A few moments later Frankie put the notebook down.
“I can't see anything else about where or when you saw this corridor, sorry.”
“Well at least that's something,” Will tried to reassure her. “Maybe I can do an image search or something. Or show it around at the station tomorrow.”
Frankie nodded but still looked disheartened.
“Look, let's try to forget about the case for the rest of the night,” Will suggested. “Let's find a movie to watch then come at this again tomorrow when we're fresh.”
Frankie nodded, although she knew that she would be unable to concentrate on a movie at the moment. Dante was her only remaining connection to Josh and if anything happened to him...
She pushed that thought aside. She still didn't really understand how she felt about Josh, she didn't love him, but she had a feeling that she could have if they'd had more time. What she did know was that his passing had hurt a lot and that even though she didn't know him well, she still felt his loss keenly. Dante was all she had left of him and she was damn sure that she was going to get him back safely. She owed it to Josh. She owed it to Dante.
Still, she dutifully followed Will through to the living room and pretended to watch as the movie played. At some point though she must have fallen asleep, because when she awoke there was sunlight streaming in through the window and Will was nowhere to be seen.
She heard noises coming from the kitchen and made her way through to find Will brewing coffee.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Stiff,” she said as she tried to work the pain out of her knotted muscles.
“You looked so peaceful, I didn't have the heart to disturb you.”
Frankie didn't mind, she was used to sleeping at odd times and in odd places. She accepted the coffee that he passed her and sipped it gratefully. Truth be told, she could have done with another few hours sleep, but she had work to do.
Dante watched as the beam of sunlight edged closer and closer to him. Pietro had found a new way to torture him, by throwing a rock through the black painted glass, he could now subject Dante to direct sunlight for as long as the sun was in the right position.
Dante gritted his teeth as the light hit his calf. He was wearing trousers but some light still made it through the material, although it was bearable. He watched as the beam travelled up his leg until it approached his belt, above which he had no shirt.
Pietro had removed the shirt so that he could attach IV's into both of Dante's elbows, through which he could draw the blood he needed. Now it served a second purpose as it allowed the sunlight to burn his flesh. He tried not to scream but eventually he had to. His tortured cries echoed throughout the building and grounds, since even Pietro's soundproofing wasn't up to the task of muffling this much noise.
Finally the sunlight reached his face and tortuously began to scorch the flesh there.
It felt like an eternity, but finally the beam of sunlight moved off him as the sun moved around a little further.
The TV at the end of his bed came on but Dante didn't open his eyes and look. In fact he wasn't certain that he could open one eye, even if he'd wanted to.
“You look like shit,” Pietro said, laughing.
Dante didn't answer.
“There's only one solution for your pain,” Pietro taunted and a second later Dante smelt the tang of blood. Again he turned his head away from where he knew the feeding tube to be and gritted his teeth against the ravenous hunger that he now felt.
“Just think of how good it will taste,” Pietro taunted. “How much better it will make you feel. Go on, just take one sip.”
Though every movement hurt him, Dante parted his charred lips.
“Go to hell,” his voice was hoarse.
He heard Pietro yelling in the background and things being dropped or thrown. Silently he prayed that his body would soon shut down in an attempt to conserve energy because right now, he wasn't sure for how much longer he could resist the blood.
Will went off to work and Frankie began a Google image search for a glass corridor that resembled the one she had drawn. She tried lots of search terms, but it seemed as if glass corridors were pretty popular things. She tried changing the search terms and adding new key words, but each search turned up no hopeful leads.
She stuck with it though and clicked through to pages that looked as if they might be similar, but two hours later she was no further forward and was beginning to run out of new ideas.
She jumped when she heard the front door burst open and heard Will calling for her.
“Frankie, we've got to go,” he shouted. “Come on!”
Quick as a flash Frankie left the computer and ran into the hall.
“What?”
“I think I've found him,” Will answered simply.
Chapter Fourteen
“Where?” she asked, pulling on her coat and following him out
“Just south of Edinburgh,” he answered as they both took the stairs two at a time.
“Is it just you and me?” she asked.
“Yup.”
He bolted out onto the street and into his car, pulling away before Frankie had even fastened her seat belt. As they drove he explained what had happened.
“I took your notebook into the office to copy your sketch of Pietro but D.C. Taylor noticed the same drawing that I did last night, of the corridor. He said what a beautiful place it was so I asked him if he knew where it was.”
“And?”
“Rosslynlee Hospital, south of Edinburgh.”
“He's in a hospital?” she sounded incredulous.
“A closed hospital,” he clarified. “It's an old mental asylum that they shut last year.”
Frankie mentally reviewed her possible plans of action when they got there but didn't come up with much. In his will, Josh had left her a set of silver jewellery that protected the wearer from magic and going up against someone this powerful (and probably juiced up on vampire blood by now) she thought that she could use that protection. Unfortunately they were on the other side of town, in the safe in her bedroom.
