He kicked the locked door open and used his vampire speed to follow the path that she had described. He could see her friend, Will, waiting behind the wheel of his car. Dante threw open the back door and got in as quickly as he could.
“Drive!” he ordered as he tried to reposition Frankie without exposing himself to the sunlight.
Will did as he said and drove away as quickly as he could. Slowly Dante managed to move Frankie out from under the blanket so that she was sitting beside him, though still unconscious.
“Is she okay?” Will asked, able to see Frankie in his rear view mirror.
“She will be.”
“What did you do to her?”
Dante didn't answer.
“I swear to God, if you've hurt her, I'll find a way to make you pay.” Will glared at him in the mirror.
Once again Dante didn't answer, for if indeed she was seriously hurt, he would deserve it. He had promised Josh that he would keep her safe and if she was seriously hurt by his hand...
Will drove straight to the hospital; he didn't care if Dante needed to get out of the sun. He skidded to a stop outside the accident and emergency department, got Frankie out of the back seat and carried her into the hospital.
While the attention of passersby was on Will, Dante rushed out of the car and into the hospital, appearing as little more than a blur to most people.
Dante was glad that Will had brought Frankie here, not just because Frankie needed help, but also because a hospital contained just what he needed to finish healing. He found the locker room and quickly changed into hospital scrubs, then he captured the mind of the first nurse that he saw and had her guide him to the blood bank. Six units of blood later, Dante was beginning to feel normal again.
He remembered what he had endured at Pietro's hand, and a sudden determination to kill the son of a bitch overcame him.
Then he remembered Frankie and his blood lust fled for a moment. Pietro would still die, slowly and painfully, but not until he knew that she was okay.
“What happened?” a nurse asked Will as she checked Frankie over.
“She needs blood,” Will said again.
“Why, sir, what happened?”
Will could see that the wound on her wrist was gone and as far as he and the nurse could tell, she had no other wounds that could cause blood loss.
“I don't know,” he said, sighing.
“Then how do you know she needs blood?”
“She told me, before she passed out,” he said, though he knew that his answer wouldn't satisfy her.
“Her pulse is fast and her blood pressure is low,” the nurse confirmed. “But there could be a number of reasons for that.”
“Please, just give her a transfusion; it's what she needs.”
The nurse had finished setting Frankie up on a heart monitor and looked up, seemingly sympathetic.
“The doctor will be here soon, if he says that she needs a transfusion, she'll get one.”
The nurse pulled the curtain back to leave but Will grabbed her arm.
“Why won't you listen to me!”
“Problem?”
Will glared at Dante, who had appeared over the nurse's shoulder, dressed as a doctor.
“She won't give Frankie a transfusion,” Will informed him.
“Not until a doctor has seen her,” the nurse reiterated.
Dante looked into her eyes and Will noticed that his usually icy blue eyes turned a deep, dark shade of blue.
“Nancy, it is Nancy, isn't it?” Dante said, his voice as smooth as silk. “Why don't you find us a doctor and tell him it's urgent.”
“Of course,” she said. Will released her arm and she scurried off. Dante entered the cubicle, where he and Will proceeded to have a staring contest until a doctor appeared a few moments later.
“What's the problem?” the Doctor asked, hurrying to Frankie's side. He shot Dante a quick look, probably wondering why a doctor that he didn't know was in his department.
Dante worked quickly to capture the doctors mind while he was bent over Frankie.
“She's lost a lot of blood; she needs a transfusion of O negative now.”
The doctor looked up at the nurse, who nodded and went to retrieve the blood. Quickly Frankie was transfused with her first unit, then a second, third, fourth and finally a fifth. Slowly her colour began to improve as her heart rate dropped and her blood pressure rose.
Will wanted to hate Dante, not just for hurting Frankie but also for saving her. He shouldn't get to ride in and save the day, not after what he did. He supposed that he was being churlish, but he couldn't help how he felt. Both men stayed at her bedside until she awoke a few hours later. She noticed Dante first.
“Hey, you're all better.” She smiled weakly.
Dante nodded, not wanting to go into further details in front of Will.
“Hey,” she smiled at Will when she noticed him.
“How are you feeling?” Will asked.
“A little tired, I guess. What happened?”
“You passed out,” Dante said. “Will brought you here for-”
“A blood transfusion,” Will finished. “The leech nearly killed you.”
“No.” Seeing how upset Will was, Frankie reached out and took his hand. “You weren't there, you don't know what it was like, Will. I offered and he was in so much pain that he could have killed me but he didn't. This is not his fault.”
Dante wished that he could believe her. From the glare that Will was shooting in his direction, it seemed that Will was also having a hard time believing her.
“I want to go home,” Frankie said.
“I'll find a doctor to discharge you,” Dante said, leaving before anyone could argue.
“Frankie, you need to stay here, at least for a while.”
“I want to go home,” Frankie reiterated.
“Which home?” Will sighed. “Yours or mine?”
Frankie frowned, having forgotten that she was staying with Will.
“Mine,” she said. When you didn't feel at your best, it was always nice to be somewhere familiar.
