Chapter 13

They switched from one truck to another, Halo impressing her with his ability to start whatever car he wanted to with only his strength and a screwdriver to assist him. She felt bad for whoever’s truck it was, but she knew the person would understand if they had known the desperation of their situation.

They got back on the highway and Felice struggled to stay conscious. She felt as though she had done nothing but sleep since this whole thing had begun—whether voluntarily or not. But she had never known the type of exhaustion that threaded through her at that moment. Her limbs were heavy and uncoordinated; her whole body felt like dead weight. Pain radiated from her shoulder like a burning fire in her skin. She had amazed herself by being able to so much as walk after Halo had gotten through feeding from her.

And what a feeding it had been! She had never felt anything so electric, so stimulating in her life. He had been underselling the experience to her when he’d so simply tossed out the term “sexual high.” It had been damn near orgasmic. If they had been in another situation, if she had been free to lose herself in the feelings, she knew she could have reached orgasm just from the feeding alone.

She felt cheated of that. Cheated of all the luxurious sensation she should have been able to indulge in. She knew this might be the one and only time he fed from her, that he might decide to wipe her memory the moment they were somewhere safe. She knew her time with him was growing short. He would be back with his frivolous women and she would be forgotten. She took small consolation in the fact that she wasn’t likely to remember their encounter anyway.

“When we get to this safe place,” she said drowsily, “don’t wipe my memory before I have a chance to say goodbye.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said, a stormy frown darkening his features. “And anyway, you’ve been shot. We’ll have to wait until you’re healed to erase your memories because there’s no way even the strongest of us could implant a plausible reason for you to be shot and unable to remember it. And by then…the longer you know about us, the harder it is to erase. We’ll have to wipe out months of your life by the time you heal. Only someone as powerful as the queen could possibly pull that off.”

“Months? I could…you’d let me remember all of this for months?”

She was suddenly overjoyed, the idea giving her a new vigor.

“Good,” she whispered. “Good.”

“We shouldn’t erase your thoughts anyway. Not so long as there is an unknown threat out there for you. It wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be fair to you to leave you that vulnerable. Although…I would watch over you,” he said softly. “I will watch over you.”

Again pleasure swirled through her, competing mightily with the pain of her shoulder. He wasn’t going to just dump her off and forget all about her. The idea pleased her far more than it should have. She had to be careful. She knew she couldn’t get attached to him. It would be setting herself up for disappointment. For heartache.

Not that her heart was involved, she quickly told herself. It was clear he didn’t keep any long-standing friendships. Certainly not with women. Perhaps not with anyone. She felt sad for him about that. Sad that he set himself up for so lonely a lifetime.

She had never thought she would think it, but she was glad she had been shot. The pain was worth it. She could feel the bullet embedded in the front of her shoulder, grinding every time she dared to move her arm. The pain was bracing and excruciating at the same time. But it was welcome. Anything to keep her memories intact was worth it.

Felice felt suddenly nauseous and put a hand to her lips to fight back the sensation. Keen to her every movement, he caught the gesture and frowned at her.

“Are you going to be sick?” he asked.

“No,” she said, hoping it was true.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” he noted.

“So have you. You more than me.”

“I’m a vampire,” he said dryly, as if it explained all the difference. She supposed it did.

“I…I wanted to say…” She huffed out an exasperated breath. Why should this be so hard? She was grateful to him and she wanted him to know it. “Thank you,” she said at last.

“Don’t thank me,” he said bitterly. “I was half the reason you were in there. I’ve used you for my own survival. I’ve used you, period.”

It was a cold assessment of their time together, and she tried very hard not to be hurt by it. She had gone into this knowing he was not the type to form emotional attachments. She shouldn’t be feeling any herself. But they had been through so much together. Surely that had to leave some kind of impression. On him as well as her.

“Well, I don’t feel used. And I don’t blame you for any of this. Not in the least.”

“Well, you should,” he said darkly.

