"Uh oh."
Rose broke out of her thoughts and looked up at her. “Uh oh? What uh oh?"
"I know that look. Something's on your mind. Spill.” Cheyenne's eyes were stern. Rose looked quickly away.
"It's nothing I haven't been brooding on for a while.” She waved a hand dismissively. “I don't want to talk about it—at least, not now."
"When do you think you will want to talk? You can't lie to me Rose. I see it in your eyes. You want to talk about it, but you're too afraid to.” Cheyenne paused. “I understand that. I just wanted you to know you can talk to me any time you need to. My offer still stands."
"I know, and I appreciate it. You're a good person, Cheyenne. I may take you up on that offer later."
"I hope so. I'm getting tired of insisting on it. “Cheyenne grinned. When Rose didn't laugh, she added, “That was a joke, you know."
Rose feigned a smile. “Yeah, I know.” She looked down at her tea. “I just don't feel much like joking."
"I know a remedy for that,” Cheyenne answered. She took a long drink of her tea while Rose waited for her to continue.
"Oh? There's a remedy?"
"Yep. It involves lots and lots of Ben and Jerry's and a few laugh out loud romantic comedies. It's the cure the doctors won't tell you about."
Rose couldn't help it. She had to laugh. “Oh really?"
"Yeah. See? It's already working. I got you to laugh."
"Okay, I'll try your remedy, but no guarantees I'll feel better afterwards."
"Great. Looks like we're going to have some fun girl time after all. Here I was, afraid you'd be boring.” Cheyenne drained her mug and got up from the table. “I'll head to the store after I finish up in the garden. Want to come along?"
"No. I think I'll stay, explore the house. I still haven't gotten used to everything."
"Well, it's just a house. There's nothing special here, but feel free to look around. Rest, if you want. Any certain kind of ice cream you want?"
"Chunky Monkey and anything with brownies. Oh! And hot fudge. Get a bottle of that. We can smother the ice cream in it."
Cheyenne laughed. “I think you're feeling better already. We'll have some take-out or something for dinner tonight, too. I'll call you before I head home to get your input on what we have."
"Okay.” She watched as Cheyenne struggled back into her dirty coveralls and boots, grabbed her hat and headed back outside. Rose stood up to empty the rest of her tea out and watched Cheyenne grab her pail and resume picking her tomatoes. She waved to Rose from the garden and she waved back.
Rose had to admit Cheyenne was right about feeling better, but it wasn't because of ice cream and girl movies. Tonight was the night she was going to talk to Cheyenne.
She would have just enough time to think how she wanted to word things. Just blurting it out wouldn't be right.
* * * *
* * * *
When Jason woke up, he thought he was back in Quenten's hospital. The walls were white, bright and the lights overhead were blinding. His eyes hurt because of them and he groaned.
But his intuition told him otherwise. He wasn't in Quenten's hospital. This was a hospital of another kind. His senses kicked into overdrive. The first thing he noticed was the smell of antiseptic and something unidentifiable but clean. There was an annoying, constant beeping close to his ear. He opened his eyes again and let his sight adjust to the brightness. Where was he?
He sat up. He was in a hospital bed, multiple wires and needles stuck into him. Immediately, he yanked them out and swung his legs over the side of the bed. A curtain separated him from the others in the room. He heard female voices conferring with one another. Shadows moved beyond his curtain. Jason held his breath and looked about. There was no place for him to hide.
He braced himself to run as soon as the curtain pulled back, but the shadowed figures never came near. Instead, he heard the curtain surrounding another patient open. The voices began again. He listened in.
"The doctor's prognosis included a concussion and multiple contusions and lacerations on various parts of her body."
"Car accident?"
"Yes. The vehicle ran off the road. There's nothing official yet on it. There were two others brought it. One DOA."
"Oh my."
Jason sucked in a breath. He knew they were talking about them and the accident. He remembered struggling with Quenten's goon at the wheel and the van pulling off the road. He remembered the van went off road, sideswiping a tree. But it didn't stop there. In his attempts to keep the van from crashing anymore, he turned the wheel too sharply.
