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.As Kiko and Natalia slumped against each other in an exhausted hug, Dawn sprinted to her resting father’s room.Almost dusk.Almost time to make a move if they had to.She busted into the dark room to find him in his bed, covered from head to toe in blankets.“Dad,” she whispered, not wanting to spook him.“Get up.We need you.”She didn’t want to be too close when a vamp awoke suddenly, so she kept a couple feet between her and the bed.But when Frank didn’t move, she inched closer.“Dad?”Kiko had stumbled into the room, too.Dawn suspected Natalia was still with Claudius and the Friends who were surrounding him.“Frank?” he said.“Claudius got a little loose with his lips.”“He’s out like a burnt bulb, Kik.”“But he always wakes up when you need him, even before dusk, which is close enough.” Kiko opened the door a little wider so that light from the hallway shone over their vampire.“Frank?”A groan sounded from beneath the blankets.“Dad, Claudius gave us a location.”“The New Gilby Hotel,” Kiko added.“Frank, is that where Costin told you he was going?”She and Kiko waited.Waited.Then Frank spoke in a struggling whisper.“Dawn.”After trading a frown with Kiko, she pulled down the blankets.What she saw flashed a stark whiteness over her vision—a shock that sliced down her body until it became a thin pulse in her chest.Her dad—paler than ever, skin wrinkled, eyes a weak green in the dimness.“Not.feeling.good,” he managed to say.So this was what it was like to be soaked in ether, Dawn thought, floating in a state of bafflement.Kiko gathered enough words to echo what she was trying to understand.“How can a vampire get sick?”Frank tried to climb out of bed, but Dawn didn’t let him.She pushed him back down to the mattress, and it was real easy, too.Usually, he would only have to flick his finger to send her flying across a room.Not that he’d ever tried it, but.“Got.work.to do.” he said, once again trying to rise.But he couldn’t.Kiko was already out of the room, saying over his shoulder, “There’s stored blood in the fridge, but I don’t know how old it is.I’ll get a bag or two for him if it’s good.”“Kiko’s got you covered,” Dawn said, sitting beside Frank, even though she wondered if she could catch what he’d contracted.But maybe this was a vampire flu or something, so unless it attacked former vamps, too, she’d be immune.“Already had blood.” Then he seemed overwhelmed by puzzlement.“Or.I think I did.Wasn’t enough.”What the hell was he talking about? He’d been in here resting.She hated to do this, but they were hunters.There was a situation that needed full attention, even with her father looking ready to puke.“Dad, can you just tell me Costin’s location? We need to see if it’s a match.” She felt like shit for playing boss girl instead of Florence Nightingale.“I know a match won’t verify whether Claudius sent Costin into a trap or not, but at least we’ll have somewhere to target if he doesn’t come back soon.”“Near the New Gilby.” he said.Dawn put her hand on his arm as his words faded.It was enough of a match for her.She itched to start loading up on weapons, but her dad kept her planted on the bed.He hadn’t even fought her on giving up the information Costin had entrusted to him, and that worried her more than his lethargy or complexion.Kiko had gotten back in time to hear Frank, too, and he was already opening a blood bag for her dad.Dawn took it, then lifted Frank’s head to help him drink.“What’re we gonna do?” Kiko asked her.Her father’s head felt like a hundred pounds of undead weight in her palm as she eased Frank back to the pillow, his lips ringed by red from the emptied bag.“We’ve got to go, Kik, with or without Frank.”Her dad did a mild version of his usual grunt.At least he sounded stronger after the blood.But not by much.“Oh, yeah?” Dawn said.“I hate to say this, but you’d do more harm than good out there right now.”“Wait for the blood.to work on me,” he said.Kiko opened another bag, which Dawn also helped Frank to drink.“And how long do you think it’ll be until you’re in fighting shape?” Kiko asked.“An hour? Two?”“We can’t afford either one,” Dawn said.“Dusk is just about at our doorstep [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]