It'd been almost three hours, and Kaz was still carrying on about corpses, and Jordie -they still had no clue who he was.
"He's been at that for a while..." Wylan looked up from his latest sketch, a drawing of Jesper with his revolvers drawn and smoking. "Do you think we could check on him?"
Nina took another bite of a chocolate biscuit that Matthias had bought her at the pharmacy. She knew she was stress eating, and not just eating for the sake of eating, and that frustrated her to no end. If she was going to eat she wanted it to be for her own reasons and not because of anxiety. "Be my guest." She stated, turning the tv up again as another scream echoed through the house. "But don't come crying to me when he kills you." She knew darn well that even without any weapons Kaz was still a dangerous opponent.
Inej glanced toward his bedroom for the hundredth time in the past five minutes. "He really does sound like a demon, doesn't he." She remembered the strange sounds she would hear in the most remote places of russia, the sounds that still haunted her dreams, like the stories of the Valcura made to scare small children so they didn't stray to far.
Matthias nodded taking another sip of his too-sweet coffee. "That's because he really is a Demjin." He flinched as another round of 'wake up Jordie' was sobbed from the sick boy in the bedroom.
Jesper leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. "Wonder what happened to him?"
Inej had an idea, but she still wasn't positive. She only knew what he'd told her on the Ferolind on the way back from the ice court, but that wasn't much to go on. All he'd told her was that the mob boss Pekka Rollins had killed his brother, he hadn't ever told her how. She didn't even know his brother's name, but she assumed it was Jordie.
"Hey..." Wylan poked his head up from his drawing. "Listen."
They all cocked an ear, listening to the sudden quiet. "I don't hear anything." Jesper grinned. "He's not crazy anymore."
Inej stood, her posture straight as always. "I'll go check on him." She couldn't hide the guilt in her voice. She felt horrible for cutting him. She could only hope he wouldn't remember it. That little move could ruin everything they'd been working toward, and she couldn't stand the thought of never holding Kaz's hand again.
She silently opened the door, slipping inside to see the exhausted boy in a horribly messed up bed. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving with each intake of air. She slowly walked over to him, eyeing the angry cut on his sharp cheekbone.
"'Bout time, Wraith." He rasped, opening his bitter coffee eyes. Saints how she loved those eyes. "I was starting to think I was alone."
She slowly moved to sit on his bed, being careful to not touch him. "You're never alone."
He watched her for a moment, taking in how she cradled her arm close to her torso. "What happened?" He asked, brushing his nimble fingers over her hand.
"Nothing." She shrugged one shoulder, entwining her bronze hand with his pale one. "How're you doing?" She ran her thumb over his knuckles, the thin rope of scar tissue catching her eye.
He coughed, his chest rattling with the rushed breaths he took between each set. "Thirsty." He stated, as his stomach growled. "Guess I'm hungry too."
She smiled, seeing her chance to get the Advil into him. "I'll make you some soup." She stood and exited the room silent as always.
The rest of the Dregs were gathered outside the bedroom, all ringing their hands waiting to hear how their friend was.
"Well?" Nina asked, green eyes as wide as the atlantic ocean.
Inej, turned toward the kitchen, the other four following her every move. "He's hungry." She opened the fridge pulling out the chicken broth and a few noodles from the cupboard. "I figured I could get the pill into him with a roll and some soup."
"What brought on the fit?" Matthias placed a pot on the stove for her, and opened a mason jar of chicken that Nina had canned herself.
She took the jar from him, pulling out a few good sized chunks of meat and chopping them up for the dish. "He didn't say." She dumped the meat into the broth and noodles, and began stirring it so it didn't burn and heated evenly. "But it's Kaz, he never tells."