Love by Night

by Stina

  Adirah closed her eyes again. She couldn’t remember anything that had happened or why she was in the hospital. Her mind was fuzzy with sleep, but she was aware that he was there with her.

  “Dira?” Kesh walked over. “How are you?”

  Adirah groaned and shook her head. Her eyes darted around the room, from Kesh to Vila to the tall guy from the party. What were they doing there? Where was Lina? What happened? Adirah’s head pounded, and her entire body ached, even in places she didn’t know could hurt. She couldn’t think straight. There were so many questions swirling around in her aching head, but she was too tired to figure things out. Adirah closed her eyes for a few seconds, and before she could reopen them, Angie was back. The nurse moved about like she couldn’t see Kesh, Vila, and their friend, but Adirah could hear them whispering to one another somewhere across the room. Was she hallucinating? Had she really seen the sexy guy from her psychology class and the crazy girl Lina had brought to their dorm room?

  “I’m going to give you something for the pain and check those burns,” Angie told Adirah. “I’m just happy to see you opening those little eyes of yours. I wasn’t so sure about you, young lady. I didn’t think we would have you here with us right now. It was pretty touch and go. You’re so lucky to be alive. That fire took many lives.”

  Adirah cracked her eyes open again and watched Angie plunge a syringe filled with clear liquid into the intravenous bag. Still, it was as if Angie couldn’t see Kesh and his friends or hear the voices.

  “There. That should make it all better,” Angie said, smiling down at Adirah. “Now, get some rest. You have a long road ahead. Besides, as soon as I give the green light, there will be some important people coming to see you. You’re the lone survivor of that terrible tragedy. God must have a pretty special plan for your life.”

  Adirah’s head lulled to the side, but she could feel the nurse loosening the bandages on her right arm.

  “What in the world? This is impossible,” Angie gasped, her hands starting to shake right away. “There is no way. I know I am not crazy.”

  Adirah could hear the distress and shock in Angie’s voice as she frantically removed more bandages. Adirah fought to stay awake. She wanted to know what was happening.

  “I . . . I . . . can’t believe this. Maybe I’ve been working too many hours. I have to go get someone,” Angie said, flustered. “There’s no way. I . . . I’ve never seen anything like this before in all my years,” she mumbled as she scrambled toward the door like she’d seen a ghost.

  Adirah closed her eyes again, still struggling to stay awake against the medication. She didn’t want to be out of it. She had to find out what had happened to her. Why was the nurse so up in arms?

  “Dira? Dira, I am here.”

  Adirah groaned and tried to move her head in the direction of the familiar voice.

  “Dira, my queen. We have to get out of here before they figure it out. I have to take you with me,” Kesh said, taking her hand in his. “I’m going to make sure I protect you. I’ll never let you get hurt again.”

  Adirah groaned, but she couldn’t hold on any longer. Sleep snatched her away again.

  * * *

  “Kesh, are you crazy? You can’t just kidnap her, a mortal girl, from a crowded hospital. Everyone knows about the fire and the victims. I mean, she’s the only person who survived, thanks to you. Should I call you the mysterious hero, since that’s what they’ve been calling you on the news? She has a nurse, and they’ll be sounding the alarms and looking for her, for crying out loud,” Vila lectured as she paced on the far right side of Adirah’s hospital room.

  “I have to take her back and take care of her,” Kesh said, struggling with his decision. “I know the risks, but I can’t let the Malum get to her. Just like we have clan members planted in regular places, they might have someone planted here at the hospital, just waiting for one of us to slip up. I can’t leave her here. Period.”

  “King, Vila might be right,” Tiev interjected, keeping his voice level. “If we remove her from here by using our gifts, it will be all over the news. Their cameras are outside, and you won’t show up on their recordings. Can you imagine what they’ll see when they play the videos back? Her body levitating down the street by itself.” He shook his head. “You think that would be wise? We’d have more than just the Malum to worry about. We’d have vampire hunters flocking to North Carolina and trying to find her and then us,” he said pleadingly. “We have to be smart about this.”