The van went into a roll. Glass had shattered all around him, cutting him all over. He held onto the goon as the van went upside down. The van hit another tree and that was the last he remembered.
Jason looked down at his hands and arms. He had been sliced open by the glass, but the many cuts were nearly healed. He knew how fast he healed and judging from the pinkish scars of his wounds—he hadn't been here that long.
They hadn't been here that long. The woman the nurses were talking about was Amelia. It had to be.
Jason resisted the urge to grab the curtain, yank it back and rush to Amelia's side. His senses, instinct, intuition, told him she was fine. He decided to listen to the little voice and try to think this through.
The nurse had said three of them had been brought in. He was here, and so was Amelia. So who was the third, the one had arrived dead? There had been four of them in the van.
Someone had gotten away and Jason was afraid he knew who it was.
Quenten.
"The other patient is over here.” Footfalls started toward him, breaking him out of his thoughts. He stepped back, hiding most of his body behind a monitoring machine. It would do no good to hide. He would have to run.
As soon as he realized this, the curtain slid back, revealing two nurses in blue scrubs. They both looked equally shocked to see the bed empty and even more shocked when Jason bolted from his hiding place and shoved past them.
"Hey,” one of the nurses shouted. “Stop!"
Jason did stop, but not for them. He ripped back the curtain from Amelia's bed side and looked down at her.
Her clothes were covered in blood, some of it from the horribly deep cuts on her arms and face. The rest, Jason was pretty sure, was from the remnants of the vials from the van, broken in the crash. There was a large bruise, already turning black and blue, along her right temple and jaw. A huge gash cut down from her hairline, stopping just above her left eyebrow. Her bottom lip was dotted with blood from a cut there, and swollen to twice the normal size.
She looked bad. Various needles and wires stuck out from her arms and an oxygen hose was placed in her nose. A steady beeping signaled her steady heart rate.
"Oh Amelia.” He had never wanted to see her hurt. He had to get her out of here. They both had to get out of here.
"Sir?” One of the nurses had crept up behind him. “Sir? You need to go back to your bed. You're not well.” Her voice was meant to be soothing, but it had the opposite effect on him. He turned his eyes away from his mother and glared at the nurse.
"Leave me alone,” he said in a tone dripping with anger. “Where is the other one?"
"The other one?” the nurse asked, confused. Jason looked past her pale, scared face, to the nurse behind her. She had grabbed the nearest phone and was speaking into it, her eyes not leaving him. No doubt, she was calling security. Jason didn't care.
"The other one. The one who came in with us. From the crash. Where is he?"
"I—” She stopped, swallowing. Her eyes grew wide. Jason didn't have to guess why. He could feel the burn as his eyes changed to their wolfen yellow. He glanced away quickly.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know how to tell you—"
"He's dead, I know. Where is he?” Jason demanded, the edge growing in his voice.
"He's over there,” the woman said, meekly. Jason followed her pointing finger.
There was another bed, hidden behind another curtain. He turned his gaze back to the nurse.
"Thank you.” He immediately moved away from Amelia's side and in three strides crossed the floor to the other bed. He tore back the curtains and looked down at the sheet covering the body. He yanked it back in one swift motion.
He knew he wouldn't really believe it until he saw it and once he did, he knew his instincts had been right all along. It was Quenten's goon, lying lifeless on the hospital bed. His head was twisted at an odd angle and his eyes were open in a horrible, unmoving stare. Cuts covered his face and arms and like Jason's, they were nearly healed.
So it was true what Quenten had said. He had used were blood on these goons. It explained why they were so fast, so strong.
Jason held back a growl as he lowered his head. Quenten had done so much evil. The man deserved to die.
But Quenten was gone. He had fled and now, he could be anywhere. That thought made him feel very cold inside. He had to be stopped, as soon as possible. He remembered what Amelia had said back in the van. It was up to him to stop Quenten. He was the only one who could.
