Haven (53 page)

I released Alexander’s finger. “What’s wrong? Oh hey, I can whisper now, that’s good, right?”

Dr. O and Alexander exchanged a look. Alexander disappeared in a blur of speed. He conversed with someone in the other room, tone urgent. Dr. O released my arm to rummage through his medical bag.

Well, if they refused to tell me what was wrong, I’d find out for myself. I touched my shoulder.

“Rina, no!” Faith cried, but it was too late.

I tried to make sense of it. It was my body, my neck and shoulder, but it felt more like...like...hamburger. Warm, wet, raw. And underneath that, something slick and hard. Oh, God. My collarbone. Tony had shredded me like so much meat, literally
shredded me to the bone.

I screamed. The sound tore away Dr. O’s and Lily’s magical Band-Aid. Blood spurted from my neck, pain vibrated me like a tolling bell and I did the one
thing a girl can do when faced with that much trauma.

I passed out.

~ * ~

A rumbling voice woke me up. “
Sei a posto, Principessa, vedrai che starai bene, Principessa
.”

I opened my eyes and blinked with heavy lids, trying to get a grip on what was happening. That deep voice kept murmuring in Italian, the sound vibrating through me because its owner held me in his arms. He was huge, thick and strong, solid like a tree. A familiar tree.

“Roland.” My voice was breathy, ethereal.

“
Si, Principessa
.” He stopped walking. Oh, we were moving.

“Where are we going?”

“Clinic.”

“Oh. Why?” I should know the answer, but my brain found it difficult to hold onto any particular thought. I was fuzzy around the edges and everywhere in between.

“You are hurt.”

“Oh,” I repeated, blinking hard, struggling to snap out of this funk. Roland resumed walking.

“Wait. Where are we going?” I slurred, voice little more than a whisper.

“Clinic.”

“Oh. Did I already ask that?”

“Yes.”

We moved through a dark hallway.

An ocean breeze flowed past us, making me shiver. “Where are we?”

“In the hall, princess.”

“Yes, Roland, but where?”

“My place.”

“I don’t understand.”

A woman’s scream pierced the air.

I attempted to lift my head and failed. “What’s happening?”

“That would be Jonas, having a little chat with Brigid,” Alexander replied from behind us. His voice and the mention of the evil witch from hell brought everything flooding back into my foggy brain.

He fell into step beside us. “Let me have her.”

“No.”

“Come on, big guy, hand her over.”

“No.”

“Alexander,” I interjected. “What’s happening to me? I can’t think.”

He snorted. “Of course you can’t. The doc gave you a truck load of morphine.”

“Guess he didn’t get the memo about me being a lightweight.” That was the sentence I said in my head, but it sounded unintelligible to my ears.

Alexander chuckled. “Oh, no, he knew it and was counting on it. Wanted you plenty loopy.”

I think I frowned, but with my face so loose and rubbery, I wasn’t sure. “Oh, okay, I guess.”

Now that I knew the cause of the weirdness, I didn’t need to worry about it. Besides, I knew what the drugs masked. I remembered the pain, the blood and muscle, ligament and bone against my fingers. But the morphine made it all distant, unreal, slippery. I was unable to hold onto any particular thought and for that I was grateful. I snuggled my head against Roland’s chest, closed my eyes and rode the high.

“Hello, my little warrior.”

I opened my eyes. Jonas surveyed me, his face an angry mask. Angry with me? No. His face softened, as much as it ever did, which isn’t much, and relief gleamed in his dark eyes.

He waited for me to speak. I took in a breath and slurred-slash-whispered, “Still think I’m your Chosen One? If this were school, I’d be getting a big fat F in the how-to-be-a-kickass-warrior class.”

Roland coughed and cleared his throat. Alexander laughed outright.

Jonas’s lips twitched and he put his face close to mine. “Yes.” He disappeared.

A moment later, Brigid screamed again.

Roland shifted toward the sound. We were in his restaurant. Or what was left of it. It looked much like it had the night Dixon and crew attacked us. Debris and bodies everywhere. This time, however, Mark and Ren weren’t lying on the ground unconscious. They stood next to two enormous mountains. Primo and, given the strong resemblance, his brother.

