Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

“All right. All right,” Bastien spoke behind him. “Give her some room, boys. Nicole is okay. But she’ll be out of it for a while since she was bitten.”

Stuart and Miguel only backed away as far as the treadmills Chris’s tech guys had modified to support immortal speeds. Everyone else except for Tessa reluctantly filed from the room.

Standing on the opposite side of the bed, Bastien stared down at Nicole. “I guess this means it wasn’t a coincidence.”

Sean nodded.

Jared abruptly appeared beside Tessa and looked her up and down. “No injuries?”

She shook her head. “Only Nicole.”

Sean sat on the side of the bed and held Nicole’s icy hand while blood slithered down a tube into her arm. Though voices floated around him, he paid them little heed and doubted he would’ve been able to concentrate on the conversation even if he’d tried.

He needed Nicole to open her eyes and tell him she was okay.

Duckwrth & Shaboozey’s “Start a Riot” swam out of his back pocket. Sean retrieved his phone and glanced at the screen.

Cliff.

“Yeah?”

“Is everyone okay?” Cliff asked.

Sean frowned. “How did you know something happened?”

“Nicole tagged the lining of your coat so I could track you.” Of course she had, because Nicole was the most efficient Second ever. “In the past few minutes, you’ve gone from moving at a mortal’s pace to shooting across a few hundred yards of campus to popping up in network headquarters.”

Sean swiftly filled him in.

“Sounds like she’ll be out of it for the rest of the night,” Cliff said. “Why don’t you bring her home so she can rest in her own bed?”

Sean glanced at Melanie.

She shrugged. “I’m fine with that. But I’d run it past Chris first.”

As though summoned by his name, Reordon strode through the door. “Well, this confirms it. Someone is definitely targeting Becca. I wish to hell we could’ve found out another way though.”

Sean did, too. “Can I take Nicole home now?”

He nodded. “Have a teleporter take you. I’m sure Seth wouldn’t mind doing it. He should drop by shortly with the unconscious vampire.”

“I’ll do it,” Jared offered.

Sean gave the elder immortal a grateful nod. “Thank you.”

“Has Seth read the vamp’s mind yet?” Bastien asked.

Chris shook his head. “They ran into some trouble at Duke. A student saw enough from a window to misinterpret the scene and texted his family that there’d been a shooting. Seth had to bury his memory of it, then go to his parents’ house and his sister’s apartment and bury their memories of it, too, while my team erased the texts and made sure he didn’t post anything on social media.”

Bastien grimaced. “I hate cell phones.”

Most of the older immortals did, claiming vampire hunting had been a lot less complicated before the advent of smartphones that enabled accidental bystanders to instantly post pictures and videos of vampires and immortals online, reaching thousands in seconds. It made it much harder to keep the existence of vampires and immortals a secret.

“Well, I don’t,” Sean said. “If I hadn’t had a cell phone, Nicole might’ve died before I could finish healing her.” Though he had more stamina as an Immortal Guardian, his healing ability didn’t work much faster than it had when he’d been mortal. And he still had much to learn regarding the intricacies of healing brain, spinal cord, and organ damage.

Melanie withdrew the IV and placed a small bandage over the transfusion site. “Okay. She’s good. Let her sleep late tomorrow. Her wounds have healed, but her body still suffered trauma, so she needs to rest.”

“Okay.”

“If she wakes up in the next two or three hours,” Melanie continued, “she’ll be pretty loopy. So you should watch over her and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself getting up to go to the bathroom or something.”

He wouldn’t take his eyes off her for a moment.

“She may also be confused when she wakes up. According to Seth, she suffered a severe concussion. Since he quickly mended the damage and this was her first one, she shouldn’t experience recurring long-term or short-term memory issues.”

“This wasn’t her first. Or rather, it isn’t the first time she’s suffered a traumatic brain injury. Gershom—”

“Oh. Right.” Melanie thought about it a moment, then shook her head. “I still think she won’t have any lingering issues.”

“Will she remember the attack?”

She winced. “Probably not, but that has less to do with the concussion and more with the chemical released into her blood when the vampire bit her. I have no memory of Bastien biting me.” Her lips twitched. “Evidently, I said some things while under the influence in front of Roland and the twins that Bastien wishes I hadn’t.” The twins being Richart and Étienne. “So if Nicole says anything she shouldn’t, be nice about it.”

“Of course.” He was sure Cliff and Emma would, too.

“Don’t worry. The effects of the bite should wear off by morning.”

Nodding, he motioned to Nicole. “Can we go now?” He would rather not have an audience while he watched over her, especially if she might awaken and say or do something that would later embarrass her.