“Don’t tell me how to feel,” she snapped at him.

He looked over at her and after a minute he cocked half a grin at her. “Yes, ma’am. Now, tell me, do you think you can make it to the city?”

He reached across the truck and plucked at her shirt where it clung wetly to her shoulder, clearly testing to see how much blood she had lost.

“Ouch. Don’t touch it!” she protested.

“Don’t be a baby,” he countered. “You’re tougher than that.”

The compliment was a bit backhanded, but it pleased her in spite of that. She liked that he thought she was strong. It made her feel like she was as tough as he believed her to be, something she wouldn’t have thought of herself before all of this had begun.

“I can make it,” she said firmly.

“I know you can. Just let me know if you feel dizzy or any sicker than you already are. If you feel like you’re going to pass out I need to know.”

“I’ll let you know,” she said.

“Good girl.”

They fell into silence and she was comfortable with it. She needed the quiet to fully process all that had happened to them. She still couldn’t believe they had made it out of that place alive. This Roth had underestimated Halo’s resourcefulness. He had thought he could bully an accomplished bully. He had thought he could hold power over an incredibly powerful man.

Roth had depended far too much on his electronic observation and control methods. He had not counted on Halo shorting out his entire system, forcing him to come into the room blindly. It was easy to think of Roth underestimating Halo. Five to one odds with Halo nearly depleted of energy, it had seemed as though Halo would be an easy target for being subdued. It had been a miraculous escape. All pulled off by a miraculous man with a little bit of help from her.

A very little bit.

To her surprise, Halo reached across the seat and cupped her bare knee in his huge hand. He rubbed it soothingly. Giving her comfort. It seemed so out of character for him. And yet she had always suspected there was a softer side to him hidden somewhere deep beneath all the bluster and crudeness. She wouldn’t have given herself to him if she hadn’t thought that he was completely irredeemable.

Then again she wasn’t out to rescue him or change him. She had learned the hard way that men could not be changed, that their natures were inherent and immutable. That was just fine to her mind. She rather liked him just the way he was—jerkiness and all.

She impulsively covered the hand on her knee with one of her own, stroking him in return. To her never-ending surprise, he didn’t withdraw. He accepted her answering comfort, something she hadn’t thought he would be open to. But he didn’t seem to mind the mutual understanding that she was appreciating his softer side.

After a few moments, he abruptly removed his hand from her knee and she immediately felt the loss. He began to search the pockets of the cargo pants he was wearing. He came up with a wallet moments later and held it up triumphantly.

“Ha!”

“What do you need that for?” she asked, not understanding why he was so pleased with the find.

“A couple of reasons. One, we need gas. There’s cash and a credit card inside, see?” He showed her the contents of the wallet. “Two, I’ll be able to research this guy by name later on and maybe it’ll lead me to Roth. He’s not going to stick around that warehouse knowing I’ve escaped.”

“You can’t pump gas! You’re covered in blood!”

“That’s why you’re going to do it. That shirt’s black. No one can see the blood on it.”

“It’s winter and I’m barefoot and bare-legged!”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“I need clothes. Shoes. We have to stop at a store.”

He frowned. “We don’t have time for that. And it’ll be just as obvious and suspicious if you walk into a clothing store half naked in winter.”

“We’ll stop at a thrift shop. Somewhere without cameras or security. That way if the clerk is suspicious we’ll be long gone before any help can be summoned. If only we had a smartphone we could search for a location nearby.”

Halo went back to searching his pants and in a pocket down by his knee he came up with a cellphone. He waved it triumphantly in her face. “Ask and you shall receive.”

She snatched it out of his hand and tried to open the phone, but there was a passcode on the opening screen.

“It’s passcode protected,” she said with a dejected sigh.

“Try 0000. Then 1111. Then 2222. You’d be surprised how many people do it.” He flipped open the wallet and removed the license. “Try his birthday too.”

