“Has there been any sign of consciousness returning?” It was a rather inane question, because if there had been, Ilianna would have been straight on the phone to let me know.
She shook her head. “But his muscle responses seem to be improving, so that’s a good sign.”
“And the heat?”
Her gaze swept down his length. “His core temperature has come down a little and he’s not sweating as much, but he’s still radiating massive amounts of heat.”
No surprise given that he’d consumed a creature that was little more than a furnace on legs. That he’d done it to save Ilianna only made her feelings of guilt an even heavier cross to bear. I pulled up another chair and sat down. “Why don’t you go get something to eat? I’ll sit here with him until you return.”
She frowned. “I really don’t think—”
“Ilianna,” I said, gently but firmly, “Tao would be the first person to tell you off for running yourself into the ground for him. Besides, he’s going to need lots of care when he wakes up, and you know I suck at providing any sort of long-term sympathy or patience when it comes to tending to the sick.”
A smile briefly lifted the tiredness from her eyes. “Your bedside manner is robust, to say the least.”
“Which is why you don’t want to get sick, either, because then you’ll be at my not-so-tender mercy.”
“As threats go, that’s one of the best, but—”
“Ilianna, please, just go.”
She studied me dubiously for a moment, then sighed and grabbed her purse from beside the bed. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Take your time and get something decent to eat. I’ll ring you if anything happens.”
She hesitated, obviously about to argue, then nodded. “Just make sure you do ring.”
“I will, I will. Now go.”
She went. I reached out for Tao’s hand, wincing a little at the heat of his fingers. How it wasn’t actually killing him I had no idea.
I spent the next hour simply talking to him—updating him on the restaurant and everything that was going on with the keys and our search for the mysterious third man behind the consortium. Maybe he heard, maybe he didn’t, but in the end that really wasn’t important. He was in there somewhere, and I just wanted him to hear my voice and know that we were near, waiting for him.
Ilianna returned just after two o’clock. She looked flushed and happy, and I very much suspected she’d gone home to see Mirri, her partner. Her apartment was only fifteen minutes away, if that.
“Feeling better?” I asked, amusement teasing my lips.
“Totally,” she said, dumping her purse beside her chair before sitting. “I’m so glad you forced me to go eat.”
“I hope you actually did remember to eat,” I said dryly. “Otherwise I’m going to tell Mirri off.”
She briefly looked startled, then chuckled softly. “I should have known a little afternoon delight would not escape the attention of a werewolf.”
“Not when you’re wearing such a satisfied smile. How’s Mirri doing?”
“Good.” She made a face. “But she’s on nights all this week.”
I frowned. “I thought there was some rule against giving mares too many night shifts?” Apparently because mares—which, like their animal counterparts, was what female horse-shifters were called—coped worse than most shifters when it came to nights. Something to do with their being more day balanced than night—whatever the hell that meant. Certainly Ilianna coped well enough with night shifts at the café, but then I guess she never did more than two nights in a row, since we rationed them out among the three of us. Or had, until Tao’s incident with the fire elemental. These days, it was mostly me, with trusted staff filling in for both Ilianna and Tao.
“There is, but with the ongoing strike, they’re running on skeleton staff to cover essential areas, and Mirri’s number came up.” She shrugged. “It’s only for five days, then she’s got five off. She’ll be fine.”
“Hopefully the strike will end before then.” The government surely couldn’t keep cutting nursing numbers and expect the hospitals to keep providing the same level of care. But there again, this was the government we were talking about. I was sure none of our elected officials actually lived in the real world.
“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” Ilianna asked.
“I’m working tonight, so I might just go home and grab some sleep.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What, Lucian kept you up all night again, did he?”