She gestured to the blood on Tyrone’s neck. It was beginning to stain the collar of his T-shirt. “Tiffany, I thought you were the one who needed help?”
“Oh, dear,” I said.
Jessica put her hands on her hips and looked back and forth between us. “What is going on here?”
There was nothing to be done. I had to glamour her, or at least try to. It’s not like I could make the situation any worse.
I stood to my full height, slightly shorter than Jessica, and took her hands in mine. With all my focus gathered into a pinpoint of energy, I looked into her eyes.
“Why are you holding my hands?” She looked down at our joined hands in confusion, then back up at us. It seemed like she was more weirded out by the spontaneous hand-holding than Tyrone’s bleedingneck. Typical ER nurse.
I smiled reassuringly and continued staring into her eyes, forging a connection.
In what I hoped was a hypnotic voice, I said, “Nothing happened. We were waiting for you.” To explain our state of dishabille, I said, “I was partway into a paper gown, and Tyrone—”
“What?” I could see her struggle with my explanation.
“Cut himself shaving earlier. While we were making out, the wound reopened.”
She looked at us, our clothes partially undone, Tyrone with blood dripping down his neck. The worry lines between her brows softened and she blurted out a laugh. “You guys are full of shit, but whatever.”
It definitely wasn’t a full glamour, but it was enough.
Tyrone angled his chin down to examine the trickle of blood, then looked to me with a question in his eyes.
Jessica cleaned Tyrone’s neck and examined two neat holes. “This is the second neck wound you’ve brought in this month, Tiffany.”
“Let’s hope it’s the last,” I said, with true feeling.
“So Tyrone said you passed out…” She swabbed his neck with a pad soaked in alcohol. “Tell me what happened.”
“I was very upset,” I said. I didn’t add that I was upset because at the time I had wanted to drain Tyrone.
“Were you scared? Tyrone mentioned that you were bothered by—”
Tyrone interrupted. “I killed a coyote in front of her. The one that attacked Mr. Jarvis.”
“Eww, Tyrone!” She glared at him. “What is the matter with you?”
“I’ll explain later,” he told her.
Jessica nodded and asked, “Is that what upset you?”
“Not really. It probably doesn’t make any sense, but when I saw the blood, I got so scared that I was going to lose Tyrone.” Essentially that was true. I just didn’t say I was worried that I would be the one to hurt him.
“Oh, Tiff.” She made a sympathetic face and put her hand on minebefore continuing with Tyrone’s bandage.
Carefully, she cut a square of medical gauze and applied it to Tyrone’s neck. It was unnecessary. A vampire bite closes and heals quickly, but there was no use explaining that to her.
After we talked a bit more, she said, “I think you might have had a panic attack.”
A vampire shouldn’t have panic attacks. That was…it went against the order of things.
“But…I want to rule out a couple of other things,” Jessica said.
“Like what?” I asked with trepidation.
“Today you passed out. Last time I saw you, you were nauseous.” She let the implication of the combined symptoms hang in the air. “You know what I’m going to suggest.” Before I could answer she said, “Have you had unprotected sex recently?”
