Im good, thank you, he said, solving the mystery as to what shed asked him. And you?
As she paused, he smiled a little, no doubt because he was fully aware that none of the nurses liked being in the same enclosed space with him, and evidently he enjoyed this fact. At least, that was how she read his controlled, hooded expression.
I asked how you were doing? he drawled.
Ehlena put his chart down on the desk and took her stethoscope out of her pocket. Im very well.
You sure about that.
Absolutely positive. Turning to him, she said, Im just going to take your blood pressure and your heart rate.
My temperature, too.
Yes.
Do you want me to open my mouth for you now?
Ehlenas skin flushed, and she told herself it was not because that deep voice of his made the question seem as sexual as a lazy stroke over a naked breast. Erno.
Pity.
Please take off your jacket.
What a great idea. I totally take back the pity.
Good plan, she thought, or she was liable to feed the word back to him with the thermometer.
Rehvenges shoulders rolled as he did what shed asked him to, and with a casual flick of the hand, he tossed what was clearly a piece of menswear art onto the sable coat hed carefully draped over a chair. It was odd: No matter what the season was, he always had one of those furs on.
Things were worth more than the house Ehlena rented.
As his long fingers went to the diamond cuff link on his right wrist, she stopped him.
Could you please roll up the one on the other side? She nodded toward the wall beside him. More space for me on your left.
He hesitated, then went to work on his opposite sleeve. Taking the black silk up past his elbow and onto his thick biceps, he kept his arm turned into his torso.
Ehlena took the blood pressure equipment from a drawer and ripped it open as she approached him. Touching him was always an experience, and she rubbed her hand on her hip to get ready. Didnt help. When she came in contact with his wrist, as usual the current that licked up her arm landed in her heart, James Browning the damn thing until the shimmy-shimmies had her sucking back a gasp.
With a prayer that this wouldnt take long, she moved his arm into position for the cuff and-GoodLord.
The veins running up through the crook of his elbow were decimated from overuse, swollen, black-and-blue, as ragged as if hed been using nails, not needles on himself.
Her eyes shot to his. You must be in such pain.
He rolled his wrist out of her grasp. Nope. Doesnt bother me.
Tough guy. Like she was surprised? Well, I can understand why you wanted to come in to see Havers.
Pointedly, she reached out and rotated his arm back around, gently prodding at a red line that was traveling up his biceps, heading in the direction of his heart.
There are signs of infection.
Ill be fine.
All she could do was raise her eyebrows. You ever hear of sepsis?
The indie band? Sure, but I wouldnt think youd have.
She shot him a look. Sepsis as in an infection of the blood?
Hmm, you want to lean over the desk a little and draw me a picture? His eyes drifted down her legs. I think Id find thatvery educational.
If any other male had pulled that kind of line, shed have slapped them down until they saw stars. Unfortunately, when it was that heavenly bass voice doing the talking and that amethyst stare doing the walking, she didnt really feel leched upon.
She felt caressed by a lover.
Ehlena resisted the urge to V8 her forehead. What the hell was she doing? She had a date tonight. With a nice, reasonable, civilian male whod been nothing but nice, reasonable, and very civil.
I dont have to draw you a picture. She nodded down at his arm. You can see for yourself right there. If you dont treat this, its going to go systemic.
And even though he wore fine clothes like every tailors dream mannequin, deaths cold gray cloak would not look good on him.
He held his arm against his tight abs. Ill take that under advisement.
Ehlena shook her head and reminded herself that she couldnt save people from their own stupidity just because she had a white coat hanging from her shoulders and the letters RN at the end of her name. Besides, Havers was going to see that in all its gory glory when the doctor examined him.
Fine, but lets take your reading on the other arm. And Im going to have to ask you to take your shirt off. The doctors going to want to see how far up that infection goes.
Rehvenges mouth lifted in a smile as he reached for his top button. You keep this up and Ill be naked.
