He picked her up and cradled her in his arms. He carried her down the hall to her room and laid her on her bed. He took off her shoes and socks, but decided to leave her clothes on. He went and got a bowl of cool water and a cloth from the kitchen and started cleaning the sweat off her face. After that he wrung out the cloth and then put it still damp on her forehead to try and lower her fever.
He went in her bathroom and dug through the medicine cabinet before he found a thermometer. He managed to get it in her mouth and watched as the digital numbers rose up and up. Past 98, past 100, 101,102… Up to 104 before it beeped signaling that it had reached her temperature. He took it out and then went back to the bathroom, looking for some sort of medicine to lower her fever. ‘Damn it! 104, that’s way too high! Where’s all the flu medicine?’ He thought, pulling out things for coughs and runny noses. He went threw everything, finding nothing that could help.
He went back to her and reaffirmed that she was still breathing, but her breath was so shallow that he almost thought she wasn’t. He then re-wet and wrung out the cloth before putting it back on her forehead. Alec went out into the hall and into the south wing where room 23 was. He knocked several times before opening the door to the empty room. He yelled out to Aqua but she didn’t answer. He decided that he should be with Rose in case she got worse and wait until Aqua came looking for them. He ran back to Rose’s room and watched over her for two hours before again checking her temperature.
This time though he watched unbelievingly as the digital numbers went up to 104.7 degrees. He realized she was getting worse and he had to do something quickly. He shook her gently but firmly, trying to wake her so he could ask her where medicine would be. He also again yelled for Aqua.
‘Damn it, the one thing she doesn’t tell me is the most important. I don’t want to leave her alone to search this whole mansion for medicine.’ He thought frantically. “Rose, come on Rose wake up.” He said shaking her a little harder this time, but she remained unconscious. “Rose! Rose come on already wake up! I’ll dump water on you again.” He said as if he thought she could hear him.
“Fire.” She whispered, making him think she was coming around, but her eyes stayed shut.
‘Fire? The fever?’ He again wet the cloth, this time leaving it dripping wet to help cool her off. But suddenly it seemed her breathing was more labored then before, like she was suffocating. He panicked, not knowing what to do. He was so frantic that he didn’t notice someone standing at the door.
“She needs blood.” Aqua said causing Alec to turn quickly in surprise. She stood in the door, her hair messily pulled back in a ponytail, wet tendrils of hair hanging down around her face. She wore the same dress, but the hem was also wet. Her bare feet made almost no sound as she padded across the floor, a dark glass bottle was in her hand, a cork sealed it, it looked like an unlabeled wine bottle.
“Blood?” Alec whispered the question seemingly to himself. He watched as Aqua walked over to Rose and held the bottle above her head. He stood frozen as he watched Rose’s eyes open; a noticeable red tinge covered them. Almost faster than he could see she sat up and snatched the bottle from the other girl’s hand. Alec expected her to uncork it, but instead she held the head in one hand, the end in the other and while holding it sideways in front of her face he watched as her canines sharpened into fangs and she bit down on the bottle itself.