To her surprise he was right. The passcode ended up being his birthday. Month and day.

“That,” she said with a light laugh, “is incredibly awesome.”

“Nah. People are predictable. It’s the first tenet of a hunter’s job. To be able to predict a target by learning his habits. Once you understand your target then it’s easy to hunt them down. It’s rare I get a challenge these days.”

“Roth is a challenge,” she noted.

“Not really. He’s just made himself predictable. Since I’m so important to his plans, he’ll try again.”

“But you know what his plans are now. You’ll be on your guard. And if you report his actions to others, they’ll come to protect you.”

“I can protect myself. It’s better they focus on protecting the queen. From Draz.”

“Who is Draz?”

“A sycophant kingpin.”

“So you’re going after this Draz?”

“No. Not yet. I’m more interested in the immediate threat. I can’t cut off the head while the tail is trying to sting me. Wouldn’t be smart. Besides, Draz is in a whole different league of trouble. I would need specific instructions to go after him. No one’s given me those instructions yet. No one’s given me permission.”

“That’s funny, you never struck me as the type to wait for permission.”

He shot her a wolfish grin. “You’d be right about that. But this is a special circumstance. Draz is the brother of one of the highest-ranking officials in the queen’s entourage. I think his brother believes it’s his responsibility to do the hunting himself.”

“Sounds to me like this brother is letting a vendetta get in the way of a serious hunt to eradicate the problem. If this Draz is such a problem, everyone should be hunting him.”

“My feelings exactly,” he said looking at her with admiration. “Impressive. You didn’t strike me as the type to condone violence as a solution to a problem.”

“That was before one of this Draz’s lieutenants tried to make a junkie out of me and feed me to you like a turkey dinner.”

Halo chuckled. Then she watched him sober. “Are you all right? I mean…I got a little carried away. Normally I would never take so much. But the high…it was incredible and I completely lost control.” His frown deepened and darkened with the confession.

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’m exhausted and need to rest, but adrenaline is a beautiful thing. It’s keeping me going.” She blew off the seriousness and the aftermath of how she was feeling with a simple shrug and a lively toss of her head. “Let’s get me dressed so I can get us some gas.” She glanced at the gauge. “We’re running pretty low.”

She Googled a local thrift shop and they left the highway. They pulled into the parking lot and he drew up beside the store entrance, idling in the fire lane. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible—and he didn’t want her walking barefoot over snowy, frozen ground for as much as he could help her avoid it. She hopped out of the truck and hurried into the store. She hugged her arm close to her side as she wound through tightly packed racks of clothes. She found a round rack of women’s clothes and searched quickly for a pair of pants. She found a pair of jeans close to her size and rapidly put them on, pulling them up over her bare backside beneath the shirt right there where she stood. The clothing racks obscured her, so she was relatively alone. Besides, there was only one other person in the store, the clerk at the counter. She then found a pair of sneakers in her size and put them on as well. She hurried up to the counter, the cash from the wallet in hand. The clerk looked at her curiously, bewildered that she was wearing her purchases already.

She shot her a sunny grin.

“My boyfriend thought it’d be funny to kidnap me in my pajamas this morning. He thought it’d be a romantic gesture. I told him next time do it in spring! And kidnap some of my clothes while he was at it!”

“Men,” the clerk said with an eye roll. “They mean well, poor devils.”

“Indeed they do. Thanks! Have a nice day!”

She gathered her change up with her good arm, trying to use her less dexterous hand in a natural way while keeping the fingers of her injured arm in the front pocket of her jeans. She somewhat pulled it off and hurried out of the store as she stuffed the change into her pocket. Next thing she was leaping up into the truck and patting the dashboard.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes, ma’am. That clerk give you any trouble? Did she look at you weird? I can go use hypno on her.”

“That would expose you and defeat the purpose of what we’re trying to do here. Let’s just get out of here as quickly as possible in case she does decide to report me. Although who you’d call to report a girl without clothes on is beyond me.”

