Vigil (31 page)

assumed he was with you.”

“I left him for a bit to make some phone calls. When I came

back, he wasn’t in the lobby or the cafeteria. I’ve checked with

the security guards and they don’t remember seeing him leave.”

Tuan stepped forward. “Where else might he have gone?”

“Nowhere. Why would he? He was adamant that we bring

him to see Adin as soon as he was conscious.”

“What the hell?” Adin asked, even as he yanked the tape off

his arm and pulled out his IV line.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Donte demanded.

“We have to look for Bran. Will someone help me find some

clothes?” Adin’s face was already pale and beaded with sweat.

There was no way he’d be able to walk unaided. He gestured to

Boaz. “Get me a wheelchair, please.”

“Adin—” Boaz began.

“
No.
You were right, Boaz. I didn’t give a single thought to

what it would mean to bring Bran into our lives. I didn’t worry

about the consequences and I didn’t care about anything else but

doing what I wanted.”

“I didn’t say that, exactly.” Boaz opened the cabinets in the

room, coming up empty. “I’ll need to get you some scrubs. You

weren’t dressed when we brought you here.”

“Oh shit.” Adin imagined how it must have seemed, he’d have

been lying in bed when the EMTs arrived, he’d probably been

Vigil
211

covered with sweat and come and bite marks. He closed his eyes

for a second.
Great
. “The point is, I brought Bran here, and I’m

responsible for him. He trusts me.”

Donte nodded. “He loves you. While you were unconscious,

you called for him over and over and I’m certain he was aware of

it.” Donte looked away, his features tightening into a mask that

Adin found difficult to interpret. “For the record, I would have

liked it had you called to me.”

“You can’t think—”

“Another time, più amato,” Donte answered quickly. “Let’s

secure the safety of your toxic adoptee, shall we?”

“
Donte
.” Adin caught Donte’s arm and growled, “Someday

you’ll make my head explode.”

“I was imagining just that very thing, actually,” Donte told

him. “But we’ll save that for later when we’ve more time.”

“I hope you mean that in the nicest possible way.” Adin

bumped him weakly with his fist.

“The jury is out, caro. Behave yourself, and I will consider just

how I will explode that remarkably empty head of yours later. I

can bring both pleasure and
pain
.”

Boaz returned to the room with borrowed scrubs. Donte

made short work of working them up Adin’s legs, and then lifted

his torso in order for Boaz to remove the standard gown and slip

the shirt on over his head. Adin grunted when his head came

through.

Adin experienced waves of dizziness when Donte picked him

up like a baby and carried him out the door. He wondered how

much help he could be in his condition but he didn’t want to prove

Boaz right by allowing others to take care of his responsibility.

He clasped his hands around Donte’s neck and moaned when he

was deposited in a cold wheelchair.

Donte leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Are you certain

you can do this, caro? If you cannot, I’ll see that Bran is brought

to you, safe and sound. I promise on my life.”

212 Z.A. Maxfield

“Fat lot of good that will do me, since you’re
dead
,” Adin

teased, cautiously letting go and gripping the armrest with his

good hand. “Let me catch my breath.” Adin didn’t want to tell

Donte that was far more difficult than he expected.

Donte took the handholds of Adin’s wheelchair. “I’ll take

Adin and look around the hospital. If he’s here I will know it.”

“We’ll all know it.” Tuan grimaced. “There’ll be a trail of

healthy house plants and aging vampires in his wake.”

Adin placed his hand on the wheel to stop the chair when

Donte would have pushed him. “Maybe I’d better go alone.”

Donte snorted. “This is why I love you, you should consider

a career as an
attore comico.
”

Tuan knelt in front of the wheelchair and adjusted Adin’s legs.

“I am going to go to administration to see if my credentials will

get me a look at the hospital security tapes. I want to see if Bran’s

left here, or if anyone else I recognize has arrived…”

“We’ll find him.” Adin’s jaw tightened. “And then we’ll kill

him for giving us a scare.”

Adin and Donte began their search of the hospital by trying

to consider the places that might interest a boy like Bran. They

covered the gift shop, the florist, the vending machines, the dining

area, and one or two patio areas where the hospital staff might

go for a break or to eat out of doors. They checked the chapel yet

still there was no sign of Bran anywhere. Eventually, Donte and

Adin made their way to the ER, where they finally found Bran,

sitting with his hands folded in his lap. Next to him a teenage girl

slept with her legs curled under her and her head on his shoulder.

“I should have known.
Cherchez la femme
.” Donte stopped the

wheelchair. “You go on ahead; I’ll call Tuan and Boaz and let

them know we’ve found him.”

Adin turned and met Donte’s eyes. “Thank you. I’m sorry for

all the trouble.”

Donte shook his head and dropped a kiss on Adin’s forehead.

He pulled his phone from his coat pocket and left to find a place

Vigil
213

to make a call.

Adin wheeled over to where Bran sat. “Hi there.”

Bran flushed but didn’t move. His friend slept on. “Hi.”

Adin lowered his voice to avoid waking her. “We were frantic

just now when we couldn’t find you.”

Bran turned and spoke in the girl’s ear, she nodded and leaned

back. Her brown eyes opened and Adin saw they were puffy and

red rimmed from crying.

“Thank you,” she told Bran quietly.

Adin watched their gazes lock as something passed between

them. Bran looked solemn and sad, and the girl, a sweet-looking

thing in jeans and a white blouse with a fitted, feminine jacket

caught both his hands and gave them a squeeze. Bran stood then,

and she let him go before shoving her dark hair back from her

face and taking a deep, shuddering breath. Bran gave her one last

smile and left her there, taking a place behind Adin’s wheelchair

without asking and pushing him toward the elevators, located in

a hallway off the central lobby.

