TheSmallPrint

by Barbara Elsborg

  “There’s no need to tell him we visited,” Turner said. “No point in upsetting him.”

  “No,” the nurse said. “No point.”

  “You won’t remember we came to see her.” Turner’s voice was smooth and melodic.

  “No,” the nurse said again.

  What was Turner doing?

  “There’s another patient in there, so please be quiet,” the nurse whispered.

  The moment the door opened and Matty tried to take a step, her knees went out from under her. Turner caught her and swept her up as he walked in. Matty’s gaze snapped to the curtain across the room. Machines bleeped, she could see them flashing out the corner of her eye, but she had no intention of looking at the bed. Not for anything.

  “Leave us for a few minutes,” Turner said in a firm voice.

  “I’ll leave you for a few minutes,” the nurse said. “Matty can’t respond, but patients in comas can sometimes hear. Talk to her. Share memories.”

  The nurse closed the door behind her. Turner set Matty on her feet and tugged her over to the bed. The rhythmic hiss and whoosh of the ventilator grew louder in her head until it was all she could hear. Air being forced into her lungs and then sucked out again. I don’t want to see this.

  “Oh God,” Turner gulped.

  Not going to look.

  “Fuck,” Catch muttered.

  She really wasn’t going to look. None of this was happening. She might be in a coma, but she was making this part up. Only why would she invent something this terrible?

  Matty’s head slowly lifted and she looked at long legs lying beneath a pale blue cover. As her gaze slipped a little higher she closed her eyes.

  “Is it me?” she whispered.

  Catch took one hand as Turner squeezed the other.

  “Yes, princess,” Catch said. “Open your eyes.”

  Matty took a deep breath and then looked down. She stared at the figure lying in the hospital bed, face swollen, a breathing device in her mouth, an IV line in her arm, wires and tubes everywhere. Matty wanted to claim it wasn’t her, but it was.

  Catch shifted a lock of hair from the sick Matty’s face.

  “Hit by a train?” Turner asked. “Do you remember that?”

  “No.” Matty stared at herself. How had she survived being hit by a train? Ah, she hadn’t, had she?

  Matty felt as though she’d been cramming for an exam, stuffed her head full of information, and when she finally picked up the pen to answer the questions, she couldn’t make sense of the jumble in her brain. Thinking she was imagining all this had been nothing more than a defense mechanism. She hadn’t made up all these months. She’d somehow become detached from her body, left it lying in the hospital and gone home.

  Time had passed, the world moved on, and while this poor Matty hadn’t, she had. A medical marvel. A miracle, and she could tell no one because she was invisible. Except not to Turner and Catch and George because they were… Oh God. Not thinking about that.

  She watched in stunned disbelief as she reached toward the hand lying on top of the cover. When Matty’s fingers slid inside those she touched and merged so it looked as if there were one hand, she squeaked and yanked her arm back. But their hands were joined—spectral fingers wouldn’t let her go.

  “No,” Matty screamed, and flailed with her other hand as she tried to get free.

  A moment later, she was away from the bed, across the room, trembling in Catch’s arms. When she’d pulled free, there had been a sharp pain in her chest. It faded as she gasped.

  “You’re okay, you’re okay,” Catch kept repeating.

  Matty shuddered into him, pressing her face against his leather jacket.

  Turner’s arms held her too. “What happened?”

  “Didn’t you see?” Matty asked.

  “You put your hand on hers, princess, and freaked out,” Catch whispered into her hair.

  She couldn’t stand to look at the bed. “She wants me back inside. I need to leave. Now.”

  Matty tried to get free, but they kept hold of her.

  “No,” Matty pleaded. “Please, please. Don’t make me.” Panic invaded every cell. She was desperate to run yet couldn’t move, could barely breathe.

  “Princess, calm down. No one’s going to make you do anything.” Catch rested his chin on her head.

  “Take me home,” she whispered. “I want to go home. Please.”

