Hidden in the Night Read online

She ran back down the hall. Her patient now had beads of sweat on his brow, and his breathing was labored. She thought about putting the scrubs on him, about seeing all of his body. Despite the harrowing situation she found herself in, the thought of seeing her patient naked sent a shiver in her gut. She shook her head, reminding herself that she was a professional and she had seen thousands of male naked bodies. She had even had a relationship or two way back when. Okay, way, way back when. Like over a hundred years, but who was counting? But you've never a body like that, a small voice whispered in her head.

  Her patient wouldn't be able to bend over to put the scrubs on his feet because of the bandages around his torso, not to mention his wounds. She bent down and helped put the scrubs over his feet, then drew them up to his knees and over his thighs to the sheet. She stopped. She looked at his face and was surprised to see a slight grin that made his brown eyes spark, despite the obvious pain he was in.

  “I’ll take it from here,” he whispered.

  She turned around, hearing the sheet rustle as he pulled the scrubs to his waist. She heard a violent curse, and turned to see him standing up. She braced herself under his armpit, and he put a bit of weight on her, using her as a crutch. She lightly put her arm around his waist without applying too much pressure so she wouldn’t hurt him further, and pushed open the door to the outside.

  The sun hadn’t made its appearance yet, but the night sky was no longer dark. Holly's warning headache intensified.

  “Stay here and let me get my car,” she said, pointing at the silver Honda about one hundred and fifty feet away. Her patient cursed again, and she felt his body begin to tremble. He leaned up against the brick building, and she sprinted for her car. If he passed out in the parking lot, she didn’t know what she would do.

  With shaking hands, she jammed the keys into the ignition and drove the car over to her patient. She got out and ran around the car to help him in. He slowly folded himself into the front seat, wincing and breathing heavily. When he was finally in, she shut the door and ran around the car to the driver’s side. She stomped on the gas, her vision almost blurry from the pain in her head.

  Speeding down the street, she was thankful that the traffic was light. Ten minutes later they pulled into her garage.

  Her patient had kept his eyes closed the whole trip. She knew he was conscious only because he kept swearing under his breath.

  “We just need to get you inside and down those stairs I told you about,” she said getting out of the car.

  She opened the door for him, and he slowly stood up.

  “Dizzy,” he growled. “Going to be sick.”

  “Don’t you dare pass out on me or throw up,” she demanded through gritted teeth. "Not yet anyway. You can do whatever you want once we get down those stairs."

  He looked down at her, surprised, despite the fact that he looked two shades away from death. She put herself under his arm again, hoped he listened to her, and began walking toward the door that led to the house.

  Chapter 3

  Aiden came to consciousness with a headache that could have crippled an elephant and a stabbing pain in his ribs. His head hurt so badly he didn’t want to open his eyes, and he wondered just how much whiskey he had consumed the previous night for him to be feeling this bad. And the way his ribs felt, yeah, there had probably been a fight. Probably a fight he didn’t win.

  He felt the bed beneath him, and a jolt of recognition that he wasn’t in his own hit him. If not in his bed, then where was he?

  Forcing his brain to kick into gear and backtrack, the memories trickled in. He had been in downtown Reno on his way to a strip club, and not for the fun of it either. That's right, there were kids disappearing. Kids who had been half human and half vampire, but their human DNA had been stronger than their vampire DNA. That's right. That Victor Marano guy had taken those kids and given them shots to activate their vampire DNA.

  He remembered being with his brother, Thaddeus, and finding the warehouse with all the bunk beds. They had guessed that Victor Marano, who had quickly become an arch nemesis, as well as a Grade-A asshole, had housed the boys in the warehouse because it didn't have any windows, and frankly it was a perfect place to house a bunch of vampires. They had found a matchbook with the strip club name on it, Fantasies, if he recalled correctly. He had told Thaddeus to go home, and he would look into the strip club, but he had never made it there.

  After feeding from a prostitute, he had felt really lethargic and he had put together some sort of puzzle having to do with Natalie, his dead mate's, death. He had been so engrossed and tired he hadn't heard his attackers coming.

  He had been hit with a tire iron and left on the sidewalk. He remembered looking up at the stars, feeling blood trickle down his head into his ear and thinking that he would finally get to see his beloved Natalie, who had died ten years prior, because he had been certain that death was upon him.

  No whiskey had been involved.

  He remembered a voice. A soft voice hissing at him to wake up, and he had, despite not wanting to because he was certain he was on his way to see Natalie. Natalie never talked to him like that, and he knew if he was hearing other voices besides hers, chances were that he wasn’t heading to wherever Natalie had gone. Yet, he had been compelled to see what that soft, demanding voice wanted from him.

  When he awoke, he looked into the face of a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties, a woman with spiky black hair, navy blue eyes and smooth, almost translucent white skin. What had she said to him? Hospital. He was in the hospital, and she knew what he was and she needed to get both of them out of there. He remembered looking up at the building at the name of the hospital as he stood outside with dawn fast approaching—Saint Mary's Hospital. The irony wasn't lost on him. He remembered thinking how odd it was that his mate had lost her life at Saint Mary's Hospital, Hospital de Santo Mary in Mexico, and he was getting his life saved at a hospital of the same name, just a different country.