Ehlena looked away fast and wished like hell she found him sleazy. She could sure use an injection of righteous indignation to help fend him off.
You know, Im not shy, he said in that low voice of his. You can watch if you like.
No, thank you.
Pity. In a darker tone, he added, I wouldnt mind you watching me.
As the sound of silk moving against flesh rose up from the exam table, Ehlena made busywork going through his chart, double-checking things that were absolutely correct.
It was weird. From what the other nurses had said, he didnt pull this lothario stuff with them. In fact, he barely talked to her colleagues, and that was part of the reason they were anxious around him. With a male this big, silence read as menacing. Fact of life. And that was before you added the tat/mohawk chaser.
Im ready, he said.
Ehlena pivoted around and kept her eyes pinned on the wall next to his head. Her peripheral vision, however, worked just fine, and it was hard not to be grateful. Rehvenges chest was magnificent, the skin a warm golden brown, with muscles that were defined even though his body was relaxed. On each of his pecs he had a five-pointed red star tattooed on the upper part, and she knew he had more ink.
On his stomach.
Not that shed looked.
Right, because actually, shed been gawking.
Are you gong to examine my arm? he said softly.
No, thats for the doctor. She waited for him to say, Pity, again.
I think Ive used that word enough around you.
Now her eyes shifted to his. It was the rare vampire who could read his own species minds, but somehow it didnt surprise her that this male was among that small, rarified group.
Dont be rude, she said. And I do not want you to do that again.
Im sorry.
Ehlena slipped the cuff around his biceps, plugged her stethoscope into her ears, and took his blood pressure. With the little piff-piff-piff of the balloon inflating the sleeve until it was tight, she felt the edge in him, the tense power, and her heart tripped over itself. He was particularly sharp tonight, and she wondered why.
Except that was not her business, was it.
As she released the valve and the cuff let out a long, slow hiss of relief, she took a step back from him. He was justtoo much, all the way around. Especially right now.
Dont be frightened of me, he whispered.
Im not.
Are you sure?
Absolutely positive, she lied.
SIX
She was lying, Rehv thought. She was definitely frightened of him. And talk about a pity.
This was the nurse Rehv hoped he would get each time he came in. This was the one who made these visits even partially bearable. This was his Ehlena.
Okay, so she wasnt his in the slightest. He knew her name only because it was on the blue-and-white pin on her coat. He saw her only when he came to be treated. And she didnt like him at all.
But he still thought of her as his, and that was just the way of it. The thing was, they had something in common, something that crossed species lines and eclipsed social stratifications and bonded them together even though she would have denied it.
She was lonely, too, and in the same way he was.
Her emotional grid had the same footprint his did, Xhexs did, and Trezs and iAms did: Her feelings were surrounded by the disconnected void of someone separated from her tribe. Living among others, but essentially apart from it all. A shutout, a castaway, one who had been expelled.
He didnt know the whys, but he sure as fuck knew what life was like for her, and that was what had first gotten his attention when he met her. Her eyes and her voice and her scent had been next. Her intelligence and quick mouth had sealed the deal.
One sixty-eight over ninety-five. Thats high. She ripped the cuffs lip free with a quick jerk, no doubt wishing it were a strip of his skin. I think your bodys trying to fight off the infection in your arm.
Oh, his body was fighting something off, all right, but it had fuck-all to do with whatever was cooking in his needle sites. With his symphath side battling the dopamine, the impotent state he usually existed in when fully medicated had yet to report in for work.
Result?
His cock was stiff as a bat in his slacks. Which, contrary to popular opinion, was actually not a good sign-especially tonight. Coming off that convo with Montrag, he was feeling hungry, drivena little crazy from the inner burn.
And Ehlena was just sobeautiful.