  “We can put her in a disguise and let her walk out,” Kesh offered.

  Tiev shook his head again. “That’s not a good idea, either. It doesn’t matter what idea you come up with. Everyone will be looking for her. That nurse will return here any minute with a crowd of doctors. She knows what she saw under those bandages, and she knows what is supposed to be there. Obviously, Adirah is having a miraculous recovery and is healing because she drank from you, and now the mortals are confused. Did you see the look on that nurse’s face when she noticed that Adirah doesn’t have any burns or scars on that arm? It won’t be long before every burn on her body is gone. Or what about when she starts to feel different? Have new gifts and strength? This could spell disaster for us. It would be too much attention, which would be a perfect chance for the Malum to attack, this time directly. This time—”

  Kesh put up his hand. “Enough. I already know everything you both are telling me. Stop talking and fix it. Vila, go take that nurse’s mind. Charm her. Make her think she discharged this patient after a full recovery. Tiev, you do the same for the doctors. I don’t care if you have to do it to the entire hospital, and to the reporters too. I don’t care what has to be done. I’m taking Dira with me,” Kesh commanded, his jaw set and his nostrils flaring.

  Vila and Tiev had no choice but to obey, whether they agreed or not. Kesh was their king. They both bowed their heads and left the room to carry out Kesh’s orders.

  When he was finally alone with Adirah, Kesh walked over to her bedside and trailed his hand over her forehead. He felt a surge that jolted his body. He knew their connection was real. He loved her already, and he didn’t even know why.

  “The Malum are looking for you,” he whispered to her. “There’s something special about you. There’s a reason they don’t want me to have you as my queen, Dira. That’s my new name for you, Dira. My queen. Dira, queen of the Sefu Clan.”

  * * *

  Adirah awoke with a start. She bolted upright and tossed the black comforter off her body. She looked down at her naked body. “What the . . . ?” she murmured. She searched around for something to put on to cover her nakedness. There was nothing in sight. She reached back and wrapped the comforter around her. She touched her face and felt no pain. The headache she had been experiencing before was gone.

  Adirah remembered being in a hospital but wasn’t quite sure if it was a dream or not, because clearly she was not in a hospital now. The room was dark; the only light was from the flickering of a few candles that had been placed strategically around the perimeter and from a fire burning in the fireplace. There were two leather club chairs facing each other off to the left of the bed. Adirah was in a bed but was unsure if she was in an actually bedroom. The room had elements of a lounge or a living room, as well as a bedroom. There was a dresser, but there was also an oak bookshelf filled with classic literature. There was an oriental rug that looked to be about three hundred years old lying in front of a large brick fireplace. It had deep reds and blacks woven in an intricate pattern.

  “I’m happy to see that you’re doing better,” a deep voice said from across the room.

  Adirah jumped out of the strange bed in one leap and tried in vain to cover her breasts and private parts with her hands. “Where am I? What did you do to me?” she said, panicked.

  “Shh.” Kesh got up from the chair and walked toward her with his hands out in front of him. She could barely make out his shape in the dim lighting.

  “Why am I here!”
Adirah shouted, so loud her throat itched. She started coughing.

  “It’s okay. You’re fine. You were out of it for a while, but you’re better,” Kesh said in a low, comforting tone. “No one hurt you. I took care of you.” He saw that she was in distress, so he ended his advance toward her. He stood with his right hand extended to her.

  “Don’t touch me.” Adirah jumped back. “Why . . . why am I here? Why am I . . . n-naked?” she quizzed, carefully retreating from Kesh. “What did you do to me? Did you give me some drug and take advantage of me?”

  “No. No. Nothing like that. It’s a long story, but first, you have to calm down. You don’t want to make yourself sick again,” Kesh said, reaching over and gingerly pulling a plush black terry-cloth robe off the bedpost. “Here. Take this to cover yourself.” He held the robe out to her.

  Adirah was trembling all over. She was so confused. One minute she was at a party, enjoying her life, then possibly at a hospital, and then she was waking up, naked, in a strange room. Adirah knew she shouldn’t have gone to that party. Getting involved in the university’s social life and not focusing on her studies was not her plan, and now she was paying the price.

