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“What?”
Ophelia said, “Mr. Dodd was supposed to make contact with you, just enough that you would remember his face and not panic if you happened to see him. Instead …”
Awkward silence.
Ophelia kicked his ankle and hissed. “Instead …”
“I came on to you,” he mumbled. “Usually, when I put on the charm, ladies prove quite receptive.” He followed this remark with a sullen little sneer, then resumed looking down at his feet.
“He was watching you on the rare occasions when you ventured into public at night,” Ophelia said. “We knew that Cal couldn’t be with you, and I thought it would be helpful for you to have some protection. I didn’t mean to give you something else to worry about.”
“I’m sorry,” he muttered again.
“That night at the movies!” I exclaimed.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You sent me running home into the arms of a crazy teenage vampire stalker.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“You know, somehow that doesn’t quite cover it,” I shot back.
“Oh, there will be time for groveling,” Ophelia assured me. “Mr. Dodd is in charge of guarding your door here at the hospital. He’ll be waiting outside every minute of every night.”
“I really don’t think that’s necessary,” I protested.
“He will fetch you magazines, chocolates, cuddly stuffed toys. And he will taste-test every meal the staff brings you, to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.”
“Won’t eating human food make him sick?” I asked.
Ophelia gave Mr. Dodd a nasty grin. “Yes.”
Ah, that would be the point of this exercise in humiliation.
I settled back against the pillows, resigned to having a grumpy, resentful vampire bodyguard. Again, I wondered about Cal, but pride and the desire for continued blissful ignorance kept me from asking Ophelia. I wasn’t going to lose any sleep or time on him, I promised myself. If I never saw his face again, I would survive. If he showed up here, I might be willing to speak to him. But that was about as much consideration as I was willing to give him at that point.
“Wait, so if he was keeping an eye on me, what was up with Mr. Crown? Why was he at the movie theater?”
“Well, I’d just managed to find a copy of the welcome basket delivery schedule, listing Peter as the contact for Cal’s house. Before I could make it to Peter’s house to question him, one of his more loyal humans at the Council office contacted him to warn him that I was coming.”
I scoffed. “Mr. Crown has loyal humans?”
“Some people like cranky, anal-retentive men.” Ophelia shrugged. “Crown called Dodd, knowing that he was following you, and the pair of them attempted to contact you at the theater.”
“I think we need to clarify the definition of ‘contact,’ because Mr. Dodd seems to think it means ‘chase the subject and her minor sibling into a darkened parking lot.’ ”
Mr. Dodd’s mouth opened to protest, and I cut him off with a raised hand. “If you give me another half-assed apology, I will smack you with this IV pole.”
Mr. Dodd cleared his throat. “I was going to say that Mr. Crown believed that he was being framed by Mr. Marchand. He thought that if he delivered you and your sister safely to the Council for questioning, it would go a long way toward clearing his name.”
“Because calling you and explaining himself was the less reasonable option?” I asked.
“Vampire logic is difficult to explain. However, Mr. Crown does send his regards and promises to come by for a visit later.”
“Oh, good,” I muttered.
Ophelia seemed to close the business portion of our visit with an overbright smile. “I’m told that puzzles and board games are a typical way for humans to pass their time in a hospital,” Ophelia said. “Do you prefer Scrabble or chess?”
