The Dark Side (24 page)

I stood there, shell-shocked at the sudden silence. There was no sound from Rhi’s room. Good soundproofing I guess but the sudden transition made it feel as though I’d gone deaf.

I leaned against the wall, trying to breathe, trying not to think about all that blood spilling over Rhi and the bed. Trying not to smell the blood splashed on me. I ached to help but what could I do? I wasn’t needed inside, that much was plain. And I could hardly go back upstairs to Rhianna’s parents looking like I did.

My stomach clenched as I thought about them sitting upstairs, waiting for news, not knowing whether Rhi was dead or alive.

Even worse, not having any idea she was now a vampire; a monster out of their worst nightmares. The same kind of creature who’d killed their other daughter.

I wondered if they’d been told anything at all. Or maybe the government had gone ahead and told them Rhi was dead.

Dan had said he’d try to stop that from happening, but he hadn’t been able to promise anything.

How would the Anders cope if they thought Rhi was dead?

How would they cope if they found out the truth?

I eyed the doors to the waiting room. Would anyone notice if I snuck out and told them?

They deserved the truth.

No one who hadn’t been through what we’d been through with Tate had the right to take that away from them.

I took two steps then stopped as the doors swung inward and Dan walked through. He had a take-out coffee cup in one hand and the other held his cell to his ear.

When he saw me, he said something I couldn’t quite make out then put the phone away.

When he reached me, he held out the coffee. “Thought you might need this.”

The warm rich smell made my stomach growl then lurch queasily. As much as my brain ached for some caffeine to burn away some of the foggy confusion that came with too much stress and too little sleep, I knew I’d just make myself sick.

I shook my head. Dan shrugged and took a mouthful himself. He’d always had a cast iron stomach—a useful trait for a cop.

One I envied right now.

He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a candy bar. “How about this?”

Chocolate? It wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it was at least something to keep me upright.

I took the bar from him, opened it, and took a cautious nibble. My stomach didn’t feel any worse so I took a bigger bite, letting the chocolate melt on my tongue, the sweetness masking some of the stale taste of fear and fatigue.

“What’s happening in there?” Dan nodded towardRhi’s room.

I shook my head. “Your guess is as good as mine. Who were you talking to?”

“Esme. She’s coordinating with the army.”

“So you’re going ahead with it?” Locking Rhi away. The taste of chocolate turned sour as my throat tightened. Rhi loved people. Loved connections. She wanted to be a doctor for God’s sake. And they wanted to lock her away somewhere where she’d hardly have any contact with anyone.

Dan took another gulp of coffee, pulling a face. “We don’t have a choice, Ash. She can’t be let loose until the doctors figure out exactly what we’re dealing with. Right now, she’ll get better care at the base than she will here.”

“She’d get better care somewhere like Seattle Northern,” I said. Northern was the main hospital used by Seattle’s supernatural population. Not that we suffered from many illnesses but some injuries still required assistance.

“We take her there and news about the mutated virus takes about three seconds to hit the street. The base is secure.”

He was right, I knew he was right. That didn’t mean I had to like it. I finished the candy bar with several vicious bites.

“I want to go with her,” I said, holding up a hand as he opened his mouth to argue. “No, scrap that. I am going with her. I’m not letting you lock her away surrounded by strangers.”

“Okay,” Dan said.

I eyed him with suspicion. That was way too easy. I’d expected an argument. “Marco needs to go with her too. He’s the only one who has some influence over her.”

“If Lord Marco wishes to assist us, then the government will be grateful,” Dan said carefully.

I took that to mean he thought it was a terrible idea but someone higher up had had the same thought as me.

“And her parents.”

Dan shook his head, crumpling the empty coffee cup in his hand. “No. They’re not going to be allowed to see her.”

“But they know she’s alive?”

“They’ve been told she’s in isolation.”

“What for?”

He shrugged. “I’m sure they’ve come up with something good.”

“When are they going to move her?” If I was going too, it would be nice to at least have time to go back to Bug’s and get my things.

