Luke (Bear Shifter) (New World Shifters) (25 page)

We drove in silence. Well, not really. Neither Lupe nor said another word, but the fury of the blizzard outside beat against the car as if the wind was made of fists. I heard the snow turn into something harder again, sleet or even hail before dying away again.

I couldn't imagine that the roads were as twisting as Lupe was making them, which meant that she was no doubt weaving her way around snowdrifts and possibly even stranded vehicles. Now and then there was the thump as we blasted through a pile of snow, and once or twice there was the grind of something harder. A chunk of ice perhaps, or a slab of some other windblown debris.

“We're okay, we're okay,” Lupe was saying under her breath now, over and over, a little mantra to make either she or me or both of us believe. We'd only been driving for a few minutes, but I felt like the blizzard was ready to knock us over already.

“In three hundred feet, turn right. Then the destination is on your left,” said the GPS lady, oblivious to the fact that it felt like we were driving through downtown Beirut.

“Almost there, at least,” I said. I tried not to feel bad for making Lupe do this, but there was no way I would have made it without her. A taxi driver would have never gone out in this. I'd have been stranded back at the airport, blind and alone.

She took the right as directed, and then gunned the engine. The Land Cruiser slammed through something that was less forgiving than she’d probably hoped, but not as solid as another car. “Snowbank?”

“I guess you could call it that,” Lupe responded tersely. She’d been deep in concentration, and I hadn’t wanted to distract her. “It was blocking the road. It isn't anymore.”

“Well, that'll teach it to be in your way.”

“Sure will.” I heard her suck in air, and I instinctively braced for an impact that didn't come. “Sorry,” she said. Lupe turned the car left, and then brought it to a skidding halt. “Shit. I don’t like the looks of this.”

“What’s wrong?”

“We’re in front of the hospital and there are police cars everywhere. Six or seven of them at least, all State Troopers. The cops are milling around, asking people questions and shining flashlights in their faces. If I didn't know any better, I'd say there's been an escape or something…”

Darius!
Someone had either taken him or he'd woken up and fled on his own. “Please,” I begged. “You have to get me in there. We have to go and see if Darius is okay.”

“Okay, but just hold your horses for a second. Let me work out how we’re going to do this…”

It took an effort, but I shut my mouth. I wasn't going to be able to help Darius if I couldn’t get inside, and I wasn't going to be able to get inside without Lupe’s help.

“Okay,” she said at last, and I felt the car move forward again and then stop. There was a grinding of the parking brake as she put in place, and then I felt her shift the gears to neutral.

She didn't turn the engine off.

“Grace, you’re not going to like this, but I’m going to leave you in the car for a couple of minutes. It’s too weird out there for us to risk it together, and if they really are looking for someone that got away, we can't take the chance that they think it’s you.”

“Because I look like a patient,” I said sadly.

“Well, to put it bluntly, yes. I mean we both look like crazy people, since neither one of us is dressed for this weather. We hardly know where we are, and I don't think that you being here to see a long-lost friend is going to stand up to very stringent questioning by the cops. They look antsy, and I don't particularly feel like getting a gun pulled on me and getting dragged into some strange police station before having to spend the night in jail.”

“What’s the plan, then?”

Lupe sighed. “I'll go to the front desk and I'll see if I can find this Sasha person. You just wait here for me to come back, okay?”

I knew she was right. It was the only way that made sense, but that didn't make it any easier. “Okay. But just be quick, all right?”

“Trust me, I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“You may as well take the keys,” I said. “I'm certainly not going anywhere without you anytime soon.”

“You’re going to need them in the ignition so that you can leave the heater on,” she scolded gently. “Remember all that stuff about freezing your ass off and being a popsicle on the side of the road? Well, with the way the storm looks now, that’s a very real possibility. Start honking the horn if something goes wrong. The cops will come over, but at least they’ll be of some use then.”

“Okay. And Lupe?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“Always.”

