She eyed his mussed appearance.His flushed face and the way he was out of breath from having pedaled the entire distance at breakneck speed.Not questioning his intent, she got back on the phone.
“Please tell Norris his visitor’s back.He says it’s urgent.”
“Tell him to meet me at the emergency room entrance,” Rhyne asked.
“He needs to meet with him at the emergency room entrance,” the nurse repeated.Rhyne heard a voice on the other end tell her he’d pass the word as soon as Norris got back from drawing blood from a patient.She nodded before hanging up.
“He’s with a patient at the moment, but he should be down shortly, if you want to take a seat in the waiting room.”
“Thanks.I’ll wait for him outside.”
First, however, he returned to the water fountain and took several large swallows of the cold water.His head was beginning to pound, the first sign telling him he hadn’t had his daily intake of blood.If he didn’t find some soon, the next step would be muscle weakness, followed by a thirst that would rapidly morph into rage.
He didn’t want to think about the end stages.He’d been there, and he’d sworn to himself it would never happen again.
“Hold on, old man.Maybe later.Right now you have a more pressing matter to take care of.”
It was nearly twenty minutes later when Norris exited the hospital where he found Rhyne sitting on the curb with his head in his hands.
“What’s up?”The man already knew something had either happened, or was about to happen, and he was making it clear he wasn’t happy about being caught in the middle of it.
Rhyne got to his feet.There was no time to mince words.“I’m pretty sure Welsh is going to make his move either tonight or early tomorrow morning.”
Norris’s eyes widened.“You mean to kidnap Miss Lockhart?Why?”
“He’s called another nest and bragged about his new vision.He’s invited them down to have a ‘taste.’Which means he’s going to have to have a sample ready for them.”
“A nest?Is that what you call a group of you?A nest?How many of youarethere?”
“Here in town, there’s just the three of us.Me, Welsh, and Nash.We have to keep the groups small so as not to draw attention.But listen.”Rhyne took a deep breath.“Norris, I just had another awful thought.”
“Oh, God.”
“My vision reverted back three days after I cleaned out that blood bag.Welsh only had a drop, barely a drop of her blood.”
“What are you thinking?That his vision might change back sooner than three days?”
Rhyne nodded.“Exactly.It’s only a hypothesis.But if I’m right, his vision is about to change at any time now.That’s why I have to get to Grace and take her someplace that’s safe.So do you.”
“Me?Why do I have to get Miss Lockhart?”
“No!I mean you have to find safe place to hole up.”
“Why?”
“You’re our go-between.Welsh might come to you and demand to know where he can find Grace.Where she lives and all.”
“I don’t have access to the personnel files,” Norris objected.“Those are over in HR, and it’s locked this time of night.”
“That won’t stop Welsh,” Rhyne insisted.“You gotta get out of here.Now.”
Amazingly, Norris stood his ground.“No way.Uh-uh.I have a job I busted my butt to get, and I like what I’m doing.I work with a bunch of great people, several of who’ve become good, close friends.I’m not risking losing all that because you have ahypothesis.”
Rhyne was about to press the issue when Norris continued.
“You told me that whatever can kill people like me can kill people like you, correct?”
“In most cases, yes,” Rhyne concurred.
