Page 24 of The Midnight Order
My eyes can't look away. They're pinned to the scene before me as Tattoos licks the doctor's wound.
He whispers in the doctor's ear, and the doctor moans in response. "How am I supposed to get any work done now?"
Tattoos straightens, glaring at me.
"Vampires are real," I whisper.
"What good did all that do? When her testing is done, she won't get to keep the memory," Suit says.
Tattoos walks closer, his eyes never leaving mine. "She's different. I can feel it."
"Oh, fuck off. Don't raise anyone else’s hopes. You've said that before." Suit pushes off the wall and leans over the right side of my bed, coming nearly nose to nose with Tattoos.
I'm lying beneath two vampires about to go toe to toe, and I still have alcohol swirling in my veins. There's no way I'd survive the brush-up. Not to mention, I'm cuffed to the bed. There's no way I'd escape.
"Everyone needs to calm the fuck down," Stalker says, his tone exerting control over the situation when it had felt like it was slipping.
"You're not going to do anything about what he just did?" Suit argues.
I thought Suit was in charge, but I'm getting the idea that maybe I was wrong in that assumption.
"She understands now. Don't you, little lamb?" Stalker asks me, directing his eyes towards me. Their stare feels like a thousand-pound weight sitting on my chest.
"I do." I hate to admit it, but he wasn't going to let me do otherwise.
Stalker pushes off the wall, clapping Tattoos on the shoulder. "Take a walk."
"But I—” Tattoos tries to argue.
"That wasn't a suggestion," Suit cuts in, and I'm very confused by the dynamic.
I'm inwardly reeling at the revelation that they genuinely are vampires. Fear is radiating through my veins, and I can't calm the quake in my hands, so I wring them together on my lap, the itchy, starched nature of the blanket giving me an outlet.
"We're not going to hurt you," the doctor says, rolling his chair closer.
His hand curls over my arm, and the same alarm bells I had in town, shaking the man’s hand in the Radio Hut, return. Like a sharp, dark omen is seeping from his touch, warning me to run.
"Please, let me go. I won't tell anyone you took me."
My begging fails to garner sympathy from him, and he sighs, turning away. "This won't take long, and then you'll be home."
I'm left reeling for a while. The remaining three men gather in the corner and whisper-argue amongst themselves.
The adrenaline dump from realizing what they are, combined with heavy exhaustion, left me working to fight through to keep my eyes open.
Stalker leaves the room in a huff, and the doctor tells Suit he’ll be back soon. Then, I’m staring at one man, a vampire, as he hangs his head in what looks like defeat.
I watch him for a while as he grapples with something inward before stalking closer and taking a seat on the chair, rolling nearer and placing his hand on the bedside.
His fingertips nearly touch my hip. "I'm sorry about all this. It's difficult for us, too.”
"That doesn't comfort me if that's what you were going for."
"I was. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. That's not our goal."
While alone, this man looks... vulnerable. He looks tired.
"Then why do this at all?"
