Vampire Romance Series - Coffee And Vampires 1-7 (Vampire Romance Bundle) by S L Hartley

though whether they were from emotion or sheer exhaustion she couldn’t be certain.
    “ I love you too,” she replied as the siren of the ambulance began to approach. “I love you, Nicholas.”
    ****

Chapter 7
    “ You’re getting released today?” Page asked.
    Janine’s hospital room was bright, sunny, and absolutely packed with flowers and colorful “GET WELL SOON” balloons. Janine was sitting up on the bed, heavily-bandaged leg propped stiffly in front of her.
    “ Yeah,” she said.
    The week in the hospital had brought back the color in her cheeks and even a shine to her hair, but there was a haunted look in her eyes that the doctors hadn’t been able to heal even after patching up the lacerations on her cheek from the rough concrete floor of the warehouse. Her leg had required twenty-four stitches to repair and would always be scarred, just like Page’s torn-up hands.
    Page, for her part, had regained the use of her fingers and only her palms were still bandaged. “Nicholas let me borrow his car,” she said, jingling the keys. “I can help you get all this stuff back to your apartment, and you’ll be back at the café in no time.”
    Janine smiled wanly. “Maybe not.”
    “ What?” Page asked, genuinely startled. Janine had loved every part of working at the café, even dealing with customers who hadn’t yet had their morning coffee.
    “ I’m thinking maybe I should change some things up,” Janine said, smoothing the sheets under her hands. “I don’t think I’ll be going back to the café.”
    Page sat heavily in the stiff armchair next to Janine’s bed. “Do you know where you’ll be looking for a new job?”
    “ Idaho.”
    Page stared, wondering if Janine had slipped into some kind of delirium again. She’d been hysterical for two days after being admitted. Well, Page thought of it as hysteria, but the doctors had diagnosed it as a psychotic break. After all, she’d come in babbling about a man who grew fur and fangs when he abducted her and had screamed uncontrollably at sundown whenever a nurse forgot to draw the blinds against the waning moon.
    Page wished that she’d been able to argue with the doctors, but what could she tell them? That Janine hadn’t gone briefly insane from trauma because werewolves really did exist? She’d just end up committed herself.
    “ My mom lives in Idaho,” Janine explained. “I’m going to move back home for a while.”
    “ Do you really feel that’s necessary?” Page asked. She half-expected what the answer would be but felt that she had to ask anyway. Janine was her friend, had been her best friend for years, after they’d gotten assigned to the same shifts at the café.
    Janine nodded firmly. “Yeah. My parents are all excited about it.” She grimaced briefly, then laughed. It was almost a real laugh, too. “Already cleaned out my old bedroom.”
    A nurse walked in then, clipboard in hand. “Looks like you’re good to go, Janine,” she said cheerfully. Page stood and picked up the crutches leaning against the wall.
    Janine was able to navigate the corridors well enough, though Page ended up appropriating an unused gurney in order to carry all the flowers. Loading Janine into the freshly-washed Volkswagen was another challenge, but finally the two women were seated and strapped in. They drove in near-silence for the twenty minutes it took to reach Janine’s apartment building, the back seat filled up to the rear window with flowers and bobbing balloons.
    It took three trips for Page to get all of the gifts into Janine’s small apartment, where they crowded the living room.
    Janine laughed ruefully. “Almost not worth it, huh?”
    Page shrugged. “I didn’t mind.” She struggled with words for an awkward minute, trying to find a way to ask the questions boiling in the back of her mind. How much had Janine seen? Did she believe what the doctors said – that she’d started hallucinating due to severe shock? Or did she know what