The Castle of Gold [Bk 2]

ch.33 The Golden State

I was confused. I could see flashes of Harry and Nick and the gold of the sunset. I could hear muffles of their voices shouting. Especially Harry’s deep rasp close to my ear, reassuring me that I would be ok and that Nick was going to pay with his blood.

I almost wanted to laugh. Blood. I see blood every month. Vampires drink blood. What’s the big deal?

This is it for me anyway. I wasn’t supposed to live for a single day, but I had lived plenty. I had lived 18 years and it was more than what I deserved.

“Baby, keep your eyes open” Harry commanded softly. Baby. I had a baby, Harry’s baby, but she was leaving before she ever came.

I nodded slowly.

Harry scooped me up in his arms and held me tightly to his chest.

I grasped a bit of his jacket with my shaking fingers.

“I’m- I’m sorry” Nick started to apologize, but Harry cut him off with a violent shout that made me tremble a bit more.

“If you don’t shut up and help me save her, so help me God I will beat your brains and bury you next your damn brother!” Harry growled with pure fury.

Nick’s eyes darted from me to his car.

“I won’t press charges!” Harry shouted.

Nick nodded and started up his car.

The engine didn’t grumble to life and I thought about all the little things that were alive, but you never thought about them because you were alive. But I’m in not. I don’t know what I am right now, but it’s some kind of semi-conscious, half-living state: the Golden state.

He held me in his arms and we were in an unfamiliar car. I looked over carefully and saw Nick at the wheel.

His hands were shaking slightly and he was shaking his head solemnly.

“DRIVE FASTER!” Harry bellowed.

I trembled slightly. His Adam’s apple was close to my ear and I felt it vibrate.  

I looked at Harry’s shoulders and collar. His jugular vein bulged and looked like a thick snake was slithering under his skin. My gaze followed up his neck and gritted jaw. His marble eyes looked straight on, as if they could blaze a faster path to the hospital.

I watched his chest heaving and breath erratic and shifty, like he was ready to jump out the car and un with me if need be.

Harry kept his hand at my stomach, pressing carefully at the ever-bleeding wound with his warm, steady hands. 

“You’re going to be ok, Angie” he told me softly. He kissed my cheek over and over, as if that might keep the life in me. 

I nodded, but I knew he was lying.

He knew I was dying, if not moments from death and lying to me in these crucial last moments of my life was not helping. I wanted the truth in its ugliest form. I wanted the blue-black truth. 

***

"What's our story?" Nick asked cautiously as he rounded the final corner to the hospital.

"You were hunting a doe out of season. But you hit Angela" Harry recited as if from memory.

"By accident" Harry added through gritted teeth.

Nick looked at him and nodded slowly.

We must have been inside the hospital because I heard shrieks of pain, the cry of newborns, and the stench of anesthesia.