The Vampire's Release, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #4) by S.J. Wright Page B

know exactly how long I was out.  When I woke up, I was lying in a large bed in an unfamiliar room.  There was a window, but the heavy drapes were closed.  I didn’t have any indication of the time of day.  My head hurt, and when I lifted my hand to touch it, I felt cloth and a sharper pain at my scalp.
    “Damn.”   My voice came out as a little squeak that reminded me of a kitten.
    “Relax, dear.”  I searched out the source of the voice and found Teddy sitting beside the bed in a plain wooden chair.  She patted my arm and smiled at me.  “How are you feeling?  You had quite an eventful few days.  You had us all worried to death.”
    I swallowed and tried to clear my thr oat, but when my words came out it was in the same weird tone.  “What happened?”
    “You were in an automobile accident in Indiana.  Alex brought you here.”
    There was a crash.  I remembered hearing it, but nothing else.  Surely this was all just a dream, I thought.  But before the collision, there was something that happened in the car that had scared me.  I couldn’t exactly remember what it was.
    “ Where am I ?”
    “Chicago, Sarah,” she replied. “Alex was able to get in touch with me and told me you were hurt.  You’ ve been seen by a doctor.  He wants us to keep a close eye on you, but it doesn’t appear that your concussion is very serious.  He did have to stitch up the cut on your head , though .”
    “Where is Michael?”
    Her hesitation frightened me more than anything else.  She paused for several moments before speaking in a mild tone.  “He is close by.  He wanted me to tell you that he’ll see you soon.”
    Something was very wrong.  Teddy’s eyes were steady on me, but I sensed something horrible coming—some revelation that might change everything for me.  For all of us.  I almost didn’t want to know.  Too much had gone wrong already.  But if Michael was in danger, I had to find out.
    “Tell me what’s going on.  Please.”
    She sighed and shook her head.  “Not now.  I am going to bring you something to eat .”
    I reached out for her, my fingers making contact with the unnaturally cold surface of the skin on the back of her hand.  “Is he okay?”
    “He i s healthy.”
    That wasn’t enough.  She got up gracefully and disappeared through a doorway without a sound, coming back in a few minutes with a tray of soup and tea.   She helped me to sit up and put the tray on my lap.  But I didn’t want anything to eat.  Food was the last thing on my mind.
    “Tell me what’s going on, Teddy.”
    Her black eyes closed and she looked as if she were trying to summon a great deal of patience.  When she opened her eyes again, she smiled at me stiffly .  “You will be told everything when the time is right.  That time is not now.  So you just relax and have some soup.”
    Teddy hadn’t personally known me for a very long time.  What s he did know was that my temper wa s easily provoked.  So she didn’t look particularly surprised when I dumped the tray from my lap onto the floor, soaking the burgundy carpet with chicken broth and warm tea. 
    I really couldn’t help myself.  If something had happened to Michael, I certainly had a right to know about it.   She was denying me information about someone I loved.  I had considered her to be a friend, but she was giving me cause to doubt that idea.
    “Teddy, something is going on.   And I want to know what it is! ”   My throat ached with the force I’d put into the words.
    With a cloth napkin from the tray, she dabbed delicately at a spot of broth that had splashed onto her gray slacks.  “No.  Perhaps later.”  She laid the white napkin on the foot of the bed and turned to go.  “Someone will be up shortly to clean up the mess.”   Then I heard the sound of a door closing and the click of a lock being turned.
    “What the fuck ?”
    I took stock of the room.  The bed was king-sized and covered with a somewhat