“A very lonely man who has selfishly laid claim to a beautiful woman of light and compassion.”
“Why are you so lonely, Diego? I have felt it within you many times. Almost desolate.” She did a graceful topple into her chair, calling out when she was done. The door opened before her voice had disappeared in the air. As if he knew before she had spoken. She realized with a quirk of her mouth, he probably did.
Her breath caught at the stunning picture he made striding through her door. Long, black, leather coat, dark jeans. His black boots. Even the curl of his hair, remembered so soft in her hands, made her heart leap.
“Why, Diego? Why do I sometimes feel your loneliness so strongly?” she asked.
He leaned against the wall, frowning. “You need to eat.”
“And I have to wait for the others. We stay together. So tell me.”
He rolled a shoulder, his arms crossing nonchalantly over his chest. “You understand what it is like to be the only one like yourself. To not talk with another about yourself. To know none would understand.”
She nodded. She did know.
“I am the only one like me. I live by my own code of honor. I have never met another who has lived like me.”
He said it simply, a stark truth, but there was no mistaking the agony of his solitude, the pain of being so constantly solitary. She could feel every moment he had spent alone through his memories. Dark lonely nights. An eternity.
She offered a hand. He came without hesitation, and she made herself stand in front of him. “You’re not alone anymore, Diego. I understand. I do know,” she told him, her fingers holding his tightly.
“
Cara
, you are looking at me again.” His voice wrapped around her, held her close, though he only held her hand.
A giggle bubbled up. “I am? I didn’t know.” Fires ignited when he smiled at her. She slapped a hand over his lips. “You have got to quit that.”
“What?” It was muffled behind her palm, but she felt his suppressed laughter in the way he trembled.
“Smiling. I can’t take it.” She knew his smile grew, pressing into the center of her hand. “You’re bad, Diego. Just plain bad.”
“Never said I was good,” he teased. Then to prove it, he swept his tongue across her palm and sparks raced up her arm. “Come on, honey. They can catch up. I need to see you eat.”
For the first time, she caught the note of worry in his tone, but she shook her head. “I need to go to the hospital and see the woman who was hurt first. I shouldn’t take long, but I have to do something.” She felt his body bow closer, an acceptance, though it was not what he wanted. His next question proved it.
“Then you will eat?”
She gave him an honest answer. “I will try. I think I am sick, or getting there or something.”
His expression was brooding as he placed a gentle hand to her spine and led her into the hall to join the others.
Titania told them her plans to go by the hospital as the limo began to pull away from the exit doors of the stadium. Streetlights glowed through a damp fog, giving a murky, eerie feeling to the night.
“Shouldn’t you wait until tomorrow?” Laney asked. She never once glanced toward Diego.
Titania shook her head. “No, she’ll be released by morning. If you want, go ahead and send the limo back. I’ll keep Diego with me,” she said.
Houston held Laney protectively under an arm on the seat across from her. She was getting a little tired of the distrustful gazes aimed at Diego. He had done nothing to prove he deserved this treatment from Houston. She just didn’t understand Houston some days. Diego stared quietly out the window, as if none of it concerned him.
“We’ll go ahead. I’m beat, even if he isn’t,” Laney said.
“I’ll be fine, and I won’t be long.” Titania asked the driver to make the detour, having garnered the hospital information and the woman’s name from security when they left after the show.
The limo slid to a silent stop a few minutes later. Diego slipped out, guiding Titania. She bent over to talk to the other two. “I promise I won’t be long. I know she’s probably asleep. I can’t let this go without saying something.”
Houston gave her a gentler look. “I know, Tani. I’m sorry about tonight.”
“Love you, too, you big dope. Go get some sleep.” She smiled in return when he grinned, letting Diego close the door. She knew perfectly well he was going to eat, then maybe sleep. Houston couldn’t live without his steaks.
“Ready?” she asked, looking up at her quiet sentinel. He nodded, and she started for the sliding glass doors. “I am sorry about Houston. I don’t understand why he’s acting this way.” She glanced at him when Diego remained stoically silent.
He shrugged when he realized she wanted an answer. “He takes your protection very seriously. He considers himself the law when it comes to you and Laney. It is normal in his kind.”
“His kind?” she muttered. “I don’t want to even hazard a guess at what you meant by that.” She walked to the nurses’ station and asked for the woman’s room. The station nurse was uncertain at first until Titania explained who she was and why she had come to visit the young woman at such a late hour.
“I know it’s against protocol, but I feel responsible for this. I just want to know that she is all right.” When the nurse frowned, hesitated, she exuded a very small wave of compassion and saw the misgiving fade from the night nurse’s gaze.
“All right. I’ll walk with you in case anyone asks. I doubt anyone will. This late at night, it’s pretty quiet.”
“Thank you. If she’s asleep, I won’t stay and I won’t disturb her.” She followed the quick steps of the nurse up two flights and down a maze of halls.
The plaque on the door had A. Sumpter scribbled in removable marker. “Thank you,” Titania whispered, and the nurse turned and left them. She pushed on the half-closed door, seeing a monitor next to the standard mechanical bed. The room was lightly lit, sparse, whitewashed and very boring. She’d have flowers delivered first thing in the morning.
