"Do I live here now?"
"Ah!" Ben actually yelped and instinctively grabbed Nino's arms. Snapping his head at the door, Evie stood there with her huge dinner plate eyes at him. "Um, well," Ben said and ducked under Nino's arms, which made the vampire sigh. "Yes. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ben Robinson." He offered his hand to her.
She stared at his hand.
Flushing, Ben realized he knew nothing about vampire children and even less about little girls. Ben was an only child and didn't make friends growing up. Bending down below her height, he tried again, re-offering his hand with a smile. "I hope we can have fun this summer."
"You smell nice," she whispered before tilting her head and trying to bite through Ben's fingers. Ben yelped as the pain ripped through his fingers and up his arms like chaotic lightning, ripping through the earth. He immediately went cold and hot at the same time.
"I'm dying," Ben groaned, his hand pounding from the pain. "If I'm not. I hope I am."
"Evelyn!" Nino snapped and yanked his niece, but she just held on tighter, dragging Ben with her and his knees buckled. Blood splattered across Ben's beautiful floors, and he cried out from the pain. Nino cursed, hooking his finger into Evie's mouth and yanking. "Let go!"
Growling, Evie opened her mouth, and Ben didn't waste time, freeing himself. She snapped her teeth at him just as Nino hoisted her backwards with full force and they were across the room. Ben landed on his back, catching his breath.
"Bianca!" Nino roared with a little girl with blood all over his face in his arms. Deadpanned, Evie licked the sides of her mouth.
"You taste funny," she whispered.
"Bianca! Come get your daughter! Bianca!' He snapped again, but no one answered. Crying out, Ben huffed and rushed to the sink. He grabbed a towel and wrapped his hand.
"Ben," Nino asked, "Do you have siblings?"
"No."
"Good for you."
"Nino," Ben huffed, looking around as if he were searching for a life raft. "Can you...?" His mind buzzed, the pain taking over any new ideas. Someone needed to think for him. "Can you heal it?"
"It's not my venom," Nino grunted, hauling his niece into the next room, kicking open the front door. Ben chased them on wobbly legs, but he got up too fast and gravity seemed to try everything to pull him back down. He felt like a jar of beads that had just been tipped over. He scattered to the front door.
"I can't heal you—Bianca!" Nino shouted again as a car revved its engine and a red corvette sped down the road, honking for other cars to get out of its way. Ben caught the flash of Bianca's grin as she disappeared, threatening to collide with any car that didn't swerve out of her way.
"She's crazy." He was seething. Ben had never seen Nino look so mad... well, look so anything before. Ben and Nino never fought. They served a function for each other that only gave them satisfaction. They've never had the opportunity to upset each other.
"Nino," Ben huffed, holding up his hand without looking at it. He didn't want to pass out for the first time in his life. "What do I do? Why can't you heal me?"
Nino always licked Ben's wounds after he was finished feeding. Another reason he didn't mind the transaction. Nino shook his head and finally dropped Evie on the ground. He snatched up her hand and grabbed Ben's arm, yanking him to the sidewalk.
"Vampires can only heal the wounds they make. She bit you—"
"Nino," Ben yelped, stumbling on his bare feet.
"But she doesn't know how to heal you. Also, she's too young to drink your blood, so that's not great. It's too powerful. You need to go to the hospital."
"But my shoes, Nino! And the house—! It isn't locked!" Ben whipped around and what felt like ice water spilled down his back. Ben's vision blackened around the edges, and consciousness was slapped right out of his hands.
When he woke up, he was lying on his back in his living room, blinking at his ceiling. There was a rustling, and Ben's body was jostled. Bending his neck, he watched Evie attempting to shove his shoes onto his feet with Nino in the background, shouting into a phone.
"Bianca Ventura, if you don't come back here this instance, I'm going to call your husband myself—"
"Too tight?" Evie asked, as she finished tying his shoes.
"No," Ben croaked. After a beat, he asked, "You're a good kid, aren't you?"