I heard her get out and close the door hard behind her, and then there was nothing to do but listen to the wind try to push its way in around the seams of the car as I bit my nails and worried that this last delay would be one too many. Darius was in there, and I was out here.

That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

It turns out that I didn't have to wait very long. Three or four minutes later I heard the sound of hurried footsteps crunching through the snow, and a moment later someone wrenched open the driver's side door of our rented four-wheel drive and hopped in behind the wheel.

“It's me,” Lupe said, out of breath but still not wanting to scare me. “And I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

“It's Darius,” I said, a sinking feeling weighing crushing my heart. “That's who they’re looking for, isn't it? He's gone, and now we’ll never be able to find him.”

“No. The good news is that he's in room 301. At least they say he is, and by ‘they’ I mean the receptionist. She has her hands full in there. There are at least twice as many cops inside as there are out. That doctor you wanted me to look for? Her name was Sasha, right?”

“Yeah. I don't know her last name though.”

“Doesn't matter,” Lupe said. “There’s only one Dr. Sasha. I checked. Anyway, she's been kidnapped. That’s the bad news.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently some crazy patient grabbed her and made a break for it. A lunatic named Brand, though that's the craziest fucking name I’ve heard in a while. He took her not all that long ago. Nobody knows where they went, and with the storm closing in like this it's going to be one hell of a task trying to find them. They’ll probably turn up in the morning, frozen to the ground.”

“And the cops told you all this?”

“Them and the receptionist. I got stopped by a State Trooper on the way back to you. Really aggressive guy, too. A dickhead, if you ask me. The way he made it sound, Sasha wasn't kidnapped at all. According to him, she helped Brand escape. I guess he’s some sort of prisoner or something, and Sasha has been looking after him. Anyway, he didn't seem to think she was some innocent victim.”

I didn't know what to say to all that. I didn't really know Sasha at all, other than a name on a text message sent by Rachel. And I certainly didn't know who this Brand person was. The only thing I could really concentrate on was the only person I could help.
Darius
.

“Anyway,” Lupe continued, “they're clearing the hospital of all nonessential staff. Some bullshit about it being a crime scene now. The receptionist is a cool chick though. She can't really cover for us both, but Sasha left her a note making it clear that you were supposed to get in to see Darius. She’ll make it happen. If the cops stop you, just tell them you’re a patient here. They’ll believe it. Why else would you be dressed like that? They'll let you back inside. Even their not stupid enough to try and force a blind girl to stay out in a blizzard like this. You’ll make it okay. Once you get out of the car, you'll find the sidewalk. Follow it around to the left and you’ll hit the main doors. I think room 301 is on the right.”

“What about you?”

“I'll be fine. I'll wait here for as long as I can, but I have a feeling that the cops will chase me off pretty soon. Either that, or try to arrest me for loitering or something silly. When I get a chance, I’ll go try and find us a both hotel room. Call me when you need me, and I'll come back and get you. Sound good?”

I nodded. “It does.” I put my hand on the door handle, and then turned back to her. “Get to the sidewalk, turn left and go in the building, turn right and look for room 301?”

“Pretty much. But remember to be careful.”

“I will. Don't wait for me too long. I've got a good feeling about this. I'll find Darius and I'll stay with him.”

“You do that,” Lupe said. “And even if I'm not sitting in the car, I won’t be far away.”

I reached out for her, and I felt her lean forward in the seat and wrap her arms around me. I held her tight. She was one last part of my old life, and I felt more and more like I was saying goodbye to it all.

“Hurry up now,” she said, and I thought I heard the hiccup of her voice as she began to cry. “It's cold out there. No sense in freezing your ass off on the way in.”

“Goodbye,” I said.

“Bye honey.”

I opened the door and let myself slide out of the rented truck. The snow was deep, but I waded through it as carefully as I could until my foot struck the curb and I stepped up onto the sidewalk.

