Between (20 page)

I inhale and cringe at my next words. "The attractive one,
youngish..."

"Oh! Do you mean
Dr Granger? Tall, dark hair, eyes to drown in, body to kill for? He isn't new, he's often up here." She grins. "Eye candy to brighten up the day."

Funnily enough, I didn't find him as attractive as Chloe does. Seems like I go for scruffy, arrogant vampires these days. The thought would amuse me if it wasn't so stomach
-churning.

"We get a lot of heart patients up here
, so he's often around."

Perfect.
"You’re right. I have a friend who knows someone in here, in Room 3," I say. I feel nauseated talking about being here, the smell of the ward tripping memories back in. "He's who I saw Dr Granger visiting yesterday."

I glance behind at the board covered in unintelligible scribbles, the numbered ward beds with names and information scrawled next to them in marker pen.
The space for Room 3 is empty, streaks of blue left on the whiteboard where the information has been rubbed out in preparation for the next patient.

Chloe glances at the board
, too, and her troubled expression meets mine. My face must be more transparent than I realised. "People die here all the time, Rose," she says softly. "I'm sorry if he was someone you knew."

The nausea grips my stomach
. Of course they do, I know this, but is someone helping? Tom's words about Dark Reapers, Finn, Dr Granger... "I guess." I gulp in air.

"Sorry, did you know the patient well?"

I shake my head, chewing inside my cheek; I need to get out. "Not at all," I rasp. "Memories... you know."

Stories about patients dying, the shock of evidence supporting Tom’s claims of people - possibly Finn - killing in the hospital mingle with the sounds and smells hitting my memories of my own time spent here.

Chloe crosses toward me and places a hand on my sleeve. "You should ask your supervisor to keep this ward off your rounds until you're able to cope."

"I'm okay, really." The brightness of the ward fades as I attempt to stop the shadows dancing across my eyes. I tense all the muscles in my arms and legs, the way the last doctor told me would counteract the fainting.

"Rose, come on, I'll get you some water." Chloe guides me toward the nurses' lunch room where I last sat with Finn; I stare at the floor, hoping it remains where it is and I don't hit my head on the tiles anytime soon.

"Is she okay?" Finn's voice
causes more blood to plummet from my head. I want to cry and scream this isn't fair; how I don't want to be a pathetic girl who faints all the time. I want my life back.

Slumping onto a chair, I lean forward
, gasping in air. If Finn comes close, I will faint. Chloe's cool hand touches my arm and a glass of water appears beneath my curtain of hair hanging down. I take it but don't think I can stomach water, so I set the glass on the floor.

"Is she okay?" repeats Finn.

"I think she needs to keep away from the ward," I hear Chloe say in a low voice.

"I'll sit with her
; my shift doesn't start for another half hour."

No
!
I scream in my head, but I'm too feeble to move. Finn must know. The doctor told him I saw what they were doing. He wouldn't kill me, though; not here.

Chloe leaves and I remain in the same position, staring at the floor waiting for the dizziness to subside. The fog edges around the world. I'm aware of him sitting close by, but at least he hasn't touched me.

Eventually, I lift my head and rake my hair from my eyes. My clammy head cools under the aircon.

"Are you feeling better?" he asks.

I look to Finn, the only person in the room with me. Genuine concern etches his features, a small crease between his eyes. He never looks tired, his pale face and blue eyes always neutral.

"Did you kill someone?" I whisper.

He straightens. "What?"

"What are you?" I hiss.

"Rose... I told you what I was. And I don't kill people!" There's an edge to his voice; not irritation but anger.

"Tom...
he said things about Reapers..."

Another nurse wanders into the room and retrieves her lunch from the fridge. She sits at the table behind Finn. "Are you okay?" she asks me.

"Yes. Fine," I say, and she arches an eyebrow at my short tone.

"We need to talk again," says Finn, standing.

I pick up the glass of water and drink heavily. "I'm not sure I want to."

The nurse smiles into her lunch. Great, someone
else thinks we're having a domestic. Finn doesn't respond but leaves the room. The blonde nurse watches him go.

"So you're the reason he's so pissed off recently?"

"No."

"Sure..." She gives another small smile and returns to her lunch.

My phone beeps and I groan. Alek's incessant texting to check up on me is pissing me off. I pull the phone from my pocket and see the message is from Finn.

Shakily, I shove the phone back into my pocket and slump back in the chair. I stare at the square-tiled ceiling, head pounding from the loss of blood flow a few minutes ago. Confused and unhappy, I swallow down the lump in my throat, the one that comes when I'm attempting not to spill tears.

****

Next stop, Tom Jones and his chocolate. When I get down to his unpleasant area, I take the chocolate bar from his desk and eat it. He watches me.

"What?" I say through a mouthful, "I do eat, you know."

"You look ill."

"I nearly fainted. I'm okay now." He opens his mouth to reply
, but he's not getting any further explanation. "I wanted to tell you the person died, the one I mentioned yesterday."

"I know."

"What?"

He tips his head. "Umm. Look at where I work. I process this stuff."

I shudder. "Nice."

"Who did it?"

"Did what?"

"Killed him
, David Greenwith."

I don't want to know names
, so I fight against the urge to cover my ears. "Is there anything suspicious about the death?"

"Heart failure
, which is useful for your friend, the Dark, don't you think?"

