Bane's Choice (Vampire Motorcycle Club #1) - Alyssa Day Page 0,97
her lip. “Are they very expensive? It’s just, I don’t get paid till next week, and—”
“No charge.”
Ryan smiled and waved bye-bye to Jasmine, who continued to peer at her over her mother’s shoulder, mouthing the word “shiny.”
When they’d walked out of sight, Ryan pulled her hand out of her pocket, clutching the thermometer she’d used to take the girl’s temperature.
The thermometer that had read 101.5 on Jasmine only minutes earlier but had read 98.6 after the shiny lady touched her.
…
The rest of the day went by in a whirlwind, and she was far too busy to think about magic or supernatural creatures or special healing powers. Normal cases came in and got normal treatment.
Normal, normal, normal—everything her life suddenly wasn’t anymore.
After her last patient walked out of the exam room, Ryan stretched, her back sore from a very full day. The clinic staff was bare bones even when nobody was out sick, so today had been a whirlwind. It was sometimes hard to find people with the time and inclination to donate that time to indigent patients.
Although, now that she had an idea of how much money Meara and Bane must have, she might put in a word that they hire more full-time staff doctors instead of depending on volunteers for so much.
Suddenly, to her surprise, she realized that she actually wouldn’t mind being one of them. Her mind started to race with plans for what she might do if she had the chance to work here full-time. There were better policies and procedures that could be put in place and implemented. Higher standards of care. Better patient follow-up.
She shook her head. Always trying to think ten steps ahead, and now she only had to convince her new vampire friends to more fully fund their free clinics, instead of spending so much money on convertibles and mansions and ball gowns.
She glanced at her watch and grimaced. It was already seven, and she’d promised to be back by six p.m. when she ran into Mr. C in the kitchen at five in the morning. Bane hadn’t returned yet, but Mr. C had convinced her that Bane, Luke, and Edge were fine, just “doing a sweep,” whatever that meant.
The vampires would want to talk to her about the attacks and about Ryan’s new Nephilim status, but Ryan wasn’t ready for that conversation, and she didn’t know when she would be. Still, time to woman up. She grabbed her bag, said good-bye, and rushed out to her car. When she pulled out her phone, she had eighteen missed messages, all from VMC ENTERPRISES.
Ouch.
She sighed, ignored the messages, and drove back to the mansion, preparing to face the music, hoping that the sight of her in the red ball gown made Bane forget that she’d been out of touch all day.
Except, necromancers.
She was probably out of luck.
She pushed the speaker button and called Bane, who answered almost before it rang.
“Where the fuck are you?”
She looked at her phone in disbelief and contemplated stopping for a cheeseburger and fries. Lots of fries.
And a beer or three.
“Nope,” she finally said.
“What?”
“I said, nope. You do not get to tell me I’m a warrior goddess one day and then try to control my life the next. Or speak to me like that. And may I remind you, you never checked in with me when you were gone all night.”
“But—”
“And,” she continued, speaking right over him, “we still have to talk about that time you locked me in your room.”
Silence.
“Bane?”
“Did Meara let you out?”
She pulled out onto Route 80. “No, I let myself out. My father used to pull that nasty little trick, so I learned to be fairly competent at picking locks. But if you think it’s in any way a good thing to do something that makes me compare you to my asshole father, you’re sadly mistaken.”
“He’s not your father.”
“That actually makes me feel better,” she snapped, making the turn at the light.
Another, longer, silence.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said, just when she was about to hang up.
She sighed. “I forgive you, so long as you never do it again. There. Was that so hard?”
“You have no idea,” he said fervently, and she burst out laughing.
“Are we going to talk about what we discovered about you last night?”
“No,” she said firmly. “My capacity for new revelations ran out somewhere around the zombies. We’re going to go to this party with Meara, and maybe even dance, and then we’ll talk.”