‘Of course,’ Theo said, all soft and caring again. ‘Take your time.’
Yes, I thought bleakly. I have plenty of that.
He slipped away to the main reception to wait for me, while I looked for Caitlín and Sinéad in the busy cafeteria. It was like being at school again, and I was tempted to pick up a tray just to see how it would feel. Line up, get a soda, and choose what color straw I wanted this time.
I would have recognized my sisters anywhere, with their golden-red hair which they’d both inherited from Dad. I’d gotten Mom’s black curls, something that I always told myself was the reason my father didn’t seem to love me as much as he did my sisters. Maybe I reminded him of her too much, and that was just too painful for him. No matter his problems – and the way he talked down to me – I somehow always managed to blame myself. As though I deserved to be treated like less than a daughter.
Cait was at the counter buying bottles of water. It was Sinéad I spoke to first, approaching her as she’d just finished clearing their table in her usual efficient manner.
She was still wearing her court clothes. She was currently on a work placement as part of her law school training. I didn’t know anything about it because, even though I felt vaguely ashamed to admit it, I wasn’t terribly interested. My older sister and I just didn’t seem to have much in common, and it had gotten approximately a hundred times worse since I’d been turned into a monster. A monster that I had to hide, even though the more I stayed away from the O’Neal family home, the more it alienated me from them.
Sinéad looked surprised to see me. For an awful moment, I was afraid that Theo’s tampering had affected her more powerfully than he’d intended – maybe she’d forgotten I was even coming.
‘You were fast,’ was all she said.
Phew.
She seemed grumpy, which was normal.
‘Hi, sis,’ I said. ‘Thanks for letting me know about Dad. I just looked in on him.’
She nodded. ‘But how
did
you get here so quickly? You said you were at home and there must be a ton of traffic out there.’
Oops. ‘Did I say that? I meant that I was at a
friend’s
home. Much closer to the hospital.’
‘Hmm.’ She didn’t look convinced, but I didn’t argue. Better not to get her started, and I could see the worry in her eyes. This must be a huge strain on her, as the eldest sister, and I should definitely cut her some slack.
Caitlín chose that moment to arrive, and was suddenly hugging me violently. I needed to concentrate on that so I didn’t get knocked over.
‘I don’t have long,’ I said, giving her a meaningful look. ‘There’s
someone
waiting for me outside.’
Her jaw tightened, but she just nodded. ‘OK. It’s good to see you, sis.’
I gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek and grinned. ‘Likewise.’
‘Gross,’ she said, making a big show of wiping her face.
Sinéad frowned at both of us. ‘I’d like to get back to Dad now. Are you coming, Caitlín?’
‘Of course. Just give me a couple minutes with Marie.’
Our sister pursed her lips, but thankfully didn’t argue. ‘I’ll see you back up there, then.’
I breathed an internal sigh of relief as Sinéad trotted away. I was looking forward to a few precious minutes with Caitlín; I needed to make certain that she was dealing OK. We’d already lost our mother – something that none of us had really recovered from – and now Dad was in intensive care.
Putting my arm around her, I wished that Theo wasn’t waiting for me. How dare he turn up here, uninvited, just to insert himself into my human family’s pain. It was wrong, and the real Theo would know that. It scared the crap out of me, but I couldn’t burden my little sister with any of that. I forced a smile and examined her carefully.
‘So,’ I said, ‘tell me how you are. Really.’
Her shoulders slumped. ‘Not so good.’
‘Talk to me,’ I said.
‘Don’t you have to go?’
I thought about Theo, cooling his heels in the lobby. Screw him, I thought. I pulled Caitlín back down into the green plastic chairs at the table, sitting across from her and holding her hands in mine.
Theo could wait.
A little later, Theo and I walked out of the main entrance of the hospital and through the ambulance bay. I was barely looking where I was going. All I could think about was the conversation I’d just had with my sister. I’d promised Caitlín that I would spend more time with my ‘
real
family’ (her words), especially while we didn’t know how Dad’s recovery would go. I had Dr Stark’s event to attend on Friday night, but that meant I had the whole weekend free. Free from vampire craziness.
