Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

slithering down her torso . Sweat turned icy on her skin. Uncontrollable shivers. Her head pounded with excruciating pain, pulverizing her thoughts into worthless powder. Then nausea swept over her. She ran to the bathroom and collapsed onto the floor with her head hanging over the toilet while she purged black bile. The foul sight shocked her, but she couldn’t concentrate for the infernal beating inside her head. She needed a shower. Needed hot water pouring down on her to wash away the sickness.
    As she mustered her strength to rise from the floor, the dizziness overwhelmed her, and she slumped back onto the cold tile floor. Her head hit the side of the tub and she slid into unconsciousness, silencing the drumbeat in her brain.
    * * * * *
    L ucier spent the next two hours alternating between being mad and feeling like a shit. He called half a dozen times to apologize. No answer. Guilt took hold and he raced back to her house first chance he was free . He’d acted stupidly, and yes, he was jealous without good reason.
    He knew where she kept a key, but he was unwilling to take that liberty . Not when she’d been so angry. He rang the bell. Again, no answer, so he pounded o n the door. Frightened now, he snatched the key from its hiding place and slipped it into the lock.
    “Diana.” The small house answered in deafening silence. He hurried through the living room to the bedroom and found her lying naked on the bathroom floor, vomit in the toilet bowl. Her skin was so pale he thought she was dead. H e swore h is heart stopped beating.
    No. You can’t be .
    He got down on his knees and t ouched his finger to her throat, relieved to feel the strong pulse. She was soaked in sweat. He picked her up , laid her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket. Then, hands shaking, picked up the bedside phone to call an ambulance.
    Her eyes fluttered open. “Ernie?”
    “Yes,” he said, sitting down by her side. “I’m here.”
    She reached out her hand and he took it. “Don’t leave.”
    “I’m not going anywhere. I’m get ting you to the hospital.”
    “No . No, please. I felt nause ated and fainted. I must have hit my head on the tub. I’ll be all right. Really.”
    Lucier considered the situation. Diana didn’t need another high profile incident to call attention to her. She’d endured enough of that. But he wouldn’t chance risk ing her health because of publicity. “What happened?”
    She tried to raise herself up but collapsed on the bed. Lucier wedged a pillow behind her back and helped her sit. Her voice came out in a raspy croak. “I don’t kno w. I honest to God don’t know.”
    “I’m going to phone a doctor friend of my father’s. He’ll make a house call for me.” Lucier called Dr. Reginald Haley and explained what happened over the phone. Haley promised he’d be there within the hour. Lucier got on the bed next to Diana and held her while she dozed. He hoped he was doing the right thing.
    Dr. Haley arrived and performed the usual procedures: blood pressure―a little low, heart rate―a little high. Neither in the danger zone. He took a blood and urine sample, and bagged a sample for analysis of whatever she vomited to eliminate the possibility she’d been poisoned.
    “She’ll be all right, won’t she, Reggie?” Lucier asked.
    Before he could answer, Diana said, “I’ll be fine. Did you see the vomit?”
    “Yes, what did you eat?”
    “I don’t remember eating anything. Certainly nothing to cause me to vomit black liquid.”
    Lucier and Haley exchanged glances. “There was nothing black in the toilet, Diana,” Lucier said.
    “Ernie, I …I vomited something black. You saw it, didn’t you, Doctor?”
    “I didn’t see anything unusual, Ms. Racine.”
    “I swear it was black.” She tried to get up, but again fell back onto the bed. “It was black when I threw up. I’m not crazy.”
    “Black vomit is usually associated with yellow fever, my dear, or with excess blood in your stomach. I feel certain you have neither. My guess is that you caught a virulent stomach virus. Those things can put you down and pass just as quickly once you’ve flushed out your system.”
    “You were delirious,” Lucier said. “You probably thought you saw it.”
    “I’m not crazy,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I know what I saw.”
    “I’m going to give you an antibiotic shot, ” Dr. Haley said , “and I’m leaving you something to take for your stomach. You should feel