Misery (13 page)

The exam took about an hour. The intern saw that she was starting to come around. He looked at the big guy at the end as he also seemed to be more alert.

The intern was putting butterfly tape on her forehead when her eyes opened.

“Hey, hi there. Take it easy. You are in a medical clinic. Everything seems okay except for a lot of bruises.” She tried to sit up, but he gently took hold of her shoulders as the nurse returned with a needle.

Suddenly Deck had his hand around the wrist of the hand holding the needle.

The intern looked at the muscles in that arm and hand. He cleared his throat. “She is going to be in a lot of pain. She will have a real headache. This is for the pain only. I will also give you some medicine to take with you, liquid that will keep her very sleepy until a lot of this heals up. Normally we like to keep a head wound awake, but there is no bone damage. I see no brain bruising. Sleep will be the best remedy.”

Deck looked at him, then nodded and let go of the nurse.

By this time she visibly shaking and could hardly hold the needle, so the intern took it. He quickly gave the shot in the thigh.

The female looked at the intern with wide eyes that were already starting to look glazed.

“You are lucky. You are athletic, a dancer or something? Anyways, that helped.”

He looked over at the big guy who seemed to be more relaxed than at any time since they had entered the clinic.

TalkingHe spoke to the nurse. “Get some clean scrubs. Put them on her. It will make her more comfortable.”

He went back to the medicine cabinet, pulled out the bottle he was looking for and returned to the front, where Deck held the sleeping female in his arms. The patient was asleep, dressed in scrubs and in the arms of the big guy.

Trump was flirting with the aide at the front counter. The nurse was nowhere to be seen.

The intern handed the bottle to Trump with a note on instructions.

As they were leaving, he looked at the aide. “This job never gets boring.”

Chapter Ten

She was in and out of sleep as Deck drove and gave her medicine. He had her strapped into the back seat with a blanket around her. He took her into rest rooms. She was too groggy to object as he helped her to the toilet. He fed her soups and milkshakes. Finally he carried her into a house, but she was still too much under the influence of the medicine to see the details. He went down a hall and placed her on a bed.

The next time she was awake enough to know what was going on, he was holding her under a warm shower and it felt so good. He was washing her hair, rinsing it carefully. Somewhere in the haze of her brain she was aware that they both were naked.

Finally she woke up in the bed. She felt a lot of aches, some sore muscles that she didn’t realize she even had, but over all, she was awake and alive. Deck was sitting on one side of the bed reading. That was something she didn’t expect. Martial arts training, tearing guns apart, but not sitting there reading.

“What are you reading?”

He closed the book and looked over at her. “What emotion is this?”

She smiled. “Amazement, silly. What are you reading?”

He passed the book to her. She was weak, but she accepted it, needing to hold it with two hands. She lifted it up so she could look at the cover. It was in German. She pulled it open
—
it was all in German.

“You read German?”

He nodded one downward dip in assent.

Yep, he sure did talk too much. She looked around the room. At first she thought they might be in another hotel or suite, but it seemed different. One wall was glass and looked out over sea grass and sand to a distant roll of waves that might be salt water. The other three walls were windowless, paneled in rough, unfinished wood that had a warm feeling. There were a few shelves, floating at various stages on the walls instead of in neat stacks, in order to create an open and pleasant disorder. She could not see a door or any cabinets and guessed that they were built in using the same wood.

“Where are we?”

He looked out the window wall. “Florida.”

“Okay, nice, and this room, it is attached to a house owned by who exactly?”

He looked at her for a moment and got up. “You need some soup. It is my home.” He went to a wall and sure enough, there was a dull metal handle that opened a door. It remained open as he left down a hallway done in the same wood. She saw that the floor was covered in thick carpet the color of rich caramel. There was recessed lighting that gave the hallway a soft comfortable glow. Someone had obtained good taste after living several hundred years.

For the next three or four weeks she actually relaxed. They were located on the Gulf Coast near Cedar Key. She learned this meant lots of beaches, nice weather, and not many homes with very few vacationers. Most people hit the panhandle or went further south. Deck left her alone as she took long walks, read books from his extensive library allowing her body to heal.

She knew he was watching her. She always felt his eyes on her, just as it had been at the beginning. But it felt a little safer now that she had run into Vampires who were trying to drain her blood. He saw that she had plenty of food, sometimes even fixing some for her with his own hands.

She smiled because he still didn’t talk much. He amazed her with his knowledge, what he chose to read and study. Of course he still worked out. She watched him from a distance as the sweat glistened on the heavy muscles wrapped around his large frame.

She learned that Vampires ate a little, drank liquids, needed to bathe and shaved. They cut their nails as well as their hair. She was even getting used to the fact that he insisted they sleep together.

No amount of arguing, pleading, pouting, trying to not share any emotions, could convince him that she would be safe sleeping alone in the lovely beach house. There were also the comments he made, in short sentences, about them bonding, having sex or sharing blood. This worried her, but she tried to ignore it. She didn’t want him to see through her emotions, to let him know that she was affected by his words of bonding, etc.

And her damn dreams were back. She would never share the dreams with anyone. She had never understood what they meant. What she remembered about them was always strange.

The dreams took place in many different settings, sometimes in a home, sometimes deep in a dark woods. There were times it seemed to be in a castle or a dungeon or a tent in a desert. There were times when she couldn’t identify where she was because she was blindfolded. The fantasy dreams were sexual. She couldn’t understand why she would even enjoy them. So she had never told even her best girlfriend. Actually, she never had a best girlfriend. So she had the dreams, pretended they didn’t happen, and usually wiped them from her mind.