She decided that for now they'd just scope out the hospital and see the lay of the land. If necessary they could leave for supplies and return later. Sooner than she'd expected, Will began to slow down and he pulled in at the side of the road.
“We're here?” Frankie asked.
“The hospital is through those trees,” Will said. “I thought that pulling up to the main entrance wasn't too smart.”
Frankie nodded, agreeing with his logic. They got out of the car and began to make their way through the trees, until the buildings came into sight. They were still a fair distance from the hospital, a large lawn between them and the buildings.
“I checked a satellite image before I left the office,” Will said. “If we follow the trees around, they come much closer to the outbuildings; that should give us some cover to search the place.”
Though interested in his plan, Frankie had better things to do right now and sat down on the earth, crossing her legs, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She had never searched for a vampire aura from this distance so she wanted to give it her full concentration.
“Frankie?”
She didn't answer but instead tried to see the buildings in her mind's eye and search for any auras, human or vampire.
“Frankie?”
“In a minute,” she snapped. She could almost feel something but she was having trouble focusing on it.
With her eyes still closed, she lifted her head and pointed.
“He's in there,” she said, opening her eyes to see where she was pointing, which was the north-west corner.
“How can you tell?” Will asked.
“Vampire auras are distinctive,” she explained, getting to her feet.
“And Pietro?” Will asked as he helped her up.
Frankie had almost forgotten about him.
“No,” she said. “Actually I
didn't sense anyone else.”
“Is that unusual?” Will asked.
Frankie let out a long sigh as she considered his question.
“I'd expect this place to have security but maybe I'm just too far away to sense humans.”
“But you can sense the vampire?”
“Their auras are much stronger than ours, like a halogen lamp compared to a 60 watt bulb.”
“So you think the place is empty?”
“Only one way to find out,” she said, walking away.
Will had suggested following the trees east, but Frankie was heading north along the tree line, to where she thought Dante was. The trees didn't come as close to the hospital buildings in this direction but as they got closer, she paused and searched for human auras again,
“If there is anyone here, they're on the other side of the site,” she said, though she believed the place to be empty. It was perhaps twenty feet from where they stood to the closest building.
“Then let's go,” Will said, breaking cover of the trees and jogging towards the building.
Without warning he stopped and swayed slightly.
“Will?”
“I don't feel so good,” he said.
Frankie took his arm to urge him on towards the building. Knowing that they needed to get out of sight as soon as possible, he began to follow, only to double over in pain and drop to the ground.
“Will!” Frankie dropped to her knees beside him. “What's is it?”
He looked deathly pale and his skin was clammy.
“I...”
Frankie looked from Will to the building and made the connection that the closer he got, the worse he seemed.
Will began to throw up, huge heaves wracking his whole body. Frankie got behind him and, using all her strength, she put her arms around his chest and began to drag him back towards the trees.
After a few paces his distressed breathing changed to huge gulps of air and after a few more paces, he began struggling to get to his feet. Frankie released him.
“Feel better?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Will nodded as they continued back to the trees. “I don't understand it.”
“Magic,” Frankie said, turning back to the building. “It's some kind of repulsion spell, designed to keep prying eyes away. The closer you get, the sicker you'll get.”
“Why didn't it effect you?” he asked.
Frankie had been wondering that herself.
“Chalk another one up for the freak,” she said, though she didn't feel as jovial as her words sounded.
“So what now?” Will asked.
Frankie knew he wouldn't like this, but she could see no other options.
“You go back to the car and wait for me.”
“You can't go in there alone!” Will argued.
“I can and I will,” she said turning to him. “And you promised to do what I said, remember?”
“Not if your actions are reckless.” he argued.
“Reckless is taking you with me,” she said. “Right now you're more of a hindrance than a help and if you do manage to make it to the hospital, there's a good chance that this spell is strong enough to kill you.”
Will still looked stubborn, but his resolve was weakening.
“This is my job, Will. Now go back to the car. Please.”
“Frankie-”
Without warning Frankie kicked the back of his knee, making him fall. Before he'd had time to recover she pulled his handcuffs from his jacket pocked and snapped one bracelet around his wrist.
“Don't make me cuff you to the tree,” she said, her sense of urgency building every minute that they stayed out here.
With her point made she didn't hang around, but got up and ran towards the hospital. Will got to his feet, winded and still slightly shocked by the speed and effectiveness of her attack. He didn't want her to go in alone but he knew that if he followed, he'd fall sick again, and this time there would be no one there to drag him away.
Reluctantly he turned and headed back to the car. At least he could keep an eye on the road and phone Frankie if he saw anyone heading to the hospital.
Chapter Fifteen
Frankie made her way around the building until she found a window what had already been jimmied open. She climbed inside and looked for a set of stairs, sensing that Dante was above her.
