good. Mattheus said you were badly wounded in an explosion.” She frowned. “One of those damn fail-safes. Maybe it scared the voices away for a bit.”
“Maybe.”
Silence settled upon them, becoming awkward as she shifted her weight and just stared up at him, her brow furrowed. Hesitance crept into her expression.
“What?” he asked when she seemed disinclined to speak.
She sighed. “Something has come up.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
“Mattheus said after he tripped the first fail-safe and was hit with a couple of blades, he felt a little sluggish. It didn’t last long. But he suspected the blades had been coated with something.”
“Like what? The sedative?”
“That would explain why you slept for nearly two days. But he wasn’t sure. So he pocketed some of the daggers and darts, and the researchers up on sublevel four have been examining them.”
“What did they find?”
“The darts contained the tranquilizer. The dosage varied, so we aren’t sure exactly how much you were hit with.”
“Not enough to be lethal.”
“No, thank goodness. A few of the blades were coated with it, too. But the thing that concerns me isn’t the sedative. They also found a poisonous substance on some of the blades. That shouldn’t have affected you. The virus is tough as nails when it comes to neutralizing chemicals. But since your ears are still bothering you, I’d like to do some blood work just in case.”
“Okay.” Cliff followed her to the infirmary.
Stuart and the other vampires were up and running on the treadmills. Across the room, Tessa, Jordan, Liora, and the other newly inducted Immortal Guardians sat at a long table covered with file folders and papers, no doubt reviewing the results of the many medical tests Melanie had performed… and finally acknowledging the lies Gershom had told them.
Cliff tensed when everyone looked up at his entrance. Guilt suffused him again when he looked at Liora, but he found no condemnation in her gaze. Jordan eyed him with a blank expression that rankled, but at least he wasn’t shouting at Cliff to stay the hell away.
“Hey, Cliff,” Miguel called from a treadmill. “I heard you saved the day the night of the big showdown.”
“Yeah,” another vamp said. “Mattheus said you were a real badass, getting the Immortal Guardians through all the fail-safes injury-free.”
“That’s so cool,” Stuart added, his eyes glowing as he struggled to block out the voices in his head. “I wish I could’ve been there.”
Cliff forced a smile. “It’d be cooler if I could remember it.” All he knew was what they told him, and he wasn’t sure he could trust that now. Not after they tried to make him forget he’d hurt Liora. But Mattheus wasn’t invested in Cliff the way Melanie and the others were. He had no emotional attachment to him at all, so he had no reason to lie about it.
“Hi, Cliff,” Tessa called, offering him a smile and a wave.
“Hi, Tessa. How’s it going?”
Her smile acquired a wry twist as she shrugged. “It’s going.”
He chuckled because he knew it was expected of him and followed Melanie over to the exam area.
It only took her a couple of minutes to draw the blood she needed for her tests.
“Do you need an infusion?” she asked as she labeled the vials. “Your blood volume looked good when they brought you in, so I didn’t give you any.”
“No.”
“Okay. Bastien will be here as soon as the sun sets if you’re ready to resume your hunts.”
“Sure. I’m going to go rest until he gets here.”
“Okay.”
Cliff waved to the guys and left the infirmary.
At the end of the hallway, Todd nodded to him.
Cliff nodded back, pretended to check the time on his watch, then ducked into his apartment. There he halted. Glancing down at the arm he wore the watch on, the same arm from which Melanie had drawn blood, he straightened it and stared.
Blood beaded at the bend of his elbow. He touched it, wiped it away to reveal a puncture wound that slowly forced out another crimson bead.
His heart began to pummel his ribs. That wound should have healed as soon as Melanie withdrew the needle. That’s why she hadn’t pressed a cotton ball to it and topped it off with a Band-Aid the way nurses used to when he was human.
He looked at his open door.
Reaching over, he slowly closed it, feeling the full weight of it in a way he hadn’t before.
The moment it latched, silence engulfed him.
Oh shit.
He couldn’t hear anything save his own heartbeat thudding in his ears. He might