Page 84 of Sundowners
“I’m going to say this one time and then I’m just going to ignore you. There is noIin you and me. Now you’re going to shower and eat. Then sleep.” I closed the door, needing space from him before I exploded.
“He okay?” Rey asked as I plopped down at the table.
“No, he’s really not. But what is okay, even? After what he’s been through?” The smell of the burgers hit me, and I devoured mine in three bites before Rey could even get his out of the wrapper.
“The thing is, it’s not that weird, when you think about it.” Rey sat there chewing, looking off into the distance.
“What do you mean?”
“The whole blood and energy thing. Like, when he explained the thing about chasing down a perp, he kinda made sense.” He took another bite and did the whole thoughtful chewing again. “I don’t know. The blood thing is weird though. When I walked in and saw that…” He shuddered.
“What exactly did you see? What happened?”
Rey exhaled. “Lexi texted me when he got there, and I was nearby. I jammed over and she told me where to find him. I opened the door and…he was kneeling next to the bed, next to the old man. And he, uh…he’d…”
“He what?”
“He saw me bite him. Mr. Fletcher. On the wrist.”
I turned to find Creed in a towel standing there with his hands on his hips. He wasn’t much more than skin and bones, and he was covered with vicious scratches.
I stood so fast, I knocked my chair over. “Creed—”
“If y’all don’t mind, I’d appreciate if I could…” Creed listed to the side and almost fell.
Rey got to him before I did. Rhonda trotted over and licked his face, but Creed only moaned.
“Take him to my room.”
“He needs a hospital, Roman. Look at him.”
“No, please,” he whispered. “Just need to lie down.”
Between the two of us, we got him into my bed and he fell asleep. Rhonda hopped up on the bed and curled against his back. She’d slept like that with me every night since he’d disappeared.
“You sure we shouldn’t—”
“Can you call Lexi? Ask her to come check his vitals?”
“Yeah, let me call her.”
I sat next to Creed on the bed, watching him sleep, hating the shadows on his face. I brushed his hair back from his cheeks, noting how sharp they were.
If I was to believe him, to fully accept him, I had to also accept that he was somewhere in his seventies, that he’d been in a commune back in the nineteen-seventies, and that he’s stayed young by manipulating energy and drinking blood. That somehow he’d been a part of a group similar to the one I’d studied, but that he was good, that he didn’t torture people, that he actively foughtagainstthat.
I had to believe he was inherently good…and that was the easiest thing to accept of all.
A while later, Lexi knocked softly on the door and she listened to his heart, took his blood pressure and pulse, and took his temperature. She gestured for me to follow her into the hallway.
“He looks terrible,” she said, “but his vitals seem okay. His blood pressure is low and his coloring doesn’t look good. He needs fluids and food, but he probably needs rest the most.”
I thanked her and, she thanked us for letting her know he was okay.
“He’s my best friend,” she said. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know.”
She went back out to talk to Rey, and I closed the door to my room. I stripped out of my clothes and put on my lounge pants to crawl in bed next to Creed.
