by Folsom, Tina
As Yvette and Ricky left, Gabriel stalked the corridors. He’d checked the directory on the way up for Maya’s office. If he was here, he would probably go there – either to hide out for a while or to retrieve whatever personal items she had there, maybe a spare key to her apartment or some money or credit cards. She hadn’t taken any of her things with her when she’d fled the house, not even her handbag.
It was telling: no woman ever left the house without her handbag. It proved to him that Maya was in an extremely agitated state and would most likely act irrationally. He had to get to her before she put herself in even more danger than she already was. Besides, she hadn’t fed from him since before her outing in the Castro. She had to be famished, which would make her weak and less likely to think clearly.
Gabriel reached Maya’s office suite and pressed the door handle down. The door didn’t move. No matter – with a forceful push against the lock, the wood splintered. He slid inside unseen. Four office doors presented themselves to him, each of them with the name of a doctor stenciled on it. He opened the door with Maya’s name without knocking. If she was there, she would have already heard him, and if she wasn’t, there was no point in knocking.
The room was empty. He inhaled deeply and sniffed. There was a low lingering scent of her, but it wasn’t new. She hadn’t been to her office in days. His heart sank.
With a sigh, he dialed Thomas’ number. He answered instantly.
“Where are you?” Gabriel asked.
“Seventh floor.”
“Go farther up – Ricky is already covering that floor. I’ll do another quick sweep of the 6th and then move higher. Yvette is on the 5th.”
“Sure,” Thomas answered. A split second later Gabriel heard a distant scream come through the line.
Shock coursed through his system. “Was that Maya?”
“Don’t know.” The line went dead.
“Shit!” Gabriel ran out into the hall. He spotted the sign for the stairs and rushed to them, then took three steps at a time. With vampire speed, he ran up to the next floor before he slowed down again trying to get his bearings. He sniffed again. The scent of blood assaulted him. He ran toward it.
As he turned a corner, he saw a group of people gathering around a person on the floor. Gabriel zeroed in on the site. A pool of blood spread from underneath the person’s white doctor’s coat.
A grip on his forearm made him spin to his right. “Thomas.”
Thomas pulled him into a side corridor. “It’s not Maya. Some doctor – looks like cold blooded murder to me.”
“Did you see who it is?”
“Her name is Dr. Barbara Silverstein.”
Gabriel’s heart stopped as cold fear gripped him. “That’s Maya’s friend. Thomas, he’s here. The rogue is in the hospital.”
* * *
Maya’s skin prickled. It had been too long since the Code Blue was called. She was getting impatient, and she felt like a sitting duck waiting for Barbara in the on-call room. She needed to check on her.
p. She listened for any sound from the corridor before she opened the door a fraction, then peered out. The bright hallway was empty now.
Maya stepped outside and closed the door behind her quietly.
Something compelled her to make no noise. She was grateful that she wore soft soled shoes. They made no sound on the light grey linoleum floor.
Somewhere in the distance, a door opened. Maya moved along the corridor and dove into the next alcove that housed a small sink. She flattened herself against the wall when she heard footsteps coming toward her. Her eyes darted around her tiny hiding place, but there was nothing she could use as a weapon. She hoped whoever came her way wasn’t an enemy and she wouldn’t have to try out her vampire skills.
Other than using her fangs on Gabriel, she’d never truly used her new strength on anybody. She knew she had claws – she’d scratched Gabriel with them by accident that fateful night when she’d fed from him for the first time – and she hoped they would just appear the way her fangs did when she needed them.
The footsteps approached and were almost upon her when a soft ping drifted to her ears. The person stopped in her tracks. “Darn,” the female voice grumbled under her breath.
Maya recognized the ping as a call for the nurses’ station – one of the patients had pressed their call button. The nurse turned on her heels and walked in the other direction. Maya relaxed when she heard her enter a room and close the door behind her. She counted to three and emerged from her hiding place.