The problem was, sleeping with Deck, evidently he was aware she was having dreams. Worse still, she seemed to be having the dreams more frequently, as in almost every night.

She was trying to cover up any emotions connected with the dreams. At first he had actually awakened her, concerned that she was having a bad dream. A lot of women might not think they were bad dreams. To be held helpless, made love to by an unknown paramour, would have an appeal. She had told him they were nightmares without going into details. For her, they did seem like nightmares, because she just couldn’t understand how her body could respond to the fantasy.

Lately, a couple of nights, she had hurled herself out of the dream to find him watching her, studying her. He had even asked her about the dreams when they were walking the beach, or one time when they were driving to one of the strip malls. They were on US 19, the main north south highway in Florida on this side of the state. She was glad their location put them far away from the traffic, down narrow, old-fashioned Florida Crackers roads.

She again denied that she had dreams but finally told him that if indeed she had dreams, she had no memory of them when she woke in the morning. Of course this didn’t explain the fact that she needed cold showers some mornings. His asking, in his short sentences accompanied with his dark stares, seemed to bring the dreams more frequently.

“Did they bother you as a child?” He was driving one of his cars.

She frowned at him. “Did you have emotions as a child?” She knew the question was unfair but she didn’t want to talk about her dreams. She was shocked when he answered.

“The memories of my childhood were erased. A strong nightwalker can erase memories from a weaker or younger nightwalker. It is just as we can erase memories from mortals. But I did find that I have some glimpses of my home life. At what age did your dreams start?”

Now she felt she had to answer him. “The summer before I went away to college, I had my first dream. I think it came because I was tired, suffering from a complete breakdown due to breaking from those I thought I loved.” She looked over at him. His response was a raised eyebrow. Since most of the time his face was as if made from stone, that was a lot of expression.

“I was in love, we were going to be married. I had been accepted at Columbia.”

“A good school.” His voice was quiet. She was glad he was looking ahead, not at her. “Why would this be an unhappy problem?”

She had never talked this over with anyone. After a deep breath she continued
—
she really didn’t think it had anything to do with the dreams, but it might keep his mind off of them.

“Well, my fiancé was not college material. I caught him with another girl. He was at a friend’s house, and in front of all of them he told me that she was better than me. That it was just as well, I would be better off with my wires and chip boards. He said he would be better off with a real woman.”

She laid her head back remembering the laughs from the other boys in the room. Worse, she saw the proud, smug look on the other girl’s face.

“I was so furious, I ran home. I wasn’t close with my parents. They weren’t the type to show a lot of love. What they did show they spent on my younger sister Arlene. Anyways, I came screaming in, demanded my savings, saying I was leaving immediately. Surprise, there were no savings. Well it got better
—
guess what? They told me I was adopted. They didn’t think they could have children, so they adopted me as a child. But my adoptive mother got pregnant shortly after the final paperwork was settled. They had little Arlene, spoiling her rotten. I was crushed. I wasn’t jealous about their feelings for Arlene. It was just a shock about the adoption. They waited until I asked for my money to tell me the truth. All of this on the same night as being rejected by my boyfriend.”

She waited until she was calm enough to finish. “I took what I could, stole their keys for the old pickup, and drew what I could from the ATM. I didn’t eat or sleep for three days. On the fourth night, in a crummy little motel, I passed out crying into the flat smelly pillows. That was when I had my first dream.”

He said nothing for a long time. When he spoke, she listened with awe.

“When you meet Lord Alex, you will be amazed at his beauty, like Angel fallen from the skies. He killed and inherited my War Lord’s holdings. He came. I saw him, it triggered a memory, my childhood. A painting, hanging on the wall, a beautiful Angel floating over a couple and a child. I knew I was pledged to him from that memory.”

She realized he had given her more information. In his funny, short sentences he had given her a lot of information. She also knew he expected more from her. She hesitated, thought about what she might tell him that would satisfy without having to go into details of the fantasy.

“There have been long periods when I haven’t had the dreams. Sometimes I have had them every night. I don’t know why. I think stress brings them to disturb my sleep. I have had a couple of unsuccessful affairs since that first love. When I have broken off, it seems I am pestered by the dream. Look, can we talk about something else, or better still just not talk? This is all stressing me out.”

This particular morning they were on a shopping trip. Deck had told her he needed a couple of items that she would be able to pick up. Then there were some things on her own if she would like that. They went into a parking lot. “Go to Target for your things. I need to go to Lowe’s for a couple of items. Meet here in thirty minutes because I do not want to be apart longer than that.”

She was surprised as he passed her a roll of bills. He always stayed so close. She went in and bought tampons. She had just finished her period but wanted to be on the safe side for next month. She also picked up a couple of thongs and white warm socks. This shopping cart should raise some eyebrows but the heck with it.

When she reached the counter she pulled out the wad of bills Deck had given her and did a double take. It was all hundred dollar bills
—
there must be a couple of thousand in the roll. She pulled one off, hiding the rest back in her pocket, hoping no one saw the expensive roll.

As she came out she saw Deck, who was heads above anyone else, walking across the parking lot. So they had finished together. She met him at the car. He pushed the key button that caused the back hatch to rise up. She was surprise at the clank of items in his bag.

“Hey, Deck, building a dog house?” She smiled at him. He looked at her for a long moment.