Then I realized that was actually a terrible idea. Because I’d have to see Bug. Who always knew when I was lying. I wouldn’t be able to fool her if she asked about Rhianna.

“As soon as the doctors say it’s okay.”

We both looked at the door. There was still no sound from inside, which explained why we’d been left alone when Rhianna had been screaming the place down. It took pretty good soundproofing to fool werewolf ears. Whoever had designed the room had known what they were doing.

Right now, I wanted to kill them for their competence. I wanted to know what was going on, if Rhianna was okay.

Instead there was only the door. And it wasn’t talking.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“A little after seven.”

Meaning I’d been awake more than twenty-four hours. The most sensible thing to do right now would be to lie right down on the floor and try to sleep for as long as I could until the doctors finished.

“Maybe we should wait in the lounge.”

Good idea. There’d been chairs in the lounge. It seemed like several lifetimes ago that I’d arrived at the hospital.

I nodded my agreement and pushed away from the wall. But we’d barely walked ten feet when the door opened behind us. Dr. Samuels came out peeling surgical gloves from his hands as he came. Blood stained his scrubs. Several nurses and another doctor trailed after him, but they continued down the hall past us.

Dr. Samuels came over to Dan and me. He looked as tired as I felt and I wondered how long he’d been on duty.

“Is she okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes. We’ve controlled the allergic reaction. Your friend is trying to get her to feed again. Real blood this time.”

I didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried. I had to be glad that Rhianna was okay. Surely I was? But Dan hadn’t wanted to give her human blood.

Now it seemed she had to drink it.

And she was a vampire who could never be allowed to feed directly from a human if she was one of Smith’s plague vamps.

“Is it safe to move her?” Dan asked.

I shot him a glare. Was that all he cared about? Getting Rhi to her dungeon so she could be studied and controlled?

“Yes, as long as she doesn’t react to the blood this time. Give it an hour or so.”

“Great,” Dan said. He pulled out his phone and punched in a number. “Esme, it’s me.”

I couldn’t believe he was being so calm.

“I’ll be in helping Marco.” I snapped and left the pair of them to it.

“So how are we going to move her?” I asked an hour later. Rhi had drunk the fresh blood with no adverse reactions and Dr. Samuels had cleared her for transfer.

She still seemed kind of dazed and she hadn’t spoken to me at all while I’d helped her shower and put on a set of scrubs the nurse provided. Hadn’t spoken when Marco had explained what had happened to her again.

“I think I can keep her calm,” Marco said.

Dan rolled his neck, stretching up from the chair beside me. “We’ll use restraints all the same.”

I frowned. “Is that really necessary?”

“You want to try fighting a crazed vampire in a helo?”

I didn’t want to fight another vampire anywhere. And as much as I wanted to treat Rhianna like nothing had changed, the fact was, she had changed.

I had to stop pretending she hadn’t.

I didn’t know who Rhianna was as a vampire. Whether she’d stay the same, like Jase or embrace the darkness like Esteban and Niko.

The mutated virus burning in her blood made her even more of an unknown quantity.

So I shrugged my assent at Dan and tried to stay out of the way until we were ready to leave.

* * *

Esme arrived eventually, escorting two army doctors and several burly enlisted guys. I didn’t know enough about army ranks to read the insignia on any of the uniforms but if I had to guess, one of the doctors was definitely at least a major. He had the same air of used-to-giving orders that Dan and Marco projected.

All too soon, we were loaded into the chopper and headed toward Fort Lyman.

The chopper—big enough for all of us and then some—had been modified to transport vamps. Its rear passenger compartment was completely sealed off so no hint of sunlight would get through once inside. They’d erected a tunnel-like canopy that stretched from the exit door on the hospital roof to the helicopter that let us walk Rhi and Marco safely through the early morning light.

“This better be completely safe,” I muttered to Dan as we climbed aboard, taking our places opposite Marco and Rhi in the compartment. Esme slid into place on my left. Three weres, an Old One and the restraints around Rhi’s wrists and ankles should be enough to keep Rhi under control if she panicked.

I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it wasn’t.

“It’s safe,” Dan said. “Stop worrying.”