Swiftly, she walked to the empty nurse’s station and darted her head in all directions to make sure nobody saw her. Then she walked behind the counter and crouched down near the desk. She pulled the bottom drawer open and reached in. She knew that all nurses kept a couple of extra access cards hidden in their desks in case a doctor had forgotten theirs and needed to get somewhere before security could issue a new one.
Luckily, this nurses’ station wasn’t any different. After opening a third drawer, she found a spare access card and shoved it into her jeans pocket. She needed to be able to get around the hospital unimpeded, and now she could.
As she rose from her crouching position, the little hairs on the back of her neck stood. A shiver ran down her spine. She sniffed without making a sound. No human was in her vicinity. The faint scent she picked up could belong to a vampire, but she wasn’t sure – there was too much bleach scent in the vicinity.
Maya darted around the desk and out of the nurses’ station. Her hands felt clammy and her heart raced – all signs that told her she had to get away. Her instincts for flight or fight was alive and well. Flight won out. She wasn’t stupid enough to try to fight a vampire who could be stronger than her, older and more experience. Her advantage was that she knew the hospital – every corner, every supply room, and every shortcut. Whoever was on her trail didn’t know the place as well as she did – she hoped. This was her only chance.
She had to get to Barbara and protect her. She should have never allowed her to respond to the Code Blue, but knowing the oath they’d both sworn as doctors, she realized that she couldn’t have stopped her from doing her duty. Maya would have done the same. Nevertheless, she should have insisted on going with her and blown past her boss.
Hell, she should have flashed her fangs if she’d needed to.
Maya ran along the corridor to get to the service stairs. They were safer than taking the elevator. In an elevator she would be trapped, but the stairs would get her safely to the seventh floor to find Barbara. She halted just before the corridor when faint footsteps reached her sensitive ears – it was somebody trying hard not to be heard. She couldn’t filter out the person’s scent – the smell of ammonia and bleach was too overwhelming. The corridor must only recently have been cleaned.
Frantically, Maya scanned the doors on the corridor. There was only one choice. She opened a door and slipped inside the dark room. Without a sound, she closed the door behind her and listened.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realized she had no problems seeing her surroundings. The janitor’s room was a little bigger than a closet and filled with cleaning supplies, brooms, and buckets.
A sound from the corridor made her hold her breath. The person had stopped not far from her hiding spot. Had she been spotted? Had he tracked her by her scent? Maybe he’d had better senses and wasn’t as affected by the cleaning materials in the hospital as her own sense of smell was.
In desperation, Maya grabbed the broom and broke the wooden handle. It splintered, providing her with an effective weapon: a wooden stake. She pressed herself to one side of the wall next to the door and waited.
Her hearing was so sensitive she could hear when someone touched the door handle. Adrenaline shot through her body – or was it her vampire blood boiling? Light drifted into the small room as the door swung in. Maya lunged at the attacker, the makeshift stake ready to plunge into the person’s heart.
/> A hand gripped her wrist in a vice and squeezed, making her drop the stake. Oh God, no!
Twenty-three
“I got your message,” the voice behind him drawled. Gabriel turned and looked at his second in command, Zane. He looked like hell twice warmed over.
“About time,” Gabriel chastised. “I need every man I can get.
Maya’s friend’s been killed and she’s somewhere in the hospital. We need to find her. The rogue is here.”
Gabriel’s cell vibrated. He flipped it open. “Yeah?”
“I’m in the hospital. Which floor are you on?” Amaury asked.
“Seventh.” He disconnected the call without waiting for Amaury to respond.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Thomas, I want you to try and get close to the murdered doctor and see if you can pick up traces of the vampire who did this.”
Thomas nodded.
“Use whatever means necessary. And check in with Ricky - he said he’d be on this floor. I don’t see him anywhere.” Then he turned to Zane. “Zane, take floors one through four and -“
“Just did those floors – no sign of her,” Amaury’s voice came from the stairs. He strode into view, his broad six and a half foot frame filling the door to the stairway fully.