Dante returned with a doctor a few minutes later, who clearly disagreed with Frankie's desire to leave but accepted her choice. He advised her to take iron supplements for a few days and to rest as much as possible.
As the men led her out to the car park, Frankie was still wearing her hospital gown with Will's coat over it to protect her modesty. She had considered asking for her clothes, but all she really wanted was her own bed.
Thankfully Will's car hadn't been towed and was still sitting out in front. Dante saw Frankie to the car, pleased that the sun had just set so that he could see her off, and stepped back.
“You're not coming?” Frankie asked. Right now she could use a few hugs, where she didn't need to worry about her skin touching someone else's skin or clothes, and Dante was the only person that could give her that. Well okay, the only person that she could stand who could give her that.
Dante looked from Will to Frankie.
“You can't go back to your place,” Frankie argued. “He knows where you live, remember?”
Dante remembered, all right. In fact part of him was hoping that the bastard tried again. However Frankie looked so weak and vulnerable that, given his promise to Josh, he couldn't refuse her. Despite Will glaring daggers at him, he got into the back seat of the car and was surprised when Frankie got in beside him. He scooted over to give her room but as soon as the door was closed, she cuddled into him. He put his arm around her shoulder and sat quietly as they drove back to Frankie's house.
Will wished that he knew how to get Frankie away from the leech, but even he didn't have the heart to create a scene right now.
Frankie was nearly asleep when they pulled up outside her house, but she roused as the car stopped. Frankie was still tired but she knew that she needed her faculties for the following encounter. Somehow her handbag was still waiting in the footwell for her, so she fished her keys out and l
et herself in.
“Frankie, is that you?” Cecilia came out of the living room when she heard the door open and gasped as she saw her usually strong daughter looking pale and wearing a hospital gown. “Darling, what happened?”
“That's a really long story, Mum, and one I'm not legally allowed to tell you, but I'm fine now, just a little tired. Please don't make a fuss.”
“Don't make a fuss?” Cecilia came forward, her arms outstretched. “How could I not make a fuss?” She was about to take Frankie's face in her hands, much like she had when Frankie was a girl but she saw her daughter flinch.
Cecilia had no idea if Frankie really was psychic but in her heart of hearts, a part of her had always believed her daughter was telling the truth, she just hadn't wanted to believe it. Now though, her husband had made her see that if she didn't change her behaviour, she risked losing Frankie forever. To all intents and purposes, Frankie had been lost to her for a long while; their relationship consisted of a forced phone call once a week and it had been two years since she'd seen her daughter in person.
Somehow she'd always believed that eventually Frankie would come around but earlier this evening, in one of their few rows, Peter had called her insane for repeating the same behaviour and expecting a different outcome.
Then he'd done something that reminded her of just why she fallen in love with him all those years ago, he saw the insecurity that she couldn't voice.
“Even if her gift is evil, that doesn't mean she is. Besides, who made you judge, jury and executioner? You need to rise above your prejudices and love her as she is, because it's God's place to judge her, no one else's. What if you get up to Heaven and find that God gave her that gift to use for the good of mankind? He blessed us with her when we couldn't have children of our own; how do you think he's going to feel about you rejecting the gift that he gave her?”
Cecilia now looked at the woman before her and moved her aim from Frankie's face to her shoulders. She squeezed lightly and carefully leaned down to kiss her hair.
“Oh, hair is all right, isn't it?” she asked, pulling away quickly, realising that she may have screwed up already.
To her surprise, Frankie's eyes were wet with tears.
“Yes, Mum, hair is fine.”
Chapter Sixteen
Since the spare bedroom was full of clutter, Frankie offered Dante the floor in the living room. He smiled and simply told her to leave everything to him. He went up to the spare room and occasionally they could hear him moving around as they drank tea below.
Half an hour later there came a knock at the door and Adam and Mark, Josh's adopted shapeshifter sons, were standing there with a mattress held between them..
“Delivery for Miss Wright,” Mark, the younger brother said with a grin.
“What...”
“Dante called and said you were a having a wee bed crisis. This was Dad's bed, nothing nasty on here.”
“Um, I'm not sure I have room,” Frankie stood there stunned.
“Dante said you did. Come and check the mattress if you want, make sure it's 'clean',” Mark suggested. Both he and his elder bother were wearing gloves to handle the bed.
Unable to quite believe that Josh hadn't had a human companion in the bed, she did step outside and place her hands on the mattress. If she concentrated very hard, she could pick up a few very faint impressions, but nothing she would have noticed if she wasn't looking.
“Thank you,” she said.
Just then Dante came down and thanked them, taking the mattress from them while they got the bed base from the van.
Frankie followed Dante upstairs to find that he had managed to pile everything in the spare room against one wall, leaving plenty of space for the bed. Adam and Mark brought the base up, then assembled and made the bed for her while she watched.
“Thank you,” she said when they were finished. “But... well are you sure you don't mind?”
Adam shook his head. He was the more serious of the boys.
“Dad thought the world of you, he'd have wanted us to help you in any way we could. If I'm honest, I'd rather his things went to someone who knew him than total strangers.”