Titania noticed the woman’s gaze reflected on the exterior window. “You’re awake?” she whispered in case she was mistaken.
“Yes,” came the woman’s hoarse reply. A thick white bandage was wrapped around her throat, covering what Titania knew had been several stitches to repair the damage.
She walked in, Diego staying nearer the door to not frighten the woman. There were times when he looked like a thug in leather and that long, wild hair. “I am so sorry this happened to you, Annabelle. I wasn’t expecting you to be awake.”
“I can’t fall asleep.” Her dark brown eyes were filled with terror, a horror only she had seen. “He swore he would come back. I’m afraid. No one believes me.”
“What happened?” Titania moved to stand closer to the bed so Annabelle could talk quietly. The obvious discomfort was in her voice.
“Vampire,” she said, paling to challenge the white starkness of the room. Annabelle’s eyes were huge with the assault fresh in her mind. “All I remember is hearing this beautiful voice, and then I was being crushed, and pain. Hot, burning pain in my neck. I thought I was being attacked by a gang or something, the pain was so intense everywhere. But I saw it,” she choked out. Tears leaked from her eyes. “I saw it lift its head and growl, like an animal. It threw me like I weighed nothing, and disappeared.” She began to shiver and sob in the bed.
“Shh,” Titania soothed. “It’s going to be all right. I know your attacker was caught and taken care of. No one can hurt you if you sleep.”
“But he swore!” she choked. Her voice had a very dry, ragged hoarseness.
Titania’s gaze flew to the monitors when they accelerated. They went crazy, reading her heart rate. Titania broadcast feelings of peace and restfulness, hoping the young woman settled. All the machines slowed rapidly once she reached out toward Annabelle. Luckily, her heightened pulse didn’t last long enough to set off an alarm.
“He won’t. Not you, not ever.” Titania didn’t know how she knew that, but somehow she did. She looked up at Diego. She picked up the sensations from him. Whoever it had been, he was definitely gone.
“I can remove her memory of the attack. She will have the injury, know she was injured, but the terror of what she saw will be gone.”
Titania’s eyes widened.
“
You can do that? Would do that?”
She knew he could manipulate memories and thoughts. She’d had no idea he could wipe out a memory. The admittance made her nervous, realizing again he was much more than he’d let her see.
“I believe so. I have found I can do almost anything if I concentrate. She will be receptive, unaware. She is ungifted; her natural barriers are weak to compulsion. I just need to find it within her. Are you against it?”
Her fingers twisted together.
“
But shouldn’t she be treated? There are no such things as vampires.”
Diego gave her a wan smile from the shadows of the doorway.
“
Let me help her.”
Titania turned to face the woman, her indecision brief. “Annabelle, I’m going to send you some beautiful flowers in the morning. I want you to rest now. When you wake up, you won’t remember anything about any vampires. Would you like that?”
“Oh please, yes.” She sniffled. “I don’t want to ever think about it again.” She shuddered, once, very hard, her hand gripping the side of the bed.
There was silence, and she could feel Diego’s body still with concentration. Moments of silence lengthened.
“
It is done. She will rest for the night now.”
She nodded in answer. “Good night, Annabelle. Sleep now. You need to get better. I will pay for your bills so you have nothing to regret for going to my concert. I’m sorry those men attacked you. They are in jail now and far away from you.” She told the story, implanting a foggy vision of a tale of how she could have been hurt at knifepoint. She hoped it stuck. She’d never tried to work that way.
“Thank you,” came the drowsy reply from the bed. Within seconds, a deep breathing was all that could be heard in the room. Leaving with a silent Diego at her side, she made one more stop at the nurses’ station, giving them information on where to send the bills. She ordered a bouquet of spring flowers to be sent in before Annabelle was released.
“That doesn’t mean charge me for the air she breathes,” she joked with the night nurse.
“How about just the water, then?” she joked with a wink.
“Not even.” Titania shared the laugh, her step firm until she reached the outside walk, then she just wanted to sit down. She was beginning to shake. Diego’s arms corralled her at the waist until she was comfortable against his chest on his lap. Her head fell into open, trembling hands.
“I don’t know what you did in there, but thank you.” Her voice was growing thick with tears for Annabelle’s nightmare.
“I did no less than you. I think you may have done more.” His fingers filled with the waterfall of her hair, comforting.
She wiped blatantly at welling eyes. “I can’t believe that happened to the girl. Attacked! God, what is this world coming to? And vampires?” she cried in distress. “It had to be someone in a mask, trying to be sick or something. And here I thought I drew a good crowd.” Her head sank deeper until Diego brought her against his shoulder where she could wallow in her misery without falling from her perch.
She leaned apart a moment later, breathing deeply to stop her tears. “Just what did happen to the guy who did this? You said he’d been taken care of. Is he in jail?”
He looked away, his jaw tight. “Are the details important? The woman was saved before real damage had been done.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “Not tonight,
cara
. I must see to your health first. I can feel your weakness. You are exhausted, and you have not eaten.”