“Kiss me again,” she whispers when we part. “You make me feel alive, Frank. For the first time in my life, I feel truly alive. You call yourself a cold man, but I feel more warmth from you than I’ve ever felt. Whether your idea works, I pursue the human medications, or my disease takes me, please know that right now, you gave me the belonging I’ve been seeking.”
Chapter 8
Alette
“Good morning, Liam,” I announce from my hospital bed.
“Holy hell!” He yells as he jumps against the door frame. Four of his eight hands slap the wall. “You scared me half out of my mind.”
“By being a good patient who slept in her hospital bed?”
“Yes, exactly that,” he says, squinting his one eye at me. “To what do I owe your sudden compliance? Are you waiting for me to get close enough to bite me again? Because it won’t happen. I’ve worked in nursing for centuries, and not even royal vampires have taken a chunk out of me. You got lucky. I underestimated you. That won’t happen again.”
“I’m sorry I bit you,” I reply with a blush lighting my face ablaze. “I was hysterical and desperate—not a vampire.”
“For what it’s worth, most of the hospital staff agree with you. It’s not right for a pack leader to consent in place of a patient. It’s not like you’re a minor and he’s your parent. You have a fully-formed frontal lobe and can make your own decisions.”
“That means so much to me,” I reply. “Maybe my story will save another were from the same fate—”
“I’m sorry, but while we agree with you. We are powerless when it comes to Pack Law. Dr. Stein has met with Leader Grant several times—”
“He has?!” My heart leaps into my throat with excitement. Frank may call himself a cold man, but his sense of justice warms me to him even more than his kisses. He’s truly a miracle worker…saving his patients from illness in the hospital as well as from humiliation out of it.
“Yeah, called him the day you hid in the vents. He doesn’t take patient agency lightly—”
“He never said,” I murmur. He can’t be an egomaniac if he keeps half his good deeds to himself. Frank is misunderstood. His medical accomplishments are worthy of bragging…and that’s just the top layer of the goodness to him. He’s earned all the bragging and more so. If I were his girl, I’d brag twice as loud…
“Ohhh, I forgot. Rumor has it you are becoming the expert on our Dr. Stein. Hmm mmm, yeah, I got twenty bucks riding on whether it’s true you gave him a dental exam in the butterfly garden last night with your tongue.”
“That’s horrible!” I shout, clasping my hands over my mouth.
“So I lost twenty bucks? You aren’t the reason Dr. Stein is all happy and floaty today?”
“He’s happy and floaty?” I may be his girl after all. A happy glow sits over my heart…at odds with the flare building in my belly.
“And you’re docile and compliant,” he says, folding a pair of arms across his chest. “Spill it, girl. Anyone you tell will spread it around to me anyway. Might as well ensure the accuracy. So,is the kiss of Dr. Stein the reason why you slept in your bed last night instead of the floor of the air vents?”
“If I’m ensuring the accuracy of the rumor mill of Haunted Health, I might as well stop you there. I slept on my bathroom floor with another flare. Strawberry cake and I no longer get along. The breakup was long and painful, but my heart will go on.”
“That’s horrible. Can I examine you? Do you know if it’s a bowel obstruction?” He grabs latex gloves from a box affixed to the wall. Reaching for me with four gloved hands, he approaches the bed with fear written across his features.
“Yes, I promise not to bite you,” I say, lying flat and raising my gown to my ribs.
“Sorry, my hands are cold. The building’s HVAC system can’t keep up with the temperature fluctuations this time of year. Hey, maybe you can take a look at it for us!”
“Very funny, but you earned that one,” I say with a wince when he palpates a tender spot. I grunt when he rubs over the spot again. A lump shifts above my belly button, clanging on my insides. Pain radiates down my left side that takes my breath away.
“You’ve got a large obstruction. Have you ever had one of this size?” He frowns as he continues his exam. Smaller lumps are upstream of the big one.
“That one’s been there for a while,” I confess. “I usually get the little ones to break apart and can expel them around that big guy. My flares correspond to his shifts and moods.”
“Have Dr. Drake or Dr. Stein felt this?”
“No,” I whisper in shame. “I’ve avoided any hands-on treatment. I was silly—”
“You were a threatened rabbit, cornered in her den. Hopefully, now you see we’re the good guys…or at least Dr. Stein is a good guy. He certainly likes you,” he says, frowning at the mass in my guts.
“You can tell your rumor mill the feelings are reciprocated—oh!” The large boulder rolls, and my eyes cross with pain. Breath saws through my teeth as I fight to reclaim my wits. Everything seizes as my insides clench. My hands fly to my middle as my legs fold into a ball. I roll to my left side to allow gravity to aid my straining muscles.