  She reached out and snatched the robe and attempted to put it on. She shook so badly, she couldn’t get the sleeves of the heavy material to cooperate. She flipped the robe three times and still couldn’t get it on.

  Kesh stepped closer. “Let me help you,” he said. He grabbed the back of the robe and helped her into it.

  Once she was covered, Adirah quickly moved away from Kesh and stood in front of the fireplace. The brightness of the fire enveloped her in a warm glow. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and hugged herself. “I want to know why I am here,” she repeated, her chest swelling with every word. She looked around the dimly lit room. “What place is this? What did you do to me? Did you . . . did you . . .”

  “No.” Kesh shook his head vigorously and reached out for her. “I already told you. I was the one that saved you. Let me talk to you . . . tell you everything.”

  Adirah stumbled backward away from him, her fists raised defensively. “Don’t touch me.”

  “You don’t understand. I saved your life. I took you out of the fire and nursed you back to health,” Kesh said. “I am here for you.” He slowly got closer to her. He could feel Adirah’s reluctance start to ease.

  Adirah’s hands fell to her sides. She was exhausted. She had been fighting her entire life, and she was finished. Kesh grabbed both of her hands and pulled her into him. Adirah wanted to resist him, and she desperately tried, but for some reason, she couldn’t. The glow surrounding him felt like it was sucking her in. She let him hold her, and it felt better than anything she had felt in years. Adirah closed her eyes, melted against him, and inhaled his scent. All her trembling stopped. She remembered this feeling as a child, when she got hugs from her mother. It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket during a cold storm. All her worries were melting away.

  “Tell me,” she whispered. “The truth about what happened to me. The truth about what you did to me. The truth about who you are. Tell me the truth . . . please.”

  Kesh started to say something, but loud pounding on the door caused him to pause. Adirah jumped and shook her head.

  “Oh, my God,” she gasped. “I have to go. I can’t be here.”

  “No, Dira. Wait. Let me get rid of whoever it is,” Kesh said, with urgency in his voice.

  “Why are you calling me what my family called me?” she asked, her face crumpled in confusion.

  “That’s . . . that’s my name for you,” he said.

  The loud pounding started again and interrupted their conversation.

  “Just relax. I’ll be right back,” Kesh told her, putting both of his hands up to emphasize that he wanted her to stay put. He rushed to the door and yanked it open, wearing a frown. “What?” he muttered after finding Tiev and Vila on the other side.

  “We need to speak to you right now,” Vila whispered harshly. “Alone.” Her eyes roved over his shoulder into the bedroom.

  “I’m busy,” Kesh said, stepping into the hallway and pulling the door behind him.

  “Well, you’re in my room, and I am asking for a minute of your precious time away from your precious mortal girl,” Vila snapped.

  Kesh contemplated this. He had taken over Vila’s room since the frat house where he had a room had burned down. He certainly couldn’t take Dira to their underground sleeping place, so he’d commanded Vila to give up her room. “What is it?” Kesh asked, annoyed.

  “I can’t believe you were about to reveal yourself to her, Kesh,” Vila said through her teeth, pointing in his face. “She’s a mortal. Or did you forget that? She has your blood in her now, but that doesn’t make her one of us. I have never seen you act like this over a stupid girl.”

  Kesh exhaled loudly. “I am the king of this clan. I call the shots. I can do what I want with her.”

  “But there are laws, Kesh,” Vila said, raising her voice. “Or did you forget them now that you’re so in love with a strange mortal girl, who, for all you know, could be a vampire killer?”

  Kesh scoffed and shook his head. “This jealousy has to stop, Vila.”

  “She’s right, Kesh,” Tiev said, stepping in.

  Kesh’s eyebrows shot up into arches at his best friend’s betrayal. “You too?”

  “If you reveal your true self to her, she will have to die or be turned. You know that. There’s no other way to handle it. You’ll have to turn her,” Tiev insisted.

