"Okay." Then I sat beside her. "What can I do to help you?"
"I don't know. Take my pain away."
Oh no. I swallowed tightly. I knew Emily wasn't serious. She didn't know I was empathic and her request was an actual possibility, but I didn't know if I wanted that madness in me. "How about a sleeping pill? You'll sleep right through it and wake up refreshed for a month?"
I settled for a second best option.
"I don't feel like that's a healthy thing to do. I feel like I should go through this. I should feel this torment."
"You're crazy. Why would you want to do that? This isn't your fault. You're feeling this because of—" I clamped my mouth shut. "Because of the moon."
"Yeah."
I watched Emily and saw she was determined to feel this thing through. Sometimes she amazed me and other times she made my head spin around. Who would want to feel this type of madness? Emily would.
She hugged a blanket around her. Tears coursed down her cheeks and she sneezed a few times. I handed over a tissue box. "You're determined to stay awake for this?"
"Yes." She sounded determined, but I heard a waver in her voice.
It was all the permission I needed. "I'll get you some juice."
She looked at me with grateful tears in those eyes. "I'd appreciate it so much. Thank you, Davy."
I grabbed one of the cups from our dirty bin and went to the door to wash it. Emily didn't spare me a look as she huddled into the couch and I grabbed my purse. When I went to the bathroom, I cleaned the cup and pulled out some sleeping pills Kates gave me awhile ago.
I dumped three in Emily's drink and stirred it so the powder dissolved. And when I handed over the juice to her trusting hands, I felt no guilt. I was drugging my roommate out of love. If I left her alone with the madness that came when a love bite was broken, she would have tried to commit suicide. I'd seen it before and I wasn't going to let Emily do something stupid like that. "Drink all of it. Your body needs those vitamins."
She guzzled it down and wiped at her chin. "Thanks, Davy. You're the best roommate."
Well…the jury's out on that one. I popped in a movie, grabbed my blanket, and settled beside her. Emily's eyes kept watering through the movie until I reached over and grabbed her hand. She would quiet right away and I allowed myself to pull some of that pain out of her. I felt the madness trying to get through my barrier, lashing at me, snarling, but I kept it at bay. Emily's pain was pushed underneath the craziness and it streamed into me like a calm river. If I hadn't been the Immortal, I couldn't have separated the threads. An hour later, I opened my eyes and saw that she'd fallen asleep with both hands clenched on mine. There was a feel of desperation in her body.
When my eyelids started to feel heavy and drop, I realized some of the sleeping pills must've gotten into my system too. Roane was at the Alexander and I wanted to see him, but my eyelids refused to stay open. After five minutes, I gave up the fight and moved to my bed. It wasn't long until I found myself dreaming of vampires with rabid purple eyes.. And then a voice screamed in my head, "Davy! Wake up!"
I shot upright and banged my head on Emily's bunk. I rubbed my head, expecting to see someone in my room. There was no one and I started to lie back down.
"Get up! Get up! You're needed at the Alexander NOW!"
Alexander. Roane. Crap.
CHAPTER FOUR
When I got to the Alexander, I wasn't surprised to find it filled to the maximum. It had always been the hotspot for the showy and shallow. And those were just the humans. The basement was filled as well, but with vampires.
"Davina."
I turned and saw Gregory. He stood by the bar with a drink in hand. His face was stiff and his thick square-like jaw seemed cemented in place.
"Hi, Gregory." I held a hand out and the blond Viking vampire took it for a handshake. He had never warmed up to me, but as one of Roane's loyal followers he was forced to be nice. He smiled thinly and offered his drink. "Lucas is in his office. I'll take you there."
As I followed him into a narrow back hallway, I was surprised to hear Roane's given name. I'd grown so comfortable thinking of him as his bloodline's name that I'd forgotten it wasn't his first name. As we continued through a few more hallways, I was surprised how Gregory fit though them. Then, at the end of one, he knocked on a black door. I would've walked past it and not known it was there, but it opened to Roane's office. He sat behind a massive mahogany desk. While the entrance was plain, everything inside the office was not. The desk was large enough for a king to lie on. Leather couches and chairs sat beside it while a painting was mounted on the wall. I watched the smiling woman in the painting and half expected her to speak to me. She looked too life-like for my own liking.
Roane lifted his head and his coal eyes flickered when he stood. "Davy. You came. Thank you, Gregory."
"Lucas."
Roane gestured towards a chair when the blonde giant left. "I need a few minutes to finish some paperwork."
"So I better get comfortable, huh?" I looked at the door as I sat down. "For being Hulk Hogan, he's quiet like a ghost. It's scary."