“Right. Off we go.”

Halo had the phone in his hand and tossed it on the dashboard…as if he had just been using it. She couldn’t help herself. “Did you call someone?”

“Just a fellow hunter,” he said, not offering further explanation.

“Why don’t you call in the cavalry?”

“I’ll handle it when we get to vampire central. There’s no need to rush. By the time they mobilize, Roth is going to be long gone. I’d rather explain the situation in person.”

“So they can see for themselves that you aren’t a bad guy? A sycophant?”

“I’ll do better convincing them face-to-face.”

She nodded and fell silent.

They hurried down the road, traveling for a good while before pulling over for gas. Felice hadn’t realized how cold she was until she had some clothes to keep her warm, not to mention the fact that the window was broken on her side of the car. She had moved as close to Halo as possible in order to absorb his heat and he had cranked up the heat, but it was much better with clothes on. However, pumping gas in the frigid cold with no jacket eradicated any progress she’d made in her attempts to warm up. Shivering also exacerbated the incredible pain of the bullet lodged in her shoulder. She had never known such pain before. It was shocking and exhausting.

In a surprising show of thoughtfulness, the heat was blasting even higher by the time she got back in the truck. She shivered and shuddered her way through the next fifteen minutes, her arm killing her with every moment her body was tensed. But they entered the city about twenty minutes later, and she was relieved to see the bridge leading from upstate to the city. They used the last of their cash to pay the toll.

It was another fifteen minutes of congested Midtown traffic before they were pulling into the underground garage of a huge building. They parked in a spot close to the elevators and she got the feeling the space was specifically meant for him. They went toward the elevator, the cold of the garage seeping into her bones. Halo must be freezing, she thought. All he was wearing was a pair of pants. He called the elevator and she worried about people seeing them. He was covered in drying blood. In fact, his neck was still oozing a little, although it had healed up pretty swiftly from what it had been.

They got into the elevator and she immediately saw a problem. It was keycard activated except for the lobby. That meant you needed a keycard or to be accompanied by someone with a card in order to access any of the upper levels of the building.

Clearly Halo did not have a keycard. Which meant they would be spit out into what was no doubt a very busy lobby, especially given that it was nearly three P.M. People were bound to be leaving from work soon.

Halo didn’t seem concerned. They took the elevator to the lobby and when the doors opened he boldly crossed the lobby to the admittance desk full of security guards. Felice’s heart was pounding with anxiety. What would their reaction be? Were they safe here? Where were they exactly?

One of the security guards looked up and saw Halo approaching. Recognition and shock registered in rapid succession.

“Halo!” the guard exclaimed. “What the hell happened to you?”

“No time to explain. I need a keycard so I can get to the infirmary.”

“Of course. Where’s yours?”

“What part of ‘no time to explain’ don’t you understand?” Halo asked dangerously.

“Sure. S-sorry,” the guard said, fumbling at the desk and handing Halo a card. “Take care,” he offered as he handed it over. Halo rolled his eyes and turned away from the desk. He marched back over to the elevators, Felice trying to keep up with his ground-eating strides. But she was so weak, so tired. It was like walking through water. Or Jell-O. Something very resistant to her movement. Halo saw her lagging behind and immediately checked his gait. He turned back to her, put his arm around her, and guided her gently to the elevator.

“Just a little farther,” he encouraged her. “Then you can rest knowing you’re safe and cared for.”

“Will I be? Will I be safe?”

“As long as you are in this building nothing can touch you. See this card?” He waved it in front of a reader inside the elevator. “Without it you can’t get out of the lobby.”

“What about the stairs?” she asked as the doors closed and he selected a button that read sky lobby.

“You need a keycard to access them from the garage or the lobby. You also need a keycard to enter any floor except the lobby from the stairs. So if there’s an emergency you have to go straight down to the lobby.”

“What about this ‘sky lobby’?” she asked, tapping the button he had chosen.

