Page 54 of Born Wicked
“How long until we know if it’s working?” she asks, pulling her sleeve back down.
“Sebastian said about twenty-four hours,” I report as I put the needle into the sharps container. “The vampires should start waking up in an hour, though he said they won’t feel very good. Shit, speaking of…” I pull my phone out and shoot off a text to Dr. Roshan that I’m going to need him here in thirty minutes. I next message Echo that I need as much blood as she has available in thirty minutes as well, and she can bill the hospital.
“I’d really like you to stay on the premises for the next few hours,” I say as I look up at the clock on the wall. “Just to be safe. But I don’t think either of you should be in this room when they all start waking up. Do you mind making yourself comfortable in the emergency room until things settle down?”
“Not my first choice,” Sigrid says, her nose scrunching just a little in displeasure. “But I suppose it is a good idea.”
I nod, and the three of us head to the elevator.
“I recorded Sebastian’s call,” I tell them as we ride down to the main floor. “It’s the most obvious way I can think to get Roman released. But I think it means that we’re going to have to clue in Superintendent Day about everything that really goes on here.”
“Don’t love that idea,” Malcolm admits. “Jerry was easy to work with. This woman…. You really want to have her breathing down our necks if she knows the truth?”
“I don’t love it either,” I admit. “But I don’t see a logical way around it. She’s young, determined. I think we’re going to have to deal with her for a lot of years to come. Besides, I think the council can make her see that there are going to be some things in life she’s just going to have to let us deal with.”
That statement makes me sound and feel like a bully. But sometimes life isn’t so black and white.
“Hopefully, we can have a council meeting very shortly to discuss the possibility,” Sigrid says as the elevator opens, and we start down the hall.
I shake my head. “I think it’s going to be sooner. Like, today, so I can get Roman out of jail. The things that were said in the conversation between Sebastian and I… There’s not much getting around it. It’s the only evidence I have to get Roman released. So…”
“So, the decision is made for us,” Sigrid says evenly. “I do believe this is the conclusion the Council would have eventually ended up at.”
“Guess we can have a condensed meeting right now,” I say as we push through the doors to the emergency room wing. I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Mason.
“Can you come to the hospital right now?” I ask as soon as he answers.
“What’s wrong?” he asks. This is how way too many of my requests are answered.
“Can you come?” I repeat.
“Be there in three minutes.”
Ah. The nighttime is so accommodating. There is no possible way to get from there to here in three minutes, except at vampire speed when no one can watch.
I find an available room and usher Sigrid and Malcolm inside. I have a brief but enthusiastic conversation with Diana about what I hope is going to happen shortly. She is, understandably, completely shocked and totally elated.
By the time I’m finished explaining, Mason walks into the room, and I get to start all over again.
“You’re serious?” he asks when I’ve gotten through the first part. “Elena is going to wake up in an hour?”
“In about fifteen minutes, actually, if Sebastian is right,” I say, glancing at the clock. “But yes.”
He blinks three times, his hands coming to cover his mouth. I watch the sun dawn in his eyes. I see something ease in them. This is something I’ll never have. The love for a sibling. This kind of lifelong bond.
“But the other reason I called you is that we all need to make a decision,” I say. I pull my phone out and press play on my recording.
“Shit,” Mason says as soon as he hears Sebastian’s voice. “He called?”
I nod. “Told me where the antidotes were. But this is our proof for Superintendent Day that Sebastian isn’t dead, and is alive and well. It’s how we get Roman released.”
But Mason hears the words being said in that conversation. His eyes darken, the set of his lips thinning out.
“I think we have to tell Superintendent Day about what’s really going on in this city,” I say. My stomach tightens with nerves. “I don’t see any other way to get Roman out.”
Mason holds my gaze, and I can see the gears turning in his head. This isn’t a decision to be made lightly. It could make our lives infinitely harder. But an innocent man, one of our own, is locked up. How long has it been since Roman last drank? How long until he has to drink again, and his only options will be his fellow inmates?
“It’s going to have to happen eventually,” Mason finally answers. He stands just a little straighter, and his confidence is just one of the many things that drew me to him. “Jerry was clued in for years. We can’t always give explanations that will make sense to any other human. I think we need to go as a council and tell her what’s really going on.”