Black Blood

«What is inside the drip?»

«Vitamins and mineral salts to get you back on track. Now I take it off: it's over. I'll take your blood pressure again, it'll take a moment and then, if you want, you can go home», she declared dedicating to the needle.

She removed it off carefully and medicated the affected part.

Free from that chain, I took the smartphone from above the bedside table and sent a message to Hanna asking her to come and get me.

She immediately replied telling me that she would have done it as soon as possible.

In a while, I was already sitting in Hanna's car, heading home.

Meredith Coleman had made a note of my latest values and handed me a bottle of tablets. Supplements that according to the prescription I had to take twice a day. I put them in the bag after having observed them suspiciously.

«What happened after I passed out?» was the first thing I asked her.

She squinted at me and made a grimace with her nose.

«You are passing out for no reason and the only thing you worry about is what happened when you weren't conscious?» she said back.

In fact, I was only interested in that.

I was just a little tired, I wasn't a superhero.

The last few weeks had been heavy, I felt weaker and slept badly. Things that usually happen, especially to a crime reporter like me.

«I am fine now, Hanna. I just need to stop overdoing. What did Sebastian do?» I pursued her undaunted.

She raised her eyes to the car's roof and denied with her head.

«Obviously, your attention is only focused on him», she said resignedly.

I smiled at her with innocent eyes.

«He took you to the medical center. As you were sliding to the ground, he caught you on the fly, saving you from an obvious fall. We all ran there. Josh, Greg and I», she explained with sufficiency. She liked playing the part of the offended, but I knew well she was acting.

Every once in a while, we pretended to be angry more than we should to see the reactions of the other.

Lack of confidence?

No, it was a game for us, we knew each other too well to fall into our own traps.

I went back to her words, had Sebastian really brought me to Coleman Medical Center?

Oh, God!

«Meredith said that I was brought to her by Josh and Greg» I confusingly objected.

«But with Sebastian's car.»

Even worst!

It meant that my friends had been in close contact with Mr. Filthy Rich. Because that is what he was in the end, and his bearing never denied it.

However…

«Josh tried to reject Sebastian's offer, but he couldn't hold his own. The Winterbournes car is far faster, so the three of them drove you to the medical center together», Hanna went on.

I imagined Josh at the mercy of his emotions, locked in the cockpit of an unfamiliar car, with a Thirsty driving while his best friend had fainted out of the blue.

Poor Josh, it will take him a week to recover.

«Dear Christ, what a mess! What did he want from Ginger at the Moonlight?»

What had prompted him, again, to show himself in public?

Why did he do this?

«Who knows? But I have to admit, Reb, that guy looks awesome.»

I burst out laughing heartily.

«It is difficult not to get lost in his inscrutable eyes.»

She nodded and I stopped reflecting while we were reaching our house's street.

A thousand queries crowded my mind. There was only one person able to give the right answers to my questions: Sebastian.

I wanted to see him again.

It was a burning desire that clouded everything else, burned my chest and teased my heart.

I was going to the Black Raven Hill as soon as possible, just a little time, enough to take a shower and find a way out without attracting attention. My car was parked in front of the house door, my friends had even bothered to bring it back from the Moonlight.

I was lucky.

I waited until Hanna went out shopping and, right behind her, I took my car and headed down the road to the Winterbournes' mansion.

I was driving slowly and carefully, the sun was setting and tinged the sky with purple and red, the trees were starting to get thicker and thicker, the wind whistled and made their foliage screech.

The silence was painful to my eardrums, it made me think.

Maybe it would have been better to wait until I had completely recovered and analyze the situation thoroughly before acting on impulse as I had done instead.

I had the feeling that something was going wrong, that something would have caught me off guard.

I was afraid of discovering things I had never wanted, but the doubt was even more suffocating.

I wanted, more than anything else, to put a stop to that story. I demanded the truth, whatever it was.