“It’s just another floor in the building. Mainly it’s used for switching elevators in order to reach the upper levels of the building.”

“So what is this place?”

“Call it…vampire central. This is where most vampires live and work in the state of New York. The only other place they might congregate is the city of Buffalo. But Manhattan is far more interesting and diverse. More exciting,” he drawled, not sounding all that excited.

He did, however, reach out to stroke the hair near her neck. He moved closer to her, his warm breath cascading over her face and lips. He reached under the hem of her shirt, his fingers trailing up over the curve of her hip in a way she shouldn’t be able to feel, yet felt with burning clarity all the same.

Arousal washed through her body and she tried to tamp it down with frustration and mortification. This was the last thing she should be feeling! She was bleeding in the middle of a building full of vampires! Full of creatures who would take great offense to her knowing anything about them. Full of creatures who could gobble her up with ease.

And yet all she could think about was being gobbled up by Halo. She wanted so badly to have him feed on her with the luxury of time and security so she could truly enjoy the experience as it was meant to be enjoyed. She wanted to remember it too. She wanted to sink it deep into her soul where on some level she would never forget it.

Her body tensed as he pulled her closer by that single belt loop. It made her shoulder ache painfully and it allowed her to brace herself against the magnetism of his pull on her.

“Stop,” she pleaded with him. “Not here. Not now.”

“Yes here. Yes now,” he countered with a growl of intensity. His finger slid out of the belt loop so he could smooth his hand over her hip and then the curve of her derriere. He then used the grip he had on her buttock to pull her fully flush with his body with a commanding jerk. She squeaked when the action jarred her sore shoulder, but also because of the way he made her feel. Heat bled down through her entire body as his virile vitality cascaded over her like a waterfall of intensity. He burrowed his face against her neck, nuzzling beneath her ear. She could only cling to his shoulder as her knees went weak. He then drew back until his lips were coasting over hers. She felt muscle flexing beneath her fingertips and his strength overwhelmed her. By the time his mouth finally began to ravage hers, she was already swimming in erotic pleasure. What was it about him that made her feel this way? And would she ever be able to leave it behind?

She let him kiss her as wildly as he wanted. Now that she had given in to him she went all in. She kissed him back with equal fervor, her tongue raiding his mouth as often as his raided hers. It all seemed so surreal, and yet she allowed herself to be swept up by it.

Just when she thought she was lost, the doors to the elevator opened. She went to jerk back away from him, but he refused to let her go for several heartbeats. Then finally he released her and allowed her to step out of the elevator.

He was quickly behind her, herding her toward a second bank of elevators. As they waited for the car to come, he stood behind her whistling almost innocently. Only there was nothing about him that could be deemed innocent. People entered the lobby from the other elevators and began to stand around with them as they waited. They were stealing surreptitious glances at Halo and his blood-covered form, but no one said anything, as if this sort of thing was as normal as sunshine.

“Are all of these people vampires?” she asked in a hushed tone. “Do they…can they tell I’m human?”

“They can and they have excellent hearing,” Halo said dryly.

“Oh,” she said, flushing.

“Don’t worry about it. They know if you’re here it’s for a very good reason. To be otherwise would mean…”

“Would mean what?”

“Not to worry,” he soothed her, reaching to stroke the hair by her ear. “There are exceptions to every rule. I am determined that you will be one of them. At least for now.”

“You mean until you wipe my memory.”

“Let’s not think about it now. Let’s focus on pleasanter things.” He bent forward and nuzzled her ear.

“Stop it! This is serious!”

“So am I,” he said with a chuckle.

Just then the elevator came and they boarded it, along with several of the vampires. Being surrounded by them after having spent the better part of the past few days under threat from them made her extremely nervous and jittery. It didn’t help that Halo kept touching her, kept stirring her. Felice felt raw and exposed. As if everyone knew what she was thinking and everyone knew her future except for her. But she did know it. And her future probably wouldn’t include information about vampires or Halo.

