Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) Read Free Page A

said, standing over
him and shaking my head at the pathetic excuse for a man.
    He clutched his chest and stared at me
briefly, and then he seemed to remember where he was. But he was
still having trouble breathing, and that was scaring him, too.
    “Just calm down,” I said, kneeling next to
him and taking his hand. “Calm down, you big oaf, and relax. I’m
not going to eat you. Yet.”
    I patted his hand as he continued clutching
his chest. And then his lungs kicked into gear and he took a deep
breath, sucking in half the oxygen in the room.
    “Sorry,” he said weakly, as running footsteps
sounded in the hallway. “You scared me.”
    “Ya think?”
    I stood and pulled him up with me. Perhaps a
little too roughly. He flew up to his feet and seemed surprised as
hell to find himself standing.
    He looked around, mouth open. “Jesus, Sam.
You never cease to amaze me.”
    Just then a nurse rounded the doorway,
hitting the lights. She looked first at Anthony in his bed, and
then at us. She saw the toppled chair and our proximity.
    “It’s okay,” I said. “I just startled
Danny.”
    “I was sleeping,” he said, lamely. He shot me
a glance. “You know, nightmares.”
    The nurse studied us some more, then came
over to Anthony’s side and checked him out. Satisfied, she left,
although she looked back one more time as she exited.
    Danny studied me for a moment or two and
seemed like he wanted to say something. His hair was mussed and
there might have been a welt developing on the side of his head.
Whatever he wanted to say, I really didn’t want to hear it.
Instead, I looked over at Anthony, who had stirred a little during
the commotion. He almost appeared to be watching us, except his
eyes were still closed.
    “How is he?” I asked.
    “The same, I think. He woke up about an hour
ago and asked where he was. I told him he was still in the hospital
and that he would be going home soon.” Danny looked away. “And...he
shook his head and said he was sorry and that he loved me.” Danny
fought to control himself. “I asked him what he was sorry
about...and he said for...being a bad boy and for...leaving us. He
said he has to go but that everything will be okay.”
    “He said that?”
    Danny covered his face and nodded, words
briefly escaping him. After a few deep breaths, he tried again.
“Jesus, Sam, what the hell is he talking about?”
    “He was probably just dreaming.”
    “But he was awake. He was looking right at
me. And he didn’t look sick, either. He looked...peaceful. Good
God, he was even smiling.”
    “Calm down, Danny—”
    “But what’s happening, Sam? Is he dying? Does
he know that he’s going to die or something?”
    “Don’t talk like that.”
    Now Danny was shaking. Violently. He was
going into shock, or something close to shock. No doubt a thousand
different emotions and chemicals had been released into his
blood-stream. I reached for his shaking hands and this time he only
slightly recoiled.
    “I can’t lose him, Sam. I can’t. I don’t know
what I’ll do without him. He’s my baby boy. My little partner. He’s
everything to me, Sam. Everything. I’ll quit my job to spend more
time with him. I’ll do anything to have him back. Anything. Jesus,
we can’t lose him.”
    His words continued on, but they had turned
hysterical and incomprehensible. Before I realized what I was
doing, I pulled the big oaf into me and hugged him tight.
    But I did not share his tears. Not this
time.
    Unlike him, I knew there was hope.
    When Danny had cried himself out, holding
onto me a bit longer than I was comfortable, I showed him to the
door and told him to go home and get some rest and that everything
was going to be okay.
    He paused only briefly at the doorway,
checked his pockets automatically for his cell, wallet and keys,
then nodded once and slipped out of the doorway, wiping his
eyes.
    I briefly watched him go, then I turned back
to my sick son.
    Who would be sick no