I intended to keep it that way. By then I would either have resolved the situation, or passed everything I knew to Theo – no matter what his state of mind. I was going to wash my hands of it all and be an O’Neal for as long as my sisters needed me.
Forcing myself to focus on what was going on around us, I stared at an ambulance that was being unloaded. Nurses rushed past and pushed me out of the way, and I immediately felt guilty for staring. A middle-aged woman was dumped onto a gurney. She looked dead and there was so much blood that my stomach turned over, but she must still have been alive because they all seemed to be making a lot of effort to save her.
Maybe that’s just what real heroes did.
‘Hit and run!’ one of the paramedics shouted. ‘She’s lost a lot of blood.’
You think? I should probably rein in the inner-snarkfest, but I was on edge. My gums ached as my fangs threatened to extend all the way. Why couldn’t I keep it together? I figured that being upset over my dad must have something to do with it, but I was tired of always having an excuse. I was too young, or too tired, or too upset. When would I just be able to function the way that Holly could? Why did Theo have to be right about me not being ready to face the world on my own?
He gripped my elbow, sensing my shaky control. ‘Keep moving. We’ll be out of here in—’
But he didn’t get to finish his sentence, because there was a succession of sharp
cracks
and the air around us seemed to shift. Theo’s body jerked once, twice, three times, as blood exploded from his shoulder.
He hit the ground, and then the shit hit the fan.
The thing about being the victim of a shooting in a hospital is that at least you’re in the right place to get on-the-spot treatment. Of course, when you’re a vampire in the same situation, the very last thing you want is medical attention.
The last thing you want is
any
kind of attention, but it didn’t look like were going to escape without a great deal of that.
Screams filled the air, people ran, and vehicles collided in their haste to get out of the line of fire. Hospital security arrived on the scene, but as that consisted of two middle-aged, sleepy-looking dudes, I didn’t hold out much hope that they’d be taking down our mystery sniper anytime soon. It was chaotic.
But it gave us a chance to get away.
‘Silver,’ Theo hissed, grabbing my arm so tightly I began to worry that he might rip it off. ‘He’s using silver bullets.’
Ugh.
He was still talking about Jace. Of course he was. I had to put him straight, but I could hardly do it now with everything going crazy around us.
Theo’s eyes glinted silver with their own inner light, something I rarely saw from my Maker. His self-control was usually so good that his eyes looked gray and mostly human – especially out in public. Unless he was particularly hungry. I flashed on a disturbing image of how his eyes had looked like they were bleeding silver the night he’d turned me. That was the only time I’ve ever seen him lose complete control. It wasn’t like he was in that bad of a state right now, but if anyone happened to look at him it would be majorly obvious that he wasn’t entirely human.
Either that, or people would simply justify his glowing eyes as a trick of the light or some such. That’s what they usually did when faced with the unexplainable Other.
Theo gritted his teeth against the pain and closed his eyes, forcing breaths that he didn’t need to take. He was trying to appear more human and it was causing him even more pain. If we were talking about regular bullets, this wouldn’t be a problem – but silver would stay in the flesh and
burn
. I had my arm around him, using my own strength to keep him on his feet as we made for the nearest escape route. A doctor was heading our way, trying to work his way through the crowd of panicked people, and we veered sharply to the left.
No way could we let anyone touch him, especially not if he was suffering the effects of silver. He was already dangerous enough when vulnerable. Kind of like a wounded animal. I had to get him out of there.
I saw a bright gleam out the corner of my eye and made another detour, ignoring Theo’s complaints. One of the bullet casings was protruding from earth spilling from a shattered plant pot like blood from a wound. I picked it up without even thinking. The tiny silver slug, covered in my Maker’s blood, burnt my fingers. I hissed and almost dropped it, stuffing it in one of my pockets for later examination.
No way this could be explained as anything other than a clear attempt to hurt Theo. Subject Ten hadn’t actually admitted anything concrete to me, so I figured there was still the possibility that my Maker had been the original target outside Subterranean, when Nicole’s long life had suddenly come to an end. Had she been an unfortunate victim? Maybe Theo had escaped death twice, now. Or maybe the mysterious Ten was simply after as many high-ranking vamps as she could get.