Jason looked back over his shoulder. The nurse on the phone hung up and hurriedly walked over to her companion. She whispered something and they both looked in Jason's direction.
A few moments later, a man with a clipboard walked in through the double doors. He immediately looked to Jason and began to approach him.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to go back to your bed. You've suffered some terrible trauma and you're not well.” He spoke in a tone as one would a child and Jason narrowed his eyes at him.
"I'm fine. I don't need your damn help.” He began to walk back to Amelia's bedside. The doctor's hand shot out, grabbing hold of Jason's arm. The man knew he had made a mistake when Jason slowly turned and looked him in the eye.
He could smell the fear emanating from the man. He had seen the yellow, feral look in his eyes, but Jason didn't care.
"Let go of me,” he said, darkly. The doctor immediately did, stepping back in a shocked state. Jason jerked his arm away and marched past him and past the stunned nurses.
Without a moment's hesitation, without knowing what he was going to do next, he ripped out the wires and plugs from Amelia's body. He lifted the oxygen tube out of her nose.
"Sir, you can't—” One of the nurses began to interrupt him, but she shut up the moment Jason shot her his enraged look.
Gently, he scooped his mother up into his arms. She was weightless as he hefted her. He turned around, Amelia's head resting against his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes, glaring first at the nurses, then at the doctor. Others had gathered too, but he didn't acknowledge them.
Without saying a word, he started to walk past a nurse's station, toward the double doors and out of the ER.
"You can't leave,” one of the other nurses at the station exclaimed, just as he reached the door. “There are forms and—"
She stopped as Jason stopped and turned. He felt his eyes burn even more with the ferocity of his wolfen nature. The woman dropped her pen and clipboard, her eyes widening in horror. No one was going to stop him, once determination set in. He was going to get Amelia out of here and find Quenten ... or at least, let Quenten find them. He would still want them alive.
Jason knew this without question. His intuition and instinct were becoming more reliable, and he was starting to trust it more and more.
He felt a dark, angry grimace spread over his face as he stared at the nurse. She stank of fear as she took an involuntary step back.
"She's right. You can't leave,” the doctor said from behind him. Jason didn't turn to him. Looking away from the woman, he faced the door.
"Watch me,” he said in a low voice, just before he kicked open the door and walked out.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Chapter Twenty
Aurora arrived at the PRDI sometime after noon. She stood on the sidewalk in front of the building. The asphalt and sidewalk were still marked with scorch marks from the explosion yesterday. All the debris had been cleared. Save for those burn marks and the missing limbs on the blackened tree, it looked like nothing had happened.
Aurora took a few deep breaths and walked up the sidewalk to the door. She hit the buzzer and waited. It didn't take long before Davis let her in. He met her at the door. He was dressed in blue jeans and a grey t-shirt and his hair was an unkempt mess. He looked upset.
"What's going on?” Aurora immediately asked. “Where's Glen?"
"He's in his office. In a meeting."
"Meeting? It's the weekend. He doesn't—"
"He's making an exception this time. Why are you here?"
Aurora glanced toward the stairs. She knew she had to come here to find answers, to uncover the truth about Amelia and Emily Camille and her mother. But she wasn't sure just how to explain that to Davis.
"I need to use the library, and hopefully talk to someone."
"I'm afraid Glen won't be through with his meeting for quite some time,” Davis said through clenched teeth.
Aurora tilted her head. “What's going on? Who's he having a meeting with?"
Davis looked at her with his steely gaze for a long moment before he began to talk.
"Nola."
It was strange that a single word, a single name would make her feel cold all over.
"She came back?” she asked, surprised by the fear in her voice. She looked into Davis's eyes. He looked incensed.
"Yeah, she came back, the damn bitch. I didn't buzz her in. I was all for letting her go—I don't want her here. But Glen figured we'd have to give her a chance. Maybe she isn't behind it. All that bullshit.” Davis glanced toward the stairs, narrowing his eyes. Aurora followed his stare. She tried to follow along.
