Part 17 (2/2)
”Never heard of it.”
”Yeah, me neither. I got a call last night that you . . . that you were here. I think . . .” Drew looked around as if worried someone would overhear, then said quietly, ”I think Miranda's people run it.”
Kat blinked. Vampires had doctors? Why? She looked around the small, private room, which could have been in any hospital in Austin. It even had a window whose blinds were open, so at least the nurses had to be human.
On the wall, there was a dry-erase board that read, Welcome to the Hausmann Clinic! Your nurse today is ... The s.p.a.ce had been filled in by a different hand, with Jackie. At the top corner where the hospital logo would have been was a symbol like a family crest, with an S in the center. Solomon.
Kat shut her eyes tightly as flashes of memory began to intrude . . . not visual, but visceral, the memory of pain, of terror . . .
She choked back tears. ”What happened to me?” she whispered.
Drew stood and leaned over her, putting his arms around her. He smelled like he always did: patchouli, books, and the faint musty scent of the music department cla.s.srooms at UT. He'd started a program there for underprivileged kids, teaching piano lessons for free after school. That, his regular cla.s.s schedule, and all his other volunteer work took up so much time, combined with her crazy hours, that they hardly got to see each other these days. Most guys would have bailed on her by now, but he wanted to sign up for the long haul. He might just be as crazy as she was.
She sobbed, and he held her close, while the collective horror of the night sank in.
”I lost it,” she gasped. ”I lost the baby. But then I found her again. They saved me. I was so scared . . .”
Just like before when she'd been walking to her car. But this time, it wasn't her imagination or a random stranger. This time it was someone who wanted her dead.
She'd barely had a second to hit the panic b.u.t.ton on her phone before someone slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground, wrestling her to her back. She had looked up into an inhuman face, and all she had seen were teeth . . . the flash of a knife . . . and then there was so much pain, her memory simply stopped. Her brain couldn't cope with reality and everything went gray and silent until . . .
She had heard a calm male voice beside her and looked up to see an angelic face-maybe it really was an angel; h.e.l.l, if vampires were real, what else might be?-just before she heard Miranda, panicked, calling her name. Then there was . . .
”Shall I bring her back, Katerina?”
Then she woke up here.
She tried to tell Drew what had happened, or as much of it as she could make sense of. He looked like he wasn't sure whether to hold her or set something on fire. Drew wasn't an angry person; in fact he was one of the kindest, most compa.s.sionate people she had ever met. Knowing that she was the source of his anger made her heart shudder with guilt.
Not too long after she got herself back together, there was a knock, and the door swung open to reveal a tiny round woman with a clipboard and a digital thermometer. ”Hi there,” she said, her Texas accent p.r.o.nounced and comforting. ”I'm Jackie.”
”Kat.”
”Nice to meet you, sweetie. And you must be Drew.” Jackie reached over and shook his hand, somehow without putting down her things, an impressive feat. ”I'm just here to take Kat's vitals. Do you have any questions?”
”Yeah,” Drew said, more forceful than Kat had ever heard him. ”What the h.e.l.l happened to her last night?”
Jackie got to work checking Kat's various monitors and making adjustments in things, saying, ”The official word is that you were attacked by a vampire-I understand you're under Signet protection? Good, then I can be a little more candid. The woman who attacked you is suspected of several murders and an attack on the Queen.”
”Several murders?” Drew demanded. ”I thought she had just gone after Kat and Miranda. You mean she's been killing other people and they haven't caught her yet?”
”Drew,” Kat said quietly, ”calm down.”
Jackie didn't look upset by Drew's outburst. She jotted Kat's temperature on her clipboard before replying, ”I'm afraid she's still at large, but Prime Deven wounded her, and there was evidence at the scene that's being a.n.a.lyzed right now. Someone will be in shortly to ask you a few questions, Kat, about the attacker.”
”Police?” Kat asked.
”Elite,” Jackie answered. ”Police aren't much good in this sort of situation.”
”What kind of place is this?”
Jackie smiled. ”The Hausmann was established by Prime Solomon to look after human victims of vampire feeding-even with the laws they have in place, sometimes unfortunate things happen. Our staff are trained to recognize and deal with specific conditions resulting from vampire-related injuries, including abortive transformations and various forms of anemia. We're not very big or very busy, but normal medical facilities often don't know how to treat this sort of thing or its emotional toll. We have . . . counselors for that.”
The nurse spoke so matter-of-factly about her job that Kat felt a creeping sense of surreality all around her. ”Is . . . can you tell if the baby's okay?”
Jackie paused and looked at her. ”It's tough to say, as early as it is. She's still got a good strong heartbeat and there's been no damage we could see in the scans. You'll want to follow up with your OB/GYN as soon as possible, but I would say, cautiously, it looks like she'll be fine.”
”How do you know it's a she?” Drew asked.
Jackie looked thoughtful. ”I don't, really,” she replied. ”It just came out. Would you prefer I not use a gender p.r.o.noun? It is, as I said, really early in the pregnancy.”
”No, that's all right,” Kat said. ”I know it's a girl, too . . . and . . . I'm going to keep her. So it's okay.”
She saw the shock on Drew's face but didn't say anything to him just yet. She was still getting used to the idea herself. Just saying it out loud was jarring enough.
”All right, then, I'll get out of your hair,” Jackie said with a grin. ”All your vitals are stable, and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to go home in the morning. I'll have dinner sent up to you within the hour.”
”Thanks.”
Kat saw quite plainly the question Drew was about to ask. ”Let's . . . not talk about it right now, okay?” She reached up with her non-IV-laden hand and touched his face. ”As soon as I get out of here and there's not somebody trying to kill me, we can start making plans.”
Drew smiled, nodded, and said, ”Whatever you want, babe, but you do realize that I'm moving in now even if I have to sleep on the front porch.”
Kat couldn't help but smile back. ”Fine by me,” she said. ”Saves me the trouble of housebreaking a Rottweiler.”
They both laughed a little, though Kat still felt more like crying.
Jackie stuck her head back in the door. ”You have another visitor,” she said. ”Do you feel up to a few questions now?”
Kat shrugged. Why not?
Drew started to say something-and Kat had her theories as to what-but the words died on his lips as a woman walked into the room.
She was pet.i.te, but muscular, and looked j.a.panese; her hair was a s.h.i.+ning fall of ebony braided back from her face. She wore one of the black uniforms that Kat had seen on the Elite, including the silver wristband that they used to communicate.
She also had a sword.
”My name is Faith,” she said, her smooth voice all business. ”I am Second in Command of the Southern Elite. You must be Kat.”
If Jackie's warmth had been rea.s.suring, Faith's coolness was, too; clearly this was not a person to mess with. Where had she been, Kat wondered, when Kat was on her back with a knife in her gut?
”I have a few questions about your attacker,” Faith said. ”I won't keep you long; I know you need your rest.”
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