In the mirror hanging across the room, I could see a huge bandage covered my forehead. That must have been where I’d gotten struck by the rock. Where was my cell phone? I guessed it didn’t matter. Archie didn’t want me looking at it for a few days.
The tiniest noise had me looking at my windows a second before it swung open. Tanner stuck his head in and stared at me. “Good. You’re up.”
He hopped in, and I sat up, glad that doing so no longer made me want to puke. “Tanner? Isn’t this floor high up?” It looked like it, based on the view out the window from my bed.
With a shrug, he closed the window. “Heights don’t bother me, and I’m a good climber.” He swung his backpack off and set it down. “I couldn’t leave you here alone. Archie’s home for the night. I saw him arrive. The nurses won’t send me home or rat me out. They’re too anxious for the change. Not only are you hurt, but it’s almost not your birthday anymore. I can’t let you do that alone. So, yeah, I’m staying.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Do the others know you came? That you were going to scale a wall?”
“No. They’re sleeping…badly. Caesar is prowling around the hallways. Can’t sleep at all. The others are trying. If they noticed I left the room, they probably figure I’m with Caesar. I don’t care what they think right now. Love those guys, but I want to be with you, so I’m going to be.”
He opened his bag and pulled out a plastic container. Seconds later, he removed a cupcake. “We baked earlier, before we started to sense something was wrong. We all knew. Ace found you, but we were all looking. I’m just relieved it didn’t take too long once we came looking. I wish we’d trusted the feeling and left earlier. I’m sorry, Maci. This is all really new to us.”
I understood the feeling. “Why is it happening?”
“I don’t know. None of us do, not even Griff, and he thinks he knows everything. I don’t really care. I like it.” Another dig into the bag came out with a candle, which he quickly lit with a lighter. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
Tanner sat on the edge of the bed. I gripped on to his arm. “Tanner.” I could hardly speak, emotion clogging my throat. “This is incredible. One of the nicest things ever done for me. I mean…” A tear leaked out of my eye. “I’m sorry. I can’t adequately express.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “Blow out your candle. You need to make a wish.”
I did as he asked, wishing beyond anything in the universe that they didn’t have to go through their pain, that they didn’t have to be vampires. That they could stay these guys.
I raised my eyes to meet his gaze. “Thank you.”
“You’re my girl. All of ours. But right this second, you’re mine, because we’re alone. I have so little time to spoil you.” He lifted the cupcake. “Want to eat it?”
“No.” I smiled. “My stomach isn’t great yet.” It might be whatever they were pumping in my IV, but I had no intention of eating just yet.
He set it down. “Let me know if you get hungry. Tell me your injuries. You look better, but it would be hard for you to look too much worse. I don’t ever want to see anything like that again on you. I thought… Never mind. Just so glad you’re sitting up looking like this.”
“They thought I had a lot of things broken, but nothing was. It was weird. Like as the hours passed, I seemed to get better in ways they didn’t anticipate. I guess I was just really lucky. Anyway, my head is really concussed, but otherwise, I’m strangely sound.”
He nodded. “Such a relief. Would it hurt you if I scooted in next to you, just to hold you? Make my heart rate slow down, feeling you in my arms, I think.”
I scooted over. “Yes, come on, but I think I smell bad. They cleaned me up, but I need to shower, and I’m not allowed yet.”
“You don’t smell bad, and even if you did, I promise you I wouldn’t care.” He smiled, sitting down before he stretched out next to me. The nurses had turned the lights down for me so I could sleep. It wasn’t totally dark, but it was better than nothing. My arm ached from the IV, but it was hydrating me, and maybe they had some sort of magic feel-good things in it. I really didn’t know.
Tanner smelled fantastic. He must have showered, because his soap, which had a hint of sandalwood in it, was right on the surface. I nestled down against him and only winced for a second at my head pounding. It eased just a little bit and then cooled. Yes, Tanner was exactly what I needed right then.
“I thought I might read to you. How does that sound? I know you can’t watch anything, but I could read to you.” He shifted a little, so I was on top of his chest. “How does that sound?”
I loved the idea. “Please.”
He picked a book out of his bag. I didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t tell me. It took me a second to realize what it was. If my head weren’t pounding, I’d probably start quoting as he read. I loved that book. Tanner was a music loving, voice of an angel, Gatsby reading guy, and all he wanted to do right then was to hold me.
I closed my eyes and let his voice lull me off to sleep, where my head wouldn’t hurt anymore.
“I told you he was here.” Griffin’s voice filled the room. “I told you this was where he was. Tanner, brother, when did you get here? How early did you get up?”
Next to me, Tanner shifted. I opened my eyes. We hadn’t moved since he’d started reading. Maybe the nurses had come in? I had a new IV bag, but I hadn’t even woken when they’d changed that out. The book was on the table next to him, and otherwise, Tanner had held me all night.
“I got here about eleven o’clock, right before her birthday was over. What are you all doing here before eight?” His voice was scratchy. He’d just woken up too. “And why come in like you’re pounding on things with noise?”
I pointed at the window. “He came through the window.”
“Ooh.” Ace laughed. “He’s back to climbing. I haven’t seen you scale a building in years.”
“Well…” Tanner put his head on top of mine. “The motivation was good.”
They all took seats around the room, Griffin abruptly stopping at the bedside table. “You brought her a cupcake.”
Some mildly funny bickering took place, but I sort of zoned out. My head was clear, but I still wasn’t right. This wasn’t a new feeling, though. Every so often, I felt this way, like I was just a little bit out of it for a day. Then it would pass. This time, I could call it part of the concussion symptoms, or I could acknowledge it was just that kind of day.
It didn’t seem to come around my period or anything I could chart. Just so strange.
Rowan touched my leg. “You okay?”
“I’m doing much better now, thanks for asking.”
“Good, Archie said we can bring you home, but you can’t go to school for a while. You need to rest, so they’re going to excuse you from your finals. It’s all taken care of. One of the benefits of being my father’s ward. Anyway, you’ll be home with us. We’ll be learning things so that they will be fresh on our minds when we wake up as vampires. The things we learn right before stay with us, so you can watch us do that.”