Raine had never been anywhere as big as Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of DC, before she’d moved here. Nashville had been the biggest city she’d been to. It was where she’d gone to school for her nursing degree. She’d thought that the people there had been a little crazy, but it had been nothing compared to the shock she’d gone through moving here for her job. DC was full of crazy people anyway. All you had to do was watch the evening news to see that.
She was glad that the job had come with on-site accommodations. It made her life so much easier. Only occasionally did she venture out into the city. She didn’t need to. There was a kitchen on the far end of the floor that was always stocked with delicious food, and if there was anything she needed all she had to do was add it to the master list kept on a clip-board beside the fridge. The Holiday decorations would require a foray outside. Maybe if she made a thorough list she could do it in one trip.
Doubtful. She always forgot something. Even now she could hear her mother laughing at her as she pounded through the house two or three times for forgotten items before she finally made it down the drive to school.
Heading into the bathroom she unsnarled her hair from the bun and let it hang down her back. There wasn’t enough time to dry it completely but maybe she could at least get it from sopping wet to a little damp. Flipping her hair forward she snatched up her blow dryer and went to work.
Chapter Two
It was when she flipped her hair back that the cold chill slid down her spine. Someone had just walked over her grave.
Raine cocked her head, listening for her ringing cell phone, then she remembered that she’d left it at the nurse’s station before Mr. Dart’s shower. Crap on a cracker. Hurrying back into her bedroom she pulled out another pair of scrubs, these ones dark maroon. She almost fell over bouncing around to get her socks on, then slid her clogs on again. Grabbing a ponytail holder she slipped it over her wrist, then left the apartment. Something in her gut was urging her to move swiftly and she always listened to her gut, even if it was inconvenient.
Amazingly the elevator doors were just closing as she reached them. Shoving her hand forward she prayed that the doors would stop. They did. She jumped on board, only to find Noah standing on the elevator, his lips tilted up at one corner.
If the urgency hadn’t been pressing on her Raine would have grinned and probably made a playful remark. Or she would have tried to, at least. It would have come out lame and hick. As it was, though, she punched the button for her floor, then the door close button in the hopes it would speed up. Gathering the bulk of her hair into a twist she wound the elastic around it. At least it would be away from her face.
As the numbers ticked down she watched them.
“Are you okay?”
She gave Noah a half-hearted smile. “Yeah, sure. I just need to get to my patients. Residents.”
As soon as the doors slid open she jogged onto the floor, looking for Paul. When she didn’t immediately see him she went to the nurse’s station and retrieved her phone.
911- 412
“Fudge,” she hissed as she bolted around the corner of the counter. She paused long enough to key a code into the medication lock box and remove a loaded syringe, tucking it into her pocket.
Haven had been fine earlier, before he’d gone to talk to the doctor. Why the 911?
Who was she kidding? She was surprised it hadn’t happened already. As she pounded down the hallway she thought about the past week. There had been a Haven emergency every day. Usually nothing major but enough to keep them on their toes.
Haven was the problem child of her floor, though she really and truly believed he didn’t mean to. He’d been in the Guyana camp and Dr. Wilkes, Elizabeth, said that they hadn’t found a lot of information on him, and suspiciously he’d been in one of the farthermost cages. The man had also been incredibly skinny, barely more than bones, so it was amazing that he’d been found at all. When the rescuers had approached his cage he hadn’t roused to consciousness; he was too near death. Supposedly they had thought him a pile of rags.
For a solid month he’d been comatose and surviving on IV fluids. His body began to recover and rouse and that was when the trouble started. In his mind, Haven was still in that cage being tortured. That was when the manifestations had started. Whatever evil bedeviled his mind became an apparition that the medical staff had to deal with. For the most part they were ghostly images, easily disregarded, but the deeper the psychosis the more visible the apparition became. When he lapsed into these frantic states it was extremely difficult to bring him out of them.
The entire time she’d been here they’d been walking a fine line, trying to wean him off the devastating psychotic medications. The drugs themselves were okay, but the maintenance level in his blood was astronomically high.
Raine skidded in front of the hallway to Haven’s room, her heart racing, and got bumped from behind. She glanced around and realized Noah had followed her from the elevator.
“Do you know about Haven?” she asked quickly.
“I’ve read reports.”
Raine frowned. Reports were nothing compared to real life. “No weapons,” she panted as she sped up.
A time or two she’d seen Noah with a weapon on his hip, usually when he’d been in a suit.
Paul was outside of the room, eyes squinted and his hands up in front of his face as he faced the room. “It’s everywhere,” he gasped, turning his head away.
Raine prepared herself to be assaulted with whatever