“I just don’t want to have to explain to the vampire community how we fried the head of the city.”

“Nor would you appreciate the power struggle that would follow,” Marco quipped from the darkness as Dan slid the door shut.

Right. I suppressed a shiver as I snapped my harness shut. I hadn’t even thought about that. A major vampire turf war was definitely not something we needed. Now or ever.

The line of lights on the roof only gave off a low light. Guess they figured vamps and werewolves could see well enough in the dark. With no windows, no line of sight to orientate myself, the lurch of the chopper lifting off made my stomach roll. I swallowed hard. There would be no throwing up.

Rhianna huddled in the seat next to Marco. She still hadn’t spoken. The restraints looked too heavy for her wrists, the black metal—I had no idea what they were made of—making her bones look fragile. She stared blankly at the wall, not looking at any of us.

“Is this normal?” I asked Marco, to distract myself from the queasiness in my stomach. The last time I’d been in a helicopter, I’d been flying to confront Tate. The memory didn’t help my motion sickness.

Hopefully this time there would be an ending that didn’t involve multiple deaths.

Marco looked at Rhianna for a long moment. “Everyone is different. She will talk when she’s ready.” His voice sounded tinny over the headsets we all wore—all of us except the silent Rhianna.

We hadn’t figured she’d need one.

I hadn’t been exactly Little Miss Sunshine myself when I’d found out I was going to be a werewolf. But Rhianna was different. It wasn’t despair written on her face. It wasn’t really anything. Instead there was a strange kind of absence, as if everything that made her Rhianna had packed up and fled.

I had no idea how to fix that.

Silence descended over the headsets, everyone engrossed in their own thoughts as the roar of the engines and rotors surrounded us.

The flight took about thirty minutes. We landed with a gentle bump and the engine noise cut off. I started to unbuckle my seat belt but the pilot’s voice came over the radio, asking us to stay where we were.

There was another series of bumps and thuds and metal grating against metal as the chopper lurched around alarmingly.

I gripped Dan’s arm. “What’s going on?”

“I think they’re taking the chopper in somewhere under cover, so everyone can get out safely.”

“Oh.” I swallowed again, my stomach not liking this movement any more than the flight.

Mercifully, it didn’t take very long. The pilot’s voice eventually gave us the all clear and the compartment door slid back. I followed Esme out, leaving Dan with Marco and Rhi. We were in some sort of windowless hanger. A few other choppers sat around with crews swarming over them in harsh artificial light. Our chopper had been placed well away from them though and we had a welcoming committee. Another medical team—all dressed in army green scrubs and white coats—waited for us with a gurney. Behind them was a squad of soldiers with nasty looking guns.

My wolf bristled at the sight.

“Easy,” Dan murmured, moving closer to me and putting a hand on my back. “It’s just a precaution.”

I wished I could believe him but I couldn’t make myself relax until Marco led Rhianna down from the chopper. She put up no protest as they helped her onto the gurney and fastened yet another set of restraints across her chest.

As one of the doctors moved his arm, the sleeve of his coat fell back slight revealing black fabric padding his arm.

I nudged Dan. “Body armor?”

He nodded. “I’d imagine they’re trying to limit the risk of anyone getting bitten.”

If that was the aim, they’d be better off wearing good old-fashioned metal armor. Though that would probably make it hard to do any doctoring. If I was in their place, I wasn’t sure that I’d be happy treating a vamp whose one bite could turn me.

But they were doing what they’d been told to do. Just as well I had never enlisted.

Following orders had never been my strong point.

Marco walked beside the team as they led us across the hanger and into an elevator, the squad of soldiers surrounding us in a square. We went down, not up. Still more time in rooms with no windows, no fresh air, no sunlight. The full moon was only a few days away and I was starting to itch for the feel of wind on my skin and dirt under my feet. It had only been twelve hours or so since I’d been outside...how was Rhi going to cope if this was the rest of her life?

The elevator doors opened into a long passageway, a tunnel really, that took us into the hospital. The scent of antiseptic and the weird sterilized feel to the air made me feel sick all over again. I’d really had my fill of hospitals.