  “Her brain activity went up,” Turner said.

  “What?” Catch asked.

  Matty faced Turner. He nodded toward the bed. “When our Matty touched her, that Matty’s pulse sped up and her level of consciousness changed. The machines. I saw the blips.”

  “We’re taking her back right now,” Catch said, and pulled her toward the door.

  Turner caught his arm. “Wait.”

  Matty wanted to crawl inside Catch. She knew what Turner was going to say.

  Turner pinned her with his dark gaze. “What if this Matty can’t wake until the two of them are united? What if somehow body and spirit became separated in the trauma of the accident and—”

  “What if I let myself get pulled inside and then I die?” Matty blurted.

  Catch wrapped his arms tighter around her. “Not going to happen. I won’t let it happen.”

  “We need to speak to a doctor,” Turner said.

  “That won’t be easy this time of night,” said a raspy voice on the other side of the room.

  Matty’s eyes widened. Turner walked across and pulled back the curtain.

  “Sorry, did we wake you?” Turner asked.

  “Nope. Can’t seem to sleep at night. Been entertaining, listening to you two. You escaped from the psych ward? Sharing the same paranoia?”

  “No,” Turner said.

  The man speaking looked the same age as her. He had pale blond hair, an even paler face and lay motionless under the covers.

  “How come the nurse let you in? That dick of an uncle won’t let anyone see her. He didn’t even want me in the room with her. Not much he can do about that with health service cuts.”

  “Her uncle?” Turner asked.

  “Yep. He sits there, staring at her, not saying a word. He tells the nurses he talks to her, but he doesn’t.”

  “Have the doctors said what’s wrong with her?” Turner asked.

  Catch gripped her tighter. Matty thought he was as scared as her. Turner was the only one functioning.

  “They don’t know, but they don’t reckon she’ll wake any time soon. They’re talking about transferring her to a nursing home. Her uncle doesn’t want that. I get the feeling…”

  Matty held her breath.

  “What?” Turner asked.

  “Nothing. I’m just a miserable sod. I’ve enough on my plate without worrying about other people.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Turner asked.

  “I can speak and breathe on my own. Just. Nothing else works.”

  “Quadriplegic?” Catch asked.

  “I was fooling around with my brother. Wrestling. Having fun. Broke my neck.”

  Mattie sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” Turner said.

  “Yeah, so am I,” said the man.

  “Sleep now,” Turner said. “You won’t remember us.”

  The three of them were almost at the door before the man spoke. “Would you make sure I don’t remember you?”

  Turner swiveled to look at him. “What?”

  “Kill me?”the guy whispered.

  Matty slapped her hand over her mouth.

  “No,” Turner said. “I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”

  “Then you remember me. Mike Reynolds. See how one mistake can ruin your life.”

  Turner put his arm over Matty’s shoulder and guided her out of the ward and down the corridor.

  Inside the elevator, Catch kissed her. The softest, gentlest kiss he’d given her. One feather brush of his lips against hers and Matty melted into him. When the doors opened and Catch tugged
her out, Turner didn’t follow.

  “I’m going to see if I can get hold of Matty’s notes,” he said, and threw Catch the keys to the car. “Be good.”

  The elevator doors were closing when a couple rushed up. Turner put out his hand and the man nodded his thanks. His face was puce, his jaw tightly clenched, and Turner wondered if he was in pain. The woman with him looked torn between concern and anger.

  “Bernard, calm down,” she whispered.

  It wasn’t an unusual name, but Turner suspected he knew who these two were and that this was his fault. He’d put one nurse in thrall but the other had walked away, presumably to phone Matty’s uncle.

  “Does no one listen to instructions? What part of ‘no visitors’ was unclear?” he muttered through clenched teeth.

  Now Turner knew he was right.

  “Are you sure you don’t recall your brother mentioning Matty had friends in the armed forces?” Bernard asked the woman.

  “No.”