They weren’t on the elevator car for very long. They only went up a few floors. They disembarked and Halo guided her through a pair of double doors that led into what could only be deemed a hospital. Or a very advanced clinic. It was clean and pristine, as if no one had used it before then. She imagined there wasn’t very much in the way of sick vampires.

“What do vampires need a clinic for?” she asked. “You’re practically invulnerable.”

“ ‘Practically’ being the key word in that sentence. As you’ve seen we can be injured very severely. We need care to help us heal faster, just like humans do.”

Halo led her directly to one of the curtained-off beds. There was no waiting in a waiting room. Apparently being injured didn’t happen often enough to require one.

A woman in hospital scrubs entered the patient bay almost immediately. She took one look at them and shook her head with a sigh.

“When are you going to learn you can’t risk your life every time you turn around?” she said to Halo. “One of these days someone’s going to hit you just right and you’ll be gone like that.” She snapped her fingers.

Clearly Halo had racked up some frequent flyer miles in the clinic. Then the nurse or doctor or whatever she was turned to look at Felice.

“We don’t get too many of her kind in here.” She inspected the hole in Felice’s shirt. “You’ll have to take this off,” she said, indicating the shirt.

Shyness crept over her. It was ridiculous seeing as how she had just spent the past few days naked in a room with him, but somehow stripping was more exposing than already being naked. It was even more ridiculous when she took into account their sexual relationship.

Maybe it had nothing to do with Halo. Maybe it was this strange woman vampire. Felice didn’t know her, didn’t know what she had planned for her. They were vampires. They could do anything they wanted to her and she wouldn’t have any say in it.

No. Felice wasn’t going to accept that. She would master her own destiny. Even in the face of such power and such terrible odds. She had done it before and would do it again. She would do it until the day she died.

“Could you pull the curtain?” she asked the nurse or doctor or whatever. “Are you my doctor?”

“I’m a nurse. The doctor will be here shortly. We don’t have much in the way of wait times.” She pulled the curtain closed around Halo, Felice, and the bed. “You should go shower,” she said to Halo. “Hold these to your wound to keep from bleeding all over yourself again.” She held out some gauze pads.

“I’ll wait,” he said to her. “Take care of her.”

Felice was touched that his first concern was her. Or maybe she was reading too much into it. She didn’t know. She didn’t pretend to know anything about what he was thinking from one moment to the next.

“Well, let’s see it,” the nurse encouraged her.

Felice awkwardly began to take off her shirt without lifting her injured arm. Now that she was sitting still and was safe she could feel the pain increasing exponentially. She was on fire with it.

Finally Halo lost patience watching her struggle, so he shot a dirty look at the nurse who should have been helping her and helped her himself.

“You’ll have to forgive her for being douchey,” he said irritably. “We aren’t used to having injured humans here. They don’t appreciate the difference in pain tolerances.”

“But you do?” Felice asked with no small amount of amusement.

“Well…I do with you,” he qualified.

“I’m touched,” she said, feeling it more than she let him know by her turn of the phrase.

“Well, don’t get used to it,” he grumbled.

He helped ease her shirt over her shoulder and down her arm, leaving her bare-breasted. She crossed her good arm over her breasts.

“Isn’t there a gown or something?”

“Vampires aren’t very modest either,” Halo huffed as he glared at the nurse. She shrugged and went over to a shelf. She found a gown and tossed it at Halo. Halo helped Felice put it on, with the opening at the back. Then he pulled the front down over her shoulder so the nurse could see the wound. It was still bleeding, but not nearly as badly as it had been. The nurse inspected it, probing at it with gloved fingers. Felice had been intermittently putting pressure on it with her good hand during their ride into the city. Now it started to bleed again. She wondered what the gloves were for, since vampires didn’t get diseases as far as she knew. She voiced the curiosity.