The wind cut through me like a polished blade. No matter how hard I hugged myself, every ounce of heat in my body was gone immediately. I turned left, and realized that I was severely out of my element. It was hard to feel the sidewalk beneath snow, and as I crunched along I had visions of myself wandering into traffic, or worse, plunging down some ravine that I was certain they would never have built a hospital next to.

But your mind plays tricks on you when all you have is imagination. I heard the engines of the police cars and a few of the cops talking to each other, which told me I was on the right track. I tried to walk with a little more confidence, doing my best to look like I belonged here. If they stop me, I’d have to do what Lupe had said and tell them I was a patient. If there were any more follow-up questions though, I was going to be out of luck.

As if summoned by my thoughts, I heard someone approach. His radio crackled angrily as it called out the usual traffic alerts and call signs went back and forth between the officers. I held my breath and kept walking, sure that I was about to get nabbed.

“Hey Brody,” one of them called out, and I heard the man nearest me stopped in his tracks.

“What?”

“Chief says he thinks he knows where that bitch went. Stop screwing around with that blind girl and hop in the car.”

Brody grumbled something, but I heard him turn around and walk away. That was all the motivation I needed to quicken my pace, my hands held out in front of myself as I felt for the doors like some sort of frail Frankenstein.

Adam
, that annoying voice that lived in my head and told me.
The monster was called Adam. The doctor’s name was Frankenstein
.

I shook my head, not caring for the trivia facts that bounced around in there at the worst possible moments as my palms hit the glass of the sliding door. It opened automatically, whisking away so that I could step inside.

I'd been hoping it would be quiet in here, but it was far from that. Everywhere there was a commotion of men talking, and the man that had ordered Brody to the car was on the radio now, telling the other officers that they had a lead. I shrunk against the wall as most of them hurried past me. Thankfully, I found a hallway to the right and went down it before anyone could ask me where I was going.

Room 301… How on earth was I going to find that?

But I was being stupid, and I knew it. Instead of panicking, I needed to just open my mind and relax. I was in a hospital. I wouldn't be the only blind person to have ever been within these walls. They’d have braille on the signs, and if I could just remember enough of that stupid book that I was supposed to have studied, I'd be able to find the right room.

I reached out and found the first sign. It took me a while, but eventually the memories came flooding back. Reading braille letters was incredibly hard for me, but the numbers weren't that difficult.

300
.

My heartbeat quickened, though I smiled to myself. More than likely the next-door over or the one across the hall was the one I was looking for. I tried across the way first, quickly finding the sign and translating the braille into numbers.

301
.

Probably for the first time in my life and
certainly
for the first time in the last six months, I didn't even hesitate as I made a decision. I found the doorknob and practically tore it off the door as I yanked it open. I didn't think there was any harm in making noise now. After all, I was hardly going to wake Darius up by making a ruckus…

Blind or not, I hurried into the room, and it was like coming home. I couldn't see how the furniture was laid out, or the placement of the machinery that I could hear humming away in the room, but it didn't matter. Somehow I knew where it was anyway.

More important still, I knew were Darius was. I could feel his presence, the warmth of his aura. I could sense the power of him as he lay on the bed, and even though he was hibernating or in a coma or whatever the doctors would want to call it, he brought a weight and power to the room that you simply couldn't deny.

I went to him, reaching out for him with my hand and finding his as I slid into a chair that may as well have been meant for me. Exhausted and relieved in equal measure, I leaned forward and pressed my face to his chest, and then ran my hands across his face and held him close.

There weren’t words to express the feelings that were running through me, so I didn't bother to try. This man meant everything to me, and I could finally feel the slow thud of his heart and the steady rumble of his breathing.

But now that I was here, now that I'd crossed several states and pushed through a blizzard to be by his side, all I could do was hold his hand and hope that he knew I was with him.

I lay my head against his arm and squeezed his hand with mine. Everything that had happened washed over me, and for a moment, just before my eyes closed and I felt the inexorable pull of sleep drag me down like a drowning swimmer, it felt like his hand tightened around my wrist as if to give me a gentle, reassuring squeeze.