Although not in the way his working girls were, not in that obvious, over-the-top, injected, implanted, sculpted way. Ehlena was naturally lovely, with fine small features and that strawberry blond hair and those long, lean limbs. Her lips were pink because they were pink-not from some eighteen-hour, glossy, frosted grease coat. And her toffee-colored eyes were luminescent because they were yellow and red and gold all mixed together-not from a whole lot of paint-by-numbers shimmery shadow and slathered-on mascara. And her cheeks were flushed because he was getting under her skin.
Which, even though he sensed shed had a hard night, didnt bother him at all.
But that was a symphath for you, wasnt it, he thought with derision.
Funny, most of the time he didnt care that he was what he was. His life as hed always known it had been a constantly shifting mirage of lies and deceptions and that was that. Around her, though? He wished he were normal.
Lets see what your temperature is, she said, bringing an electronic thermometer over from the desk.
Its higher than usual.
Her amber stare flipped up to his. Your arm.
No, your eyes.
She blinked, then seemed to shake herself. I seriously doubt that.
Then you underestimate your appeal.
As she shook her head and clicked one of the plastic covers onto the silver wand, he caught a whiff of her scent.
His fangs elongated.
Open. She brought the thermometer up and waited. Well?
Rehv stared into those amazing tricolored eyes of hers and dropped his jaw. She leaned in, all business as usual, only to freeze. As she looked at his canines, her scent surged with something dark and erotic.
Triumph singed in his veins as he growled, Do me.
There was a long moment, during which the two of them were bound together by invisible strings of heat and longing. Then her mouth flattened out.
Never, but I will take your temperature, because I have to.
She jabbed the thermometer in between his lips, and he had to clamp his teeth together to keep the thing from deflating one of his tonsils.
Sall good, though. Even if he couldnt have her, he turned her on. And that was more than he deserved.
There was a beep, an interval, and another beep.
One oh nine, she said as she stepped back and released the plastic cover into the biohazard bin. Havers will be with you as soon as hes able.
The door clapped shut behind her with the hard syllabic smack of the f-word.
Man, she was hot.
Rehv frowned, the whole sexual attraction thing reminding him of something he didnt like to think about.
Someone, rather.
What erection he had instantly limped out as he realized it was Monday night. Which meant tomorrow was Tuesday. The first Tuesday of the last month of the year.
The symphath in him tingled even as every inch of skin he had tightened like his pockets were full of spiders.
He and his blackmailer had another one of their dates tomorrow night. Christ, how was it possible another month had gone by? It seemed like every time he turned around it was the first Tuesday again and he was making the drive upstate to that godforsaken cabin for another command performance.
The pimp becoming the whore.
Power plays and hard edges and base fucking were the currency of the meetings with his blackmailer, the basis of his love life for the past twenty-five years. It was everything dirty and wrong and evil and degrading, and he did it over and over again to keep his secret safe.
And also because his dark side got off on it. It was Love, Symphath Style, the only time he could be how he was with no holds barred, his one slice of horrible freedom. After all, much as he medicated himself and tried to fit in, he was trapped by his dead fathers legacy, by the evil blood in his veins. You couldnt negotiate with your DNA, and though he was a half-breed, the sin-eater in him was dominant.
So when it came to a female of worth like Ehlena, he was always going to be on the far side of the glass, nose pressed up hard, palms spread with need, never getting close enough to touch. It was only fair to her. Unlike his blackmailer, she didnt deserve what he brought to the table.
The morals hed taught himself told him at least that much was true.
Yay. Rah. Go, him.
Next tat he got was going to be of the frickin halo over his head.
As he looked down at the mess running up his left arm, he saw what festered there with total clarity. It wasnt just a bacterial infection from him deliberately using needles that werent sterile on skin that hadnt been hit with an alcohol rub. It was a slow suicide, and that was why he was damned if he was showing it to the doctor. He knew exactly what would happen if that poison got deep into his bloodstream, and he wished it would get off its ass and take over.
The door swung open and he glanced up, ready to tango with Havers-except it wasnt the doc. Rehvs nurse was back, and she didnt look happy.