“I still have potential bacteria on my hands. It is to protect you from infection rather than me. You’ll need an X-ray so we can see where the bullet ended up,” the nurse said.

“And you have one here? In this little clinic?”

“We’re not so little. And we have the best diagnostic tools money can buy within the scope of what’s needed for vampires. It’s not like vampires get cancer or anything.”

“Bully for you,” Felice said dryly.

“The doctor will see you after the X-ray. Now, Halo, will you clean up and let us stitch that wound?” the nurse asked, eyeing Halo’s neck and reaching to examine it. He smacked her hand away.

“I’ll heal,” he said gruffly.

“Not as fast as you would with a few stitches. Stop being such a dick,” the nurse said. “Let us take care of you.”

Felice had never heard a nurse call a patient a name before. It shocked her. It reminded her that these people came from a completely different world than she did.

“Let them stitch you up,” she encouraged him.

“Not you too,” he grumbled.

“Yes. Me too.”

“Fine. Stitch me up. But I’m not leaving to clean up or anything until I know she’s safe and resting.”

“She might need surgery. You could be here awhile,” the nurse said.

But Felice wasn’t hearing her. She truly was touched by Halo’s concern for her. She wouldn’t have thought it possible for him to care about anyone but himself. What had she done to win this kind of loyalty from him?

“Then I’ll be here awhile,” he returned.

“Suit yourself.”

The nurse put hands on Halo to sit him down in a chair that was in the bay. Once he was seated she probed at his wound. Then she left to get a stitching kit and returned with it a short while later. She went to draw up a numbing solution into a needle but Halo stopped her.

“Skip it,” he said.

“The stiches have to go deep into the—”

“I said skip it.”

The nurse sighed and set the needle aside.

“No! You have to let them numb you!” Felice cried. “Why should you feel that kind of pain when it can be avoided?”

“It won’t hurt that bad,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

“No use arguing with him,” the nurse said. “He’s notoriously hardheaded.”

There was familiarity there, Felice realized. This nurse had cared for Halo in the past. How often did he end up in her care? He led a dangerous life, had a dangerous occupation. He must be hurt far more often than she had realized.

The nurse threaded her needle and after cleaning off the field of blood as best she could, she jabbed the needle deep into Halo’s flesh. After about two stitches and watching the stoic expression on his face, Felice began to feel nauseated. Almost as though she was feeling his pain for him. Her shoulder burned, her body quaked with shivers. She felt so cold. She found a blanket at the foot of the gurney and wrapped herself up in it as best she could without getting blood on it. It drew Halo’s attention.

“Are you cold?” he asked.

“Only a little.”

“Get another blanket,” he said, nodding to a nearby shelf. “Just until I can help you keep warm.”

She didn’t know what to make of the statement. He sounded serious, but there was a sexual innuendo to the remark that couldn’t be ignored. Was he trying to make her blush in front of this nurse? Was it a game like all of his other teasing and maneuvering?

She was too exhausted to figure it out. She just decided to get the extra blanket and ignore the rest. When she returned to the bed, she sat on it with her back to Halo and the nurse. She didn’t want to see him get any more stitches. It was gruesome and she felt his pain even though he was denying its existence. She felt an overwhelming urge to cry come over her. She silently dashed tears away from her cheeks as the world crashed down heavily around her. However, she made the mistake of sniffling after several minutes of weeping silently.

“Felice?” Halo barked. “Is something wrong?”

“No. I’m just tired,” she said, sniffing again. She didn’t want to anger him with her pathetic human emotiveness. She didn’t want to bother any of them. She wished she could simply vanish from their lives so they wouldn’t have to be troubled by her any longer. As it was they were probably going to make themselves vanish from her life. Why should that bother her so much? Wouldn’t it be for the best all around? After they eliminated the threat around her, wouldn’t it be best if she went back to living in ignorance of them all just like they wanted her to?

She honestly hated the thought of that. She liked being informed, knowing the world around her. She thrived on awareness, be it of the world or of herself. She had already tried living in the dark, and she didn’t want to go there again.