  There had been a car ride to her house. Those stairs had just about killed him, and he had thrown up in her bathroom while she held his hair back and rubbed his shoulders, making soothing shushing sounds.

  He cracked his eyes and looked around the small bedroom. A small lamp bathed the room in a soft glow. He was nestled under a stark white comforter. The walls had been painted a soothing moss green. In the corner was the nurse with the navy blue eyes who had saved his hide. She was curled up in an overstuffed white chair, her small frame fitting perfectly in it. Her head rested on her knees, her arms wrapped around her shins, and judging by the steady rise and fall of her back, she was sleeping. Her hair shot out from her head in all directions and she almost looked like a child. Did he know her name? Holly. Yes. That red-haired nurse who wanted to double-check his eyes had called her Holly.

  He had to piss, and he also needed to get the scrubs off. They were too small, pinching his balls and trying to make a trip north up his ass. He tried to sit up. A groan escaped his lips, but he made it vertical. He just needed to get his feet on the ground and take the five steps to the bathroom. As he eyed the doorway, it looked so far away it might as well be on another planet.

  “Let me help you,” the soft voice said, and his nurse was by his side in seconds. She accompanied him to the doorway of the bathroom.

  He steadied himself with both hands on the doorjamb and said, “I can take it from here.”

  She stepped away and he shut the door to take care of his business.

  He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He was in bad shape. The bruising from the head wound had made its way down to his face, giving his skin dark blotches. He imagined the bruising under the bandage holding his ribs together wasn’t much better.

  He stumbled out of the bathroom and to the bed, waving the nurse off as she tried to help him.

  He got to the bed and looked over at her. “Turn around,” he said roughly.

  “Excuse me?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

 
“I can’t stay upright too much longer, so turn around.”

  She didn’t turn around, just looked at him with wariness and confusion.

  He sighed. “Suit yourself.” He dropped the scrubs. He knew she caught an eyeful, but he didn’t care. He felt the swell of nausea beginning again.

  He got himself into bed, rested his head on the pillows and closed his eyes while throwing his arm over his face. He took a couple of deep breaths—as deep as he could—to try to stave off the nausea.

  “I guess I owe you a thank you,” he said when it had passed a few minutes later. "My name's Aiden, by the way." He usually wasn't much for the polite chit-chat, but she had saved his ass, and he figured she would want to know the name of the naked male in her sheets.

  She didn’t say anything, but sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “I'm Holly, Aiden." She was silent for a moment. "The way you can thank me is not to turn me into The Council,” she said softly.

  He moved his arm and looked up at her.

  “You're one of the Dark Forces, aren’t you?” she asked.

  He nodded slightly.

  “I don’t want to be turned in for breeding purposes,” she said strongly. “So here's the deal.”

  As he had slept, she had apparently put together her plan. Once he was able to get by on his own and she was certain that the wounds were healing correctly, she would pack up her stuff and head out of town. She knew a human that bought and sold identities, and she would contact him and start her life over. She loved her job, but she knew she couldn’t go back now because she was certain that the security cameras had caught her great escape with the patient. If she went back now, she would be fired. It was also a possibility that she would have the police after her if Aiden's little mind trick didn't work on Shari and she didn't erase his medical records.

  Aiden listened as she wondered out loud what crime name would be tagged to taking a patient from a hospital. Kidnapping? But he had been willing to go, so it wasn't kidnapping. In his condition, she supposed it could be considered attempted murder. She shook her head to dismiss the thought.

  She had some money stashed away, so she was set financially for a while until she could find another nursing job. The lease on her place was month-to-month, so she could bail at any time. She had picked up and moved many times before, and she could do it again.

  Aiden studied her. Being a member of the Vampire Nation, she looked like a woman in her late twenties, even though she said she was over two hundred years old, two hundred and two, to be exact. She could only stay in one place for about five or ten years, and then she needed to move on before people questioned why she didn't age. She had been on the run for just shy of a hundred years, so she had done a lot of moving. She had the process down to a science.

  She would simply disappear from the area. She wasn’t going to hang around and wait for him to get better so he could do his job.

  He listened in fascination as she prattled on. Her navy eyes flashed with determination, and the only thing he could think was that she was a female vampire. He was staring into the eyes of a female vampire. It had been what . . . seventy-five years, give or take a decade since he had laid eyes on a female vampire?

  He watched her mouth as she talked, looking for the little tips of her fangs. She pushed her hand through her hair a lot, a nervous habit he guessed, and that was why it was always sticking out. For some reason, on her, it looked cute.

  That was how he would describe her: cute. Her little nose upturned at the tip, her hand flew around while she talked. Her eyes were kind, but tough. She may have been small, but she didn’t put up with any bullshit.

  Despite how horrid he felt he found a smile on his lips as she finished.

  “You don’t need to go anywhere,” he said. “I’m not telling anyone anything.”

  She looked at him, wariness in her eyes. He could tell she didn’t know if she should believe him or not.

