"We all took it, this time," Merrill stated bluntly. His cell phone rang, interrupting the conversation. Merrill pulled it from his pocket and answered. "Nothing," Merrill replied to the question. It was Flavio; he'd gotten the news from Wlodek. Flavio only talked for a short while and rang off. Merrill slipped the phone into his pocket again. Franklin walked in. He hadn't slept well and looked rumpled and frightened as a result.
"Little girl, who is going to watch out for me?" Franklin started weeping, something he seldom did. He couldn't stand it any longer, sobbing as he left the bathroom. Merrill rose and went after him, leaving Gavin in his chair by the tub. That meant he was the one who heard the sharp intake of breath and the whimper that followed. Gavin was shouting for Merrill while he knelt beside the tub, doing his best to coax a second breath. It came after several seconds. Merrill and Franklin were there to hear the third one. They almost jumped when the timer went off again.
"We'll rinse her off one more time and then move her to the bed," Merrill instructed. He and Gavin lifted Lissa from the tub while Franklin piled clean towels across her bed. Lissa moaned when they moved her and Gavin hushed her, speaking soft words. Her skin flaked away in his hands as he cradled Lissa's head in his palm. Once they settled Lissa on the bed, Franklin and Gavin laid the sheet lightly over her body. Franklin would be forced to throw it and the towels away afterward and he was never so happy to do something such as that in his life. Lissa continued breathing until the sun rose and then stopped, going into the rejuvenating sleep. Merrill and Gavin were old enough to stay awake a few minutes past sunrise, so Merrill called Wlodek to pass on the news.
* * *
I woke myself moaning. I wasn't dead and I was supposed to be. How had that happened? Who had done this to me, pulling me back into my misery? Who?
"Hush, love. All will be well," covers rustled around me as someone adjusted them. I knew that voice, that scent. I just couldn't immediately reconcile them with a name. I must have moaned again—I can't remember—and the lightest touch on my cheek came as if they were afraid to place fingers on my skin.
"Cara, you must drink," The voice came again as blood was gently smeared across my lips to convince me to feed. The bag of blood was held to my lips and mouthful by mouthful, I was coaxed to swallow. All this happened in darkness—I wasn't sure I could open my eyes. I was afraid the light would be too bright for some reason and my eyelids refused to cooperate anyway.
Another waking and still my eyes wouldn't open. Blood was offered and I drank. "Come, love, they say it is safe to take you in the shower." Hands lifted me up and I shivered as I was carried. "You must tell me if the water is not right," the voice murmured. Taps were turned and the scent and noise of water came. Yes, water has a scent. I knew that much, but I was still struggling to put a name to the voice and to assign a cause or blame for what was wrong with me. My body flinched as we stepped beneath the spray. Again, I was asked if the water was the right temperature. It felt warm and soothing against my skin.
"S'okay," I mumbled. The voice whispered his thanks for my words.
* * *
Gavin, Merrill and Franklin were all standing at my bedside when my eyes finally opened and I came fully back to myself. Six days had passed since I'd tried to let the sun kill me. "Thank God." Those were Franklin's first words as I blinked up at him. Gavin and Merrill stepped back as Franklin sat down on the side of my bed and took my hand. "Little girl, don't you ever try to leave me again," he admonished. "Greg is coming in tomorrow and if he doesn't give you a tongue lashing, then I don't know him at all."
I raised the other hand to rub my forehead, surprised that my limbs were actually obeying me. Somehow, I couldn't remember having any control over them for a while.
"Sweetheart, your fingers and toes are regenerating. It will take another two weeks or so for them to be normal." That was Merrill speaking. I went still at his words. Slowly I lifted my hand away from my face and saw that my fingers were missing from the last joint down. I had no fingernails; the part of my fingers that held them was missing. Covering my eyes with what remained of my hand, I asked the question.
"What else is missing? And why didn't you leave me on the roof? I should be dead now and far away from all of you." Now I remembered the beating. Merrill had no idea how hard it had been for me to stand there and take that. I'd sworn to myself long ago that nobody would beat me again. Yet here I was and that's exactly what had happened.
"Because of selfishness," Franklin said, kissing my hand. "Our selfishness. We didn't want to be without you, little girl. I can't face that pain. I'm sorry." Franklin wasn't alone in that; I wasn't sure I could face the pain again either. Bearing the agony of the burning as the sun crisped my skin had been almost unendurable. I might not be able to do it a second time. "And your hair, eyebrows and eyelashes are gone, baby Lissa, but they'll grow back, too."
My hand was still over my eyes as I muttered, "Great. I'm a freak."
"Your skin is fine and as beautiful as it ever was," Gavin said. "Those other things will come soon. Just be patient with your body. And with us."
That caused me to snort. Patient with them? When had they been patient with me? "Lissa, I know what you're thinking," Merrill replied. "And you are correct, up to a point."
"Oh, so suddenly you're a mind reader?" That came out with a little more sarcasm than I'd intended.
"As you know already, I am quite old and have been dealing with people and vampires for all of that time." Yeah. I knew he was old, all right.
"Did you know the vampire that came after me at the hotel in New Mexico was older than you and Wlodek?" That statement had Gavin drawing in a breath and Merrill laying compulsion.
"Gavin, you will not be telling anyone that our little one here has this talent," Merrill commanded sternly.
"I would not have done so, even without your instruction," Gavin grumbled. "That is both dangerous and highly useful at the same time, as well as something that I had already guessed at. She told me Nyles Abernathy was older than I when we faced him in Florida. I already knew that but she surprised me by telling me so."
"The vampire's scent at the hotel was also tainted," I said. Yeah, I was letting the cat partly out of the bag. "All of the bad vampires there that night had the same tainted scent."
"Christ," Merrill muttered. "And you could tell this?" His bright blue eyes held a worry that I couldn't define.