“Take me to my boys,” I ordered Roland. A rush of air caressed my skin and the next instant, we stood with them.

“Hey, Rina.” Ren greeted me as if we’d met up for coffee and weren’t standing in the middle of a war zone. Hell, I wasn’t even standing.

“Hiya, Ren.” I sounded blasé, too, thanks to the medication.

Ren regarded something on the ground but at the sound of my breathy voice, his head came up. He cocked a brow, a slow grin spreading over his face. “High much?”

I would’ve given him a one-finger salute, but my hand wouldn’t cooperate. Instead I ignored the teasing and whispered to both my boys. “Thanks for saving me. Saving us.”

Mark nodded. Ren winked. “Anytime.”

A wave of emotion pushed through the morphine and I wanted to hug them both, but I was floppy as a rag doll, and stuck in Roland’s arms until he decided otherwise. I put the emotion in my eyes. “I love you guys.”

Ren patted my head. “Yeah, yeah, high girl, we love you, too.”

“Shut up.” I gave him a sloppy smile.

Brigid screamed again, interrupting our banter.

“Whatcha doin’ to Bi-Bi-Buh.” I gave up on her name. “Witch.”

My boys lost their grins, suddenly all business. Serious, violent business. “What needs to be done,” Mark replied.

“Tell Jonas she killed my dad, I mean Edoardo. She’s a spy, she’s evil, she—”

Jonas appeared next to me. “We know. We know everything.”

He laid a soft kiss on my knuckles, hand warm against the iciness of mine.

“Where’s Thomas? And Tessa?” I asked.

You called, cara mia?
His smooth voice slid through my head like silk. I shivered.

Jonas patted my hand.
Careful, Thomas, she is fragile.

Yes.

“Where are you?” I slurred at Thomas.

We await you at the clinic.

We?
I asked in my head since forming words challenged my mouth.

Me, Lorenzo, Dominico.

Why aren’t you here?
How odd they would’ve gone ahead without me.

Your brothers accompanied us into the fight. They were injured.

My body twitched, but the morphine suppressed any stronger reaction.
Are they—will they—?

They live, little one. They are healthy and strong and will recover from their injuries.

Okay.
Relief flickered through me and rolled away on the morphine slide. Jonas squeezed my hand. I squeezed back.

Is Tessa at the clinic with you, too?

She attends Antonio.

“Tony.” Even drugged, my despair pushed to the surface.

Jonas pressed my hand to his face, his cheek warm like his hand. How odd for him to be so touchy-feely. My heart swelled. This stoic vampire loved me, loved us all.

Rest now, cara mia, do not worry. You will see him again. I promise you.
A brush of silk and Thomas was gone.

The slamming of doors followed by a gentle rocking sensation opened my eyes though I had no memory of closing them.
Thanks, morphine.
I was horizontal now, in a small, dimly lit space with double doors at my feet. A siren sounded. I lay in an ambulance, cocooned on a stretcher.

Mystery solved, I stared at the white ceiling while my mind wandered nowhere in particular.

Alexander’s face appeared above mine. “Hey. You’re back.”

“For a minute,” I yawned.

He trailed his fingers across my forehead, sending delicious tingles from my head to my toes.

My eyes closed. “I like you.”

His fingers wandered down my cheek, feather light. “I like you, too.”

I was silent for a moment, enjoying his touch. Nearby, Faith and Kai conversed. Faith laughed at something Kai said. A little bubble of happiness floated through me. They sounded relaxed, normal even. A good sign. I would’ve bet money Faith was seeing things again and she knew I wouldn’t die today. Good news
,
but still...

“You know,” I rasped as loudly as
I could manage given my messed up throat. “I’m getting tired of almost dying.”

“Yeah, we’re tired of it, too,” Kai replied, sounding like his usual, jokester self. “So cut it out.”

A wave of fatigue and blood loss and morphine took me. I sunk into those dark waters, welcoming oblivion, comforted by Alexander’s soft laugh and his warm lips pressed to mine.

I spent the next several days at Doc Scott’s clinic for reconstructive surgery and healing magic followed by a strict regimen of sleep and blood. Apparently
,
a half human, half vampire marvel of nature like me can heal most anything with the proper nutrition, aka the red stuff.

