Chapter 15

15

VIOLET

I'm determined to see Holly at the earliest moment and arrive at the hospital within half an hour of waking. Rowan and Leif guide me away from the entry where I encountered the ER reception desk on the night Oz suffered his magical injuries and toward another building on the sprawling hospital grounds. How much room do humans need to place their sick and dying?

As I pause outside, I gaze up at the window of the orange-bricked, five-story building and consider how trapped these humans must feel. Is their ability to leave the place any easier than my failed attempt to enter the ER triage area? Or do guards disguised as nurses prevent these inmates' movements too?

I'm silent as I step into an elevator with Rowan and Leif where, despite the number of humans waiting, nobody wishes to share the metal box with us. Granted, there's little room, but one mother pulls her child exceptionally tight into her side before the little girl can follow, despite my attempt at a friendly smile.

Grayson remains at the academy this morning, due to the un-welcome he'd receive as a hemia vampire walking into the hospital. I'm overwhelmed by everything that happened last night, and uncomfortable that Grayson witnessed a new vulnerability that sprang from both my love for Holly and tangled feelings for him.

He understood the need to reach Holly as soon as possible today, and I told him that I understand his need to address what happened. Grayson stared, then laughed at my choice of words, before kissing me in a way that made it very clear things need addressing before more blood is spilled.

Even though he brings out that unwanted vulnerability, Grayson also helps in a contradictory way. Grayson doesn't react, or care about, nor is he frightened by, the vicious traits I target him with when I'm lost to the hybrid side. Instead, Grayson allows me an opportunity to extinguish the overwhelming and frightening reactions that take away my self-control, and he reconnects me with the world. Grayson's blood runs through my veins but that isn't the only part of himself he sees inside me. He knows that darkness and knows what to do because he's as dark as I am.

I'm united with Grayson through his blood. Partially. Unless I reciprocate, the tie won't become absolute. Vampire blood ties match human unity, sometimes driven by physical desires and the heightened pleasure the tie allows. If deeper emotional connections grow, the hemia tend to bond and cease pursuing that blood connection with others. Bond. Good grief, I have enough of those.

Rowan and his bond create a comfort for me due to his acceptance that I am what I am, and that I will struggle to change, but in the hybrid state our tie becomes dangerous. He's dangerous to us both if my magic inflames his.

But Grayson doesn't take my darkness onboard and thrive on the shadows like Rowan does. Grayson keeps his own darkness contained, a skill learned through Josef's sadistic treatment and through Grayson's rejection of his ancestry.

I gaze at Rowan across the confined elevator. He traveled in the ambulance with Holly and attended the hospital last night, where the human authorities immediately removed him for questioning. As planned, Rowan denied to the police that I was with him in the woods, even though Marci can easily tell the authorities otherwise.

The truth will out once the supernatural authorities become involved unless everything from Rowan's superior magical skills keeps the initial investigators out of his mind.

Dorian isn't aware, unless Mrs. Lorcan informed him, but she never had the chance to accost us before we left campus since we left earlier than lessons start. Have the police not told her that one of the academy students was found in the woods with chest injuries beside a large wolf?

The humans' reason not to share the information could match mine: Dorian's interference. I don't want my father to speak to Holly before I do, but not because I'm concerned what she'll say. My concern is that Dorian's eagerness for answers could find him shoving into Holly's head before she's physically ready. Will the human girl ever be physically ready for that exploratory magic? Leif struggled with the aftereffects, and he's half-supe.

No. I won't risk Dorian harming Holly when my friend is suffering already. When Dorian discovers I didn't inform him and enters one of his fits of rage, I'll claim that because Holly was unconscious, I felt there was no point in him seeing her yet.

Not that the lie would fool him.

Leif carries a large bouquet of flowers that he insisted on buying from the hospital kiosk: carnations and roses in bright pinks and white. Eloise's spell lingers, and although he's more conscious this morning, Leif is as pale as the hallway's walls that lead through the labyrinth towards Holly's place of medical incarceration.

With so few answers available besides what Rowan told authorities last night, I'm unsurprised to encounter my favorite pair of detectives. They're waiting beside a nurses' station manned by a woman with a long brown ponytail, and a man with close-cropped hair. Both nurses carry the air of exhaustion I've encountered in all staff here.

Leif immediately tenses, but I assure him he's safe from interrogation. Leif has an alibi.

I do not.

The younger Detective Harding leans across the desk, turning on his charm to the smiling female nurse as the neatly groomed man coaxes answers from her. Gray-haired Detective Wagner spots us and crosses his arms, sour faced as usual.

Ignoring Wagner, I approach the young male in blue uniform, who's sitting behind the desk and chewing a pen as he examines files before him.

"Good morning. We are here to visit Holly." I say, and he glances up, immediately opening his mouth. "No, we are not relatives."

"Yeah. I can see she's not related to you." He shakes his head and looks to the detectives. "Is this who you're expecting?"

"I am Holly's best friend," I announce. "I'm concerned about her welfare. I want to see Holly now." Rowan nudges me. "Please."

"Holly's parents are with her." My eyes go wide. How had I not considered that Holly's family would be here? "If the detectives allow, you may visit afterwards."

I flick a look at Wagner who gives a rare smile and looks to his colleague. Harding shrugs in response and smirks. "We'll consider allowing you," says Wagner.

Hmm. Power play. Already.

"We're waiting for Holly to speak to us," says Harding.

"Is Holly unwilling?" I ask.

"Unable," he replies.

"Unconscious," adds his colleague. I steadfastly refuse to respond. "But alive, fortunately."

"And are my father's men here?" I ask, hoping that Mrs. Lorcan doesn't know and hasn't told him.

"We're not allowing Mr. Blackwood or anybody from the academy near until we've spoken to Holly. The human authorities need to establish the nature of this attack, if the perpetrators waited for her to leave campus and followed, or if she knew them. Every detail. I will not risk supernatural interference with her body or mind."

"A sensible decision." His mouth slackens at our agreeing.

But the question Harding has—who followed Holly from campus—leaves the presumption she was on campus last night. Neither Mrs. Lorcan nor Dorian informed Holly's parents or the authorities that she was missing. Has Dorian's certainty that we'd find Holly first, therefore claiming we needn't worry about telling anybody, backfired on him and the academy?

"Rowan told me the attack looked like an animal, as evidenced by the deceased wolf shifter beside Holly," I say.

The male nurse's eyes widen, but they remain on his work. Judging by the detectives' face, others know little about the attack, and I've inadvertently added something to town gossip.

"This way, Ms. Blackwood," Harding says through gritted teeth, and jerks his head to a spot further along the hallway. "I shall buy you a coffee."

"No, thank you."

"I insist."

"And I insist not."

"Sure. I'll have a coffee," interrupts Rowan and lightly shoves me in the back.

I snap my head around and growl at him, and he mouths do you want them to kick you out?

"And I can visit Holly should I drink this unwanted beverage?" I ask the detectives wearily.

"Once her parents leave," puts in the nurse.

"But I would very much like to meet them," I reply.

"Her parents are not receptive to anybody from the academy currently," says the female nurse. "Staff or student."

"Follow," demands Harding, and I arch a brow at him. "I'll allow you access to Holly, with Detective Wagner and myself present in the room, if you speak to me. Informally."

"Yeah, right, totally off the record," mutters Leif as we follow them.