A World of New (A Shade of Vampire, #26)(22)

I said thanks to Jason and Kiev before they headed off, leaving me to begin arranging the room. This took me almost as long as bringing the stuff here, as I tried to put some real thought into it. Once I was done, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face… There was one more touch, however. I returned to my room and grabbed my MP3 player and speakers, and hooked them up in one corner. Perfect.

The way Josh made a habit in the mornings of wheeling up and down the corridor before he wanted to do much else made me think that in his previous life, he’d had some sort of strict morning regimen. Well, now, if he liked what I’d done, he could come here instead. Every single piece of equipment I’d selected was specifically meant for strengthening the upper body: arms, chest and torso. He might not be able to move his legs, but if he took it slowly and steadily, and didn’t strain himself, I was certain that he could bring his faded muscles back to life… and maybe in the process feel more like a man.

I felt quite proud of myself as I gazed around the room, wiping my brow with the back of my hand. Since I had decided to give Josh a break from me for the day, I spent the rest of it catching up with homework. Though I found it hard to concentrate. I kept imagining myself showing him the room tomorrow and wondering how he would react. Whether he would be delighted or… something else. I hoped at least that it would bring a smile to his face.

I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with him now, if we couldn’t cure him. But at least we could try to improve his quality of living. We had to stay optimistic… That was something that my father had instilled in me from an early age. Make the best of what you have, and never let your circumstances drag you down. My father could sure give that kind of advice from experience. He’d been put through the mill unlike anyone else I knew in The Shade, and that was really saying something given the history of this island.

Once bedtime arrived, I packed up my homework and retired to bed, though not without taking one last look at our new gym.





Grace





My gut twisted as I made my way to the hospital the next day. I felt nervous about seeing him again after the way we had left off. Arriving outside his door, I pressed my ear against it, listening cautiously. I heard the familiar clinking of metal against porcelain. I knocked three times and then opened the door to find him sitting up in bed, eating breakfast. It was some kind of beet-colored soup this morning. He did not seem to get very hungry during the day, and breakfasts appeared to be the only meal that he wanted to eat. Perhaps his body just did not burn enough energy for him to work up a decent appetite.

The large throbbing bump on his head was no longer. He did not even have a bandage around him. At least that was something Shayla had been able to cure.

Our eyes met for about a second before he glanced away. But not so quickly that I did not notice the slight flush in his cheeks.

As I approached his bed, he swallowed and said in a low, hoarse voice, “I… I’m sorry for my behavior yesterday. I did not wish to upset you.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

An awkward pause followed. I found myself staring at his bowl as he continued draining it.

“Does your head feel completely better?” I asked.

“Yes,” he muttered.

All right… Enough beating around the bush. “After you’ve eaten, I have a surprise for you.”

His eyes met mine again, and they brightened ever so slightly. “Surprise?” he asked. “What do you mean?”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” I replied.

He finished the last of his soup, and when he confirmed that he was full, I helped him out of bed and into his wheelchair. After wrapping him with blankets, I pushed him out of the hospital. I pushed him faster than I usually would have, even though it made the ride a bit more bumpy for him. I was eager to arrive at our destination.

I sensed his wonderment as we reached the borders of the Residences, and he let out a breath as he realized that I was approaching the elevator leading up to one.

“You’re going to take me up there?” he asked, craning his neck to gaze up at the treetops.

“Yup. This is where I live.” I felt a sense of pride as I said the words. Even though I had lived in this penthouse since birth, I hadn’t lost sight of the fact that my upbringing had been extremely privileged. My parents had made a point of instilling gratitude into me and making me aware of the kind of living standards that most of the world was subjected to.

I wondered where Josh had been brought up. I wished that I knew where he had been plucked from by the hunters. Josh’s accent indicated that he was from England, but that seemed kind of an odd place to kidnap someone from when there were far closer countries to the portal IBSI had located that led to The Woodlands. Why not just find someone from the Philippines? If they had wanted to experiment on a half-blood, they could’ve easily created one from scratch. We knew for a fact that they had a stock of imprisoned supernaturals in their custody—vampires included—those they had caught causing trouble for humans, or so they claimed. My own mother had once been taken by them to one of their research centers. She had witnessed firsthand the myriad of creatures they had access to.

Drawing myself back to the present, I pushed the button in the elevator. We ascended to the veranda that lined our apartment and I pushed Josh inside. Before revealing my surprise, since he seemed so fascinated by The Shade’s tree houses, I decided to give him a little tour of our apartment first. I showed him the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, before taking him to my bedroom.