little annoyed that the vampires were talking over me, but I also felt too shitty to care. “She stepped through the arch and turned back like she’d forgotten something,” Cole reported. “Sniper took her in the lower back, but she was carrying a knife, and the bullet hit the sheath instead of her spine.” He held up the battered knife. I didn’t know where the bullet was—maybe still trapped in the sheath? I didn’t care.
Cole nodded toward the sidewalk on the other side of the arch. “Then a second shooter ran up on foot, probably looking for a head shot. I pushed him into that car and he ran off.”
Beau followed his eyes to the dented van and back. “You get a look at him?”
“Naw, he had a ski mask. I’ve a good sense of his height and weight, though.”
Beau looked at the hole in Cole’s jacket. “Sniper still up there?” Cole shook his head. “Why were you following her?”
My eyes had been drifting shut again, but I opened them to witness Cole’s answer. He gave Beau a sheepish grin. “You know me, boss—always interested in a new lady. I thought it’d be kinda cool to sleep with a boundary witch . . . if the lady was so inclined, of course.” He gave me a very suggestive wink, and I managed not to roll my eyes in return. The numbness in my cheek was wearing off, and I was trying not to throw up from pain.
If Beau was suspicious about that answer, he showed no sign of it. “Glad you came along, Mr. Cole.” Then the cardinal vampire looked back down at me, obviously distressed. “I’m so sorry this happened. Let’s get you to a hospital.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary . . . don’t you have someone?”
“To patch up a minor injury? Sure. But that hand is swelling fast. You need an X-ray.” He patted his pockets, looking newly distressed. “I don’t have keys.”
“I s’pose I could drive you,” Cole offered. He pointed to the parking lot, just across the street. “Car’s just there.”
“Thank you kindly,” Beau said, and to me: “Let’s get you up.”
He and Cole each lifted one of my arms, and as we made our way toward the parking lot, my feet barely touched the ground.
Chapter 18
Cole drove a light-blue Cadillac DeVille. I’d spent a decade serving with a bunch of guys who loved to argue about cars, and I was pretty sure this was a fourth-generation DeVille, from the early seventies. It had a bit of wear and tear, but looked like it’d been lovingly cared for. When the vampires loaded me into the back seat, I turned myself sideways and leaned my head against a leather seat that had definitely been regularly conditioned. Awkwardly, I dug my cell phone out of my left jacket pocket with my right hand.
The screen was cracked from when I’d fallen, but the phone still worked. As soon as all three of us were in the car, I called Maven and told her that I had minor injuries, Beau and another vampire were taking me to the hospital, and I’d get back to her when I had more information.
“All right,” Maven said, her voice tight. She was aware that Beau could hear what she was saying. “What hospital will you be at?”
I looked at Beau. “Emory University Hospital,” he informed me. “I know people there.”
As I hung up with Maven, Beau was telling Cole that he could drop the two of us off. “I’ll send for a car to get us home afterward.”
Cole raised his eyebrows at me in the rearview mirror, but I just nodded wearily. I wasn’t worried about being alone with Beau, not if Maven knew what was going on.
“You got it,” Cole said easily.
“I won’t forget this,” Beau added in a serious voice.
I don’t remember the rest of the ride to the hospital. I know I closed my eyes to avoid seeing the ghosts, but I might also have passed out. Or, more likely, the come-down from the adrenaline made everything hazy for a while.
In the back of my mind, I worried that the hospital would be packed with ghosts, but when Cole dropped us off at the ER entrance, there weren’t nearly as many as I’d feared. I suppose many of the people who die at the hospital see it coming, or consider it a relief.
The ghosts I did see, however, were clustered in the emergency room area, right where we had to be.