Hidden in the Night Read online

  The ache eventually faded, and she turned off the TV. She hoped she had done the right thing by sending Mark down there. She prayed that Mark could steer him in the right direction. She knew the only way for her to find peace was through Aiden finding his own.

  Chapter 2

  Holly closed the patient chart she had been working on and stretched her arms above her head. As nurse at Saint Mary’s Hospital in downtown Reno, Nevada, the end of her night shift was approaching and she looked forward to heading home and getting some shut-eye. It had been a busy night, and there was one more bed available on her floor. She hoped she would be able to vacate the hospital before anyone was brought up to fill it.

  She looked up from behind the desk as the elevator doors opened. John, one of the hospital orderlies, looked at her from the end of the bed he was pushing out into the hall and smiled. Holly groaned inwardly. Her floor was now full.

  “Special delivery for the cutest nurse in the hospital,” John said. He had asked her out dozens of times, and she had gently turned him down each time. He was sweet, charming, and good looking, but he was also human and she was of the Vampire Nation. She felt there was no point in starting something that couldn’t go anywhere. As a member of the Vampire Nation, she had been taught from the time she was old enough to understand the English language to follow the Behavior Doctrine that stated two things: humans must never know about the vampires who lived among them, and humans were to be revered. She didn't have a problem with the latter, but if the former rule was broken, it was punishable by death by those God forsaken soldiers, the Dark Forces, that served The Council. She didn’t understand how a relationship with a human could work with that rule hanging over her head. To make her situation even more stressful, she was a female vampire, a rarity in her race.

  For reasons unknown to anyone in the race, female vampires had stopped being born. There were intelligent guesses that it had to do with a defect in the vampire DNA, but no one knew for sure. There were very few females left of her race, and those who did exist had disappeared from the Vampire Nation. No one knew of their whereabouts. Some had taken to live solitary lives, while others, such as Holly, had decided to hide in plain sight. That was because The Council, the leaders of her race, had decided that they needed to gather up all the female vampires and start breeding them whether they were willing or not. The races numbers needed to be bolstered. Holly wasn't having any of that, and so she went into hiding in plain sight.

  She lived among the humans, had a human job, and did human activities with her human roommate. Sure, she still needed blood, but she had found a way around that by using blood from a blood bank and jabbing herself with an IV so she didn't need to go out to feed from a live source—a human. And no, she couldn't go out in the sun. Telling everyone that she had a terrible and rare skin disease, Xeroderman Pigmentosum, had come naturally to her. If she did in fact have Xeroderman Pigmentosum, she would have developed multiple skin cancers quickly, so people understood why she did most of her activities at night. She worked the night shift at the hospital. She did her grocery shopping at night. On the rare occasion she decided to go out socially, it was done at night.

  If she had really gone out in the sun, the results would have been far more damaging than skin cancer. Since vampires fried in direct sunlight, it would have been instant death.

  “What do you have, John?” she asked, walking around the counter to look at the patient.

  “Guy found on the sidewalk about a block down. He’s been beaten pretty badly. Concussion, a few broken ribs. He hasn’t come to, no I.D., so he's a John Doe at this point.”

  Holly motioned for John to follow her to the empty room, frustrated. She had been swamped all night long and had literally sat down for the first time that night when John showed up. They had been short one nurse, and things had been just shy of crazy. She was tired and really wanted to go home. She loved her job, loved helping the sick become healthy, loved helping the injured mend. It was also convenient with getting the blood she needed to survive, but as the saying went, stick a fork in her because she was done. For tonight at least.

  John grunted as he began pushing the bed. “Jesus, this guy is heavy.”

  Once the bed was in place, Holly began looking at the chart. After a quick review, she looked at the patient.

  He almost dwarfed the bed. His wide shoulders almost stretched the width of the mattress, and he was so tall his feet just about played peek-a-boo out the bottom of the blanket. His chocolate skin was a stark contrast to the stark white linen that covered him.

  She sighed and said, “Thanks, John. I'll take it from here.”

  "Are you sure I can't interest you in a cup of coffee after your shift ends?" John asked hopefully.

  She smiled and shook her head. How many times did she need to reject him until he got the message? She did give him points for perseverance though.

  John shrugged and left. Holly pulled the curtain to give her and her new patient privacy. She quickly examined the bandage on his head, and then pulled down the sheet to examine the rib area. ER had done a nice wrap job on his ribs, she thought. She couldn’t help but notice the grooves and plains that indicated a heavy muscular build under the dark skin all the way down his torso. She studied the tattoo that rested over his heart—a snake gripping a heart, squeezing it. The snake's body slithered up his chest, and its head rested just below the male's ear.

  His face had fine features, and she looked at the piercing just below his lower lip and the one on the side of his nose. Both piercings were diamonds. At least he has good taste. She studied him closer and realized that even while resting, his face indicated that he was a very hard man, perhaps even a cruel, dangerous man. But he didn’t scare her. Working as nurse for as long as she had, which would be ninety-nine years, thank you very much, she had come across some pretty tough guys and she knew she could take care of herself. She often found that the bigger the guy, the tougher they looked, the bigger babies they were when it came to injuries and healing. Especially needles. She had seen guys this size cringe in fear when she brought in a needle.