Gabriel nodded to him, grateful that everyone was showing up to help. “Good. Zane take floors twelve and thirteen.”
“Consider it done,” Zane answered and went to the stairway, greeting Amaury with a slap on his arm in passing.
“Let’s comb the rest of the floors, Amaury.”
Thomas raised his hand in goodbye and walked toward the other end of the corridor to where the sounds from the shocked hospital workers were becoming louder. Gabriel and Amaury went the other way.
“How are you holding up?” Amaury asked.
“It’s killing me not knowing where she is. Whether she’s safe.”
Gabriel gave Amaury a serious look. “And with the stench of bleach in this hospital, I can’t even latch onto her scent.”
“We’ll find her.”
“I’ll take ten and eleven. Nobody’s been to eight and nine yet.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Amaury promised and gave him a wry smile before Gabriel rushed passed and ran up the stairs ahead of him.
On the tenth floor, he stepped out into the corridor and stalked along the floor, his nostrils taking in every scent, but the hospital smells were too prominent. There was no hint of Maya. With every minute, hope faded.
Gabriel ran his hands through his hair. He couldn’t lose her. He’d only just found her. This wasn’t fair. How could life be so cruel to him?
Did he not deserve a little happiness? Was it too much to ask?
Something vibrated against his groin. Gabriel stopped and pulled his cell out of his pocket. He looked at the text message.
Have Maya, Rm 534C. Be careful. Rogue is near.
He heaved a sigh of relief when he recognized the sender’s number: Yvette. With a few clicks on his phone he forwarded the message to his friends as he ran down toward the stairways. Once they were together, the rogue would have no chance defeating them.
* * *
Maya let herself rest against the wall of the janitor’s closet. Yvette had closed the door, but they hadn’t put the light on as a precaution.
p. “He’s out there somewhere. I sensed him, I swear,” Maya insisted and stared at Yvette in the dark. She had no difficulty making out the beauty’s features in the dim light that filtered through the bottom of the door.
“I didn’t sense any strange vampire, but with all the bleach in here, I don’t know…” Yvette responded. Yet she didn’t open the door, and she’d complied with Maya’s wishes to send the others a warning by text message. “Gabriel and the others will be here shortly. You’ll be safe.”
Maya reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks. I mean it. I’m sorry I almost killed you.”
Yvette shrugged her shoulders. “I would have done the same in your situation.” She nodded toward the broken broom. “Quick thinking.”
“I’m assuming a stake through the heart will kill a vampire?” Maya hoped she hadn’t been completely off the mark.
“That, and a few other things. Don’t worry, once this is over, Gabriel will give you a crash course in everything you need to know.
You couldn’t have a better teacher. He’s been around for a very long time.”
Maya averted her eyes. “I’d rather somebody else taught me. Maybe Thomas.” Yes, Thomas would be a much safer bet: no danger to her heart.
“I thought you and Gabriel …” Yvette let her voice trail off.
“You thought wrong. He has no interest in me.”
Yvette chuckled softly as if she knew otherwise. “Honey, you wanna tell him that or shall I, because the man is under the impression he’s in love with you. And by the looks of it, I’d say he’s not alone in his feelings.”
Maya snapped her gaze to Yvette.
“Oh, yes, don’t look at me like it’s such a surprise to you. He was ready to bite my head off when he found out I saw you leave and didn’t stop you.” Despite the heated discussion, they both kept their voices to a mere whisper to avoid detection by the rogue if he was still roaming the hospital corridors.
“You’re wrong. He doesn’t love me. He’s got somebody else.”
Maya pushed down her rising tears. It wasn’t fair for Yvette to bait her like this – although maybe Gabriel had her fooled as well.