She would just have to do everything in her power to convince them to let her remember. Halo said they did that sometimes, but only with useful humans. How could she be useful to them? What did she have to offer them?

Felice would have to think about that. She was such a simple person and this was such a complex world. They were strong and she was weak. What could she possibly offer them?

She had been so lost in thought that she startled when she felt him touch her under her chin and turn her face up to his. The look of concern on his features was so genuine it took her breath away. Halo? Concerned for someone other than himself? She would have thought it preposterous had she not just lived through the most harrowing rescue attempt in the world. Had he really been as cold as he liked people to believe he was he would have left her there to fend for herself. Or he would have wiped her memory and left her in a ditch somewhere without her knowing what had happened to her. Instead he was taking care of her. He was treating her gently and with great care in his own way. She understood he didn’t do this for everyone. It made her feel special.

“Don’t cry. It’s all over now,” he said softly, his fingertips brushing away the tears on her cheek.

“Is it? We still don’t know why I ended up in that room with you. We don’t know how we’re going to keep it from happening again. They could come and get me again. They can force me to become a junkie and feed me to vampires everywhere until I’m—”

“Stop! I’m not going to let that happen. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Do you believe me?” He gripped her chin as he said this, making sure she met his determined eyes.

She did believe him. She believed he could do anything he put his mind to—including getting out of a heavily armed fortress with a weak human by his side.

“I believe you,” she told him. “I wouldn’t believe anyone else but I believe you.”

“Good girl,” he said as he praised her softly before bending and placing a kiss on the corner of her lips. Felice was surprised at the sign of affection. He didn’t owe her any. In fact, she had pretty much concluded that now that they were out of that room they would have very little to do with each other sexually.

Although it had not felt that way in the elevator. But she had conveniently forgotten about that. It had not fit in her mold of what the future held for them. He was a vampire. She was, basically, food. It would be like dating a sandwich for him, wouldn’t it? Not that Halo was even the sort to date. He would frequent…until he got bored. That would be dating Halo style. Or at least that was how she had read him. How well did she know him really? A couple of days imprisoned with him gave the illusion of intimacy, but did Felice really know him?

Halo kissed her lips more firmly, more insistently. He was trying to draw her out, to get her to respond to him. In spite of the nurse hovering beside them, she felt herself warming to him. She let her lips cling to his, let him kiss her again and yet again as his hand feathered against her jaw.

“Halo, get your jollies another time. Let me finish this stitch,” the nurse complained.

Felice pulled back and realized that Halo had stood up mid-stitch to come to her and the nurse was literally hanging on to him by a thread. She held the needle in her hand, the long thread pulled taut.

“Go to hell,” Halo grumbled, leaning in once more. He kissed her, but Felice made it brief by pulling back again.

“Let her finish. Then you can come back to me,” she tempted him softly.

He seemed to debate it a moment but then nodded his head and walked back to the chair, the nurse in tow. Felice was silent as she watched the nurse finish her stitches.

“The inside ones will dissolve over time,” she told Halo when she was done. “The outer ones I can snip off in a day or two, depending on how you heal. But I recommend you take in some clean energy. Right now you are as tainted as a rusty tin can. Better watch who you come across.”

“I don’t give a shit who I come across,” Halo said sharply. “I’ve done what I needed to do to survive. I dare anyone to judge me for that.”

“The longer you sit in this tainted energy the worse it’ll be for you. You need a clean source right now.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Halo said. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“If you say so. But others aren’t going to take kindly to you walking on the evil side.”

“Fuck you and anyone else,” Halo said gruffly. “Get out of here and get the doctor for her,” he said, nodding toward Felice.

“If you say so,” the nurse said with a shrug. “I’m only trying to help.”

“Yeah well, I don’t need your help.”

She shrugged again then left the medical bay, drawing the curtain closed tighter behind her.