Chapter 18
“Is there anyone else here?” Alexandria whispered to Gabriel. He started to untie my brother’s friend as he shook his head.
“There was no one else here except us and the dead vampire, plus I don’t hear anyone.” Alexandria’s eyebrows furrowed and she bit her lip worriedly. I glanced around but saw nothing threatening. I didn’t worry about not being able to see to well because Alexandria would tell me if there was a threat.
“We should go, now,” she ordered urgently. I helped Tristan’s friend up and steadied him. He didn’t look as if he could manage walking to Alexandria’s car. I shot Alexandria a look and Gabriel sighed. He went over to Tristan’s friend and supported his weight.
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered clearly unhappy that he had to help a hunter. I ran towards the front door and unlocked it, waiting for everyone else to exit before I ran out of the building. I shut the door and ran to the car. Gabriel helped Tristan’s friend into the car and then took the passenger seat leaving me to go into the back seat.
I met Alexandria’s eyes in the rear view mirror and noticed they were darker than her usual colour. Her eyes flickered away; she wasn’t really paying attention to her immediate surroundings. Behind us the warehouse didn’t look any different and it just seemed that we had gotten easily spooked but then I thought of Alexandria who it seemed didn’t believe things were as they appeared and changed my mind. My life had definitely changed over the last few days and more caution than usual was better than carelessness if I wanted to stay alive.
“Where are we going?” asked Gabriel as he watched the scenery pass by quickly at the speed we were going. Alexandria shrugged as she passed a car on the street. Soon the car was left far behind.
“A hospital, the hunter looks like he is in need of treatment,” Alexandria replied. Gabriel rolled his eyes as he turned around to look at the guy beside me and seemed to reconsider his scepticism, the guy was in very bad shape as if he hadn’t been fed in days.
“Alright,” he ended up saying before turning his attention once again to what was outside of the car. The plain scenery replaced the simple unpopulated one quickly at the speed Alexandria was driving and in a matter of minutes she was pulling up in front of an emergency wing of a nearby hospital.
Gabriel and I held up the other hunter then walked into the emergency room to get him help while Alexandria left to park the car. Hospital employees reacted as soon as they saw the condition of Tristan’s friend. They brought out a wheel chair and then took him to some other part of the hospital leaving Gabriel and I to be interrogated.
“Do you know how he got to be like that?” one nurse asked holding a clipboard ready to write. As soon as Tristan’s friend was gone she had pulled us away from the lobby to a deserted hallway for privacy. I stared at her not prepared to answer anything. Gabriel rolled his eyes before covering for me smoothly.
“We don’t know who that guy is, we just found him like that so we brought him here,” he lied. The nurse nodded once as she turned her attention to Gabriel.
“Where did you find him?” the nurse replied sceptically.
“A warehouse, but I don’t quite remember where,” at that comment the nurse really looked like she thought he was lying. Gabriel chuckled softly and grabbed her wrist causing her to look into his eyes. All protests died from her lips and she stared dazed into Gabriel’s eyes. I clenched and unclenched my hands, normally I was supposed to save humans from this but here I was doing nothing to stop Gabriel. I looked around to make sure no one else was paying attention to what was happening to the nurse.
“Um, I’m not quite sure what I was doing,” she whispered. Gabriel smirked.
“Oh you were going to see to the guy you just admitted,” Gabriel provided helpfully. “And as soon as he’s settled you’ll let us see him right?” the nurse mutely nodded still mesmerised by Gabriel.
“What did I miss?” asked Alexandria causing me to jump at her proximity. I rubbed my neck tiredly; this day was never going to end. Gabriel shrugged, unforthcoming.
“They’ve taken him to get treatment; I don’t know when we’ll be able to see him. It could be hours until they let us,” I explained. Alexandria thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.
“I don’t quite feel like waiting that long. I’ll be back.” I grabbed her wrist before she could go and she turned back around annoyed. She met Gabriel’s eyes and shrugged. Gabriel was glaring at my hand on her wrist. “What?”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I’m going to see what I can do to speed up the waiting process.” Before I could discourage her she had cunningly disappeared presumably to find a doctor, leaving me alone with her boyfriend Gabriel.
Gabriel noticed me staring at him and scowled. He left the hallway and went into the lobby just to not be near me. That was some strong hate Gabriel was harbouring towards me, not that I blamed him; vampires had every right to hate the guys that killed their kind.
