Pause.
After another moment, the vampire muttered under his breath and slipped in just as the sliders started to shut. And then the pair of them just stood side by side, watching the numbers count down over the double doors . . .
Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .
Like the countdown to an explosion.
; “Be careful, human. I’m not someone you want to push too hard.”
“And I’ve got nothing to lose.” Except for this big bastard’s sister. “Guess we’ll just have to see where this ends up.”
“You got that right.”
Payne was a grim block of ice as she stared at the clock by the door to her room. The circular face was as plain as the white wall behind it, marked by nothing but twelve black numbers separated by black lines. The hands of the thing, two black, one red, lolled their way around as if they were as bored with their job as she was with watching them work.
Vishous had to have gone to see their mother. Where else would he turn?
So this was a waste of time; for certain, he would come back with nothing. It was sheer arrogance to think that She Who Could Not Be Swayed would be affected in the slightest by the perils of her birthed children.
Mother of the race. What piffle—
Payne frowned. The sound started off as nothing save a dim rhythm, but it quickly grew louder. Footsteps. Heavy footsteps traveling over a hard floor at a fast clip, and there were two sets of them. Perhaps it was naught but her twin’s Brothers coming in for a check—
When the door swung open, all she could see was Vishous, standing so tall and uncompromising. “I brought you something.”
He didn’t so much step aside as he was pushed. . . .
“Dearest Scribe Virgin . . .” Payne mouthed as tears rushed to her eyes.
Her healer burst into the room, and oh, he was just as she had remembered . . . so broad at the chest and long of limb, with a flat stomach and a sharp jawline. His dark hair was sticking straight up, as if he had been running many fingers through it, and he was breathing hard, his mouth slightly parted.
“I knew you were real,” he blurted. “Goddamn it, I knew it!”
The sight of him rocketed through her, energy lighting her up from the inside and tripping her emotions into a free fall. “Healer,” she said hoarsely. “My healer . . .”
“Fucking hell,” she heard her brother say.
Her human spun around on Vishous. “Give us some privacy. Now—”
“Watch your fucking mouth—”
“I’m her doctor. You brought me here to assess her clinically—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
There was a pause. “Then why the fuck am I here?”
“For precisely the reason I hate you!”
That ushered in a lot of silence—along with a sob on her part. She was just so glad to see her healer in his strength and his flesh. And her single sniffle whipped both their heads around, her healer’s face changing instantly, going from flat-out fury to driving concern.
“Shut the door behind you,” he barked over his shoulder as he came to her.
Passing her hands across her eyes, she cleared her tears and looked past her healer as he sat on the side of her bed. Vishous had turned away and was going for the exit.
He knew, she thought. More than anything their mother could have done for her, he had brought her the one thing guaranteed to make her want to live.