But if that was the case, why use a deadly crossbow bolt for one and silver bullets for the other? It made no sense and I was getting tired of it all. I mean, what if she’d been shooting at me? She
had
warned me to stay out the way . . .
‘Theo, how many times were you hit?’ I could feel panic twisting my gut and almost sending me over the edge into full-on bloodlust.
‘Just once,’ he replied. ‘Well, twice. There were three shots. One skimmed me, one I managed to dodge, but the third got me full in the shoulder.’
I tried not to be too impressed that he’d literally
dodged
a bullet, because that was just the sort of super-cool thing my Maker would do. I figured that was the shell currently burning a hole in my jeans pocket. (Metaphorically speaking.) Better that I focus on how grateful I was that he hadn’t been hit through the heart – like Nicole had been. Not that a bullet to the heart, even a silver one, was necessarily the end for a vampire of his age. It would have to penetrate the organ completely – which is why crossbows were far more efficient weapons if you actually intended to end our existence.
Theo squeezed his eyes shut, still trying to keep himself under control.
I tugged my shades from the inside pocket of my trusty leather jacket. ‘Here, put these on.’
He took them from me and slipped them on without a word. At least his eyes wouldn’t scare anyone.
‘Maybe you got hit by accident,’ I said, knowing it was an idiotic thing to say, but unable to resist voicing the thought. It was the nervous-talking-thing I was cursed with.
Theo stared at me for a beat, before shaking his head and wincing as we stepped off the sidewalk and his shoulder jarred. ‘Whoever it was is in possession of silver bullets, Moth. Either they were gunning for us, or they have very expensive taste in ammunition.’
I gulped down another stupid comment before I could make it. Look, it’s not that I
am
stupid. I’m pretty smart, actually. I just get anxious and say things before I’ve really taken the time to
think
. It’s something I learned once I hit puberty and started arguing with my dad. Instead, I grabbed my phone and made a quick call, while Theo shuffled along beside me.
‘Holly and Castel are on their way,’ I said a moment later, stuffing my phone back into my pocket. ‘Here, sit down. What can I do to help?’
‘We need to take the bullet out,’ he replied, ‘but I’ll manage until we can get home. Best not to do something like that out here.’
‘Nobody’s watching us anymore, Theo,’ I said, because it was true. All eyes were on the front of the hospital and the police cruisers that had just screeched to a halt outside, sirens blazing. In the confusion and panic around us, we’d moved far enough away not to be on their radar. Yet, anyway.
I hovered around my Maker, trying to stop the blood – to
hide
it from any eyes that might still be looking in our direction – while holding my breath and attempting to ignore its rich scent. My hands were slicked crimson, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at them.
I almost rubbed my hands absent-mindedly against my jeans, but Theo stopped me just in time. ‘Be still, Moth,’ he said. His tone was surprisingly gentle.
Thankfully, Holly and Castel pulled up at that moment. They were on Holly’s bike and I groaned. ‘What good is that? We can’t put you on a motorcycle. Idiots!’
Theo shushed me and waited for the two vampires to disembark.
‘Master,’ Holly cried, her eyes flashing silver. ‘You’re hurt!’
Castel rushed to Theo’s side, supporting his uninjured right side and taking some of the pressure off me. ‘Sorry about only having two wheels,’ he said. ‘Echo has the rental tonight, and Holly only had her bike. We figured getting here quickly was the most important thing.’
Holly glared at me. ‘Moth didn’t mention that you were
bleeding
.’
Theo waved away her anger. ‘I don’t want a fuss.’
‘No fuss?’ Worried anger tightened her face. It was the most concern I’d ever seen her show for someone else. ‘You’ve been
shot
.’
‘With silver,’ I put in helpfully.
Theo silenced me with a look. ‘Holly can take me home,’ he said. ‘Moth, you and Castel will need to follow us. Get a cab.’
‘
He
can get a cab to your place, but
I’m
going home. To
my
home.’ I crossed my arms over my chest. ‘Alone.’
There was a moment of shocked silence as Holly and Castel realized how directly I’d defied the Master vampire of the city.