Shiela Stewart - [Darkness 02] Read online

  “I rescued him from his father. You’ll want to put plenty of ice on this for the remainder of the day, and keep it elevated. Now, let’s have a look at that knot on your head.”

  He hissed when Cooper tipped his head and examined the lump. “What do you mean you rescued him from his father?”

  “You won’t need stitches but this is a nasty lump. I would suggest an x-ray if we had the means to do one. How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Three. You didn’t answer my question.”

  “You are correct. If Basil wants you to know about his past, he’ll fill you in. Ice on this as well. I’ll get some packs prepared for you. Take pain killers as needed and avoid alcohol. And plenty of rest.”

  “We don’t have time for me to rest, Cooper. I need to get out there and look for Jonah.”

  “Master Basil and Miss Trinity are doing their best to find him. You’ll do best resting. Ah, and here is my nurse with your meds.”

  Gypsy gave Cooper a sweet smile as she entered the room and Basil noticed she was wearing a white lab coat. “Where did you get that?”

  “Cooper gave it to me. It makes me feel helpful. Here are your painkillers, sir.” She set the bottle on the bedside table then curtsied. “I’m not wearing anything underneath,” she whispered with a giggle.

  There was no painkiller on earth that could give him the relief she had just provided. Smiling, he watched Cooper leave and not a minute too soon. “Prove it.”

  She grabbed the front of the coat, slowly unbuttoning it, starting from the top down. Then she whipped it open to reveal her slim, naked body.

  “Hot damn! Now that’s the kind of nurse I like. Come here, baby.”

  She closed the coat back up and stepped back. “You’re on strict orders from the doctor to take it easy. No hanky panky until you’re better.”

  And the pain came back with a vengeance. “That was just mean.”

  “It was a glimpse of what you’ll get when you’re better. How do you feel?”

  “I’d feel better if you jumped up on my lap and rode me like a bucking bronco.” The bedroom door opened and Cooper stepped in.

  “I’ll just pretend I’ve suddenly gone deaf. Here are the ice packs. Keep them on at intervals of fifteen minutes at a time.”

  Dante bit his lip and nodded. “Yes, doc.” He waited until he’d left before he burst out laughing. “I bet he knocks from now on.”

  “Odds are you’re right.” She sat down beside him on the bed and touched his face. “Do you know how scared I was out there?”

  “I’m sorry. I should have protected you.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant. I was scared of losing you. I thought I was going to lose you. I don’t want to lose you, Dante.”

  “Gypsy—”

  “Let me finish.” She got up now and began pacing. “My parents died when I was seven. A gang of thugs broke into our home during the night and when my parents tried to stop them, the men gunned them down. They stole everything they could get their hands on before fleeing. I hid under my bed.”

  “I’m so sorry, Gypsy.” He couldn’t imagine what that must have been like. The poor child.

  “I stayed there even after the cops showed up. I was too scared to come out, even when they tried to talk me out. I was taken into protective custody and handed to social services to be placed into a foster home. My grandparents didn’t want me, and okay, they were old, but still… It hurt to know no one wanted me. I was only a baby.” She waved it off with her hand but Dante could see just how much that still affected her.

  “I bounced from one place to another and I always felt like an intruder. I haven’t done anything with my life because, quite frankly, I didn’t feel like I had a life. I was living, cruising alone but I didn’t have anyone to live for.” She turned to him, tilting her head as she spoke. “Until you. So that’s why I feel like I need to tell you the whole truth. You deserve to know the truth.”

  He didn’t like how this was going.

  “The day of the eclipse I was being led from the court house back to jail. If it hadn’t been for the riots, I might still be sitting in that jail cell. I escaped from the cops and took off and that was when I was caught by those vamps. A part of me wished I would die, that they would just kill me. But that little voice inside of me, the one that’s been pushing me all my life, told me to fight. So I did. And I found you. I really liked Jonah and Ariel, and being here with you all has made me feel like I belong for the first time in my life since my parents’ death. Losing Ariel and Jonah feels like I’m back there with my parents the day they were killed. I don’t think I could have lived if you had died.” She walked to him now and sat down beside him, taking his hands in hers. “I think I’m in love with you.”

