Page 19 of Born Chaos

I walk back into my bedroom and get ready for the night, with the thought of a date in the back of my mind.

“So,do you have a normal, full-time job, or is a once-a-month meeting it for you?” I ask one week later as Rick and I walk side by side toward the hospital. He’d walked out of his building just as I walked out of my own. When we realized we were headed the same direction, I asked him to walk with me.

“I do occasional private security,” he offers. “I even worked for the Godfreys for a short while.”

“Really?” I ask, surprised. “How come you didn’t stay with them?”

“Because when Sebastian joined the Night Council, he asked me to be his security. I’d found myself in front of the L one night. I staggered into his hospital. He saved my life, and we stayed in touch afterward.”

That almost sounds like a friend, and it doesn’t feel like Sebastian has any of those.

“How long ago was that?” I ask as we cross the street. The wind is blowing like the devil, and I’m starting to curse winter.

“Before Elena and Mason took over for their parents,” Rick says. “I worked for their father. He was a good man. His death was tragic.”

I don’t know many details about my best friend’s parents. Elena might be open with me about most things, but not them.

We stop at the doors to the hospital. “Are you on your way to a job now?”

He nods. “And I better get going, or I’ll be late.”

“Good to see you again, Rick,” I say, offering a smile. As he waves and walks away, I know I mean it. There’s something easy and calming about the giant who looks so intimidating.

I walk into the hospital, heading for the locker room to get changed.

Sebastian spent the day on the couch. And just as night fell, he kissed my forehead, telling me he had to go in early once more. But he’d said there were only a few days in this review left, and then he’d be free to go back to wedding planning. Back to rebuilding us.

I know something is wrong as soon as I walk through the doors into the emergency room. There’s a weight in the air, the kind that only comes after a battle is lost.

“That’s two in one day,” a familiar voice says, Diana, the night shift nurse. “Dr. Vincent… something is wrong.”

“I know,” I hear him huff, and just then, I walk into the room to find him standing with his hands on his hips. He stares at the bed with furrowed brows.

A woman lays there, quiet, still, only the sounds of the machines keeping her alive causing a stir.

From the smell of her, I instantly know she’s one of us.

“Another?” I ask, my stomach feeling sick.

Sebastian nods. “And there was another during the day shift. Exact same symptoms as the first one. Cough, spiking fever, seizures. And then the coma.”

“I haven’t heard anything from Sigrid,” I say as I walk to the bedside, looking at the woman who could almost be sleeping if it weren’t for the equipment hooked up to her. “I don’t even want to consider the thought that this is a gifted. We just barely got rid of Archer. Chicago isn’t ready for another psycho just yet.”

“The idea of someone poisoning vampires is almost worse,” Diana says, raising her eyebrows. “I’ve been the exact same for over fifty years, and nothing has taken me out. Now there’s some invisible disease spreading among us? Once you’ve been invincible for a long time, it’s a little terrifying to learn you were wrong.”

She places a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze before she walks out to continue her duties.

“What do you think?” Sebastian asks as he steps to my side, looking down at our newest coma patient. The first is still residing in a private room in the ICU.

I shake my head. “My training wants to treat them as a human, but I know it’s not some everyday disease. And there’s still nothing on any of the tests?”

“No,” Sebastian reports.

“Which makes me think it’s the work of a gifted,” I say with a sigh. I’m still exhausted from the last round. Am I ready to track down another greedy, selfish, masochist?

“That’s my worry, too,” Sebastian says. “I think we need to call a Council meeting. As soon as possible.”

I simply nod.

---