  For some reason that he couldn’t fathom, he wanted her to believe him. He wanted her to trust him. He hadn’t given a shit what anyone thought in so long, since Natalie, and the feeling surprised him.

  And she didn’t know whom she was dealing with. Of all of his brothers, he was the one who didn’t give a shit about The Council, their Behavior Doctrine, or their wishes or rules. He had been the one brother that had broken every directive The Council had laid out to protect the Vampire Nation. He had fallen in love with a human. He had told that human what he was, that he was different from her. She had accepted him, and they had given birth to a beautiful boy, a half-breed vampire conceived out of love instead of the violence in which he and his brothers were conceived.

  Although he wanted her trust, he didn’t have it in him to keep talking to try to convince her he was one of the good guys. Well, maybe that was an overstatement—he wasn't really a good guy. But the fact of the matter was that he wasn't going to tell anyone about her. He was a very strong believer in live and let live, and didn't care who you were, what you did, or who you slept with. He figured as long as you weren't hurting anyone, then all was good. That belief certainly didn't qualify him as a good guy. He had done too much killing in his life to earn that title.

  He closed his eyes again and put his arm over his forehead. He needed to get his head on somewhat straight so that he could call Thaddeus and tell him where he was, and that overall, he was basically okay. He also needed to talk to his son, Robert. That fucking jackhammer kept going off in his head, making it difficult to think straight. Maybe a full lobotomy wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

  He felt her stand up, her light weight lifting from the bed. The carpet muffled her footsteps as she headed back to her chair. They sat in silence for a moment.

  "How long have I been out?" he asked.

  "About a day and a half."

  He nodded, and then there was more silence.

  “So that’s it?” she asked. “That's the end of the conversation?”

  He sighed. “Not much of a talker,” he said. “But you have my word, Holly, your secret is safe with me.”

  She watched him drift back to sleep. As a nurse for almost ten decades, she had seen more than her fair share of male bodies. She thought she had seen it all—black, white, tall, short, fat and thin—just about any combination that a person could think of. However, staring at her patient, she was in awe of him. He was sheer, raw power. She thought that she should be frightened of him, just because of his size. Those dead, angry eyes should have been the icing on the fear cake. And she had to admit she was scared, although she was trying like hell to fight that fear. She just had to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't do anything that would compromise her situation.

  She thought about the promise he had just made. Could she trust that he was telling her the truth?

  Holly felt she should trust him, but quickly shut that down. She shouldn’t believe a word that came out of his mouth. As a female vampire, a rarity in her race, she hadn't trusted anyone in a very long time—vampire or human—and she shouldn't start now.

  The leaders of her race, The Council, had wanted to haul in all the female vampires for a breeding program. She couldn't trust a vampire for fear that she would be turned in. Willingly, she given up all contact with her four female vampire friends she had hung out with in New York a hundred years ago. They had all separated just in case one of them was caught, and wouldn't be able to tell where the others were.

  She didn't trust humans, even though she lived with one. Over time, she had learned the history of her race, how humans had almost decimated the Vampire Nation, leaving her kind to the sun, burning them alive, putting stakes through their hearts.

  Not that those full-bred vampires didn't deserve it. They had been evil, terrible creatures coming close to matching the folklore the humans had of vampires, but she wasn't going to risk the human belief in the folklore either. She had read up on that as well. Vampires killed humans, vampires could turn humans into vampires—and her favorite—
a vampire was the undead, and their heart didn't beat.

  Really?

  Because right now it felt like hers was about to come out of her chest.

  Chapter 4

  Aiden woke again and took a quick inventory of his body. The jackhammer in his skull had subsided to a dull throbbing, but he still didn’t want to open his eyes. He didn’t feel like he was going to lose his lunch any longer, and it didn’t hurt to breathe. Well, it didn’t hurt as bad as it did a few hours ago. Progress could be a beautiful thing.

  As a first generation half-breed vampire, his healing skills far surpassed humans and other vampires. What he did feel in his body was the undeniable clench in his stomach that signaled he needed to feed.

  He needed blood.

  He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Holly standing over him, looking at him with a scrutinizing "I'm a medical professional" look.

  “You need to feed,” she announced. She didn’t wait for an answer, but turned away and brought up a needle.

  “What the fuck is that?” he asked.

  “The way I feed,” she said mildly, as if she were showing him a grocery list.

  She swabbed his arm to insert the needle, but he jerked away.

  He didn’t even know what to say, he just stared at her. Vampires fed from live sources—humans. Vampires who were committed to each other for a long-term relationship fed from each other as a way to seal their bond. He had never, ever heard of a vampire going the IV route.

  She rolled her eyes. “Are you afraid of needles?”

  He shook his head. “What are you doing?”

  “This is the way I feed. I need to stay under the radar. I can't hunt live prey because it makes my scent so much stronger, so I manipulated some medical records to get access to blood. I get the blood; vampires can't smell me. It's quick and painless and I get the nourishment I need."

  She grabbed his arm and held it in place. He watched in disbelief as the needle pierced his skin and she turned the valve to allow the blood to flow into him.