Retribution - By Denise Jeffries Page 0,2

better day, she wouldn’t have been able to do that, he told himself as his body descended back to the mattress.

“I’ve got to get out of here. They’ll be here soon.”

“Who are they, Joh—Reed?”

“Them. The ones…” His voice slurred off when he moaned. “The ones who tried to kill me.”

“Nobody’s going to try to kill you.” Denver turned away from the bed and lifted a syringe from the table. “You need to get some rest.”

“No.”

Before he could breathe another protest, she swiped the portal to the IV sticking out of his arm and injected the medicine.

“Go to sleep, Reed. Its oh-two-hundred dark. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Doubt that. He didn’t finish the sentence. The gray pressing into his mind gave way to the darkness. “I’ve got to get out of…”

****

Denver hung up the phone. She hated having to call the attending physician but rules were rules. When a patient awakens from a coma you’ve got to tell someone, can’t keep quiet till morning.

Reed’s day would now be filled with tests and scans to check for permanent damage. Her mind wondered back to the conversation with the doctor. Nervous energy prickled her neck after she hung up the phone. She didn’t know why, but guessed it was because of the doctor’s verbal nervousness that permeated her ears. Why was he nervous about Reed? Guessing she was imagining it, she pulled out his chart to document the latest events. Whatever was bothering the doc was not her concern.

Denver sat at the nursing station staring at the clock on the wall, watching the second hand tick slowly by. She hated quiet nights. They took too long. Three o’clock. Three more hours and she’d be off duty. Because of her affliction she worked ten p.m. until six a.m. Sure she went out in the sun. She didn’t burst into flames like some of her ancestors. The rays itched and the longer she stayed out the more they itched. If she wasn’t careful she burned something awful. Ugly blisters coated her skin, but never scarred as long as she fed. She cringed at the image of the ancient vamp’s wasted dust remains floating away with the gentlest breeze.

Thank the heavens for sun block seventy. Thinking back, she remembered once she wanted to see just how long she could do it. She itched so badly her arms and legs bled from the scratching. Long streaks marred her body and looked as if she’d been in a fight with a very large and deadly cat.

Glancing back at the clock and shaking her head at the same time, she let her mind wonder back to John Doe-- Reed. It had been a long time since someone brought forth her venom, a very long time. Over decades she’d perfected what she called her poker face. Things that previously boiled her blood, raised the need to hunt had grown dormant until a few seconds ago. And now, now, she wondered why this man was able to do it. He’d seen her but not at her worst. Maybe he won’t remember. Drugs were a wonderful thing. Smiling, she caught a yawn in her fist, started to push up and came face to face with a man.

“May I help you?”

It was way too late for people to be visiting the hospital and he didn’t look or smell like the average Joe. Anger poured off of him like a raging river. The man standing three feet behind him was no better. Evil thoughts permeated off of him in dark thunderous waves. Denver gasped. He stared at her with eyes so pale they looked dead. The bulge supposedly hidden under the leather jacket was definitely a gun. Not good.

Swallowing, “What did you need, gentlemen?” And that was an understatement. They may have been men, but gentle they were not.

The one in the front slapped an eight by ten photo on the counter. “Have you seen this man?”

Denver dragged her gaze from his face down to the photo, picked it up and held it in front of her face. Shaking her head in a slow deliberate movement, she pulled her lips into a tight frown and pretended to be thinking.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “He was here yesterday. He was transferred upstairs to the sixth floor this morning, unit six north. Not sure of the room number.”

Before she could continue he snatched the photo, motioned to the other with a jerk of his chin and stormed toward the elevator. She stood at the nursing station, listening