this crew were resistant to the bear flu. She didn’t want to face the fact that more death was descending on this cabin.
Drew stirred next to her, and when Hope looked over he had opened his eyes. They had a faraway look in them, like he wasn’t really consciously in the room right now.
“Drew?” Hope asked. “Are you okay?”
He slowly turned his gaze to focus on her, and a small smile turned up the corners of his lips. “I love you,” he said. Then he closed his eyes.
Hope shook him, her heart pounding. “Drew! Drew! Don’t you dare leave me! You can still pull through this!”
There was no response, and she started shaking him harder. “Drew!” she cried out desperately, reaching to feel for his pulse.
It was still there. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. She put her head against his chest, relieved to feel that it was still rising and falling slowly. He had just fallen back into a deep sleep. He was still alive.
For now.
Hope sat up and put her head in her hands again, unsure of what to do. She should really go see Bash and Silver. Since she was apparently immune to the flu, she could visit them even though no one else could. It was up to her to help keep their spirits up. Hope kissed Drew on the forehead, and started to stand. Just as she reached for the doorknob of her bedroom door, a knock sounded on it.
“Hope?”
Hope froze with her hand on the doorknob. It was Silver. Silver, who should have been in bed hot with a fever by now. Was it really possible? Was Silver also immune?
Hope threw the bedroom door open to find Silver standing there, looking as healthy as she had yesterday before barging in on Drew.
“Silver! You’re not sick!” Hope said, then threw her arms around her friend.
“No, no I’m not,” Silver said. “And neither is Bash.”
Hope pulled back and looked at Silver with wide, disbelieving eyes. “What? How is that possible?”
Silver smiled. “Don’t you see, Hope? We’ve just discovered something amazing. Something that Juno thinks could save Drew’s life.”
Hope felt her heart beating faster. “Don’t play with me Silver. Don’t give me a false sense of hope.”
Silver shook her head. “I would never do that, Hope! I’m serious. Think about it for a second. Drew got sick within a day, as expected. But you, me, and Bash didn’t. What’s the difference between us and Drew?”
Suddenly, it dawned on Hope. “We’re shifters. He’s not.”
“Bingo,” Silver said. “It looks like there’s something in shifter DNA that keeps the virus from taking hold in our bodies.”
“How is this going to save Drew, though?” Hope asked. “We can’t turn him into a shifter.”
“No, but we can give him shifter blood,” Silver said. “Juno is the biologist so she can probably explain it better than me, but, basically, we’re going to inject Drew with blood from one of us. Since Jack’s a doctor he can handle that part. Basically, we’re hoping that this will be enough to help his body learn to fight the virus. Juno thinks there’s something in the white blood cells of shifter blood that’s capable of easily taking down the virus.”
Hope blinked a few times, trying to process everything Silver was telling her. “But, what if his body rejects the new blood? There aren’t any hospitals for miles. We won’t be able to get him emergency care, and he’ll die.”
“Hope,” Silver said gently. “He’s dying anyway. This will actually give him a chance.”
Hope bit her lip, chewing on it so fiercely that she started to taste blood. She wanted to believe that this was possible, and that it would give Drew a chance to pull through. But she was afraid of getting too excited only to have Drew die after all. Still, the thought that there might still be a way to save Drew filled her with excitement.
“Don’t you need medical equipment to give him blood?” Hope asked. “Like a hospital with an IV machine or something like
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