Matter of fact, she looked exhausted, like he was one more hassle in her castle and she didnt have the energy to deal with the shit he pulled when she was around.
I spoke with the doctor, she said. Hes closing in the OR now, so its going to be a while. He would like me to draw some blood-
Im sorry, Rehv blurted.
Ehlenas hand went up to the collar of her uniform and she pulled the two halves closer together. Excuse me?
Im sorry for playing you. You dont need that from a patient. Especially on a night like tonight.
She frowned. Im fine.
No, youre not. And no, Im not reading your mind. You just seem tired. Abruptly, he knew how she felt. Id like to make it up to you.
Not necessary-
By treating you to dinner.
Okay, he hadnt meant to say that. And given that hed just gotten all self-congratulatory on keeping his distance, hed also made a hypocrite out of himself.
Clearly his next tat needed to be more along the lines of a donkey.
Cuz he was acting like an ass.
In the wake of the invitation, it was entirely unsurprising that Ehlena stared at him like he was insane. Generally speaking, when a male behaved like he did, the last thing any female wanted to do was spend more time with him.
Im sorry, no. She didnt even tack on an obligatory, I never date patients.
Okay. I understand.
While she got the blood-drawing supplies ready and snapped on a pair of rubber gloves, Rehv reached over to his suit jacket and took out his card, hiding it in his big palm.
She was quick with the procedure, working on his good arm, filling up the aluminum vials fast. Good thing they werent glass and Havers did all the testing himself. Vampire blood was red. Symphath ran blue. The color of his was somewhere in between, but he and Havers had an arrangement. Granted, the doctor was unaware of how things worked between them, but it was the only way to be treated without compromising the races physician.
When Ehlena was finished, she capped the vials with white plastic stoppers, snapped off the gloves, and went for the door like he was a bad smell.
Wait, he said.
Do you want some pain meds for the arm?
No, I want you to take this. He held out his card. And call me if youre ever in the mood to do me a favor.
At the risk of sounding unprofessional, Im never going to be in the mood for you. Under any circumstances.
Ouch. Not that he blamed her. The favor is forgiving me. Got nothing to do with a date.
She glanced down at the card, then shook her head. Youd better keep that. For someone who might ever use it.
As the door shut, he crushed the card in his hand.
Shit. What the hell had he been thinking, anyway? She probably had a nice little life in a tidy house with two doting parents. Maybe she had a boyfriend, too, who would someday become her hellren.
Yeah, his being your friendly neighborhood drug lord, pimp, and enforcer really fit in with the Norman Rockwell routine. Totally.
He tossed his card into the wastepaper basket by the desk, and watched as the rim shot circled, then dropped in amid the Kleenex and the wadded-up papers and an empty Coke can.
As he waited for the doctor, he stared at the discarded trash, thinking that to him most of the people on the planet were just like that stuff: things to use up and throw away with no compunction whatsoever. Thanks to both his bad side and the business he was in, hed broken a lot of bones and cracked a lot of heads and been the cause of a lot of drug overdoses.
Ehlena, on the other hand, spent her nights saving people.
Yeah, they had shit in common, all right.
His efforts kept her in business.
How. Perfect.
Outside the clinic in the frosty air, Wrath was chest-to-chest with Vishous.
Get out of my way, V.
Vishous, of course, was having none of the back-off. Not a surprise. Even before the little news flash about the Scribe Virgin having birthed him, the fucker had been a total free agent.
A Brotherd have better luck giving orders to a rock.
Wrath-
No, V. Not here. Not now-
I saw you. In my dreams this afternoon. The ache in that dark voice was the kind normally associated with funerals. I had a vision.
Wrath spoke without wanting to. What did you see?
You standing in a dark field alone. We were all around your periphery, but no one could reach you. You were gone from us and us from you. The Brother reached out and grabbed hard. Because of Butch, I know youre going out into the field alone and Ive kept my mouth shut. But I cant let you do this anymore. You die and the race is fucked, to say nothing of what itll do to the Brotherhood.
