DIMITRI"Sign here too, sir," said the nurse to Silas.She pointed at the dotted lines on the document she was holding out to Silas. Silas signed there and in two more places before the nurse stepped back."Thank you. That's all." She turned to me. "Mr Dimitri, you are free to go home now."I nodded my thanks and started to move towards the hospital's exit. I noticed Silas's pursed lips. He looked disapproving, but said nothing."What's the matter? Did you want me to have a long vacation at the hospital?" I joked.He held open the car door for me, waited until I had eased myself in before going on to the driver's side."I don't want anything of the sort," he said seriously as he drove out of the hospital grounds and eased into traffic. "But I wonder why you feel it's okay to leave the hospital when Valeria is still in there, thinking she will find you in bed when she wakes up. Yesterday, she was so worried about you. Don't you think it's fair to remain by her side at this time, or at
VALERIAA surgery. Undergone in less than a week all just because of a scar! I quirked a brow. Dimitri certainly had so much money to order a surgery done at the snap of his fingers, but I had the nagging feeling that something about his explanation didn't seem quite right.He had right tone of sincerity when he had been explaining why he had left me at the hospital. His expression had fit in with his explanation. It had been earnest, a little guilty and a tiny bit embarrassed. And then there was the incontrovertible evidence of me seeing and touching the smooth, white skin of his arm which had regained the perfection of the other parts of his body I was so intimate with.So why did it feel that I was missing something, that his explanation of events wasn't quite right? With some effort, I threw off my apprehensive mood and smiled at him."You really didn't have to go through all that trouble," I said. "You're-""I am?" Dimitri tilted his head to the side and regarded me, almost but n
VALERIA"Huh?" Noah pushed his drink aside to frown at me in puzzlement. "What was that you were saying?"I sucked in a breath, fiddled with the straw on my cocktail. I knew I had sounded ridiculous, but I just had to tell someone about this thing that was eating me up."Valeria?" he prompted."I said... have you ever heard of a condition where someone heals very fast? I mean, like abnormally fast. Like- like you have a noticeable scar, and within hours it disappears."Noah's frown deepened with every word I said. Realizing I was rambling, I shut my mouth."That was what I heard," he said slowly. "But I thought I was wrong. Healing from wounds really fast... that sounds like... something out of movie." He suddenly pinned me with his stare. "Or is there something more to this er- question of yours?"I decided then that there was nothing for it but to tell him. I had even decided to tell him before I went out with him for dinner, but it was just that what I wanted to say was difficult t
VALERIAI paced my room until my feet ached but I could not stop. My heartbeat was out of control. My mind was overloaded with two many emotions all at once, too many thoughts that felt like they would split my head open. I clapped my hands of either side of my head and groaned. I passed my bedroom mirror, caught sight of my reflection and came to an abrupt stop.I looked... deranged, or like someone who had suffered a tremendous shock, which I had. My hair was tangled, lying every which way. My eyes were wide with shock and terror."Not the eyes. Not the eyes." My voice was low, a panicked whisper.The thought of eyes made me remember in stark detail another pair of dilating eyes which changed from black human eyes to something reddish and bestial. I shuddered, vigorously shook my head from side to side. I couldn't dwell on that else I would go mad. I felt like I was going mad already. I immediately looked away from my eyes in the mirror and studied the rest of me. My shaky hand was
DIMITRII was up at the crack of dawn. I rolled out of bed with a grimace. My night's sleep had been far from restful. My run in the woods had helped ease my mind, but not much. There was still a lot of nervous energy pent-up in me. I wanted to be at the forefront of a battle. I wanted to just... do something. But for now, there was nothing I could do. I just had to wait until the assholes leaving destruction in their wake showed their ugly faces.But damn! Waiting was so hard. The attacks across various packs were spreading now. Hardly each day passed without Silas informing me of more attacks. They were even increasing in intensity. It sure looked like whoever was behind this wanted to slowly spread fear among the packs that had as yet not been attacked.I shook my head to clear it as I padded barefoot into the bathroom. It was a new day. I had a whole lot of things to do, so I couldn't dwell on that now. After I had shaved and showered, I felt much better. The scalding water had he
DIMITRI All thoughts of Summer and her family were pushed out of my mind as I eased my car into the evening traffic. I thought only of Valeria. She wouldn't be happy about us withholding the announcement about the broken engagement for a while, but I was sure she would see understand when I explained the reason behind my decision. And then there was also the fact of Valeria's ill health. I hoped she was better now, or at least had the presence of mind to take care of herself if she was not since she had been to the hospital after all. But what if she hadn't? My hand began to inch toward my phone, but I stopped myself from calling her since I was almost home. It was late and she would have returned from the hospital by now. I would see her face to face and confirm that she was okay with my own eyes. To my amazement, Valeria wasn't at home when I got there."What do you mean she's not at home?" I asked Amelia who had told me this l. "Did she return and then leave again?"Amelia sho
VALERIA"Here. Take this." Ivy handed me the cup of tea and sat beside me. "How do you feel?"I sipped tea and seriously considered her question. I actually felt better... in some ways. Being away from anything that reminded me of Dimitri had helped a lot. I was no longer in the grip of the bone-chilling terror of the day before, though I supposed I would never really be able to entirely get rid of the fear.So I smiled at Ivy and said brightly, "I'm feeling much, much better."She didn't look as though she entirely believed me, but she nodded and did not press the issue. That was one of the things I loved about Ivy. At times- not all the time- she had the knack of knowing just when to offer comfort without probing too much into the reason why I was distressed. Last night, I had just showed and expressed my wish to sleep over and she hadn't questioned me much, for which I was grateful.Now, she leaned over and patted my arm. "You know you can tell me anything that's going on with you.
DIMITRIDammit! I had thought the meeting would never end. I still could not believe that I had sat through more than an hour of listening to my client's representative drone on and on about a partnership we were about to undertake. The annoying thing was no actual strategy had been discussed. If it had, that would have at least made things at least more bearable. It was the fact that the client in question was one of our most loyal, and the meeting had been planned weeks before hand, that had kept me there.And so I had sat there, thinking, half out of my mind with worry about Valeria and thoughts of what the hell had gone on in our relationship. Just when I had thought I would loose it, snap and maybe punch the man droning in the mouth, the meeting had finally, mercifully come to an end. I sank into my chair, closed my eyes to take a breather. The door creaked open."Give me five minutes," I said without opening my eyes."Hey, handsome. I don't think you'll want to wait five minutes