“I’ll take care of it,” he assures me. “Do you know your sister’s number?”
“Yeah. She might be working tonight, though.”
“What hospital?”
“Rush. See if she’s there?” I ask as I run my fingers over my neck again. I didn’t imagine being bitten, did I? Maybe the blood on my neck and shoulders dripped down from the cut on the back of my head. No…there’s no way. I remember being bitten. Having my flesh torn. Feeling the blood rush out of my body.
Lucas calls the hospital and asks to have my sister paged. We’re only on hold for a few minutes before she answers.
“Hey, Abby,” I say.
“Callie?” Abby’s voice comes through the Bluetooth in the car. “Are you okay?”
“She’s not,” Lucas answers. “I’m bringing her to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing major,” I start but Lucas interrupts me.
“She has a head injury and lost a lot of blood.”
“Come straight to the ER. I’ll have an attendant waiting to bring you back.”
“You don’t need to give me special treatment,” I try to joke. “What’s a trip to the ER without waiting at least an hour?”
“You’re my sister,” she says quietly. “How far away are you?”
I look at Lucas because I’m not sure where we are at all. “Twenty minutes,” he says.
“Is she going to be all right? Would it be better to pull over and call an ambulance?”
“I don’t feel that bad,” I try to assure both my sister and Lucas. “My neck isn’t bleeding anymore.”
“Your neck? Anymore? What the hell? Never mind. What’s your blood type, Callie? You might need a transfusion if you lost a lot.”
“I don’t know.” I look at Lucas again, not sure if he’s able to tell by the taste. He shakes his head. He doesn’t know either. “I’m fine, really. Well, maybe not fine. I have a headache, but I’ll live.”
“You need to be examined to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
“I agree with your sister,” Lucas says and ends the call. He takes my hand in his, rubbing circles in my palm. “I’d rather play it safe right now. You’re head’s already a little messed up.” He turns again, giving me a small smile.
“Thanks,” I say dryly but feel the knot in my chest loosen just a bit. “And thank you saving me back there. I thought I had it handled, but the warding…” I trail off. “I shouldn’t have been able to use magic.”
“You’re stronger than the warding.”
“I’d like to think so, but no. The hagstone.” I pull my hand out of his, realizing I’m still wearing it. I yank it off and stare at the stone. It’s a gray stone, smooth and polished, with a hole in the middle. The same symbols that were drawn in the circle are etched into the stone.
“The hagstone alone is enough to slow me down. Add in the symbols in the circle and etched into this…Dina said she used to be a witch.”
“Dina?”
“The one with the brown hair.”
“Ah, that one.”
“You pulled her fangs out.”
“Amongst other things. Eliza took her back to the bar. She’s in a cell in the basement. You can torture her later if you want.”
“Uh, thanks?” I wrinkle my nose. “I do need to question her.”
“That’s why I didn’t tear everything off.”
I shake my head and look at the hagstone. “I shouldn’t have been able to do magic, Lucas, and I shouldn’t have been healed.”
“I’m not going to question it.” His hand lands on my thigh. “I came close to losing you again, and this time I blame myself. I never should have left you.”
“How did you find me?”
“I sensed you.”
“And how did you do that?”
He slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know. Maybe because you’re a witch, and we’ve had each other’s blood. I had this feeling.” He takes his hand off my thigh and touches his chest. “It was like a stake to the heart, but worse because I knew something was wrong. I knew you were in trouble. Then I felt a pull. I followed it, and it led me to you.”
I let out a shaky breath and close my eyes. “Other vampires know about us. You could be in trouble with the VC.”
“Fuck the VC. You’re all that matters to me, Callie.” He takes my hand again, and the emotion hits me.
“I was really scared they would go after you.”
“I hope they do. If anyone even thinks about hurting you, I will kill them all.”
“I’m fine, really.” I sit on the hospital bed just to appease Lucas and my sister. I kept my eyes closed the whole drive over, and the little bit of a reprieve did me some good.
“You do not look fine,” Abby says. “You are covered in blood.”
“That’s a regular thing for me,” I tell her. “Usually it’s not my blood, though. I’m a little tired, but I feel much better.” Lucas, keeping his word, stays by my side. “He has even more blood on him.”
“None of it’s mine,” Lucas says factually.
“Look, the less I know the better. I have to report this stuff, okay?” Abby says.
“Then I will tell you it was dog that bit me. Not a werewolf, just a regular dog,” I try.
Abby, who’s opening a sterile wound-cleaning kit, almost drops the supplies. “Werewolves are real?”
“They are, but they don’t want people to know about them, so best keep that secret to yourself.”
She blinks a few times before shaking herself. “Is that why people are crazy during the full moon?” She comes over to the little bed. “Off the record, I need to know what happened, so I know how to take care of you, okay? I’ll figure out what to write up later.”
I nod. “I was sprayed in the face with pepper spray and then hit over the head. I woke up tied to a chair, someone bit me, and then I hit my head again.”
Abby’s eyes flick to Lucas and then back to me. “Where were you bitten?”
“Here.” I point to my neck. “But the wounds healed.”
“Is that a witch thing?”
I shake my head. “No.”
Abby holds out her hands, keeping her gloves clean and has me lean forward so she can look at the cut on the back of my head.
“Good news is you don’t need stitches. Bad news is this isn’t swelling out, which makes me want to run a few tests to be sure it’s not swelling on the inside. All this blood on your clothes is yours?”
“I think so.”
“It is,” Lucas informs us. Right. He can smell the difference.
“Who bit you?” Abby asks slowly, body tensing.
“It wasn’t Lucas,” I snap and then feel bad. “It was another vampire.”
“Do you want to put a name on the report so you can press charges?”
“There’s no need,” Lucas says. “I killed her.”
Abby’s face tenses. She’s seen it all working in the ER, but this is pushing it for her. “Well, that’s, uh, good? Or bad? Since she’s a fellow vamp—”
Someone knocks on the ER door and waits a beat before entering. It’s the phlebotomist, and she stops short, looking at Lucas who’s covered in blood. Abby is trying to keep this under wraps, and the less people that get involved, the better. I’m not sure what kind of reporting this girl has to do at the end of her shift, but leaving inconsistencies can result in Abby getting in trouble, and I don’t want to risk her job.
“Hi,” the phlebotomist says with a fake smile. “I need to get some blood.”
I flick my eyes to my sister. “Is this necessary? I really feel fine.”
“I want a blood count,” Abby says. “Just to be sure.”
My heart skips a beat and when I blink, I see myself being forced down onto a hard foam bed, held down by Doctor Howard while someone takes my blood to try and isolate my powers.
“No.” The lights flicker above us.
“Cal, it’s just a blood test.” Abby takes her gloves off and tosses them in the trash.
“She’s scared of needles,” Lucas tells her.
“After everything, you’re scared of—” Abby cuts off and turns to the phlebotomist. “Give us a minute, please.” The young woman nods and leaves the little ER room. Abby’s back to being tense, and she leans against the counter around the small sink. “He knows?”
“Yes. I’ve told him everything.”
Her head moves side to side. “I didn’t know you were still scared of needles.”
“It’s not really needles, I guess.” I fidget my hands in my lap. “It’s more like the memory it brings up.”