Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(4)

“I don’t give a damn how it looks! I just want her to be okay,” her mom said.

It was the same argument, different version. Mom hated Dad’s pride. Della didn’t like it either, but she understood it. She hated making mistakes, too. And on top of that, she’d seen the one-room apartment over a Chinese restaurant that her dad and his sister had been raised in. Her father and his family deserved to be proud of what they’d accomplished. And it hadn’t happened by making mistakes.

Della heard the hospital door open again. “Why don’t you take a coffee break, I’m going to be here for a while,” a female voice said. Della thought she’d heard the voice earlier. Probably a nurse.

The sound of her parents leaving filled the room. Della felt an overwhelming gratefulness toward the nurse for sparing her from having to listen to the argument, but she didn’t have what it took to express it.

“You’re welcome,” the nurse said, almost as if she’d read Della’s mind.

Della opened her eyes. The nurse stood over her.

Blinking, Della tried to focus, but then something weird happened. She could see … something on the woman’s forehead. Weird crap. Like lines and stuff, like some kind of computer-jumbled pattern. She blinked hard and slowly opened her eyes again. It helped. The odd stuff was gone.

Della went to push up and realized something else that was gone. The cut on her hand. How had it healed so fast?

The nurse smiled. “Has anyone talked to you yet?”

Della forced herself to reach for the large cup on the hospital table. “About drinking my water. Yeah.”

“No, about what’s happening to you.” The nurse took the cup from Della’s hand. “Don’t drink anything. It’ll make you sicker.”

“Sicker? Have they figured out what’s wrong?”

The door swished open and a doctor walked in. He moved to the side of her bed and stared down at her. “Does she know?” he asked the nurse.

“Know what?” Della blurted out.

“I don’t think so.” The nurse ignored Della’s question.

“Know what?” she asked again.

“Her parents aren’t live carriers?” the doctor asked.

“No,” the nurse answered.

“Would you stop talking about me like I’m not here?”

The doctor met her gaze. “Sorry. I know this is hard.” The intensity of his stare disturbed her. For some reason, everything about him disturbed her. Which was odd. She didn’t normally instantly dislike people. It generally took at least fifteen minutes and a good reason.

She started to close her eyes, and bam, the weird crap appeared on the doc’s forehead.

The doctor growled, a real growl. Della recalled the gang members doing—

“Someone knows.” The doctor nodded back to the door.

The hospital door swung open so hard, it slammed against the wall and sounded as if it took a chunk out of the plastered wall. Della glanced up, but the doctor blocked her view.

“What the hell are you doing to her?” Chan stopped on the other side of the bed.

“Shit,” Della said. “It’s happening again.” And when she glanced at the nurse that crazy thing was on her forehead again. It was as if Della could see inside the nurse’s head, like in some cheesy B-rated movie. She could see the front of her … brain. Yup, it looked like a brain, only it wasn’t just wrinkled. It had strange-looking zigzaggy lines, a cross between bad modern art and ancient hieroglyphics.

“What’s happening?” the nurse asked.

“I’m … seeing ghosts.” Della had to force herself to stop staring at the woman’s brain. She looked at Chan and now he had something on his forehead, too. Only his brain looked different.

“We’re trying to help her,” the doctor answered Chan.

Della’s breath caught. “Can you see him, too?”

Chan snarled at the doctor, exposing his teeth, and she recalled the insane talk about vampires earlier. “She doesn’t need your kind of help, werewolf!”

“Did you do this to her?” the doctor asked. “Are you the one who infected her?”

“Yes,” Chan seethed. “But I didn’t know she was bleeding, and if you must know, I didn’t have a choice. It was snatch her up and get her out of the alley or let you dogs kill her!”

The doctor frowned. “Have you at least explained it to her?”

“I tried,” Chan said. “She’s not buying it.”

“Buying what?” Della asked, blinking furiously, trying to get the crap off everyone’s forehead. “He’s dead,” she snapped.

“We have to get her out of the hospital before Phase Two hits,” the nurse said.

Phase what? Nothing was making sense now.

The doctor looked at Della. “Look, your cousin isn’t dead. He’s … a vampire and thanks to his carelessness, like it or not, you’re about to become one, too.”

Della’s head started to pound again.

“I have to go,” Chan said. “Her parents are coming up in the elevator.”

“Wait,” the doctor said to Chan, “If I get her released, will you see her through this?”

“I don’t need anyone’s help!” Della insisted.