of there, Crowe. They’re all gonna die.”

“It’s okay, Sully. Shhh, it’s all over now. You got to them. You pulled them all out of the water, do you remember?”

“Water?”

“Yes. You jumped into the ocean to pull them out. It was stupid and dangerous, but you managed to save three people’s lives.”

“Three? Only three? Oh. Yeah. That’s right.”

“Those three men are alive because of you, Sully. I swear, if you hadn’t done what you did, they would have drowned like everyone else.”

He was shaking his head. Shaking it so violently that his teeth were rattling together inside his head. “No. No, you’re wrong. They’re trapped inside the truck. They’ll burn if we don’t get them out there, Crowe.”

“Sully! Calm down!” He was flailing, arms everywhere, trying to push me away from him. I lost my balance, fell back and landed on my ass, and Sully managed to sit himself upright.