Kissing Phoenix (6 page)

“Oh.” Lilith bit her lip.

That was a double-edged deal. Vampires got their lover addicted to the bite and youthfulness and then when they broke up…it was back to what would be a dull colorless human life. Unless they found another Vampire. Was there a dating service for humans looking for a new Vampire partner? How many lovers had Aidan had? She stared out of the window, unable to look at him. He’d been with Vampires and she knew she wasn’t the first human he’d dated. He’d said as much and one of the old photos had gone missing from the shelf. She was guessing it wasn’t his grandmother as she’d first thought.

“What happened to your previous human lovers?” Her words were harsher than she’d intended.

“What happened to yours?”

Lilith shrugged. “We broke up.”

“Same. Most never knew what I am. They were nothing more than passing interests. It’s hard to hide what I am once I’m living with someone. I was going to tell you before you moved in, but I couldn’t bear losing you, so I waited.” He pulled off the freeway, heading toward a swanky part of London. “I wish I hadn’t.”

That he’d never told them he was Vampire or bit them was supposed to make her feel better. And it did in a strange kind of way. He loved her enough to trust her with his secret.

“And the woman in the missing photo?”

His chin dropped a fraction as he sighed. “Eve was my first wife. She was human.”

Of course he would have been married at some time in his life. He was hardly going to be a two-century-old bachelor. Shouldn’t Eve have stayed young and beautiful around Aidan? Shouldn’t they still be together?

“What happened?”

“She died.”

“But not of old age, as she was semi-immortal?”

“No, not of old age.”

“When did she die?”

“April 4, 1918.” He glanced at her. “She didn’t know.” For a moment he looked older, as if her digging in his past had uncovered the pain he thought well buried.

Lilith pressed her lips together to hide the smug smile. She may not be his wife, but she knew he was Vampire. It didn’t stop her from being jealous of a woman who had been dead nearly eighty years. How long had Aidan and Eve been together before her untimely death?

A white building appeared on the other side of the park. She swallowed down the rising, greasy unease that was swelling in her stomach. She shouldn’t be here wasting the doctor’s time when she already knew the answer, but she couldn’t give up, not when Aidan had shown her there was another world just beneath the surface of the one she thought she knew. Maybe in his world humans could be cured—if they knew who to ask.

“Where does your friend work?” Lilith asked even though the answer loomed five stories high in front of them.

“Our Lady’s Grace.” His eyes never left the road, but his knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel.

“I can’t afford that.” It was one of the most expensive private hospitals in London.

“It’s a favor.” Aidan glanced at her, daring a challenge. “Theo and I served together.”

“World War I vets?” She’d seen the medals on display, but could picture him in uniform. It didn’t suit him. He didn’t behave like a ‘follow the rules’ type.

Aidan didn’t respond.

“What did you do in the war?” She was chattering now, anything to keep her mind off meeting another Vampire. The Vampire who would decide her fate. Her fingers flexed, unable to keep still.

“Doctor,” he said through clenched teeth.

She whipped her head around to face him. “Really?” If imagining Aidan in uniform was hard, imagining him doing something so serious was almost impossible. “Why did you give it up to become a musician?”

How could he quit healing? Just walk away while people died? She loved going to work. Even if she didn’t like the owners, she liked the pets—even the neurotic Doberman that kept chewing its own feet.

Aidan parked the car and turned off the ignition. “I’ve had many jobs over the years. Now I do what I enjoy.”

“You don’t enjoy helping people?”

He pulled out the key and studied it as if he’d never seen it before, testing the weight in his hand. “When it mattered, I couldn’t help.” He looked at her. “I came home from war and Eve was dying. She had a tumor.” He clenched his fist, examining the size. “It was large. I could patch strangers so they could fight another day. But for Eve I could do nothing but watch her die.”

He got out of the car and slammed the door, dragging his emotional baggage with him. Vampires came with a Heathrow of baggage. And she was the understudy for Eve.

She raced to catch up with him as he strode toward the entrance, the first heavy drops of rain breaking on her hair. “You said Vampires don’t get cancer. What’s your friend’s specialty?”

Aidan turned. “Cancer in Weres.”

“I’m not a Were, what’s a…” Her stomach tightened and rose into her throat. She did not want to be right. “Were?”

He went through the glass doors without answering.

“Aidan?” Her voice was high and thready. The only Weres she knew of were in horror films. Half man, half beast, terrorizing the town and tearing people apart.

“Theo will explain your options better than I can.”

She crossed her arms. “You explain. What aren’t you telling me?”

He glanced around, his lips parted slightly so she could see the tips of fangs. “Now is not the best time.” He held out his hand to her.

Lilith cast her gaze across the reception area. The patients and nurses paused to watch the brewing drama all looked human. But so did Aidan. The chill that wrapped around her gut told her she was the only human in the building. Our Lady’s Grace wasn’t just expensive, it was exclusive. For a heartbeat she was frozen, her feet stuck to the shiny blue linoleum floor. She hadn’t realized the enormity of Aidan’s secret society.

It wasn’t just a couple of Vampires in a band. There were others, other things that weren’t human, but looked human and that had their own hospitals and who knew what else. How the hell did they stay hidden? How did no one know about them? The gazes of the staff narrowed and hardened as if they knew she didn’t belong.

She reached out and took Aidan’s hand. The tension that had been forming in reception like a sheet of ice on a slow moving river cracked and broke up. Those who had been staring at them went back to whatever they were supposed to be doing. What was she doing here?

Aidan stabbed the up button and they waited for the elevator. He looked as if he were chewing glass just being here, the muscle in jaw working.

The hair on her arms spiked. She
really
shouldn’t be here. The cure she would find here was secret for a reason. No human should be crossing this line. As she took in the tense line of Aidan’s shoulders, she knew he had the same doubts.

