“Oh.” Marc was still staring down at himself, but had yet to notice he was naked.
“I'll, uh, just do that.” I bustled around the bed, trying to make myself useful.
He looked pleased. “Now I'm tucked in!”
For the first time I realized his green-?eyed gaze was a little cloudy. I peered closer. So did he. Our faces were about an inch apart but, again, Marc didn't seem to think this was at all unusual.
“Jeez,” I said, so close my breath (if I had any) would have fogged his glasses (if he wore them). “How much medication are you on?”
“Well, let's see. I had some Valium at the house, and some more on the way to the hospital. (I offered some to Nick, but he said no thanks.) Then in the ER, the intern said – ”
“You know what? It doesn't matter. As long as you're okay is all.”
“Oh, sure! I'm great! You know, for someone who was trying to kill me, he mostly just knocked me down and got me dirty. I mean, did you see those guys? Covered with mud!”
“Yeah, that's annoying.” I fought not to roll my eyes or sneak a peek at the clock on the wall.
“I think he wanted to kill you and was mostly trying to get me out of his way. I'll be sore and itchy for ages, and I'll have spectacular bruising, and maybe a couple of really butch scars, but that's the extent of it. I feel pretty lucky.”
“I'm – I'm glad, Marc.” He had been lucky, but I was mostly too tormented by guilt. And hunger pangs. I was so thirsty, and the smells generated by the hospital were making me drool. As the queen, I didn't have to feed every night like all the other vampires, and sometimes I made the mistake of pushing it. It had been at least four days. “Also, don't come back.”
He absently cracked his knuckles; they sounded like Rice Crispies. “Yep, after tonight it'll be smooth – what?”
“You can't come back until we take care of this Fiend situation.”
“Take care of the situation? You're talking like it's a termite infestation!”
“If only,” I muttered. “Look, I feel crummy that you got hurt, but you were lucky, and I'm not enough of a twit to put you right back in danger.”
He blinked at me slowly, like an owl, and I could tell he was trying to muster an argument. After a long silence he said, “But we have the Super Secret Vampire Tunnels to escape to.”
“Yeah, except every one of the Fiends is faster than you and Jess, and what if they cut you off next time? What if Sinclair and I, God forbid, aren't even home next time?”
“But we can – ”
“Marc, I'm sorry, I guess I didn't realize... you think this is a debate. It's not. You could run to the tunnels, Sinclair and I might be able to protect you, the Fiends might come back but not try to hurt you... whatever, man. Too many maybes for me – you're out.”
“But Betsy...” His eyes filled, and he shook his head savagely, making the tears fly. Then he was glaring at me with wet cheeks. “That's my home, same as it is yours. Where can I go?”
“Yeah, about that.” Marc wasn't seeing anyone right now (he'd had a fling a month or so ago, but otherwise was something of a dateless wonder), and no family – at least, none he would ever live with ever again. “Where do you want to go? You pick the place, and Sinclair will pay for it. Sinclair and I,” I corrected, since technically it was now my fortune, too.
“I don't want to pick anything,” Marc began, still pissed, but then I could see the possible advantages of the situation begin to trickle past the fog of drugs. “Uh. Anywhere I want?”
“Anywhere. Until we fix this. The day the Fiends pack it up and go home” – Yeah, sure, that's how this would end – “is the day you move back in.”
An expression of vague alarm crossed his features. “But what if the Fiends stay out of sight for, I dunno, two years? Before they make their move? Are you going to keep me out of my home for years?”
“It won't come to that.” And try as I might, I just couldn't picture it. Not to be all egotistical or anything, but I couldn't imagine the Fiends could do much of anything until they'd settled with me. Laying back in the buckwheat for a couple of years was definitely not their style. “It absolutely won't. But right now it's too dangerous for you. Of course it's your home, and the day the Fiends are taken care of is the day you come back. But until then...”
I tucked another blanket around Marc and left him sleepily murmuring, “The Radisson? No. The Millennium? No. Sofitel? I know! The Grand! Will they do turndown service for me... ?”
Chapter 20
As Marc's door was wheezing shut behind me, I heard Jessica trotting toward me. I was able to pick up the sound of her footsteps over everyone else's in the hall (granted, at this hour, there weren't many, but still – my very own stupid pet trick!) and turned in time for her to wave to get my attention.
It seemed to take a very long time for her to get to me. Sinclair and I had talked about this phenomenon once or twice, after making love. It was starting to seem more and more natural, taking advantage of my vampiric senses and all. In the beginning, they either overwhelmed me (especially when I was hungry) or I had to sit still and make a conscious effort to hear, to smell, to whatever outside the range of normal human activity. Now I could probably pick Sinclair or Jess or Mom out of a Metrodome crowd.
Now her mouth was moving, verrrry sloooooowly. I squinted at her and then yelped when she pinched me.
“Sorry, but you had a very goofy look on your face. How is he? Is he sleeping?”
“He's a little out of it.”
“Oh.” She stared at the closed door as if she had suddenly developed X-?ray vision and could, y'know, actually see what was happening on the other side. “Do you think I should go in? It's so late. Think he'd be mad if I didn't come in tonight? I don't think he'd be mad. And I'll see him tomorrow. I'll bring him some Bruegger's for breakfast. Let's walk. Can we walk? Come on.”
I didn't say a word, just fell into step beside her. It wasn't hard to figure out why she was nervous – she had, after all, spent many days in this very hospital as a terminal patient. That'd take the shine off your night, even if the other events hadn't.
I cut through her nervous chatter as we headed to the hospital parking ramp. “Actually, you could help me out and radically reduce your trips to the hospital.”
“Sing it.”
“Well, we're putting Marc up somewhere nice, sort of as a treat, you know? I mean, he's been through a lot. He was finally starting to date again but he had that bad breakup last month... and he's been picking up so many extra shifts... and he really got torn up tonight.”
“Yeah,” Jessica said slowly, “I guess you could say he's had a crummy few weeks.”
“Right!” She was falling for it! The puny human had no hope whatsoever of overcoming the mightiness that was me, Betsy, vampire queen and recovering Miss Congeniality. “So maybe you could go with him, wherever he picks, and sort of settle him in, you know? Make sure he's got everything he needs, and – ”
Jessica had stopped walking, which was awkward, as I didn't immediately notice, and I have long legs and walk fast, so I had to walk all the way back across the skyway if I wanted to keep participating in the conversation. Which, judging by her thunderous expression, I did not.
“Betsy. Oh my God. How – ”
– did I know that was just what Marc needed? How could we best help him get settled? How did I manage to say the right thing time and time again?
Naw. I knew the tone and I knew it wasn't going to be good.
“ – fucking dumb do you think I am?”
“You mean, on a sliding scale, or – ”
“You've gotten rid of one human, and now you're trying to ditch the other.”
“Oh, say, hey now! I think 'ditch' is a little – ow.”
She had jammed her index finger into the middle of my chest and now poked to emphasize her words. With each poke a cloud-?colored fingernail jabbed me. It was like being pricked over and over again with the world's