While I recuperated in San Francisco, Tessa escorted Tony to Italy
where my father would see him through his ‘adjustment period.’ The thought of what my brother was experiencing made me cringe. I couldn’t shake the guilt. If he hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely
visiting me, he’d still be alive and strutting his gorgeous model stuff on some catwalk in L.A. or New York City. Once he regained his sanity and could hold a conversation without trying to eat me, would he blame me for his demise and hate me for the rest of his eternal life?

My heart would break if he did.

Brigid flew to Italy as our prisoner. Thomas and Jonas intended to punish her, or course, and use her as bait for the Dark One, who’d escaped the Deep Freeze along with Dixon.

As much as we hoped the Dark One’s love for Brigid and his need of her magic would put her first on his evil dance card ahead of me, we doubted Dixon would be so lured to Italy.

“The man has no honor,” Thomas said. He believed Dixon would ignore his new alliance with the Dark One in favor of serving his own needs—acquiring me as his personal revenge tool and shiny new sex toy. So, we increased security.

Lily placed wards on the clinic, our homes, and the club to keep out anyone—living, dead, or undead—with evil intent. On the off chance the wards were breached, a psychic alarm would alert the vampires on Team Good. And Lily, too. Factor in our hi-tech security systems and a gaggle of well-trained, badass security minions both living and undead and our stronghold was looking good.

Faith wanted to help with security, too, on the magical front. Lily
insisted she possessed witch potential and invited my psychic friend to work with “a community of like-minded people” up north, as a white witch in training. Her departure saddened me, but it was a smart move. Smart would keep us alive in the long run.

Kai, of course, accompanied her. After almost losing his soul mate to a psychotic, kidnapping witch, he was taking no more chances with his happily
ever after.

I was destined for training, too, of the physical and metaphysical variety. Vampire boot camp with Jonas. I agreed one hundred percent. I disliked being helpless in the hands of rogue bodyguards and crazy vampires. Possessing a here-to-stay, erratic, and unwieldy power was an equally
great motivator.

Mark and Ren were also invited, but when Dom and Lorenzo insisted on joining the group, Jonas referred them to Primo. I wouldn’t want to train with that giant, but my brothers agreed. Color me impressed.

I was less impressed when they, upon Doc Scott’s urging, insisted I talk to the staff psychiatrist about recent events. “To mitigate any psychological damage,” Doc Scott said. I didn’t like it, didn’t want to bare my soul to a complete stranger, but I’d killed Tiffany, helped Alexander kill Greg, been kidnapped, physically abused, and almost killed by my own newly-undead brother. So yeah, I was due for some couch time.

The shrink didn’t stick to the recent trauma script, however. He focused on my absentee father, encouraging me to explore my feelings, work through my anger, and hey, why didn’t we give my dad a call, invite him in for a session?

Right. My father hadn’t shown up when his only
daughter was in mortal danger—on more than one occasion. What made this well-meaning doctor think he would hop on a plane for therapy now?

I wasn’t ready to talk to him, anyway. The man messed with my brain, stole my memories, lied to me and pretended to be my uncle, abandoned me for twelve years and counting. The words
angry
and
resentful
didn’t begin to cover my feelings.

Yes, I was more than willing to ignore that emotional baggage for a little while longer and focus my attention on something—or specifically someone—much more pleasant. My hot, undead husband, of course.

Alexander spent every night in my room at the clinic. In the bed, too. Not that we did much beyond some innocent smooching and cuddling. My body needed to heal, true, but we also had constant company.

Stella hated losing me to the bad guys at the museum and now she clung to me like sticky rice. Didn’t matter the hospital was warded and staffed with round-the-clock guards. Or that Mark and Ren guarded me all day long. Come dawn when my boys arrived for the day shift, she’d shower and retreat to my room’s closet for six hours. Max. Then she was back at it. Stubborn vampire.

While the constant bodyguard party in my room left us sexually frustrated, it did allow my man and I to talk. A lot. We covered big and little picture topics from our irrevocable blood bond and the prophecy with my name on it to his favorite toothpaste flavor.