Nightshifted (Edie Spence 1)

I kept a compassionate smile pasted firmly on my face. “I’m sure it was. ”

* * *

I backed out of the room and waved at Meaty. “Bathroom break!”

Meaty nodded, and I made my escape from the floor to the locker room, hauling my phone out from my purse and dialing Jake as soon as the locker door closed behind me.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up…” Sure, Y4 could protect my brother from the ravages of heroin. But what if he was bleeding out in a gutter somewhere?

The dial tone stuttered, and I expected a disconnect—cell phone signals wherever Y4 was was spotty—then heard “Yahlo?” from a sleep-filled voice.

“Jake?” I blurted. “You okay?”

“Sissy? Sissy—Jesus, Sissy, yes, I’m fine. ”

“Really?” I asked. What else could I ask him? Check yourself for puncture marks, you sure no one’s bitten you lately? Seen any rabid cats?

“Sissy—what time is it?—of course I’m fine. ” I could hear him waking up as he spoke, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “Everyone else’s turned in for the night. You know they close the doors at eight P. M. ”

I knew he’d be one of the many men in a cot-lined room. Had Mr. Galeman been in the Armory when he’d been bitten? Or outside of it, only to come in later and collapse from the cold?

What did it matter, anyhow, now that Anna’d been kidnapped?

“I just wanted to make sure you were safe, Jake, was all. It’s going to be cold tonight. ”

“It’s always cold at night in the winter,” he retorted. “Lemme guess, you’re treating some junkie right now, nearly OD’d, and you’ve got a case of the conscience?”

“Something like that. ”

“Well, I’m fine, Sissy. I appreciate you checking up on me, but it’s not necessary, really. ” His voice dropped even lower. “I’m still superman. ”

I sat down on the changing bench in Y4’s small locker room. “Yeah. ”

“K. I gotta sleep some. Eight A. M. comes up fast, you know?”

“Yeah. ” I’d be in front of a vampire lawyer by eight A. M. It did seem to be coming on quickly. “Love you, Jake. ”

“You too, Sissy,” he said, and hung up.

* * *

I went into the bathroom and flushed the toilet once for pretense, and then I looked at the sink with its faucet. I turned both hot and cold on.

Where are you, Anna? I thought. I concentrated on the water, the sound of i

t, watching it swirl down, trying to do whatever it was I’d done before that’d mesmerized myself last time. Come on, Anna, come on.

Someone tried the locked door behind me, and I heard a muffled, “Sorry!”

Dammit. “It’s okay,” I said, even though it wasn’t. I dried my hands off and went back to the floor.

CHAPTER THIRTY

“So what’ll they do for Mr. Galeman?” I asked Meaty when I returned.

“Paul will get him to sign some paperwork in the morning. He’ll make some calls—we have to report the bite to the Thrones, after all. Either they’ve got someone in from out of town who doesn’t know the rules, or they’ve got someone on their team who isn’t playing by them. ”

I’d figured those parts out already. “But what’ll really happen to him?”

“He’ll be a registered donor, once we find out who to register him to. Or we’ll keep him here till he heals up, and the Shadows’ll fix him before he leaves. ” Meaty indicated this fixing by rubbing fingers and thumbs together industriously, then squinted at me. “He’s not in thrall to the vampire, if that’s what you mean. ”

“No, I was just curious. Thanks. ” I didn’t envy anyone a Shadow “fixing. ” I looked down at the floor, at the narrow shadow cast by the nursing station’s ledge, and thought that I could see them there, dark and swirling, just waiting for a chance to be set free. I shivered, much as Mr. Galeman had, then I gathered myself and my thoughts. I still had one patient left.

I remembered to knock before opening Ti’s door for once.

“Come in,” Ti said. He was out of bed, wearing normal clothing, wandering around the room with a patient-belongings bag in his hand. He wore jeans and a T-shirt—Y4 was temperature controlled—and I couldn’t help noticing how snugly his shirt fit against his muscular arms. I shook my head at myself—patients should never be out of gowns. It made it hard to remember what team they were on.