  The elevator doors opened and Turner hung back to follow as the pair hustled down the corridor.

  “Bloody nurses think they know better than her own flesh and blood,” Bernard snapped.

  Turner’s fists clenched. That man wasn’t Matty’s blood relative.

  Bernard continued to rant. “The nerve of these guys. Ringing Milford Hall and then the interfering owner putting them in touch with my blood-sucking lawyers.”

  “That’s something I don’t understand,” his wife said. “How did the new owner know about Matty?”

  Bernard glared at her. “Don’t be an idiot. He didn’t know about her until these army guys asked. I’m going to be complaining to the hospital administration about the nursing staff and to the legal ombudsman about Jenkins and Stour. They had no right to give out Matty’s location.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Bernard. You don’t want to draw—”

  “No, you’re right, but I can see to it that Matty has no more visitors. She needs to be left to die in peace.”

  Turner clamped down on his fury and concentrated on becoming as unobtrusive as possible. He couldn’t make himself invisible but he could blend with shadows. He slipped onto the ward behind Matty’s aunt and uncle.

  * * * * *

  Catch hugged Matty close to his side as they walked back to the car. He had no idea what to say to her. He felt as if he’d been caught up in a whirlwind. So how the hell did Matty feel? Catch searched for something to say to reassure her, but all he could do was hold her tight.

  When they reached the car, Catch leaned against it and pulled Matty to him. Her eyes shimmered with tears and the pain in his heart grew worse.

  “We can sort this out, princess,” he whispered.

  “I’m not crying for me. I’m crying for that guy. I mean, I’ve got the better deal, haven’t I? I’m still walking around and talking, and I have you and Turner, and that poor man’s stuck up there, not able to do anything except wish to die.” She hiccupped a sob. “Only how come I get to live in my make-believe world? Why aren’t there more like me? It doesn’t make sense that I’d be the only one. Or maybe I just can’t see anyone else.”

  “Make-believe?” Shit. How could he make her see this was real?

  She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. “I’m struggling to make sense of this. One minute I think I’m dreaming, the next I’m sure I’m not, only there are consequences for taking that path. Think I can keep making all this happen so long as my body doesn’t give up on me?”

  “You’re not dreaming this, sweetheart.”

  She gave him a sad smile. “You mean you really are a vampire-werewolf and Turner’s a…?”

  “Yes.”

  Matty let out a strangled sob.

  “You’re not going to say there’s no such thing?” Catch asked.

  “My dad said it was important to keep an open mind. It’s the whole point of being alive—so you can be totally aware of the world and everything in it.”

  “Even creatures like me?”

  “Our brains can come up with an explanation for any given situation.”

  Catch smiled. “So what’s your explanation for me?”

  “That you’re either what you say you are or I’ve made you up.”

  “You haven’t made me up. I’m part vampire, part werewolf. I can turn into a wolf more or less any time I choose, though it’s a painful process. Interwoven in the world you know is another world populated by those like me and like Turner. Vampires, were creatures, faeries, demons. We’re shadows but we’re there.”

  Matty released a shaky breath. “Yeah, and that’s the problem with having an open mind, people like you stuff things like that in there.”

  Catch smiled. “How would your father have dealt with me and Turner?”

  “He’d have found out everything he could about you and used that knowledge as a basis for forming his opinion and making a value judgment.”

  “What about you?”

  “I just want to know why you haven’t bitten me and drank my blood.”

  Catch blinked. “It’s not allowed, though I don’t need blood anywhere near as much as Turner.”

  “Shift then,” she said. “Prove it.”

  He looked round. “Not here.”

  “Then lift that car.”

  Catch laughed. “I’m not that strong.”

  “You haven’t even wanted to bite me,” she said.

  “Yeah, I have.”

  “Do it now.”

  Oh Christ. “Princess, I—”

  “If I’m controlling this, then I should be able to make you bite me.” She took a deep breath.

  He could feel her trembling. It had to be hard to accept this.