Wraths eyes strained to focus on Vs face, but the security light over the door was a fluorescent and the glow from the thing stung like a bitch. You dont know what the dream means.
And neither do you.
Wrath thought of the weight of that civilian in his arms. It could be nothing-
Ask me when I first had the vision.
-but a fear you have.
Ask me. When I had the vision first.
When.
Nineteen oh nine. Its been a hundred years since I saw it first. Now ask me how many times Ive had it this past month.
No.
Seven times, Wrath. This afternoon was the final straw.
Wrath broke out of the Brothers hold. Im leaving now. If you follow me, youre going to find a fight.
You cant go out alone. Its not safe.
Youre kidding me, right. Wrath glared through his wraparounds. Our race is failing and you want to bust my balls for going after our enemy? Fuck that for a laugh. Im not getting stuck behind some bitch-ass desk pushing papers while my brothers are out there actually doing something-
But youre the king. Youre more important than us-
The hell I am! Im one of you! I was inducted, I drank of the Brothers and they of me, I want to fight!
Look, Wrath V assumed a tone that was so reasonable it made a guy want to knock all his teeth out. With an ax. I know exactly what its like not to want to be who youre born as. You think I get off on having these fucked-up dreams? You think this lightsaber of mine is a party? He held up his gloved hand as if the visual aid was a value-add to their discussion. You cant change who you are. You cant undo the coupling of whatever parents you had. Youre the king, and the rules apply differently to you, and thats the way it is.
Wrath did his best to cop to Vs calm, cool, and collected. And I say Ive been fighting for over three hundred years, so Im not exactly a greenhorn out there in the field. Id also like to point out that being king doesnt mean I lose the right to choose-
You have no heir. And from what I hear from my shellan, you shut Beth down when she told you she wanted to try for one when she has her first needing. Shut her down hard. How did she say you put it? Ohright. I dont want any young in the foreseeable futureif at all.
Wraths breath exhaled in a rush. I cant believe you just went there.
Bottom line? You end up dead? The fabric of the races society is going to unravel, and if you think thats going to help in the war, youve got your head so far up your ass youre using your colon as a mouthpiece. Face it, Wrath. You are the beating heart of all of usso, no, you cant just go out there and fight alone because you want to. Shit dont work like that for you-
Wrath grabbed onto the Brothers lapels and slammed him against the clinic. Watch it, V. Youre walking a damn fine line of disrespect here.
If you think roughing me up is going to change things, have at me. But Ill guarantee you that after the punches are over and were both bleeding on the ground, the situation will be exactly the same. You cant change who youre born.
In the background, Butch stepped out of the Escalade and jacked up his belt like he was getting ready to break up a fistfight.
The race needs you above ground, asshole, V said. Dont make me pull the trigger on you, because I will.
Wrath shifted his weak eyes back to V. I thought you wanted me alive and kicking. Besides, shooting me would be treason and punishable by death. No matter whose son you are.
Look, Im not saying you shouldnt-
Shut it, V. For once, just shut your damn mouth.
Wrath let go of the guys leather jacket and stepped back. Jesus Christ, he had to leave or this confrontation was going to escalate into exactly what Butch was bracing himself for.
Wrath jammed a finger in Vs face. Dont follow me. We clear? You dont follow me.
You stupid fool, V said with total exhaustion. Youre the king. We all must follow you.
Wrath dematerialized with a curse, his molecules scrambling across town. As he traveled, he couldnt believe V had thrown Beth and the baby thing under the bus. Or that Beth had shared that kind of private stuff with Doc Jane.
Talk about having your head up your ass, though. V was crazy if he thought Wrath was putting his beloveds life at risk by impregnating her when she went into her needing a year or so from now. Females died on the birthing table, more often than not.
He would give his own life for the race if he had to, but no fucking way was he putting his shellans at risk like that.
