Page 75 of Silver Claw

I shuddered. “God only knows. That poor kid.” And the thought of her lying there month after month with his fangs in her neck finally got me up. “I could feel him, see him, hear him. That’s why it was so hard on me. Mila couldn’t feel him. He was feeding from her, slowly. Sipping. He didn’t want her to die.”

Joe helped me stand, then slung my bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go home. You’ll need some food and rest.”

“I’m feeling stronger by the second,” I told him, relieved. “The pain is fading. I’m okay.”

But there was that lingering feeling inside me that something wasn’t right.

I shoved it away, straightened my spine, and left the room. “Joe,” I said as we headed downstairs. “That ghost. He was a vampire.” The words sounded wrong, though they were true.“He’d been staked. Someone gave him his true death, only…he didn’t get a true death. He became a spirit.”

He gaped at me, missed a step, then grabbed the railing to keep from tumbling headfirst down the stairs. “What?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

“You mean…” He closed his mouth, unable to finish the sentence.

“Yes,” I said. “I think vampires have a different afterlife. They’re not meant to linger here. But for whatever reason, maybe some freak accident or rip in the fabric, tonight’s attacker didn’t go wherever he was supposed to go. Good or bad for vampires, I don’t know. I just know it’s true.”

He didn’t speak, and I could understand that. He needed a moment to process.

We found the Kellys in the huge family room I’d glimpsed when we’d followed Keith through the house.

The nurse was there as well, and from the expression on her face, she was both disbelieving and overjoyed. She leaned over Mila, a stethoscope to the girl’s chest, smiling one second and frowning the next.

She looked up and saw me walking toward them. “I’ll call the doctor,” she murmured, and hurried away.

Mila was sitting between her parents, and her eyes were open. It would take a while for her to bounce back after what had happened to her, but she would. Already, there was a bright spark of life in her eyes, and her cheeks had a hint of color. When she saw me, she smiled.

“Already,” Leah said, her voice full of tears, “she is improving.”

I crouched in front of the couch and took Mila’s hand. “You’re going to be just fine,” I told her. No way did I want her to know that a ghost had been in her room, taking her life. That shitwould traumatize a person for life. She’d be afraid to sleep alone. She’d always be looking over her shoulder, wondering if a ghost was following her. Her childhood would be ruined, and it would change who she was and who she would become.

No.

She didn’t need to know what had happened to her. She didn’t need to know ghosts existed.

“Thank you for making me feel better,” she said. “Can you be my nurse from now on?”

I laughed. “Sweetie, you’re not going to need a nurse now.”

“She’s healed,” Keith said, and pressed his knuckles against his eyes.

“I’m hungry,” Mila said.

Leah gasped and tears sprang to her eyes. “I haven’t heard her say that since—”

“Since she got ill,” I interrupted, and shook my head just slightly.

“Don’t worry,” Keith assured me. “We know what to do.”

I stood, and after he leaned over to kiss his daughter’s forehead, Keith stood as well. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Keith,” Leah called as we walked away.

“I know,” he said.

He gave me a check that was ten times the amount I charged—and that was alot. “You have allies for life,” he told me soberly. “We can never repay you for what you did, but if you ever need anything, anything at all, you have only to call. And I mean that with all my heart.”

Despite the now-gentle throbbing ache in my shoulder, the night had been a huge success.