  “Bite me,” she whispered, and tilted her head to offer him her neck.

  Despite everything screaming “back off”, parts of Catch responded. His cock filled with blood and his fangs dropped. Oh Christ. That rarely happened. He didn’t need to take in much blood. He only needed Plasmix if he was sick or injured. Shit, shit. Catch’s mouth watered. Lust for blood and desire for Matty swamped every ounce of commonsense he clung to. Teeth and cock overpowering reason.

  Kiss, don’t bite.

  He lowered his mouth, brushed his lips from her cheekbone down the curve of her neck and stopped. Something was wrong. Well, a lot was wrong, but although Catch could feel her pulse pounding, it also didn’t feel right.

  “Please,” Matty whispered.

  He lifted his head at the sound of Turner’s footsteps. Catch took in the hard set of his jaw and his heart sank, which made his fangs retract and his cock shrink.

  “What did you find out?” Catch asked.

  “Later,” Turner muttered.

  Matty caught his arm. “No, not later.”

  Turner sighed and then nodded. He wrapped his fingers around hers where she clutched him. “You’ve been in a coma since they operated to remove cranial pressure. There’s…there’s very little brain activity.”

  “I’m dying?” Matty whispered.

  “Not immediately. But there’s a DNR in place.”

  “Do not resuscitate?” She bristled.

  “Your uncle has legal control over your welfare,” Turner said. “He’s specified no action’s to be taken to counter infection, no aggressive attempts to keep you alive.”

  Matty shuddered. “Why would he do that?”

  Turner stroked her cheek. “Sweetheart, you’re not expected to survive.”

  She sagged in Catch’s arms, and it was all he could he could do not to sag with her. No trouble working out what would happen if this hospital-Matty died.

  “You’re not dead yet,” Catch whispered. “Not yet. Fight.”

  Matty straightened up. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

  Turner cleared his throat. “There’s something else. I think if you went back inside your body, united the two parts of you, you’d increase your chance of survival.”

  “Think?” Catch snapped. “That’
s hardly reassuring.”

  Turner winced. “I was wondering if the reason little brain activity is showing is because our Matty has most of it. If the two were joined—”

  “We could lose her.” Catch’s voice cracked.

  “What if we gave her some help?”

  “What sort of help?” Matty asked.

  “Blood,” Turner said in a quiet voice, and looked at Catch.

  “That’s a kind thought, guys, but I don’t think that’s going to make much difference,” she said. “If I needed blood they’d give me a trans— Oh.” She gulped. “Would you do me a favor? Don’t talk about this anymore tonight. I want to go back to Milford, skate on the ice, holding your hands, and ride on something scary and then go to bed with you. I want this to be the best night I’ve ever had.”

  Catch pulled her into his arms and she buried her face against his chest. They couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t let it happen.

  * * * * *

  Turner was relieved when Catch offered to drive. Apart from Turner’s ongoing battle with the sat nav, he wanted to hold Matty close on the backseat. She hadn’t really understood what he’d meant about the blood, but it wasn’t the time to confront her with the mind-blowing issue of fictional creatures being fact. He shouldn’t have told her. He wished he hadn’t. He wished a lot of things.

  He pressed his face into Matty’s hair. She had her eyes shut and hadn’t moved for a while. He listened to the gentle sound of her breathing and wondered how any of this was possible. How could he keep her safe? Keep Catch safe? He wanted them someplace secure, but neither of them would leave without a fight.

  “She’s asleep,” Turner said.

  “She’s confused. I’m confused.”

  Turner dropped a kiss on her head.

  “I don’t know if she’s actually taken this in,” Catch said. “One minute I think she has, the next she seems convinced she’s making it up, that she’s lying in a coma, imagining this other life, imagining us.”

  “That’s why she didn’t freak at the idea we’re a vampire and werewolf?”

  “She wanted me to bite her.”

  Turner caught Catch’s glance in the mirror. “And?”