  No woman had ever said those words to him before and hearing them now, from her, kinda clogged his throat.

  “You don’t have to say it in return. I just wanted you to know. You should get some rest now and put these packs on your head and knee.” She set the pack on his knee, then pushed him down to the bed and laid the other on his head. “You should eat something. I’ll go down and make you a sandwich and maybe some soup. Hot soup, yeah, that would be good.”

  He watched her hurry off and knew he should have asked her to stay. Truth was, he really needed some time alone to think. He hadn’t had much of it as of late. Not since he’d found out Gypsy had been sired by his brother. He was trying desperately not to think about that but it was a steady drumming presence inside of his head.

  His brother had taken an innocent girl’s life and turned her for…what? He wished he knew. From what Trinity and Basil had told him, vampires often took humans as sex or blood slaves. He hated thinking that Gypsy had been turned for either of those reasons, or that his brother was capable of such a thing. And then he had to continually remind himself that the boy he’d once known was not the man Danny was now. Danny had changed, not just in his race, but his humanity as well.

  And it just occurred to him that Danny was the very person he needed to see right now. Maybe, just maybe he could convince Danny to tell him where they had taken Jonah.

  Pulling the ice pack from his knee, he slid his sore leg off the bed, wincing at the pain. His head throbbed as he attempted to stand, and though the room spun a little, he brushed it off and attempted to walk to the door. He made it as far as the door when it opened.

  “What the hell are you doing out of bed?” Gypsy gasped, and quickly setting the tray she’d been carrying on the floor, went to him. “You should have called if you needed something.”

  Because it had taken him nearly two minutes to walk across a five foot space, he knew how foolish it was for him to attempt to go out on his own. “I need to see Trinity. Can you get her for me?”

  “Right as soon as I tuck you back in bed. What were you thinking getting up alone?”

  Her strength amazed him simply because she was such a frail looking girl. And it irritated at the same time when she picked him up, literally, and carried him to the bed. “Can you just ask Trinity to come here?”

  “I’ll get her, if you promise not to pull such a stupid act again.”

  She was like a mother hen, fussing over him, fluffing the pillows behind his back and setting the ice packs back into place. He hadn’t been pampered like this since he’d been a kid. “I won’t be going anywhere, I promise.” He wasn’t sure he had the strength to in any case.

  She hurried back to the tray and bringing it back set it on the bed beside him. “It’s chicken noodle soup and the sandwich is ham. Eat it,” she demanded then scurried from the room.

  She even sounded like his mother, demanding he fill his belly with hot soup. He’d never been a fan of chicken noodle soup and smelling it now reminded him of all the times in his life he’d choked it down just to please his mother.

/>   He was about to do it again, only this time, to please the woman he was beginning to fall in love with. By the time she returned with Trinity on her trail, he’d polished off half the bowl and half the sandwich. Apparently he was hungry.

  “What’s the problem?” Trinity demanded as she entered the room.

  “I need to talk to my brother.”

  “Like that’s going to happen,” she snorted.

  He set the bowl down beside the half eaten sandwich and looked up at Trinity with complete seriousness. “He could be the one to lead us to Jonah.” He saw her eyes perk up and continued. “I could convince him to tell me where Jonah is being held, or at the least get him to release Jonah to us at some safe location. But I need to get a message to him first. In order to do that, I need to grab a vamp and tell him to tell Danny I need to see him.”

  “And what makes you think your brother is going to buy it?”

  “I have to at least try, don’t I? The sooner we get Jonah back the better, right? You’re not having any luck tracking him down, and I don’t mean that as an insult so chill out.” Her narrowed look told him she was not about to relax.