“Gabriel? Are we talking about the same guy? Mr. Lonesome himself? In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him with a woman. He’s never dated, and from what I’ve heard from the guys, he doesn’t even go along to any of their fuck fests -“
“Their what?”
“Some of the guys are a little rambunctious and need to let off steam from time to time. They think I don’t know, but trust me, I know. The vampires who’re not bonded, they can get quite wild when they roam the cities and go out looking for pussy. All I’m saying is that Gabriel never participates.”
Maya swallowed back her shock. Yvette’s frank language was unexpected, but why should vampires be any different from other men?
But that wasn’t the point. Even if Gabriel didn’t participate, it didn’t change anything about the fact that she’d caught him getting a blowjob from some woman.
“I suppose he’s just more secretive about it. Doesn’t change anything about the facts,” Maya insisted.
“Which are?” Yvette prompted.
“There was a woman at the house when I left.” That was all she would say. Yvette could draw her own conclusions. And by the looks of it she was a very smart woman. She would put two and two together and make sure it added up.
“The witch? You’re talking about the witch?” Then she had the audacity to chuckle. “You honestly think he has something going with a witch?”
“She was in his room,” Maya hissed under her breath, careful not to raise her voice in case the rogue was near.
“And I’m sure there’s an explanation for that.”
Maya crossed her arms over her chest. She’d already heard his explanation: it’s not what it looks like. As if that explained why he’d had his pants down his thighs with the woman’s head in his crotch. He was just the same kind of philanderer as the vampires Yvette was referring to, the only difference being that Gabriel liked to conduct his debauchery in private. And Maya wanted no part of it.
“I -“
Yvette put a finger on her lips. “Shh.”
Maya’s ears perked up. She stopped breathing and listened for any sound from the corridor outside. In the distance she could hear footsteps. Somebody was coming. She exchanged a look with Yvette who nodded. She was trying to make out what direction the footsteps were coming from when she realized that there was more than one person approaching.
Maya ignored the chill that settled on her skin and tight
ened like a glove around her neck. She could sense him – he was near. Her grip tightened on the stake she still held in her hand. She wanted to sink back deeper into the closet, but in the next instant the door was ripped open.
Light flooded the room and for a millisecond she felt blinded.
“Thank God it’s you,” Yvette exclaimed and stepped out into the corridor. Maya caught a glimpse of red hair before Yvette blocked the person out with her body. Then another set of heavy footsteps rushed closer.
“Where is she?” Gabriel’s frantic voice echoed in the hallway.
A moment later, he’d pushed Yvette and the other vampire she now recognized as Ricky aside. He pulled her into his arms.
Maya had no time to protest before he took her mouth and kissed her. This wasn’t the tender kiss he’d bestowed on her earlier: it was fierce, demanding, desperate. She was too stunned to do anything but react to him. Her body melted into his and allowed him to invade her mouth with his seeking tongue.
Vaguely, she heard others arrive behind him, but everything was a blur. Gabriel demanded her full attention. It took her a full minute to gain control over herself and to remember what he’d done to her. Just because she was safe now didn’t mean she’d forgive him for betraying her.
She shoved against his chest and swung her hand back to slap him.
But her action was cut short – he’d caught her wrist just before her palm connected with his face.
There was a flash of red in his eyes, but when he spoke his voice was calm. “You might think I deserve that, but I don’t. You and I have some talking to do.” He released her wrist.
And just then, Maya’s stomach growled. Damn, she was starving, and Gabriel’s taste on her lips reminded her all too much of what his blood tasted like. She pushed the hunger away. Somebody else was more important than herself. “I need to find Barbara.”
The silence that followed her statement was eerie. Maya looked at the assembled vampires: Thomas, Zane, Ricky, Yvette, and another one she hadn’t met before. He was as broad and as big as a football player, and his hair was raven black and reached to his shoulders. Her perusal of him was cut short when Gabriel put his hand on her arm. She tossed him an annoyed glare, but he ignored it.