“You can’t know that—she didn’t answer the question.” Grove flipped open the flap of his satchel and started digging around in it.
Captain Reese turned her back to the chaos that was my teammates and studied me. “Are you really okay? You’ve been through a lot tonight. I can clear the room.”
“I’m okay,” I assured her. “I don’t know what happened while I was out of it, but I feel a lot better now than I did after the fight.”
“From what His Eminence says, Considine poured a fortune’s worth of potions on your arm so I imagine that helped you a great deal,” Sarge said.
Why was he so concerned? I mean, he fended Gisila off for me, that’s big. But the whole Connor-Considine thing…
The situation was so weird—and wild—I still didn’t quite believe it.
“Seems like he went a bit overboard, considering he thinks of you as a toy.” Captain Reese rubbed her chin as the lights in her prosthetic leg glowed shedding more light in the room.
“I discovered he’s also my neighbor,” I said, staring at the dagger.
Sarge straightened upright. “Neighbor?”
“It means he lives next door to her,” Grove said in a know-it-all tone. “Here, Blood. Drink this.” He passed over a tiny, candy-apple-green-colored potion.
I took the small vial with my free hand, tilted my head back, and drank the miniature vial in one gulp. I didn’t taste it until I swallowed, and I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet but sour taste that reminded me of sour apple candy.
“Considine Maledictus is your neighbor,” Captain Reese repeated.
“Yes.” I nodded, then awkwardly held the dagger up. “I can tell you about him, but Gisila’s actions are probably more important to discuss first given the wolf mercenaries. She didn’t confess to or say anything that would give us any kind of grounds to arrest her. She didn’t even directly threaten me, just made lots of vague statements.”
Captain Reese grimaced as she pulled out a tiny pad of paper and a pencil from her jacket pocket. “I swear Lady Gisila is almost as bad as a fae. Alright. Lay it on us—Sarge and I would like to get the preliminary reports done tonight.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Considine
Istrode down the empty hospital corridor, moving fast to get out of Jade’s hearing range as I wasn’t sure what I would do if she called after me.
She was safe.
Gisila had been properly warned.
The dragon shifter wouldn’t bother Jade again—not unless she wanted my enmity.
But I had just opened myself up to a world of trouble.
For starters, Killian—and by proxy the rest of the Dracos offspring—now knew what I had been doing with my evenings and where I lived.
Even worse, Killian knew precisely who I spent the majority of my time with.
Calling him had been unavoidable.
I passed by the nurses’ station, stopped, did a U turn, and circled back.
A young female nurse had been watching me walk past. She giggled as I strode up to the desk.
“Hello.” I gave the nurses my most dazzling smile and made sure to look every one of them in the eye—from the exhausted male who looked like he was approximately five seconds away from quitting to the young giggler to the older Hispanic woman who popped an eyebrow at me in amusement even though I hadn’t said anything yet. “Jade O’Neil in Room 1285 will be under your care until she’s released this morning, correct?”
“Jade O’Neil…” The exhausted male nurse flipped through some charts. “Oh—the special case. Yes. Yes, we’ve got her.”
The giggler stopped ogling me to look at her coworker with wide eyes. “Special?”
“The vampire slayer,” the older Hispanic woman said. “She’s a supernatural.”
“Wow, that’s rare. I don’t think I’ve ever given a supernatural medical attention.” All signs of humor were erased from the giggler and worry creased around her eyes. “She must be in rough shape to be brought in.”
“She’s stable,” The male nurse said.
“Yes,” I agreed. “And she’s woken up.”
“Oh. Oh! We need to check on her then.” The male nurse stood up, but his badge caught on the edge of the desk yanking him back down.
The older nurse patted his back and pushed an enormous plastic cup of iced liquid that was colored an alarming shade of neon yellow at him. “I’ll handle it.” She stood up and met my gaze. “Thank you for letting us know—are you her family?”
I laughed. “No—not hardly. But I did bring her in, and I’m very vested in her care.”
The male nurse nodded. “Understood. We will do our best to make sure she heals up and remains comfortable.” He reached for his cup and missed.
“Nick, you need to take a day off.” The older woman put the cup directly in the male nurse’s hands, then nodded to me. “I assure you Jade O’Neil is in great hands. She’ll be just fine.”
Their promises were nice enough, but I studied the trio and considered using my pheromones just to be certain.
But taking over the emergency room as I had was…not deeply illegal, but definitely over the line. I didn’t care much about legal repercussions, but Jade would—
Wait, wait. Am I truly so far gone that I’m fretting over her feelings?
The no-longer-a-giggler put her hand over her heart. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, sir. We’ll take great care of your girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” I repeated the word, which tasted as foreign as it sounded.
The not-a-giggler nodded. “I think it’s so romantic that you’ve got the whole star-crossed lovers thing going on—since you’re a vampire and she’s a vampire slayer.”
The male nurse jumped. “He’s a what?”
“Vampire—he’s got the red eyes,” the not-a-giggler said. “And Lucia is right, Nick. You’ve gotta take a day off—the lack of sleep is getting to you. You’re usually sharper than I am.”
I was still processing the assumption of our relationship—which had happened before. But those assumptions had been for Jade and Connor.
This nurse thought I was involved with a slayer.
But is that guess so far off, given everything I did tonight for her?
I couldn’t tell if that was disgusting, disappointing, or fine, and I didn’t want to think it over to find out, so instead I offered the nurses a smile.
“Thank you so much,” I said, oozing goodwill. “I deeply appreciate the care you’ve given her.” I winked, then made my escape, striding away before I could hear anything more, which seemed to be a common action for me currently.
I focused on my goal—to get out of the sterile smelling surroundings where it felt like the walls were closing in and retreat outside. Josh and that other Drake vampire were still hanging about. I’d find them and get a ride… somewhere.
My concentration kept the intrusive thoughts at bay, so I was left in peace as I trotted down the stairs and traced a path through the large building.
I prowled through the front doors—which opened automatically—and didn’t let myself relax until the chilly night air surrounded me.