I moved out of the middle of the hallway and leaned on the wall. Then I just crossed my arms and waited for Alexandria to return. I ignored the weird looks I was getting from the nurses.
“You can go in to see him,” stated Alexandria reappearing beside me.
“I get that you’re a vampire and all but can’t you at least try and act human,” I muttered under my breath so no one would overhear. She laughed not even looking around to see if any humans had seen her.
“I could, but that just wouldn’t be as much fun,” she replied as she smirked at me. “Plus I’m pretty sure no one saw me. If they did though, they’ll probably convince themselves that they imagined it.”
“Yeah, whatever, it’ll be your entire fault if, and when you get caught. Now what room is he staying in?” I demanded annoyed.
“Just follow me.” As she turned to leave Gabriel caught up to her and grabbed her hand. Alexandria raised her eyebrows but made no comment on Gabriel’s behaviour. After a bit of walking Alexandria gestured for me to enter the room she was standing in front of.
Taking a deep breath I went inside taking a seat next to the bed. At the noise the older hunter stirred and opened his green eyes. He then noticed the two vampires in the room but said nothing assuming I would never have let them in if they meant him harm.
“Damien, how good to see you,” he croaked. I smiled at him reassuringly hoping he knew I wasn’t just here to see if he was alright. “I have an idea of who might know where your friends and brother are. Have you ever heard of the vampire Derek Bellamont? He is a vampire that was turned many years ago in Paris and he soon after travelled to Canada. He is always one that is involved in grand schemes so he might have information you need.” I nodded absorbing the information.
“Okay. What can you tell me about what my brother was working on?” the older hunter sighed.
“It is top secret and not for just anyone to know but I feel that your intentions are noble and I can trust you. Tristan was undercover to discover the identity of a new influential person in the vampire world. He had some clues but nothing concrete, only a few rumours of how this person is planning something huge and a few different descriptions of this person” Near the end of his sentence he winced in pain and a nearby nurse came in.
“I’m afraid you all must leave as I’m about to give him some morphine so he likely wont be very coherent,” she said apologetically. The hunter shook his head.
“Just a bit more time,” he told the nurse. “I just need to tell them something more and then they’ll leave.” The nurse pursed her lips.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, you’re in pain. They can come back another time to talk.”
“It’s important and they won’t be visiting again.” The nurse sighed and nodded. She gave the hunter a smile and then left the room.
“Are you sure you still want to keep talking?” the hunter nodded. “Okay then. So what were these different descriptions of the person Tristan was investigating?”
“Well there were some reports of a guy that has dark brown hair and blue eyes while other reports said the guy had blond hair and a more muscular build. Tristan was all confused with the different descriptions. He eventually came to the conclusion that either the witnesses were mistaken or the guy just disguised himself.” The older hunter paused, his body shaking from the pain. He coughed a few times but then couldn’t seem to stop. The same nurse heard and entered the room. She brushed her blond hair out of her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something to me but I cut in before she could.
“Its alright, we were just about to leave anyways,” I said. Get well soon,” I finished before leaving the room and heading towards hospital’s entrance. I avoided bumping in to the many people in the hospital hallways with only one purpose; to get outside.
People stared at me weirdly as I passed by and stared even more when I took a deep gasping breath as soon as I had gotten outside. I didn’t know what specifically made me feel like this. Maybe it was because Tristan was in deeper than I had thought.
“Are you alright?” Alexandria asked me. I nodded sitting down on the curb of the sidewalk outside the hospital. Finding my friends and Tristan was getting more and more complicated by the hour and I was feeling overwhelmed.
“I have to go but I’ll see you soon hopefully,” Gabriel told Alexandria before kissing her lightly and running off with his vampire speed. Alexandria sighed and offered me a hand to help me stand up.
“Come on, I think you’ll feel better after you get some sleep.” She did have a point there; humans almost never did their best work exhausted. I pushed myself off the ground ignoring Alexandria’s proffered hand and started walking to my apartment.
“I know I said I wouldn’t give you another ride today but considering the circumstances I think I can drive you back to your apartment,” she called after me looking amused. I struggled to focus on her as I turned around, already walking to her car which was luckily not parked very far away.
I opened the passenger door of her unlocked car and slid in the passenger seat yawning as I rested my head against the head rest. The drive back to my apartment was silent as Alexandria hadn’t turned on the radio presumably respecting that I was tired and the last thing I wanted was loud blasting music. I tried to remain alert and keep my eyes open but the last thing I remembered was Alexandria opening the passenger door and staring down at me with a weird expression.