She shrugged.
It seemed like ages before they made it to the hospital. Nino was too busy fuming and yelling at his sister that wasn't around, and Evie was too much like a creepy statue to let Ben know what was going on. She sat completely still in the back of the car, eyes forward, and hands folded in her lap.
When it became clear Bianca would never answer her phone, Nino called his older brother, Dante.
Still slick with a cold sweat, Ben sat up on his hospital bed, trying not to cry like a baby. One of the nurses, Karla, was patiently giving Ben maybe a billion stitches. The nurse raised her brow. "Bad day?"
"Maybe the worst."
They lied to the check-in and said a dog bit his hand, which earned Ben an unnecessary rabies shot on top of everything else. Nearly made him pass out again. He couldn't watch the nurse work, so Ben's eyes were glued to the ceiling. He could hear Evie in the back ground wrapping and unwrapping herself in the blue curtain separating Ben from the other patients.
"Dante!" Nino shouted, but whoever was on the other line spoke first and Nino's brows raised. His jaw dropped. "No! No! Don't. This is not a good idea."
Ben leaned over, trying to hear what they were saying. The nurse moved with him, giving him a little wink. Nino's back was to them and thankfully, the phone was that much closer. Ben could just hear Dante say, "It is a good idea. Bianca needs the help and you have never taken the time to bond with Evelyn."
"I don't want to get involved. Plus, I'm busy with work and runway and—"
"This isn't a negotiation. Bianca already said you could do it and I'm signing my approval."
"She said I could watch her?"
"Of course, Bianca did. Who else would watch her? Oh, do you have some sort of side fling again? Nino, find it in yourself to grow up this summer. Family comes first. It has to come first."
"I can't do it. I've never watched anyone in my life."
"That's not true. You used to babysit Mathew."
"Mathew's different and—" Nino's shoulders raised. All his edges tightened. A frost covered him and poured so much tension into the room, Ben could hardly breathe. It had gotten so quiet. "And I wasn't very good at watching him, anyway. You know that." Ben didn't like the sound of that.
"You're older, Nino." The more Dante spoke, the more even Ben felt swayed by him. His voice smooth as velvet and deeper than wishing well, Dante could convince Ben to stand in the middle of oncoming traffic and make him think it was a good idea. "It's time to stop playing around and be serious. This will be good for you. You need to give up the flings and the modeling anyway and come back to work with me. I'm also close on closing a deal with the Lavigne family and besides, you'll be married by this time next year—"
Ben gawked. He couldn't reel the words back before they leapt out of his mouth. "You're engaged?" The nurse made a surprise and yet, impressed sound. Usually, you'd have to pay to witness this level of drama.
Nino jumped and covered the receiver. "I'm not."
"Break-up!" Dante shouted through the phone.
Nino snapped at him. "Mind your own business!"
But Dante had already hung up the phone. Nino tried calling back, but the call went straight to voicemail. When he turned around, his brow was so scrunched, they formed a unibrow. He stared off to the side, his mind racing. It was so quiet. Ben didn't know what to say. There was more and that shouldn't have surprised him and yet, Ben still felt kicked while he was down.
Ben looked up at him.
Nino sighed. Pocketing his phone, he bent down and looked at Ben's hand, at the nurse finishing up every stitch. "Does it hurt?" He asked.
"Are you kidding?" Ben gawked. "I really wish they'd just chop it off. I'm dying here."
The side of Nino's lips pinched. That sideways smile made Ben's heart do a belly-flop in his stomach acids. Nino asked the nurse, "Is he dying? Can we possibly save his hand?"
She chuckled. "Just make sure he keeps the sutures clean and dry for the first 24 hours and he'll be fine."
"See?"
He didn't want to joke around anymore. Ben couldn't make himself smile or laugh. The day had barely begun, and he already felt knocked out and done. He shook his head. "Have you ever told me anything real about you?"