  She made her notes in the chart and looked at her watch. It was an hour before dawn, and the headache that signaled to those of her kind that the sun was fast approaching began to throb.

  She looked down at the patient and gently brushed his cheek. “What happened to you, buddy?” she whispered.

  And then she saw it—a small V on the side of his neck. She gasped and drew her hand away. All male vampires were born with that marking on their necks. She looked over him again, at the sheer size of him. He had to be one of the soldiers who were dedicated to protecting the Vampire Nation, one of the sons of Rusalka of The Council, one of the Dark Forces. If that was the case, then she needed to get away from him. The last she had heard, The Council wanted to herd up all the female vampires and mate them, whether they wanted to or not, to build up the dwindling races numbers. It was at that point that Holly had picked up and moved from New York and began her trek across country, eventually ending up in Reno, Nevada. She didn’t want to be found by The Council, any of their soldiers, or anyone of her race. She had made herself disappear within the human population. She would not be used as baby maker. She had no family—she had been orphaned as a child—and she hadn't talked to another vampire in a hundred years. It was too risky. She couldn't trust anyone.

  As she stared at the big male in front of her, she felt like her heart may explode from her chest from fear. She hadn't been afraid of him before, but now she had realized that she was staring at one of her own race, who most likely was a soldier for the Dark Forces, and there was a difficult dilemma that she needed to solve quickly. She couldn’t very well leave him here—he would go up in smoke once the early morning sunrays came through the window. She couldn’t allow the humans to see that happen. But she didn’t want him to know about her either.

  So, what should she do with him?

  Her duty as a nurse, sworn to protect l
ife, overrode her need for self-preservation. She needed to get him out of there, needed to take him somewhere to heal. If needed, she would disappear again and go somewhere to start her life over after he was better.

  She checked her watch again and began formulating a plan. She had forty-five minutes to make her exit. The day shift hadn’t arrived yet, and her floor was quiet. She thought she could probably get him to the elevator and take him down to the morgue. From there, if she was lucky, she could slip him out the back and get him into her car that was parked close to the back. She parked there because that side of the building faced east, and it was the last place to receive the sun’s rays. If she ever got held up, that was her best chance of making it out of the building without turning to ash. So far, she had been terribly lucky, and if asked to work during the day, she always fell back on her pretend case of Xeroderman Pigmentosum. That little mouthful had allowed her to always get in and out of the hospital without seeing daylight.

  To make her plan work, she was going to need his help. He was far too large for her to haul into her car. He must have stood at six and a half feet and weighed around two hundred and fifty pounds. She was five-foot-four if she stretched and barely tipped the scale at one hundred ten pounds wet. He was going to have to pull his own weight if they were going to get out of there. Alive.

  She took a deep breath and placed her hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him and leaned down to his ear. “C’mon, big guy. I'm going to need your help to get out of here,” she whispered softly.

  No response.

  She shook him a little harder. “Wake up!” she whispered more harshly.

  No response.

  She stood up, beginning to panic. As a nurse, she did not panic. She oozed the calm, cool, and collected thing. Nothing shook her. Until now.

  “Shit,” she said under her breath. “Shit, shit, shit!” Very rarely did she swear, but she felt this situation called for it.

  She looked around the room trying to come up with a plan B. Her position was very precarious. If she didn’t get out of there herself, she would be up in flames as well. She simply couldn’t leave him though.

  She turned back to him and leaned down to his ear again. “Wake up, now!” she hissed.

  She watched as the eyelids fluttered, and she gasped when they opened. If she had thought he looked cruel and dangerous before, he looked lethally scary with his eyes open. His eyes were a light brown and showed no emotion except pain and anger. She took a step back from him, her hand going to her mouth, and she had the passing thought that perhaps she should have left him for the sun.

  He looked at her, and then gazed around the room. As he processed where he was, his eyes flared, and Holly thought she saw a flicker of something related to fear pass over his face, but it faded as fast as it had come. She wasn’t sure she had seen it at all.

  Holly willed some steel into her spine and stepped toward the bed again. She cleared her throat and spoke in a low tone, knowing he could hear her with his superior hearing.

  “I know what you are,” she said. “And the sun is going to be up in under an hour. I think I can get us out of here, but I need your help.” She took a deep breath and continued. “I know you're hurt, but I obviously can’t lift you. I'll need you to walk a little bit.”

  He looked at her, his brown eyes questioning. He swallowed and said in a dry whisper, “And what do you think I am?”

  She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you with me or not, vampire? We have to get moving or we're both going to go up in smoke.”

  His eyebrows lifted, curiosity now flaring in his eyes. “Are you …?"

  She let out a sigh. “Yes. Can we discuss it later? Please? I’m telling you, we're running out of time and us sitting here shooting the bull is doing nothing but wasting it.”

  He nodded and began to haul his upper body off the bed. Pain lanced across his face as sweat broke out on his brow. She gently put her hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him back down. He breathed heavily.

