Page 88 of Grave Curse

“I can’t wait to beat the shit out of you.”

Since there was no heat in his words, I chuckled and pushed to my feet. Ginger was probably waiting for me outside, so I needed to wrap things up. “Got any plans once you get sprung from this joint?”

“Well, now that I’m a soon-to-be-millionaire, I’m thinking I’ll head out to all those plastic surgeons in California to see what they can do for my face. And then I might head back home to Texas to see what kind of trouble I can find there.”

Considering he was a Colgrave, the trouble would probably find him. “I’ve got a feeling you won’t have to work too hard on that.”

“What about you? The war’s over now. What are you going to do?”

Instantly my thoughts homed in on Ginger. “I think I’m going to get married. How’s that for crazy?”

“I think you’d be crazy not to. While I was lying there slowly bleeding out, all I could do was watch Pirahna approach Ginger. Jesus, I’ve never felt so fucking helpless in my life. And then… something happened.”

“What?” I prodded when he paused.

“I don’t know, man, maybe it was all the blood loss, but… I swear, it was like Ginger wasglowing. Right before she killedthat crazy fucker, it was as though the gods looked down at her, liked what they saw, and for just a second they made her a… a goddess, or something. I know that sounds nuts—”

“No, it doesn’t.” I couldn’t explain how Ginger had needed to view herself as a pretend-goddess just to survive her childhood, because in my mind she’d achieved full-blown goddess status a long time ago. I opened my mouth to tell him what he’d seen was accurate when my text chime went off, and when I looked down at Ginger’s text, my blood ran cold.

“Don’t freak out, but I’ve been admitted to the ER down on the first floor. I’m fine, but please come and hold my hand.”

I ran out the door with Red Flag yelling in alarm after me.

*

Ginger

“I mean, if you’re going to pass out, I suppose a hospital cafeteria is as good a place as any.” Glumly I stared at the vials of blood being taken from me. “But I’ll be honest. I’m seriously wishing I’d done this in the comfort of my own home so no one would have freaked out and carted me off to the ER.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I feel fine now. Really.”

“Mm-hm.” The tech wrote something on the vials, then went to fill another vial with my blood.Oh my God, more?

“Just out of curiosity, is this really necessary? Because I’m feeling it’s not necessary.”

“We hear that a lot.” A sturdy-looking nurse of Asian descent, wearing navy blue scrubs and a no-nonsense attitude joined the vampire tech in my curtained-off cubicle in the ER’s Triage room. “We have to find out why you fainted.”

“I still can’t believe I fainted.” Carefully I felt around the loose bandage that had been placed on a goose egg above my left eyebrow. “I can’t even figure out what I hit my head on when Ifainted. Maybe the coffee bar counter? Or maybe the wall? Ugh, this is so stupid, I don’t have time for this.”

“Too bad, that’s how it is when you faint in front of a bunch of Chicago’s finest medical personnel.” Clearly unbothered, the nurse reached for my wrist to take my pulse. “You have to understand, they see it as a challenge—who can figure out what your problem is first, and all that. They’re not going to let you go until you’ve been checked out in every possible way.”

“I could just walk out of here if I wanted to, though, right? Not that Tyr would let me do that… Oh, God.Tyr.” I gasped and yanked my wrist from the nurse’s hold. “Quick, tell me who is the most badass female nurse you have on the floor right now.”

She blinked. “I suppose that would be me.”

“Don’t suppose. I need a woman who has looked the meanest, most impossible patient in the eye and told them to stop screwing around and settle the hell down. Is that you, uh… Avis?” I asked, glancing at the ID hanging around her neck.

She drew herself up. “That’s me on a day ending in Y. Why are you asking?”

“Because I just texted my man that I’m down here in the ER, and I just realized he’s going to come tearing through here looking for me like a madman. He’s the leader of a biker gang, about six and a half feet tall and he’s chronically deaf when it comes to the word no, unless you’re a strong-willed woman who can plant yourself in his path, look him dead in the eye, and tell him to mind his damn manners. Can you do that, Avis?”

“Honey, I’m a nurse. You just sit back and watch how a pro handles tough guys around here.”

“His name is Tyr Colgrave, and he looks like a Viking, but he knows his place around strong women, because I trained him right,” I called after her. “You got this, Avis.”

Wide-eyed, the blood tech gathered up his things and took to his heels.

---