At least she hoped it was Dante, and not some other random vampire who was crashing here. That was ridiculous, of course, since a vampire couldn't have performed the spell that made Will sick. She found a staircase off the main hallway and followed it up. She could tell that Dante was in the room at the end of the hallway so she made her way towards it, pausing outside to search for other auras before she entered. Still unable to feel anyone else in the vicinity (and pleased that Will seemed to have followed her order) she tried to open the door but it was locked.
She didn't have her lockpick gun with her, and even if she had, it wouldn't work on a mortice lock, so she pulled her regular gun out instead and fired two shots, destroying the lock. The door swung open and Frankie felt something in her head, like a scratching inside her skull. She knew that meant that a vampire was trying to enter her mind.
“It's me,” she said, and the scratching sensation stopped but Dante didn't speak.
The room was longer than it was wide, and the walls had been coated with some kind of black foam. The windows had been painted black, save for one pane that had been broken. The fluorescent lights overhead were on but only one was working. In the middle of the room was an old-fashioned hospital bed, facing away from the door with its top half raised. At the end of the bed was some kind of camera and TV screen, though neither appeared to be on at the moment.
Dante still hadn't said anything and it was with some trepidation that Frankie approached the bed.
“Holy shit!” she gasped as she finally glimpsed his face.
The right side was black and charred, his right eye fused closed. His grotesque façade was only worsened by the perfection of the left side of his face.
“'Cos I'm sure you look like a million dollars in the morning,” he said, his light words belied by the ruined flesh that crumbled and fell from his lips as he spoke.
“Jesus!” She undid her cuff and offered him her wrist, holding it just above his lips.
“No,” he said softly, turning his head away.
“Dante, you have to feed.”
“It's what he wants.” His voice was weak and broken.
“He's not here, Dante. Now for God's sake feed, because I can't drag you out of here and keep you protected from the sun at the same time.”
His good eye flicked over to her, hope shining in it.
“He's not here?” he asked.
“No. Now for Christ's sake drink!” She pressed her wrist against his lips, trying not to shake with revulsion as his charred flesh touched her skin.
“Undo the cuffs first,” he said, still unable to quite believe his ordeal was over.
The silver shackles were kept closed with a bolt which she was easily able to undo and remove. Though the cuffs were lined, in his struggles to get free, he had torn the padding and the silver had burned into his skin. On his left wrist especially, she nearly gagged as she glimpsed bone.
Next she freed his ankles from the shackles, pleased to see that the padding and his socks had protected him from further damage.
Once he was free she went to the side of the bed again, this time his good side and once again offered him her wrist. She looked away as she saw his fangs run out and a moment later, bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain as his fangs sank into her flesh
Not only had his whole body been damaged by the poison that he'd ingested, the sunlight had wreaked havoc on his chest and face and as a result of all this damage, Dante had never felt so ravenous before. As Frankie's blood began to heal him, he brought his hands up to hold her wrist in place as he began to feed more deeply.
“Dante,” Frankie suddenly reali
sed how risky her actions were. She had never seen the frenzied look that Dante had before, and she soon realised that her life was in real danger. His eyes sought hers and she thought she could see him pleading with her to stop him. She struggled against him trying to free her wrist, but he was still a hundred times stronger than she was and her struggles were useless.
“Don't do this,” she pleaded. “Dante, please stop!”
Her vision was just beginning to darken at the edges when she suddenly felt his foot in her stomach, kicking her away and out of his grip. It hurt like hell as his fangs tore through the skin on her wrist and she fell hard to the floor, but at least she was alive.
Dante sat up and sat on the edge of the bed, his breathing was fast and shallow.
“Frankie, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.”
Frankie pushed herself into a sitting position and shook her head to clear the cobwebs that were forming.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Just a little light headed.” She took a few deep breaths and then slowly got to her feet. Dante was looking worriedly at her, almost as though he was afraid of her. She made it to her feet but as she took her first step she swayed and almost blacked out. Dante was at her side in a flash, supporting her. He offered her his wrist.
“I took too much,” he said. “Drink.”
“No,” she shook her head. “Just get out of here. Will has a car waiting. When you get to the trees, turn left and follow the tree line until you see a car.”
“You're coming too.”
She shook her head. “I'd just slow you down. I saw some blankets downstairs, use those to shield yourself from the sun. I'll be right behind you.”
Dante didn't look impressed by the idea and the next thing she knew, she was being lifted off her feet. The room blurred around her, adding to her vertigo and she closed her eyes, too tired to care what happened any more.
When she passed out, Dante transferred Frankie to his left shoulder, her head hanging down his back. Downstairs he found the blankets she'd spoken of and wrapped one around them, holding it almost closed with one hand in front of his face, so that he still had a crack to see through.
Past Life Page 13