“I meant to call you but-”
“Shh, we meant to call too,” Mark interrupted her, “so let's call it even.”
“Thanks,” Frankie smiled. “How are you doing?”
“We're fine, Frankie,” Mark assured her. “We miss him, sure, but we're coping. Besides, it's only natural that parents go before their children.”
It took some convincing, but they agreed to stay for a takeaway and so Frankie, her parents, Dante, Will, Adam and Mark all crowded around her kitchen table to share a meal.
Dante only mimicked eating, but there were enough people who knew what he was around the table, that just hiding it from Cecilia and Peter proved rather easy.
Frankie wasn't really in the mood to eat much but she tried, knowing that she had to keep her strength up. She was also still tired and didn't participate in the discussions much, content to watch everyone else chatting away.
Two Christians, two shapeshifters, a vampire, a psychic and a policeman. They were a motley crew, all right, but somehow they seemed to be having a good time.
The evening broke up around ten o'clock and Frankie, more than ready for bed by now, went to her bedroom.
“Will you be okay down here?” she asked Dante.
“How about we timeshare the bed,” he suggested softly so her parents didn't hear. “You take it tonight, I'll take it tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” she smiled. “Well, make yourself at home.”
“I will. Sleep well, Frankie, and thank you. If you hadn't been there...”
“But I was, and tomorrow I want to know the whole story.”
Dante nodded, clearly not relishing the idea but he knew that she deserved the truth.
When everyone was asleep, Dante left and ran to the old hospital where he'd been held. He was careful, using his vampire speed to avoid detection, but Pietro was long gone. He hadn't really expected anything else, but he had to check to be sure because the hospital was his only lead. He found the room where Pietro had set up his equipment, though most of it was gone now, just a few cables and pieces of detritus left to indicate what had been there.
He searched what had been left throughly but couldn't find anything useful. He looked back in the room that he had been held in, though he didn't stay in there long. Everything but the bed and soundproofing had been removed.
Next he headed back to his apartment to get some clothes. He watched the building carefully for half an hour before entering. He took the stairs up to the top floor and listened carefully outside his door for any signs of life from inside. He heard and smelt no one else, so he quickly packed a bag and left. He considered taking his car but in truth that was for show purposes only since he could travel faster on foot. Besides, Pietro could conceivably use it to trace him.
The sky was just beginning to grow light as he exited, so he returned to Frankie's house. Again he watched the house for a while to make sure he that hadn't already been tracked there, but he couldn't see any signs that the house was being observed.
He used the keys that Frankie had given him to get in but stilled as he heard a noise from upstairs. Someone could just be visiting the bathroom... or Pietro could be here.
He sniffed the air but couldn't detect an unknown scent, so he quietly made his way upstairs. The sounds were coming from the spare room, where Frankie was sleeping. He opened the door to see her standing on one of the boxes in there, trying to pin a bath towel to the curtains.
“Frankie?”
She jumped and turned at his voice and the next thing she knew, she was slipping from the box that she was standing on. She began to fall, her head aiming straight for the back of a chair that was stored up there. Dante reacted quickly, managing to catch her in his arms before she could hurt herself.
“Do you have a death wish or something?” he asked
as he carried her back to the bed.
“You're the one who made me jump!” she hissed as he lay her back down on the bed, trying to keep her voice low so that she didn't wake her parents.
“But I didn't perch you on a storage box, did I?” He picked up the towel she had dropped and set about completing the task she had started. Thanks to his height, he was able to accomplish this much faster than Frankie could have.
“I got up for some water and noticed that the curtains weren't light tight. I was trying to save you a job.”
“Nearly killing yourself in the process! Yes, very helpful, thank you!” He took a deep breath. “What are you doing up so early anyway?” he asked.
“Couldn't sleep,” she said. “I guess that being unconscious helped me to catch up on my sleep.”
The real reason was actually the gruesome dreams she'd been having, but she didn't want to worry Dante.
As he turned around, he saw that Frankie had gotten back under the covers and was glaring at him, the quilt pulled up to her chin in a childlike way. She looked so fragile that he found he couldn't stay irritated at her. He sighed.
“I'm sorry,” he said. “It's not you that I'm upset with.”
“It wasn't your fault,” Frankie said, her glare softening at his apology.
“Frankie, you nearly died.”
“No I didn't. And even if I did, I'm fine now.”
Dante shook his head, she was so damn stubborn!
“Tell me the truth,” he asked. “Did you fall because I made you jump or because you moved too quickly and became dizzy?”
She frowned as she considered his question.
“Okay, maybe I'm not completely back to normal yet, but I'm fine.”
“No you're not. Can't you at least slow down for a few days?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can't, that's not who I am.”
“Only because you don't think that you can rely on anyone else.”
“Like who?”
“Your parents are in the next room; I'm sure they'd like the opportunity to look after you for a while.”
“They've already proved that they suck at it.”
“Then me,” he said, sitting next to her on the bed. “This is my fault, after all, let me help you.”
Past Life Page 14
