“Do I have your permission to get it?” I asked, trying to be polite as possible.
“Whatever.” She hung up on me.
I rolled my eyes, turning to Connor. I took a pen out of my desk and pushed a piece of paper towards him.
“Write something and sign your name.”
“What?” he asked, confused.
“Just write Sarah’s name and sign your name.”
I felt like I was threatening schoolchildren who wrote on desks. Obediently, he wrote what I asked. I rose and retrieved a file from the filing cabinet, and then took his paper.
“Now, I’m going to lock you in here. It won’t be for long, alright? I’m just not going to take any chances.”
“Fine.” Connor crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair.
I dug the keys out of my pocket and turned the lock on the door before striding down the hallway to the dorms.
If someone had told me four years ago that my life would be like this, I would have laughed. I had thought at my age, I would be hitting the night clubs hard, or maybe married to a model. Or ten of them. But dealing with delinquent vampires, miscarriages, and teenage angst was nowhere on my list.
Sarah’s dorm room was a mess, which didn’t surprise me. The walls were covered with posters, and the floors with clothes. I had a feeling she was going to be one of the students who we had to hire a cleaning crew for at the end of the year.
Her garbage can was near her desk. Wincing, I dug in, moving around hair from her hairbrush, an empty package of Gravol, and then, there, a folded piece of paper.
As soon as I unfolded it, I could see that Connor was telling the truth. I wasn’t a handwriting expert, but there was nothing even remotely similar about the two papers.
Placing my file on her desk, I opened it, slowly flipping through it. All the vampires had filled out admission or staff forms, and so I had all their writings. I squinted, trying to compare letters, sizes, scrawls.
When I found it, it was obvious. The cursive script was old style, with perfectly made letters. The ‘o’s were crossed through and the ‘i’s were dotted. She had struck me as smart, but I had also thought her English wasn’t that good. Whether she had an accomplice or not, it didn’t matter.
It had been Isabelle who wrote the letter to Sarah, threatening her life and the life of the child. Isabelle, dangerous little Isabelle. The more I found out about her, the more I disliked. I had Connor trapped in my office, but it was Isabelle I had to find.
My phone rang then, and it was the hospital. My heart leaping into my mouth, I answered.
“Hello?”
“Liam, it’s Sarah. Reception just called me. It’s Isabelle. She’s on her way up. Why would she come here? Do you think she knows?”
“Sarah,” the words tumbled out. “Don’t let her in.”
“I think it might be too late for that. She can’t hurt me, right? It’s daylight, she’s human.”
“We’re still stronger than humans, Sarah.” I thought wildly. “Listen to me. Do you have an IV line in?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Pull the needle out, slash your arm. If you have a heart monitor, cut it so you get people rushing in there. Do anything you need to increase your Shield powers, and get yourself surrounded by people. Do not let Isabelle in there alone with you, ok?”
“Ok.” She sounded frightened, but hung up the phone.
I moved as fast as I could, dialing Amy’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. I growled, and tried again. Again, to voicemail. She was either ignoring me or had it off. And while she had every right to ignore me, I wished that she would do anything but that.
Suddenly, I turned on my heel, went two doors down and pounded on her dorm room door. It was a long shot, she was probably in class, but it was worth a try.
The door opened, and she stood, looking unimpressed.
“Liam?”
“Sarah’s in trouble. Let’s go.” I grabbed her wrist, pulling her out the door and leaving her stammering as we flew towards the parking lot.
I explained as fast as I could as I drove like a mad man, being caught by about 10 speed cameras on the way. In between explaining to Amy, I dialed numbers recklessly, looking for another weapon. Anyone who picked up was instructed to meet us at the hospital.
I nearly cut off an ambulance pulling into the hospital parking lot. Amy was hot on my heels as we ran through the lobby.
Sarah’s room was on the 3rd floor. When we reached it, I could already tell something was horribly wrong. The floor was abandoned and eerily quiet. I put my arm around Amy, who seemed so small in comparison.