A World of New (A Shade of Vampire, #26)(30)

“You would need to forge some IDs for us, I guess?”

“Yes,” she replied, “if we’re to stay in a hotel… I’m assuming that you haven’t mentioned any of this to Josh yet?”

I shook my head.

“Right.” She stood up, downing the last of her orange juice. “Okay, we’ll do it. Just you, me and Josh.”

She dumped her bowl in the sink before grabbing her handbag and touching my arm. She transported us to the hospital kitchens, where we picked up some breakfast for Josh before heading upstairs.

As we entered his room and approached Josh’s bed, I immediately noticed something different about him. He looked terribly ill compared to yesterday. There was not even the slightest warmth to his cheeks—he was pale as a sheet.

“Josh?” Shayla said. “You feeling okay?” She placed an arm around him and propped him upright so that he leaned against the headboard.

“I’ve felt better,” he said dryly.

“Let’s give you some of this warm breakfast.” Shayla poured out a bowl of soup, but when she handed it to him, he shook his head.

“Really not hungry,” he muttered.

“Try to eat something anyway,” Shayla pressed.

He took the bowl from her reluctantly before gingerly raising a spoon to his lips. Then he retched, though thankfully, he didn’t vomit. He spat the soup in his mouth back into the bowl. He shook his head again, returning the bowl to the witch. “I can’t eat anything now.”

“I wonder why,” Shayla muttered. “Grace said that you were eating solids only yesterday.”

“I don’t know,” he replied, resting his head back. “I wasn’t feeling all that hot last night, but when I woke up this morning, I had an awful stomach pain—still have.” He grimaced.

Shayla and I exchanged worried glances.

His eyes turned to me, an almost apologetic look on his face. “Won’t be able to visit your gym this morning either,” he said.

I cleared my throat. “Josh,” I began, even as I considered that now was probably the worst time to be talking about a trip since he was feeling so unwell. “Shayla and I have been talking. Neither the witches nor jinn have made any headway in forcing your memories back so we were thinking that we ought to try taking you somewhere… To your home country, England. London, specifically, at least at first. That’s where the IBSI’s headquarters are located. We’re hoping that it might trigger something… you know?”

Wincing, he propped himself up higher in bed, so that he could look at the two of us better. “London,” he murmured. “How would we get there?”

“Shayla would transport us with her magic.”

He shrugged loosely. “For how long?”

“We don’t know,” Shayla replied. “The plan would be to check into a hotel and just… see how things go. How you react to your initial surroundings. Whether there’s any spark.”

“All right,” he said, wincing again as though experiencing a shot of pain. “When do we leave?”

“Today,” Shayla replied. “At least, that was my plan before we found you like this.”

He shook his head. “No, I-I’ll be okay. Hopefully this is just an off day and I’ll be feeling better tomorrow. We should leave today, just as you planned.”

Shayla examined his face a moment longer, gauging his response. Then she sighed. “Okay.” She reached for the phone to call Tom to assist Josh in getting ready, but before she could place her hand on the phone, Josh reached out and caught her arm.

“Wait,” he said. “I want to get ready myself this morning. Grace can wait outside the bathroom. I can always tell her if something goes pear-shaped.”

Pear-shaped. I’d never heard that expression before. But I guessed well enough what he meant.

I felt nervous about Shayla agreeing to this after his last attempt at doing something himself in the bathroom. She also looked reluctant. However, she agreed.

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said. “I have some of my own preparations to do. I’ll be back once I’m ready.”

She left the room.

I couldn’t help but wonder why today of all days Josh was insisting on this particularly. I knew that he never liked getting assistance for taking a bath, but he had put up with it until now. Why today of all days when he was feeling particularly down?

He slowly inched toward the edge of his bed and reached for the back of his wheelchair. I watched anxiously as he grabbed the chair’s arms. He pushed himself off the bed and slid into it. He winced as his hip banged against the side, but he shook it off and began wheeling himself to the bathroom.

I followed him to the door, which, thankfully, he kept open for the time being as he approached the sink. His toothbrush and toothpaste had been set within reaching distance, so it wasn’t difficult for him to manage brushing his teeth alone. But what I was most worried about was how he would manage in the bathtub. When he finished cleaning his teeth and moved to close the door on me, I was so tempted to ask him if he was sure about this… but I didn’t. Instead I just remained waiting tensely outside, my ear against the door, listening. I heard the squeaking of his wheels against the shiny floor, and then the running of water.