  “I think it could work,” Gypsy piped in.

  “You’re in no condition to be going out anywhere. I can’t afford to have you down for long and going out and grabbing someone to use as a messenger is risky.”

  “So why do we need to go out and get someone? Why not use one of the vamps we have down in the dungeon?”

  She ran a hand through her hair, which he noticed was not tied back in a pony tail. She rarely let it hang loose. “Okay, so what if I agree to this. There are no guarantees the vamp will pass on the message or that your brother will show up. The vamp could hightail it out of here grateful for his freedom and we’d never see hide nor hair of him again.”

  “Danny will show up. I’m almost certain of that. But you’re right. The vamp might not tell him. Hm…”

  “What about those trackers Jonah was working on?”

  Dante glanced up at Gypsy. She was sitting at his feet, her hands on her lap. He couldn’t help but feel a distance from her. Was it because he hadn’t reciprocated her affectionate words? He’d bet his life it was. “They’re not working yet.”

  “No, but he doesn’t have to know that.”

  “He won’t go for it. Would you? It would mean we would be tracking him to where Chaos might be hiding. That won’t work, and besides, we don’t want them knowing we’re working on tracking them,” Trinity supplied, twisting her hair around her fingers now.

  “Right, right.” Gypsy pursed her lips in defeat.

  “We don’t tell him it’s a tracker,” Dante blurted out as the thought came to him. “We tell him it’s an electrode that we control via remote and if he doesn’t bring Danny to us, at my shop, within two hours, we’ll set it off. We can tell him it’s a high powered electrical device that will send out enough volts to electrocute him in seconds.”

  Trinity’s eyes lit up. “It could work. But how do we guarantee he doesn’t rip it off as soon as he’s out of our sight?”

  “We make him swallow it,” Gypsy piped in, her eyes widening with excitement. “If it’s inside of him, he’ll be more inclined to do as we ask. Don’t you think?”

  “You are good, Gypsy.” Dante smiled at her and was disappointed when she didn’t even look at him. He was going to have to tell her how he felt towards her and soon.

  “I like it. Okay, we do this, but I want us all present when you see your brother,” Trinity insisted.

  “No way. He sets his eyes on you and Basil and he’ll high tail it out of there faster than we can say boo.”

  “Well, I sure as hell won’t be letting you go in alone.”

  “You two could be hiding. You have all those cool powers, right?” Gypsy asked Trinity. “You could be beside us in a flash if things went wrong.”

  “Us?” Dante asked. “What us?”

  “I’ll be there by your side,” she admitted.

  “The hell you will be. I can’t risk you getting hurt and have you forgotten this is the guy who sired you?”

  “So…”

  “So, he could get control over you because of the connection.”

  “It doesn’t work that way. Mutated vamps don’t have any powers,” Trinity supplied. “He might recognize her, but that’s all. She might feel the pull to go to him because of the blood.”

  “I wouldn’t. I only drank from him once,” Gypsy stated.

  “That you know of,” Dante supplied and, again, her head went down and she diverted her eyes away from him. “I’d feel safer knowing you were here and protected.”

  “He’s right,” Trinity agreed, then turned her attention back to Dante. “Okay, let’s set this up. I’ll get Basil. He’ll enjoy shoving a device down one of their throats. I’ll come back when it’s done.”

  “I’ll be ready.” He waited until she’d left before he looked over at Gypsy. “I enjoyed the soup and sandwich.”

  “I’m glad. Are you finished?”

  “I am. Gypsy…” He took her wrist as she reached for the tray. “About what you said earlier.”

  “I said you didn’t need to reciprocate.”

  “I know what you said. It took a lot for you to open up to me and tell me about your family, about not ever having anyone. And it took a lot to admit how you feel for me.” He pulled her a little closer. “I care about you more than I have ever cared for any other woman, and—” He put a finger to her lips before she could speak. “I think I might be falling in love with you, too.” Her eyes absolutely lit with joy.