  “Listen, she still doesn’t know what or who I am. I didn’t give her enough of my blood to turn her . . . only enough to save her. She won’t have the benefits of my blood forever, and I won’t turn her. She has gifts, and if I turn her, she’ll lose them. I need her to be the way she is,” Kesh told them. “She has to be my queen. That’s the end of the discussion.”

  “She’ll never be my queen, and if you reveal yourself to her, she can’t live. I’ll make sure of that,” Vila replied.

  Kesh rushed into Vila with superhuman speed and knocked her back. He pinned her against the wall by her throat and squeezed until Vila gagged.

  “You let your jealousy show on your face and spew from your lips all the time,” Kesh snarled, his mouth against Vila’s left ear. “But you have no power to question me. I am the king. I know the rules, and I make and break them as I see fit. Now . . . you will never touch her, or you will die a slow, painful death, never to return for another life,” Kesh said with feeling.

  He released his grip. Vila threw her hands up to her neck and coughed uncontrollably. She shot Kesh a hooded eye glare.

  “You don’t know what you just did,” she rasped.

  “Now, both of you need to be strategizing about our preparation for the next visit from our enemies, and not standing here, questioning me. Get out of my sight,” Kesh said, dismissing them.

  Chapter 6

  Adirah had barely made it through the door of her dorm room when Lina rushed into her so hard and fast, she almost fell backward.

  “Oh, my God! I can’t believe you’re here,” Lina cried, pulling Adirah into a tight embrace. “This feels like a miracle.” Lina pulled away from Adirah and started touching Adirah’s face and hair like she couldn’t believe she was standing there. “I just knew you were . . . I . . . I didn’t know,” Lina sobbed, shaking her head.

  “It’s okay, Lina. I’m alive and well. I’m here and fine as can be,” Adirah said to comfort Lina, patting her shoulder.

  “But . . . but how?” Lina asked, her palms up in front of her. “After I got out of the frat house and they herded us down the street and cordoned it off, I watched it burn to the ground. Even the firefighters had to run out of there. One even perished in the fire. They had said there were no survivors. I scoured the hospitals, asking and searching for you,” Lina said, still shaking her head in disbelief. “When I didn’t find you, I just . . . I . . . I thought you were—”

 
; “I was able to get out, Lina,” Adirah said, cutting in. “I remember everyone running in all different directions. I got lost in the crowd, but I was never left in the fire,” Adirah lied, repeating the words Kesh had planted in her head. “There was never a reason for you to worry about me. I was fine the whole time. I hung around for a few days, but I was always perfectly perfect,” Adirah continued, smiling.

  Lina squinted at her and looked her up and down. “What’s different about you, Adirah?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all,” Adirah said, then giggled. “Why’d you ask?”

  “Your skin . . . it’s glowing,” Lina reached out to touch Adirah’s face.

  Adirah moved her head aside. “It’s always been like this.”

  Lina shook her head, her mouth hanging open slightly. “No . . . Even your eyes are so bright and clear. It’s like you’ve been changed into one of the beautiful ones on campus. I’d know that look anywhere. It’s almost too perfect to be human . . . ,” Lina said, her voice trailing off.

  “Don’t be silly, Lina. I’ve always been gorgeous. Maybe you just never noticed,” Adirah joked, winking.

  She snatched her hair down from the ponytail she was wearing, and it fell around her shoulders. She walked over to the mirror on her side of the room and looked at her reflection. She smiled. She was gorgeous and glowing. It looked like she had on a full face of professionally applied makeup when she didn’t have on any. Adirah touched her own face and moved closer to the mirror. Lina was right. There was definitely something different about her. She was radiant without even trying. Not only did she look great, but she also felt more alive than she ever had.

  “Are you going to class?” Lina asked.

  “Today I have a date,” Adirah said, turning around so Lina could see her wide, cheesy grin. Adirah licked her lips seductively.

  “A date over class? After being missing for over a week?” Lina replied. “Oh, you’re definitely different, Adirah.”

  “You only thought I was missing. I’ve always been right here,” Adirah said cryptically. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to be ready in an hour.” She winked at Lina.