Bran pushed the button to call a car and leaned against the

wall. “I’m sorry you were worried.”

“Of course we were worried. Please don’t forget there are

people out there who—”

“That was Kelsey. Her brother drowned this morning.”

Adin’s heart froze. “What?”

“She has a seven-year-old brother, and he drowned in their

pool. They brought him in and her parents are with him now.

They have him hooked up to machines, but he’s already gone.

They just don’t know it.”

Adin felt sick with sorrow for the family. “How do you know

it?”

Bran shrugged. “I was there when they brought him in. I was

close enough… I just know.”

“Does she?”

214 Z.A. Maxfield

“She does. But she doesn’t understand why. Her intuition tells

her he’s gone. I can—I did—reinforce that so she wouldn’t hold

on to hope.” Bran’s eyes looked older than old.

“Were you able to help her?”

“Maybe,” Bran said. “Who knows? How can anyone help

with something like that? She seemed to feel better when she was

close to me. I helped her find good memories. Sweet dreams.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” Adin was silent until the doors opened and Bran

pushed him into the empty elevator. “They wouldn’t let me see

you, even though you were asking for me.”

The doors closed and they started the ascent to Adin’s floor.

“I know. I’m sorry. They said that it was touch and go. They

wanted to spare you that.”

As the elevator started to rise, Adin felt a sick plummeting of

his stomach. His heart fluttered oddly and he became short of

breath. Bran squatted next to the wheelchair, so they faced one

another. “Listen to me, Adin. We don’t have much time. You

need to ask yourself about your dreams last night. How much

was me, and how much was real.”

“What?” Adin shook his head. “I don’t understand you.”

“I think…” Bran bit his bottom lip. “I think someone tried

to turn you. If you were depleted enough by Donte’s attack, it

would have been easy to start the process.” Bran reached out

and pressed the Emergency Stop button. The alarm rang so

unbearably loudly in the elevator car Adin ducked his head and

covered his ears. Bran pulled his hands away and continued to

speak. “I don’t know if it really happened, Adin.
I don’t know
. I

was in your head and I felt someone else there.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean someone else was manipulating you. Misdirecting

you. And either they started the process that will turn you from

human to vampire, or they wanted you to think they did. If they

made you swallow even a mouthful…”

Vigil
215

“I dreamed that someone kissed me, and my mouth filled

with…” Adin stopped, suddenly frozen by the possibility that

drinking blood represented.

“That’s what I mean. If that part of the dream wasn’t me

manipulating you, if it was real, then it might have started the

process. It isn’t always easy to tell at first, but it doesn’t take

much.”

Adin drew in a lungful of air although it didn’t feel like he got

enough. “I dreamed it was Santos who kissed me, but then I saw

Donte’s face.”

Bran put his hand on Adin’s shoulder. “You’re sweating.”

“I’m scared, Bran.” Adin’s muscles began to tremble. He was

dizzy suddenly, as if the floor of the elevator dropped out from

beneath him. “I don’t feel so…” The walls spun around him as

Bran pushed the button that silenced the alarm and put the car in

motion again. “Bran?”

“I’m here.” Bran’s panicked voice reached him from what

seemed like a long way away. “I think it’s me that’s making you

sick.”

“That can’t be it. No one would…” Adin murmured. But he

was in deep trouble and he knew it. His heart sped up and his

breathing grew erratic. “But I can’t…seem to catch…my breath.”

The elevator doors opened, and Bran pushed Adin out onto

his floor, calling for help. The last thing Adin heard was Bran

telling someone to call for Tuan.

Before Adin opened his eyes he listened. He heard wind. It lifted his hair

and rushed against his eardrums. It batted the rigging and caused the ropes

and cleats to slap and knock against the mast. Adin heard sails snap and

fill and felt himself lifted up and down. He struggled for balance on the deck

of a boat as it rode over waves through the sea. Water lapped against the hull

as they bobbed and pitched gently from side to side. Sunshine warmed his face

in a direct challenge to the breeze, which kissed him, brisk and chilly. When

he finally looked, he wasn’t surprised to see he was sitting on the deck of his

father’s sailboat, the Odd Bean.

Adin’s first waking thought was pure elation, a sudden, intense rush

of joy at seeing his father at the helm again. His heart swelled when he saw

Keene Tredeger’s boyish delight. He was in his element on the water, a man

who’d grown up reading first Stevenson and Defoe and Melville, then in later

years lived on Patrick O’Brian and C.S. Forrester.

The sun was barely breaking the horizon, and his father was holding a

mug of coffee that steamed into the air. “Early bird gets the dawn,” he said,

smiling. “Of course your mother and sister can’t be woken at this hour.”

“They get the sunset and they see it as a fair trade.”

“Little do they know...”

Adin’s father was so vividly alive at that early hour Adin wondered if

he’d fortified his coffee with Irish whiskey. He looked around on the deck and

found his own mug. He lifted it to his lips and sure enough, it was bracing in

more ways than one. “You spiked the coffee?”

“Arrrr.” His father grinned. “A little grog never hurt anyone.”

“Don’t let mom hear you say that.”

“She’d have to get out of our bunk to stop me, wouldn’t she?” He lifted

his head and let the wind caress his face.

Adin leaned back and looked up into the sails.

“This is the best thing we’ve ever done,” his father announced. “I’ve never

felt more alive.”

218 Z.A. Maxfield

“But this is how you died.” Adin sipped his coffee. “In this boat. There

was a storm and the Odd Bean went down.”

Adin’s father’s face never lost its elated expression, but he was silent for

a long time. “I know.”

“You and mom both drowned. Your bodies were recovered but we put you