  “Oh, Dante.” She wrapped her arms around his neck then kissed him solidly on the mouth. “Wait…” She pulled away, her eyes narrowed. “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better are you?”

  He laughed and pulled her down onto his lap. “No, Gypsy. It comes from the heart.”

  “Goody.”

  He laughed as she plastered his face with kisses.

  ***

  “I can’t say I like the idea of taking Dante out when he’s injured, but I like the idea of shoving something down one of the prisoner’s throats.”

  Trinity grinned, feeling such love for Basil at this moment and feeling foolish for it. “I knew you would. So which one are we going to do?”

  “The wimpy one. He’s spent most of his time here begging to be released and crying because we won’t do it. He’ll be the easiest to convince that the tracker is set to kill.” He held the tiny electronic device up between his index finger and thumb. “It baffles me how Jonah constructed these things. I’m lost when it comes to technology, I’m afraid.”

  “We have to get him back.” He stopped and she knew if he took her in his arms now she would crumble. “Let’s make this good.”

  He pushed open the dungeon doors and greeted the guard. “Harley, we need a moment of Tyson’s time.”

  “Sure, but have fun. He’s been curled up in the corner all day, blubbering like a baby. Can I just off him? He’s annoying the hell out of everyone.”

  “He’ll be out of our hair shortly.” Not bothering with a key, both Basil and Trinity dematerialized, then reappeared in the cell with Tyson. “He really is pathetic,” Basil mumbled to Trinity, which immediately had Tyson lifting his head.

  “Are you going to hurt me? Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you ask just please don’t hurt me.”

  “Truly pathetic.” Basil shook his head as he sat on the cot beside the boy. “Do you want to get out of here, Tyson?”

  The boy’s yellow eyes opened wide but he remained curled in the corner of his bed. “You’re going to let me go?”

  “Yes and no. We want a favor,” Trinity informed him, leaning on the wall beside the head of the bed. “We’re hoping you’ll help us.”r />
  “It’s a trick, Ty,” one of the other vamps piped in.

  “What do you want from me?” Tyson asked shakily.

  “We need you to convey a message to someone in Chaos’ gang.”

  “That’s it, I give a message to this person and you let me go?”

  Basil nodded. “That’s it.”

  “I’m telling you, Ty, it’s a trick.”

  Tyson glanced at the vamp in the cage beside him, then back to Basil and Trinity. “Is it a trick? I mean, this does sound too good to be true.”

  “Well, there is one little thing.” He grabbed the boy, pinning him to he wall with his shoulders. “See, we need assurances that you’ll actually deliver the message. This little baby is going to do that for us.” Basil held the chip up in his fingers.

  “What is that?” Tyson stammered nervously.

  “This is a highly sophisticated device that can send electricity into your body simply by the press of a button. Imagine biting a live wire. The jolt will send enough electrical waves into your body to make you dance the funky monkey, and trust me, it won’t feel good.”

  Trinity grabbed Tyson’s head with one hand, then with her other, squeezed his jaw until his mouth popped open. She waited for Basil to drop the chip into his mouth before she clamped it shut. “Now be a good boy and swallow.”

  “I warned you, my man.” The vamp next to him laughed, then laid down on his cot, crossing his feet at the ankles and folding his arms behind his head.

  Tyson tried to squirm. He moaned in protest, fighting Trinity and Basil but was held down firmly.

  “Come on, swallow it.” She shook his face, still clamping his mouth shut with her hand. “Either swallow it or it goes up your ass. You chose.” She was pleasantly thrilled when she felt him swallow. “Good boy.”

  “You’ll make a wonderful mother someday, my love.” Basil blew a kiss to Trinity then released the boy. “Now, that device we just inserted into you is connected to a mechanism in our control. One press of the button and we’ll have your body smoking from the inside out. It’ll be a very slow and painful death.”