“If you don’t want to do this…” She was happy to leave. Except if she did she would be giving up on her last chance and she wasn’t ready to quit. Even though she knew there would be consequences for coming here. Humans didn’t belong here and it was only a matter of time until she got busted. Only this would be worse than getting caught trying to sneak into a nightclub underage.

“I have to.”

Because of her or because he wanted to heal a ghost?

She touched his arm. “It won’t bring Eve back.”

He sighed. “I want to let her go.”

The elevator chimed open and they got in with a young orderly. The doors closed and the orderly moved a fraction closer, then sniffed. Lilith stiffened. He took a step closer. There was a glint in the orderly’s odd brown eyes that she’d only seen in a dog with more bite than brains. Aidan pulled her to him. His arm slid around her waist as he gave the orderly a cold, fanged smile.

The orderly cocked his head. She held her breath. Aidan growled, a low rumble that vibrated in her chest and rolled through her body. Instead of terrifying her, the sound reassured her as if her mind recognized and welcomed the primitive response to danger. The orderly stepped back and looked down. If he’d had a tail, it would have been between his legs. The elevator had to be the slowest one in England, crawling up the three floors while the orderly kept his eyes on her feet. She refused to shuffle out of his line of sight.

The doors opened on a bland hospital corridor and Lilith let out the breath she’d been holding as they shut behind them with the orderly on the other side.

“What was that?” She pulled on Aidan’s hand until he turned to face her.

He raised his brows. “What?”

“With the fangs and the growl?”

Aidan shrugged. “He realized you are human. I pointed out you were mine and my responsibility.”

Mine
. The word sent a shiver of heat down her back. But he hadn’t said that, he’d flashed his fangs like an animal scaring off a competitor. Here, being Vampire meant more than loving nips, it meant danger even to the other not-so-human humans. She wasn’t sure what had unnerved her more, her reaction, Aidan or the orderly. “You couldn’t use words?”

“Not here. The rules are different.”

Lilith licked her lower lip. She was the only human in a building full of…others, and she hadn’t read the etiquette handbook. She’d woken up in her own personalized horror film. Her hand gripped his a little tighter. “Am I in danger here?”

“Not with me.” He led her down the corridor.

Her heart was pounding like a bad soundtrack as the doomed girl went blindly forward to meet the monster. If she didn’t go through the door, she couldn’t be saved, but going through the door could kill her. “Are you breaking some kind of rule by bringing me here?”

He stopped. “A few.”

“What’ll happen to you if you’re caught?”

“Let’s hope we don’t find out.” He touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers. “Let me give you this choice.”

She nodded and swallowed. Whatever the choice was, it was one he’d never given Eve, maybe because Eve had never known about Vampires.

They went around a corner and into a waiting room.

Aidan spoke to the nurse behind the counter. “Ms. St. Jack for Dr. Godwen.”

“He won’t be long. Take a seat.” The nurse indicated the chairs near Dr. Godwen’s door. Several other specialists also had offices off the waiting room.

They sat on the ubiquitous lightly padded hospital vinyl chairs, waiting for the Vampire doctor who specialized in Weres and had a possible cure for humans with cancer. Yeah, there was nothing weird about this visit. She rubbed her palms over her skirt.

I have nothing to lose by being here. The doctor can’t give me worse news.

Not knowing what news the doctor would give her was almost as bad as hoping for an impossible cure. She couldn’t help herself hoping. Aidan wouldn’t bring her to this hospital otherwise.

Lilith took a few deep breaths to center herself. Antiseptic almost masked the scent of illness. She’d spent too much time in hospitals to not recognize it. The way it leeched into anything and anyone who dwelled for too long near illness. She tried to project the same air of calm that Aidan had around himself. It was an act. His hands lay flat on his thighs, his fingers too stiff. He was as tense as she was, but to the casual observer he appeared relaxed.

Lilith tried to give him a smile, but her lips stuck to her teeth. Her heart was racing, part nerves and part fear at what the possible cure would entail. Before she could ask Aidan again, the doctor stepped out of his office. He looked barely thirty and too young to be a specialist. Fit, healthy, Vampire.

Now that she knew about Vampires, it wasn’t hard to pick one out of a crowd. They had an aura of life, extra life, which drew people to them. The myth of Vampires being seducers of women was true. She proved that by falling under Aidan’s spell the moment she’d first seen him in her clinic.

Aidan stood. It had been years since he’d seen Theo. Partly because Theo didn’t agree with the choices he’d made, namely abandoning medicine for the life of an unemployed musician. While Theo’s research project had sounded tempting, the offer hadn’t been enough to lure him back. What he was about to ask should slam the lid closed on that coffin forever.

“Aidan.” They shook hands. “You haven’t aged a day.” Theo laughed at his own joke. “It’s good to see you again. It’s been too long.”

Aidan managed a nod. Lil came to stand next to him. “This is Lilith St. Jack.”

“Yes, pleasure to meet you.” Theo held out his hand to Lil, his eyes slightly narrowed as if he was trying to work out what type of non-human Aidan had dragged in. “I’m Theo Godwen.”

Lil shook his hand without flinching. “Aidan has mentioned you.”

“Only the good bits I hope. Come through.” Theo held the door open for them both.

His smile shone for Lil, but as Aidan passed, it slid to a frown, which Aidan chose to ignore. Whatever Theo wanted to say, he would wait until the door was closed. They owed each other that courtesy. It was that loyalty Aidan was counting on today.

Everyone sat. Theo shuffled his files. Aidan was sure it was for show. He would’ve had everything in order before they’d arrived. Theo never had a piece of paper out of place. Ever. Even in the middle of field surgery under fire he’d kept everything in order.