"There's a doctor I saw in his room
, too. Dr Granger, the heart doctor you mentioned yesterday."

"Oh! Both of them in the same room?" I nod. "Two Darks...Wow. I knew they were connected! Something's going on because the hospital rates of death are getting noticed."

"You think Finn and this guy are killing people? I still can't believe it of Finn. He seems so gentle..."

"They don't have to be scary, do they? Otherwise
, how else would they suck people in to trusting them?" Tom pulls out his spiral notepad and begins to scrawl. One day, I'd love to see what he writes. "I'm looking into the patterns of the deaths, but there doesn't seem to be any. Grace is awesome with statistics. We’re going to figure this one out."

I smile weakly, doubting he will.

"The party we spoke about; we're going to have it on the weekend. Can you invite this guy Finn?"

"What? No!
I don’t want to go near him. Don't mess with these people," I whisper. "What if they find out what you're doing and one of them kills you?"

"Nah, I don't think they will."

"I like your confidence."

"Well, if you don’t ask him, I will because I want to study him."

"This isn’t a game, Tom."

He sits back in his chair and laces his hands behind his head. "I know, Rose."

Tom’s phone rings and before I can answer him, he turns away to his computer, looking up something in a database for the person on the phone. I rest against his desk considering whether to stay or go.

Something catches the corner of my eye, a flicker of colour. The door to the
morgue opens and Lizzie walks out. She halts when she sees me and my heart rate picks up.
What the hell?
She works on the Children's Ward. Without acknowledging me, she passes and waits for the elevator, back turned.

"Rose? Are you okay? Did you see a ghost or something?"
asks Tom.

The chocolate in my stomach urges its way back up and I swallow. "I think I did."

CHAPTER 19

I manage to leave the hospital before Finn catches up with me again
. I discover Alek waiting outside, resting against a concrete pillar on the edge of human activity. Great. So my not responding to the ten texts he sent today wasn’t enough of a hint? He straightens when he notices me, and I know exactly what's coming. He strides over and immediately draws me to him, melding his mouth and body with mine. I fight against the desire to allow the tingling energy to flood, and against Alek's attempt to draw some from me.

Placing a hand on his chest, I step back. "What are you doing here?"

He strokes a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Making sure you're safe. You didn’t answer my texts."

"I had nothing to say."

"I worry about you," he says

"You're weird," I tell him as he slips his hand into mine, tugging me
toward the car park.

"Yeah."

"No, I mean sometimes you're okay; but most of the time, you behave like an asshole."

"Why do guys normally behave like assholes around girls they like?" he asks.

Evening encroaches and I’m tired after my long shift. Too tired for him. We cross the yellow-lit car park and locate his car. "Girls they like?"

Alek
crosses his arms on top of the roof and studies me. "Of course I like you. I'm not used to getting close to people, so excuse me if I push you away sometimes."

I climb into his car. I can't have a relationship with someone who pushes me away
, but Alek is probably the only person I can have a relationship with now. Besides, the spark still crackles along my arm from where he held my hand, the familiar warmth of my arousal beginning.

Gripping the
steering wheel, Alek stares ahead. "Every time I’m near you, I want to fu…have sex with you."

I choke back my disgust. He was about to say fuck
, which is a further slap to my hurt feelings from the other night. "What?"

"Do you get turned on all the time when you're with me?"

"Ordinarily, a girl would tell you that's an impossibly-arrogant thing to ask."

"But it's true?"

Fighting the heat at the truth of his words, I scramble for a subject change. "I saw Lizzie."

"She works at the hospital, of course you did. Answer the question."

"I saw Lizzie in the morgue."

"What were you doing in the
morgue?"

"I wasn't in, in. I was talking to Tom and she came out of the room."

A muscle twitches in Alek's cheek. "Talking to Tom? And did you speak to her?"

"She ignored me
, but she definitely saw me."

Alek
turns the key in the ignition, and warm air blows into the car. "I'll ask her what's going on."

"Do you know why she'd be there?"

"No," he says quietly and his downturned mouth suggests he's not happy. Oh, great, another puzzle piece.

Thankful the subject has moved on from our sexual relationship, I shift down in my seat. As we follow the busy roads back to the house, a sudden rainstorm hits the car windscreen. Even when
Alek turns the wipers up full, the view is obliterated by the rain slamming the glass. Water sprays up as the car travels along the road, the streetlights flying by.

"Slow down!" I say.

"We're fine, calm down."

"
Alek! Slow down!" The scars on my arm prickle as the noise of the wipers squeaking on the screen reconnects to my past. "Alek!"

He weaves through the traffic, the headlights of other cars dancing across the road. "It's not like I could kill us," he says with a laugh.

"Please!"

I choke back a sob and cover my head with my arms. Closing my eyes is a mistake because
, instead of Alek, I picture Jamie driving, and my other senses are sharpened by my lack of vision. The splash of tyres, the thrum of the wiper blades and a car horn.

"Jamie!" I scream, surprised at myself.

Alek hits the brakes and the car skids slightly. An image of the tree splintering the window and branches spearing my best friend through the chest, of lying in the road unable to move, and the darkness that followed seize my mind. I lean forward, sucking in breath, but Alek keeps driving.

"Fuck, Rose, it's just rain. I know how to drive."