"Glen let her in?"
"Yes, he let her in. Said we had to give her a chance to talk. Then he took her to his office. They've been there for about half an hour.” He growled out the words.
"What does Rose think about this?"
"Rose isn't here.” Davis turned back to her.
Aurora blinked. “Oh, I was kinda hoping to talk to her. Where is she?"
"Gone to the hospital. No, no—she's not in labor or anything,” he explained. “She's just gone for a few days.” He didn't say why, or what hospital, leaving Aurora wondering why he left that out.
"Okay,” she answered. “I guess talking to Glen's out of the question."
"Yeah, probably.” Davis crossed his arms over his chest. “Why are you here again?"
"I need to use the library, you know, for school stuff?"
"It's the weekend.” He retorted her earlier remark, raising his eyebrow at her. She glared at him then rolled her eyes.
"I can still do homework, you know. And I wanted to talk to Rose or Glen about a few things. I didn't know I needed a special permit for that."
"Don't be smart,” Davis said. “Looks like you're out of luck on talking to anyone today. I don't think Glen's going to be in a good mood when he gets done with Nola.” He shook his head. “I don't know why she came back. We all know she did it."
"Maybe she's just trying to cover up?” Aurora offered, not sure really what else to say. Davis sighed.
"Maybe. There's just something about her I don't like. You know, these attacks didn't start until after she arrived. It can't be a mere coincidence."
"Yeah,” Aurora agreed. She decided to change the subject. She hadn't come here to argue with Davis and talk about Nola. Since Rose wasn't here and Glen was occupied, she decided to talk to her last choice.
"Is Dr. Nesbitt around?"
"She's somewhere here, but I don't know where."
"Okay, thanks. I'm going to get something to drink from the kitchen. I'll catch you later. If Glen gets a free moment, let him know I want to talk to him, okay?” She waved a goodbye to Davis, but he didn't acknowledge her. He had turned his attention back to the staircase. When she looked over her shoulder, he had turned and was h
eading back to his security room.
So Nola had come back. Aurora shivered, thinking about how she had tried to intimidate her. She would have to be sure to avoid her. She didn't want any more confrontation.
She slipped into the kitchen. It was blissfully empty and she sighed as she let her backpack drop to the floor against the counter. She ran her hands over the clean, smooth counter, affixing her eyes to it as she tried to think.
She would find Dr. Nesbitt and show her the book then she would ask about her family. Since the book had been on PRDI property, there may be connections with the owners and the Institute. Dr. Nesbitt had been here for a long while, and the names may strike a memory.
She could only hope.
Aurora pulled up a chair and sat down. She needed to collect her thoughts and figure out just what she wanted to say. It wasn't as if she could just blurt it out. There had to be tact.
She was just gathering up the courage to search the building for Dr. Nesbitt when the kitchen door opened. She turned to find the doctor standing just behind her. She was dressed casually, in a flowered blouse and tan slacks—a very different contrast to her work attire.
Dr. Nesbitt blinked, surprised to see her. Aurora looked away quickly, feeling suddenly panicked. Her heart began to race. The sudden prospect of knowing the answers to her questions about her mother and sister made her anxious, scared. She tried to calm herself down. She didn't need to panic.
"Hello, Aurora. I didn't know you were here.” Dr. Nesbitt greeted her as she shut the door behind her. Aurora took a few deep breaths and forced herself to look at the doctor.
"Yeah, I just stopped by to look up a few things.” She managed to say the words without choking. It's not really a lie, she told herself. She did need to look up a few things, just not in the conventional sense.
"Oh, well don't let me bother you then. I just came to get fix a cup of tea. Would you like some?"
Dr. Nesbitt walked across the floor and began to fill a gleaming kettle with water from the sink. She turned back to Aurora expectantly.
It would be the perfect opportunity to talk, Aurora reasoned with herself. She willed her heart to stop beating so fast and nodded. Dr. Nesbitt smiled.
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