Adduné - the Vampire's Game (56 page)

“
Hey Chase, what’s up, my man.”

Miranda stretched her legs out and winked at Tiffany who was making her first pass from the kitchen to the terrace. Her arms were filled with eating utensils and glasses.

“
Randi?”

“
You were expecting someone else?”

Miranda waited for the usual amiable chatter, but there was still only the silent pause of Chase confirming his own sister’s voice.

“
Hello! Yes, it is indeed your beloved sister whose voice you have forgotten. I am right now in the residence of Tiffany Rodriguez who is serving me breakfast out on her terrace. Do I need to spell that out? Tiffany is waiting on me! I am truly not worthy. Now your turn,” Miranda prompted somewhat sarcastically. She waited for a smart response that wasn’t forthcoming.

Her brother not firing back a smart aleck reply bothered her. He was more verbose than this – never at a loss for words. Something was wrong. She admonished herself for her concern. She was starting to sound like Reginald although she hadn’t as yet attributed his strange behavior to the vengeful family of vampires.

“
Chasie? Are you there, Chase? Speak to me.”

“
Yes, I’m here, Randi girl. Just barely, but here.”

Miranda sat up like a shot. She gave Tiffany a look of consternation. Tiffany hesitated to see if she could help. Miranda shook her head no. Tiffany continued on her way to the patio.

A whole host of thoughts ran through Miranda’s head – none of them were any good.

“
What’s the matter, Chasie? Are you sick?”

“
No, not sick. Just tired.”

Miranda paused. He did sound tired – her deepest feelings were being evoked.

“
Well, you know you don’t take care of yourself. You never did. What with burning the candle at both ends and going out every night. You’re not in college anymore! You need to slow down!”

There was the sound of a long expulsion of air. He must be yawning.

“
Chase, do stop! It’s terribly rude to be yawning in my ear like that.”

“
Oh, sorry. I just didn’t think … I was …” Chase’s voice drifted off to being unintelligible.

“
Chase?” she shouted. She was beginning to be annoyed more than concerned. If he was sick, why was he playing games?

“
I haven’t been sleeping. I keep having these … these dreams.”

Miranda stiffened. She grabbed at the towel that had slipped onto her forehead. She whipped it off her head.

“
Dreams? About what?”

“
That’s just it. I can never remember what they’re about.”

“
No?”

“
No.”

Miranda crossed her leg. Her foot was shaking. She grasped it with her hand to still it. This could not be happening. What was going on? The minute she asked herself that question, she had her answer. She knew what was going on and it didn’t have anything to do with vampires. It’d happened many times before.

“
Chase, are you drunk? Is that what’s going on here?”

Her brother had gone on a binge. He was drinking again. Yes, he was the life of the party when drunk, but then he went into a depression – a funk. He said and did crazy things when in this state. Christ, why did he have to drink? He had everything and yet it wasn’t enough. And here she was wasting sympathy on him when it was the one thing that would set her off.

“
No, not drunk, Randi. I wish I were.

Miranda pushed her damp hair off her face and stomped her foot on Tiffany’s floor. She’d had it with him. He’d better grow-up – and fast.

“
Look, stop lying to me! I want you to stop drinking. You’ve probably been doing it all night. Get some rest if you need it, but I positively refuse to talk to you in this condition. Straighten yourself out, Chase! You’re not twelve years old and there are no monsters under your bed. The only monsters you have are in your head and in that bottle you’re holding. I’ll speak to you soon.”

Miranda let her body fall back against the couch. She shook her hand in the air.

“
God, brothers! Ay dios mia! Or is it mio?”

“
Mio. It’s a penis thing.”

Miranda found herself chuckling. Only Tiffany could turn her mood around on a dime.

“
Speaking of penises,” Miranda said as she reached for her cell phone. She punched in Jake’s number.

“
I invited him here.”

“
Who?”

“
Chasie.”

“
Cool. When’s he coming?”

“
He’s probably not. Hitting the sauce again. He knows better than to be around me when he’s doing that.”

There was no answer. She tried his office number.

“
Oh, Lordie! I thought he was over that phase!”

“
Me, too, but he’s obviously loaded. Wonder if it’s his new girlfriend?”

“
She has him drinking already? Women should at least wait until after they get the ring on their hands to start that kind of trouble.”

His office phone rang and rang. Miranda remembered the time. It was still early, but it should have rolled over into voicemail by now.

“
You’d think. I guess I’ll just have to fly out there and see what’s going on.”

She wondered if anyone was even there. She hung up and called again. It was answered quickly by Jake’s assistant.

“
Good morning, Theresa. Miranda Perry here. I don’t suppose Mr. Monroe is in?”

There was sharp intake of air. The question seemed to upset her. Miranda was left to imagine why.

“
I’m sorry, Ms. Perry. You probably haven’t heard,” Theresa answered in a strangled voice of a person choking back tears. There was way too much emotion in the voice of an administrative assistant answering a simple question.

“
About Jake? Why? What happened?

“
He collapsed yesterday afternoon – about an hour after you left. He was taken straight to the hospital and placed in intensive care. He’s still there – at St. Luke’s.”