And even if she were guaranteed to live through it, he didnt want his son ending up right where he wastrapped and choiceless, serving his people with a heavy heart as one by one they died in a war he could do little if anything to end.
SEVEN
The St. Francis Hospital complex was a city all unto itself, the sprawling conglomeration of architectural blocks erected from different eras, each component forming its own mini-neighborhood, the parts connected to the whole by a series of winding drives and sidewalks. There was the McMansion-style administration section and the suburban simplicity of the ranch-level outpatient units and the apartment-like inpatient high-rises with their stacked windows. The sole unifying feature on the acreage, which was a godsend, was the red-and-white directional signs with their arrows pointing left and right and straight ahead depending on where you wanted to go.
Xhexs destination was obvious, however.
The emergency department was the newest addition to the medical center, a state-of-the-art, glass-and-steel facility that was like a brilliantly lit, constantly humming nightclub.
Hard to miss. Hard to lose sight of.
Xhex took form in the shadow of some trees that had been planted in a circle around some benches. As she walked toward the ERs bank of revolving doors, she was at once in the environment and utterly away from it. Though she altered her path around other pedestrians and smelled the tobacco from the designated smokers hut and felt the cold air on her face, she was too distracted by a battle within herself to notice much.
As she entered the facility, her hands went clammy and cold sweat bloomed on her forehead, the fluorescent lights and the white linoleum and the staff milling around in their surgical scrubs paralyzing her.
You need some help?
Xhex wheeled around and brought her hands up, snapping into fighting position. The doctor whod spoken to her held his ground, but seemed surprised.
Whoa. Easy, there.
Sorry. She dropped her arms and read the lapel of his white coat: MANUEL MANELLO, M.D., CHIEF OF SURGERY. She frowned as she sensed him, smelled him.
You okay?
Whatever. None of her biz. I need to go to the morgue.
The guy didnt seem shocked, as if someone with her kind of moves might well know a couple of toe-tagged stiffs. Yeah, okay, that hallway over there? Take it all the way back. Youll see a sign for the morgue on the door. Just follow the arrows from there. Its in the basement.
Thanks.
Youre welcome.
The doctor walked out the revolving door shed come in, and she went through the metal detector hed just passed through. Not a peep, and she shot a tight smile at the rent-a-cop who was once-overing her.
The knife she carried at the small of her back was ceramic and shed replaced her metal cilices with ones made of leather and stone. No probs.
Evenin, Officer, she said.
The guy nodded her along, but kept his hand on the butt of his gun.
Down at the end of the hallway, she found the door she was looking for, punched through it, and hit the stairs, tracking the red arrows like the doctor had said. When she hit a stretch of whitewashed concrete wall she figured she was getting close, and she was right. Detective de la Cruz was standing farther down the corridor, next to a pair of double stainless-steel doors marked with the words MORGUE and AUTHORIZED STAFF ONLY.
Thank you for coming, he said as she got closer. Were going into the viewing room farther down. Ill just tell them youre here.
The detective pushed open one side of the doors, and through the crack she saw a fleet of metal tables with blocks for the heads of the dead.
Her heart stopped, then roared, even though she told herself over and over again that this wasnt her damage. She wasnt in there. This wasnt the past. There was no one with a white coat standing over her doing things in the name of science.
And besides, shed gotten over all of that, like, a decade ago-
A sound started off softly and grew in volume, echoing from behind her. She spun around and froze, fear so strong it stuck her feet to the floor
But it was just a janitor coming around the corner, pushing a laundry bin the size of a car. He was leaning forward against the rim, throwing his back into it, and he didnt look up as he passed.
For a moment, Xhex blinked and saw another rolling cart. One full of tangled, unmoving limbs, the legs and arms of the dead bodies overlapping like kindling.
She rubbed her eyes. Okay, she had gotten over what had happenedas long as she wasnt in a clinic or a hospital.
Jesus Christshe had to get the fuck out of here.
You okay to do this? de la Cruz asked from right next to her.