Nino's smile dropped. Eyes coated over in regret, Nino edged closer. He took to his knees and rested his hands on either side of the bed, looking up at Ben like he was the only person who existed. "This isn't a separation of you and my world. It's been about me wanting to get away from my family's business and affairs. I stopped involving myself with them a long time ago. You don't like pain... and I don't enjoy administering it."
He rubbed a thumb up and down and it was like Ben was sitting. "Oh. Did I... did I mess that up for you?"
Nino's grip tightened just slightly. "No. Unfortunately, as the older brother, Dante has the habit of usually being right. I couldn't hide from them forever. It seems like neither of us is going to get out of this, so listen to me. I'm not going to say it twice."
Ben nodded, a bit too eagerly.
"I am the middle child in my family and the second oldest son. I have two younger brothers, Anthony and Mathew. Being Dante is the King of our coven...." He talked as if the nurse wasn't there and a nervousness squirmed inside Ben's stomach. He eyed the nurse, who was making a face like they were nuts. Nino only looked at Ben. He said, "... he expects us all to help with family affairs. That includes an arranged marriage that I have already declined."
Ben let out a relieved breath that Nino noticed. His smirk returned and edge just closer. "I am 84 years old and the Nino you know is closer to who I am than what my family thinks of me. Does that clear everything up?"
"84...?" The nurse echoed, the cogs spinning in her brain.
"Earlier... you said you weren't very good at watching Mathew." As the words left Ben's mouth, the more he regretted even asking. All of Nino's sweetness soured and curdled inside of Ben's stomach. He unfortunately asked, "What did you mean by that?"
"It's... it's not a good story."
That was all he said and the moments of silence passed by slower than Ben's ability to catch social cues. Sighing, Ben's shoulders slumped. "So, we will be keeping some secrets?"
Nino nodded and looked down. A moment of silence breezed between them, chillier than a winter wind. Ben glanced to the side, when the quiet stuck out to him again. He snapped his head up and his stomach dropped to his toes. "Evie's gone."
"What?" Nino whirled around to see Ben was unfortunately right. She wasn't messing with the curtains anymore. Wasn't standing in the corner like a creepy statue. He glanced at the nurse. "Can vampires have aneurysms?"
"Excuse me?" She blinked.
Sighing, Nino waved his hand over her face, and her expression changed into someone dull and lifeless. Eyes flashing red, Nino told her with fangs sticking out of his mouth, "You never attended to Ben Robinson. You never saw me, Ben, or the girl. You walked into this partition looking for your pager. You found it and plan to return to the nurse's station."
The light returned to the nurse's eyes, blinking the fog away. She stood, checking her pockets and when her hand touched her pager, she nodded and left the partition. Ben's stomach twisted. That power intimidated Ben the most. For all Ben knew, Nino had used it before on him. To get something he wanted. It was faith that kept Ben from believing it.
"Let's go," Nino said, and Ben scrambled up, chasing Nino's ankles as they joined the rest of the emergency room floor. Nino glanced back and forth, checking the beds. "There's too many smells going on."
Ben walked up to the nurses' station. "Hi. We came here with his niece, a small blonde girl."
"The one wearing Gucci?"
"That one." Ben nodded.
"She went towards the bathrooms," the nurse said, and pointed down the hall.
"Thank you!" Ben ran for the hall with Nino appearing by his side. Without asking or warning, Nino slipped his hand into Ben's, entangling their hands. It was official. Ben was so outside the realm of being a romantic being to Nino, Nino could just hold his hand without worry or care. Or maybe he was sick and liked to hear the way Ben's heart skipped a beat... and yet, it was natural for all the wrong reasons.
"Oh, shit," Nino said and pulled on Ben's arm. They hurried and Nino slipped past the sliding door. He broke the handle off a door, forcing his way inside. He barged right into a patient's room and cursed.
Evie was on her tiptoes, biting the arm of a woman passed out in her hospital bed. They caught her just as the woman's heart monitor flatlined and the alarms went off. Evie snapped her head up, whipping around with a face covered in blood.