“
What? But … how,” Miranda stuttered. “I mean, do they know what’s wrong?”

“
No,” Theresa said choking back more tears. “They thought it was pernicious anemia, but ... there seems to be … complications.”

Theresa had to stop talking. She was sobbing heavily. Miranda didn’t have any idea of the true nature of the relationship Theresa shared with Jake, but knowing Jake’s track record, it wasn’t hard to guess – not that it mattered. It was horrible news – just horrible.

“
Theresa, hang in there. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“
I hope so.”

She ended the call, letting the phone drop onto the couch. She didn’t think she wanted to take any more calls today – not with the way things were going. There was something about Theresa’s vulnerability that was getting to her. Life in the big city hardened you, but Theresa seemed so soft – delicate. When Miranda encountered that kind of pure emotion it got to her. It was so unlike the callous bastards that she usually dealt with.

She wiped at the tears collecting in the corner of her eyes and joined Tiffany on her balcony.

“
You’re never going to believe this,” she said tearing a piece of her crispy toast and chewing it in abject frustration. “Jake’s collapsed. Yesterday, right after I left. He’s in some freakin’ hospital!”

“
Jake? What the hell happened?”

“
They don’t know. I know he was sick yesterday. I dropped by his office before I left for the airport and he did look bad. Told him to see a doctor, but I never ever thought it would turn into something this serious. He’s in intensive care.”

Tiffany was silent – considering all the options as to what could be wrong. She took a small bite of her toast, her eyes suddenly brightening.

“
I just thought of something … I’ll bet he got dehydrated. I had a friend who got this virus and boom! The next thing you know he went out like a light. He’d been throwing up all day and didn’t realize the liquids you lose that way. Of course, we didn’t know that at the time. Collective dumbness! Luckily God protects idiots and we happened to stop by. We found him collapsed on the floor. We had to carry him to the emergency room and they told us he was dehydrated. They hooked him up to an IV and kept him overnight. He was fine in no time. Sometimes it happens – really fast.”

“
Oh, god, Tiffy, I hope it’s that. At least it’d be fixable, but I don’t know. I just don’t know. This happened yesterday and he said he hadn’t been vomiting and …”

Miranda found herself getting choked up. She put down her fork and bent her head forward to cover her tears. She looked around at the splendor of Tiffany’s garden terrace. It was breathtakingly beautiful – the foliage, the spectacular view, the designer touches – and yet it was lost on her. Everything was piling on top of her including Jake … his illness was hitting her hard. She felt Tiffany’s arm around her.

“
Miranda, is there more to it than Jake? I mean, I know you two had a fling, but is it that other thing that you can’t talk about that’s bothering you?”

Miranda bent her head down further until her hair covered most of her face. She brought her hands up and covered the rest. There was a lot more, including Peter. Why was he still on her mind? Why did she care?

It was most likely cumulative. All her soft spots were being hit. First, her father. He occupied the most tender part of her. Then Reginald getting on her nerves with ghost stories and spurious revelations about her father. Peter popping up to poke a hole in her. Chase drinking again. And Jake … he was a bastard, but she cared about him. She knew she shouldn’t and that it was just a fling, but she couldn’t not care about people that she got that close to.

“
Is it that obvious?”

“
To me it is, but then I’m your friend. Remember in college when my brother got in trouble? Underage drinking, a car accident, and never mind totaling dad’s car. If the tabloids had gotten a hold of that story, they would have put us through hell. My family told me not to tell anyone, but I told you. And guess what?”

“
What?”

“
Nothing. Nothing in the papers and nobody asked me anything about it. It was all hushed over and taken care of although my brother was in lockdown until he was 21. You know what that means?”

“
What?”

“
That you never said a word. If you had, his picture would have been splashed all over the front of those tabloids in the grocery store and people would have been calling me 24/7 – asking me why my brother was so stupid.”

“
I can relate to that. Think we both have at least one family member that does not know how to behave. I think they even date the same women,” Miranda joked. She couldn’t resist. Tiffany’s brother Xavier was a playboy that dated only top models with eating disorders. Then there were the messed up actresses who took courses in living life on the edge.

Miranda chanced a peek at Tiff and saw her grinning.

“
Exactly. I think he listens outside the ladies room to see who’s throwing up. Unfortunately, he only dates the girls that are.”

“
Then he has met Chase’s exes.”

The girls laughed softly to ease the tension. Tiffany reached for Miranda’s hands and cupped them in hers. Miranda could no longer hide behind them. She turned her head to face Tiffany.

“
What I want to say is that I’m here for you. Whatever you want, whatever you need. It doesn’t matter what it is, I’ve got your back, Miranda. Don’t ever forget that.”

“
Tiffy, I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I bless the day you entered my life.”

She wrapped her arms around Tiffany who rocked her like a small child.

“
I feel the same way, chickie.”

Miranda knew Tiffany meant what she said. She loosened her hold, ending the embrace. Tiffany gave one last smile to her friend and sat back in her seat to continue breakfast.

Miranda took a bite of the eggs that had cooled. They still tasted great.