  “Not yet,” she said. She explained her plan of rolling him out down to the morgue. “When we get to the door leading outside, then I'll need you to walk a few steps to my car. I'm taking you back to my house. It's the only way to save you.”

  He nodded again and closed his eyes.

  She undid the breaks on the bed, flung back the curtain, and pushed him out. John had been right; he was heavy. Even though she was small, she still had the strength of a human male. She had almost made it to the elevator when the morning nurse supervisor came around the corner. Her scrubs matched her red hair that was perfectly coiffed around her head, her big body jiggling with each step. Holly always thought the woman looked like the apple from the old Fruit of the Loom men's underwear commercials when she wore the red scrubs.

  Holly swore again under her breath and felt her stomach jitterbug from nerves. She could be very busted right now.

  “Oh, hey Holly,” she said, looking questioningly at the huge man lying on the bed.

  “Hi Shari,” Holly said, pushing the button to summon the elevator.

  “Does he have tests or something?” Shari asked.

  Holly nodded. “The doctor ordered a cat scan on him, but the orderlies are really busy right now and said it would be about a half hour before they could make it up here. I checked this guys pupils and thought he should have that cat scan sooner than later.”

  “That’s too bad," Shari said. “Mind if I take a look?”

  Holly's stomach fluttered. She knew damn well there wasn’t anything wrong with the male’s eyes. She had never liked Shari. Shari liked being in charge and second-guessed all of the nurses, but Holly couldn’t say no to her supervisor. Besides, it would only draw more attention to the situation, making Shari more inquisitive.

  Shari approached the bed and said, “Maybe you won’t have to take him down. Let’s see if he really can wait.”

  As she leaned over the bed, the male's hand whipped up and grabbed her arm. She gasped as she looked at him, and then calmed.

  Holly watched as he held Shari's stare. From what she had read while studying the history of her species, and what she had witnessed before when she actually associated with those of her own species, she knew that he was putting Shari in a light trance. She had heard about first generation half-vampires having special psychic abilities, like being able to read minds, put humans in light trances, or erase memories of both vampires and humans. She knew there were some that could even dematerialize, or sense others feelings, however, she certainly didn't possess any psychic skills herself.

  Watching him as he did his voodoo on Shari sealed the suspicion that he was a direct descendent of The Council and a soldier of her race, a member of the Dark Forces. She felt her insides tighten, and wondered what she had gotten herself into.

  “Once the elevator comes,” the male said in a whisper, his eyes locked into Shari’s, “you will help Holly push this bed in. Then you will go to the desk and sit down, and erase any records that pertain to me. You will continue your day unaware that you ever saw Holly or me. Do you understand?”

  Shari nodded, and as if on cue, the ding signaled the elevator’s arrival, and the doors slid open.

  The male had released Shari and was lying quietly with his eyes closed.

  Thankfully, the elevator was empty. Holly and a tranced-out Shari pushed in the bed, and Holly watched as Shari went over to the desk and sat down. The elevator doors closed, and Holly let out a sigh.

  “That was close,” she said more to herself than to the patient.

  His eyes opened and he stared up at her. “What’s next?” he asked hoarsely.

  “Basement. Morgue. Out the back door and into the car. I live a few miles away, but we should make it back to my house before dawn. Once we're there, you're going to have to go down some stairs, but then that's it.”

  He nodded and shut his eyes again.

  As the elevator took them down to the ground floor, Holly found
herself staring at the vampire. Yes, his face was hard, and he had an air of danger around him, but there was also an undertone of raw sex. A bad boy, she thought to herself. A hard, dangerous, terribly sexy bad boy. She bet he went through women faster than she went through Kleenex when she had a cold.

  He is your patient, the nurse in her scolded. Not to mention, he does the bidding of The Council. Forget any undertones, sexual or otherwise. Get him well and get him out of your life.

  The doors opened to the basement. She pushed the bed out onto the cement flooring, silently cursing the squeaky wheel. She saw the door to freedom straight ahead, that big, red exit sign above it a beacon. It looked as though it were miles away. She found herself pushing the bed faster, and threw up a little prayer that they didn’t run into anyone.

  As she pulled the bed to a stop by the door, she put her arms under his armpits and began to help him up. His face strained with pain as he sat up. He brought his legs to the side of the bed to get off. The sheet crawled up his skin, showing off the strong lines of his thighs, and then she realized he was naked. Of course he was naked. They had cut off his clothes in the Emergency Room, and she hadn’t put a hospital Johnny on him yet. She had meant to do that right after she examined his wounds, but she obviously got sidetracked by the whole "my patient is a vampire" thing.

  “Wait!” she whispered. “Let me get you some scrubs.” She ran back down the hall and found a bathroom and locker room that the morgue employees used. As she eased the door open, she heard the shower going and someone humming softly. She slipped into the dressing room area and found some scrubs sitting on a bench. They would be a little small on her patient, but they would have to do. She sent a mental apology to the person in the shower who wouldn’t have anything to wear once they got out.