Kenzie was on edge all day, and though he tried to hide it, she could tell that Hayden was as well.
At one point in the early afternoon, Austin finally came back inside, a look of newfound determination on his face.
“I talked to Paige,” he announced to everyone in the living room, “and she said she’s been working with her coven on theories since Kenzie first mentioned this happening, which was before I even found a cure for Jillian. Kenzie, as you know, your case is very unique. A hybrid hasn’t been in existence for a long time, at least not a reported one, and the fact that you’re a three-way hybrid – or, as I’ve dubbed it, a ‘tribrid’ – is rarer still. In fact, there haven’t been any documentations about such a creature before, unless you count a chimera.”
Kenzie wrinkled her nose. She’d heard of the mythical creature that had the body of a goat, head of a lion, and tail of a dragon. She hardly considered herself such a thing.
“Anyway,” Austin continued, “since your condition is so unique, the coven has been very fascinated with it. You know they always want to see what new things they can uncover that are associated with magic in some way. So Paige had a suggestion, but I’m afraid you won’t like it.”
“What is it?” Hayden asked warily.
“Well, whatever the case is with Kenzie, she isn’t getting better. If anything, she’s getting worse, what with the dreams she keeps having and then the nausea and simultaneous throwing up. Obviously her body isn’t designed to handle this type of thing. And based on what I’ve seen under the microscope, our conclusions are the same – Kenzie’s blood is literally battling itself, as each blood type is vying for control over the others. The werewolf bite triggered all this, thanks to the saliva getting into her bloodstream.”
“But that makes no sense,” Kenzie argued. “I was fine when I was bitten; I even healed faster. Why would my blood start doing this now?”
“Because of the prolonged period of time your previously dormant supernatural blood has been awakened. The longer it’s in your body and fighting for control, the more dangerous it will become. Your sickness is your body’s way of rejecting your own blood. Paige’s coven suspects that eventually you may start vomiting blood too, as a means of getting rid of one type. But in actuality, you’ll be throwing up all three types of blood, so that wouldn’t help. Your body is trying to rid itself of what’s making you sick, just like when you have the flu.”
Kenzie pulled her legs up to her chest, as though to conceal herself. Hayden clenched his fists next to her and sucked in his breath audibly. Cheyenne just held onto Mason, who was beginning to get fussy. Apparently it was his nap time, so she excused herself to put him to bed.
“So what does Paige suggest we do about it?” Hayden finally asked.
Austin looked very nervous. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair as he finally said, all in a rush, “Since the blood is trying to counteract itself, and it’s making her sick as a result, and more so every day, there’s a good chance it may eventually…kill her.”
“What?!” Kenzie and Hayden both shouted at once.
“So,” Austin continued, “the coven thinks the only logical thing to do is extract the blood causing the issue. A body isn’t meant to have human blood and two types of supernatural blood inside it. One of those blood types allegedly came from the twin that Kenzie absorbed while she was in the womb. Had they both been born, the twin would have gotten one supernatural blood type, and Kenzie the other. As it was, Kenzie was born with both, and her body is rejecting them coexisting now that the werewolf saliva awakened them.”
Kenzie began to heave in anguish as Hayden dropped to his knees in front of her, trying to soothe her. Austin looked genuinely remorseful at having to be the one to share this abysmal news.
Kenzie couldn’t believe it. She was going to die? Unless she somehow extracted enough supernatural blood out of her body? How was that even possible?
“Unfortunately,” Austin explained when she asked him this, “it’s not that simple. The three blood types are mixed inside your body, so just draining it won’t work. We have to extract one supernatural blood type, and that’s it. And if we take too much, you’ll die. You can only be one species, Kenzie, or maybe two, but certainly not three. That’s most likely why tribrids have never been heard of before. Therein lies another conundrum – we have to leave one supernatural blood type in your body or we’ll drain too much, and human blood isn’t strong enough to get you through this. You’ll have to decide which blood type you want left in your body – werewolf or witch. Oh, and it will require a spell.”
Kenzie barely heard the last part. Her head was swimming, her heart pounding, and her ears felt as though they were underwater. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. She couldn’t think. She was barely aware of Hayden’s presence right in front of her.
Hayden, however, was livid. He stared at Austin, aghast.
“We are not going to perform some half-assed blood transfusion on my girlfriend!” he bellowed, louder than necessary. “How do you know that will work? And how do you know she won’t be just fine if we leave her as is? She hasn’t been that bad, really. She was worried about it, obviously, and she thought it might be something else causing it, but come on. Couldn’t Paige teach her to control her emotions so they didn’t cause supernatural phenomenons?”
“I said the exact same thing to Paige. But theoretically, it would be less of a risk to rid her body of a blood type than to leave it and allow Kenzie to feel sick all the time, plus have fevers trying to ward off what her body has identified as an infection. And like I said, she may eventually throw up the blood herself, which would be far worse than us safely draining it like a hospital would. Think of it as a supernatural blood transfusion. And those dreams she’s been having? The coven thinks they’re actually memories or predictions. Remember, we concluded that Kenzie is the reincarnation of a werewolf and she has witches in her family tree, though they existed many years ago. These dreams could be memories from her past life as a werewolf and essentially a history book involving her witch family. But throw in all the friends and family she knows right now, in this life, and the fact that she’s trying to attack them in those dreams, is indicative of an event that has yet to transpire. It’s very possible those dreams are showing Kenzie what will become of her. Like I said, both blood types are battling it out for control, and eventually, one will prevail and consume the other. But when that does happen, Kenzie may not even recognize herself because by then it would be too late.”
That did it. Kenzie was overcome with nausea once again, though she couldn’t ascertain if it was due to the blood battle inside her body, or because of her fear of what she’d discovered. She sprinted from the living room and dashed to the nearest bathroom, where she heaved into the toilet. She didn’t want to hear any more. She couldn’t bear to. But she knew she had to make a choice.
It made sense now. Her dreams were trying to tell her what she would become if she didn’t rectify the situation right now. And her emotions were already acting up due to her nerves. She tried to control herself, but her anguish only made the bathroom lights flicker and put a crack in the mirror above the bathroom sink.
Her life had suddenly turned into a supernatural science fiction film, but unlike a movie, she didn’t want to see how this ended.
No comments:
Post a Comment