Blacken by Alandra Rankin (i love reading books txt) 📕

to stop. People needed to stop dying. Owen was the only one who knew the truth, the only one not brainwashed to be able to do the right thing—the heroic thing.

Avie couldn’t stop him anymore.

A soft caress roused Avie from a dream, the feather light touch fluttering her consciousness towards the sunlight streaming across her eyelids, drawing her awake. A padded thumb drew across her cheek, her vision focusing on Rhulle as he lay there beside her, smiling at her slumbering figure.

“I did not mean to wake you, you just looked so serene.”

She mirrored the smile, realizing that she was curled into him and had been sleeping in the nest, so to speak, along with him throughout the night. It didn’t even register when she woke up in the middle of the night that she returned to slumber there alongside him.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t. Did I really fall asleep here?” she asked, a little embarrassed.

“Twice in the same night. Though, I do not mind, did you sleep alright?”

Avie laughed once, her mind still foggy with sleep, a hand that was placed on his chest lifted to rub at her eyes. “Very well. Did you?”

“The best in ages,” Rhulle’s hand moved from her face to brush red curls back, dipping in to place a small kiss on her morning glow, “I like having you sleep next to me, it is very comforting.”

She stared into the amber eyes, Rhulle was very romantic, whether he realized it or not. He was comparative to the moon, mysterious, always under the guise of dusk yet beautiful in its glow. Illuminating through the dark, creating a path with iridescent silver rays.

Perhaps the comfort of having the truxen beside her while sleeping mingled with the ease of knowing how to fix her painful afflictions led to the restful sleep. Either way, Avie felt peaceful for the first time in years.

“I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep that fast before, what time is it?”

Looking around, eyes scanned over the familiar setting, attempting to locate her watch. Memories of shy touching, gentle kissing, and confessions to feelings more complex than that of just friendship caught up in her mind.

It also brought forward the events with Owen prior.

Dare Avie share the news of what they discovered with her blood that night?

“It is still early, were you needing to go?”

She turned back into him after checking the time, “I can stay for a little while longer still. I really like this.”

Her arms wrapped around the long neck as he smiled, returning the hold, “You do, do you? Care to show, dear Avie?”

The rest of the morning and well into the afternoon was indeed spent showing.

Returning to her abode after time spent with the incredible truxen, she dropped her keys next to the blinking answering machine, pressing play on the recorded message. Avie started on a pot of coffee as she listened, humming out a cheerful tune.

“Good morning, Miss. Conrad. This is Dr. Monroe’s office calling about your blood test results, we have them ready for collection if you want to book an appointment. Please call us back at your earliest convenience—”

The woman rushed over to listen intently, hovering over the machine as soon as her blood test was mentioned. She could wait for coffee, jolting down the phone number, she called back immediately, able to get in straight away if she hurried.

Clutching the keys once more, Avie ran out, excited for even more answers. It was a short distance away, scarcely a 20-minute walk, but the excitement squirmed in her abdomen with every step.

Finally, she was seated in the patient’s room, “Hello, Miss. Conrad! How are you? You’ve got something remarkable here, would you like me to go over from the start?” Dr. Monroe greeted her, handing her a manila envelope filled with doctor script, confusing terminology and charts.

“I’m fine today, thank you. I was hoping to get my blood type for right now.”

“Ahh, yes, exactly what I was eager to discuss. You see, your blood is quite rare. The test came back saying out of the sixty-one Rh antigens in blood, you are missing all of them. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you still have the other makeups of blood that allow you to function with no problems, but because of the rarity, I highly urge you to donate blood just as a precaution. If an emergency does arise, there’s only a handful of other documented cases, you may not get an organ donor if it ever came to that situation. I don’t mean to sound scary, it’s just a serious scenario should it come down to it. You’re healthy now, so keep up the good habits.”

“Is that why the home test wouldn’t show me what blood type I was?”

He laughed, “That’s a possibility, they’re done wrong all the time, the important thing is that now you know.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with me? I don’t need anything like supplements?”

“Your blood type was with you since before you were born, there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s unfortunate that it’s so rare, it could be dangerous if you needed an abundance of blood or a new liver!” he chuckled.

She dismissed the comment, “I couldn’t just get another blood type if that happens?”

“It’s very unlikely that it would ever come to that, I’m just being precautionary as doctors should be. Good to have your bases covered, Miss. Conrad. Your blood type wouldn’t accept any others, only the same one, and out of about forty ever reported, it’s just good practice to donate to yourself. You were in a car accident a few months back, right? I’d say you’ve already had the worst of it, it’s lucky that it wasn’t serious enough to warrant any of that.”

The woman nodded, “Right, yes I should do that. Thank you, that pretty much answers what I had wanted.”

Avie shook his calloused hand and left, setting up an appointment to donate blood on her way out, the envelope tucked firmly in her grasp.

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