Chapter 258

Tessa’s POV

Everything happened all at once. I dropped my cell phone to the ground and covered my mouth with my hands as I stared up at Joseph. For once, in this whole time that I’ve known him, I saw uncertainty in Joseph’s eyes.

Carter was already out the door, heading to the train station. I was completely frozen.

“Hello?” The person asked. “Is anybody there?”

I completely forgot he was still on the phone with the train station.

“You said there was an accident?” Joseph finally asked, his voice coming out breathy.

“Yes, sir,” the person on the other end said. “As you probably figured we have been quite busy trying to gather survivors and transport them to the hospital. Most of them are there now I believe.”

“But there are survivors?” Joseph asked, hope swelled inside of me, but only a little bit. I still had a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Yes, sir,” the person replied. “I don’t have a list of them though. You’ll have to get that at the hospital.”

“Thank you,” Joseph said, and then he hung up.

“We need to get to the hospital,” before Joseph could utter a single word.

Joseph nodded, taking me by the hand and guiding me out of the house and toward his waiting car.

On our way to the hospital, which was about 20 minutes away, Joseph called Carter. I was surprised that Carter actually answered his phone; I could hear the commotion in the background. There were a bunch of frantic people crying and I knew from the sounds of the horns and sirens, he was at the train station.

The frustration was evident in Carter’s voice and then Joseph told him to meet us at the hospital. He hung up the phone without another word.

I hadn’t realized how badly I was trembling until Joseph reached over and grabbed a hold of my hand to steady me.

I looked over at him, my bottom lip quivering as I fought the urge to burst into tears.

He didn’t say anything though; he knew there was nothing he could say that could make any of this better.

When we got to the hospital, the parking lot was packed with cars. Joseph found a parking space in the very back of the lot and he lifted me into his arms once we were outside the car. Before I knew what was happening, we were outside the front entrance of the Emergency Room.

He teleported us.

He placed me on the ground and ran through the doors. The waiting room was filled with frantic people, all demanding the nurses and doctors to tell them what was going on and asking for a list of the survivors.

People were crying all around me and I found my heart shattering in my chest.

I stood frozen in the room of chaos as the nurses attempted to calm everyone down. They assured everyone that a list would be provided soon but the doctors needed to look the survivors over and they just needed a little more time.

Carter was quick to arrive, and he looked as if he was about to tear off the heads of all the nurses and doctors until he could find Ruby. I didn’t blame him.

She couldn’t be dead, I kept telling myself. It’s not possible.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. We were supposed to pursue our dreams in New York City together and then die of old age in the same retirement home. We were supposed to plan our weddings together and get pregnant around the same time so our kids could be best friends.

I refused to believe that my best friend was dead.

But even the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach told me I was speaking nonsense and that the worst was coming.

Joseph wrapped me in his arms and held me close to him. I hadn’t realized I was crying until his shirt began to soak from my tears.

“I’m going to help calm everyone down,” he whispered against my ear, sending a wave of warmth to course through my body.

But it wasn’t enough, not this time.

I nodded, knowing that Joseph had the power to calm everyone down using his abilities.

He kissed the top of my head and I fell into an empty chair. Joseph went around the room, using his abilities to calm those who were panicking the most. Within 15 minutes, everyone was calm and seated. The nurses looked impressed with Joseph and thanked him for the help.

Joseph then used his abilities to get the nurses to hurry on the list of survivors. Once they were gone, Joseph sat beside me, taking me in his arms again. He lifted me and placed me on his lap where I made myself comfortable. I buried my face in the nape of his neck, trying to calm myself down but I was just so damn worried about my best friend.

I came to realize that Carter was nowhere to be found. I lifted my head and peered up at Joseph through my tear-filled eyes.

“Where’s Carter?”

…..

Third Person POV

Carter wasn’t going to stand around and wait for the doctors to tell him if Ruby was okay or not. He wasn’t going to be sitting in the waiting room like a sitting duck, waiting for the news that his Ruby was dead. He couldn’t even bear the thought of something like that happening.

He shouldn’t have let her get on that train; or better yet, he should have offered to drive her to New York so they could have talked longer.

There were a lot of news reports and rumors going around about the train conductor being intoxicated; fury boiled through Carter when he heard that news. He wanted to find the conductor and rip his head right off his shoulders. But he had to get to Ruby first and find out if she was okay.

For right now, the conductor is in custody at the police station. Carter will have his fun later.

While Joseph was openly using his abilities to calm everyone in the waiting room down, Carter used that as his opportunity to sneak past the nurses and through the doors that separated the waiting room from the rest of the hospital.

From the time that Carter spent with Ruby, he learned her scent and he knew he’d be able to pick her out of a crowd. His intel and senses were stronger than most vampires due to all the training he’d done over the centuries.

He walked through the halls, blindly, and when he picked up a hint of her scent, his body began to walk on autopilot.

Her scent grew more potent the further he went and when he rounded the corner and nearly slammed into a nurse, the fury and confusion on her face was indescribable.

“You can’t be in here right now,” the nurse seethed.

“I need to find my girlfriend. She was on the train,” he said, his voice coming out breathy.

She shook her head.

“You need to be in the waiting room with everyone else,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “Before I call security.”

He wasn’t about to wait there for security to come; he shoved past her, making her stumble in the process, and he ran past her.

“Hey!!” She yelled, angrily. “Someone stop him!!”

It was too late though; he was already far down the hallway and busting through the door that he knew Ruby was behind.

There was a doctor in the room; only one doctor.

Ruby was filled with tubes and covered in a body cast. His entire heart fell into his stomach. He heard the running of shoes coming from down the hallway and he knew they were coming for him. He slipped into the room and shut the door behind him, startling the doctor.

“You can’t be in here,” the doctor said, narrowing his eyes at Carter.

“I needed to see my girlfriend,” Carter said, not taking his eyes off a very bruised Ruby.

Her eyes were closed, but he could see black and blue bruises all along her jawline and cuts on her hairline, probably from glass. Her entire body was in a cast and tubes were everywhere. She looked so fragile at that moment, and it tore Carter’s heart into pieces.

The heart monitor had a steady beep and the fact that only one doctor was looking her over broke his heart.

On the chart in front of her bed, the name read: Jane Doe.

Carter knew that Jane Doe meant they couldn’t identify Ruby, but he knew it was her from her scent alone.

“You know this girl?” The doctor asked, raising his brows. “Her things weren’t recovered so we weren’t able to put a name to the girl.”

“It’s Ruby Gonzales,” Carter said, his voice coming out as barely a whisper.

The doctor nodded and wrote that on the clipboard.

He heard the squeaking of shoes on the ground outside the door and he knew they were seconds away from barging in and taking Carter out of that room. He would fight them all if he needed to. It would be an easy battle and worth it if it meant he got to stay with Ruby.

The doctor looked at the doorway behind him and then sighed.

“I’ll deal with them if you can tell me more information about this girl,” the doctor offered.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Carter said, his tone shaky.

The doctor nodded and walked past him and into the hallway. After a few minutes, he came back inside the room and walked back to Ruby’s bedside.

“Is she going to be okay?” Carter finally asked the question that’s been weighing on his mind from the second he couldn’t get a hold of Ruby earlier.

The doctor sighed and he looked up at Carter with sadness lingering in his eyes.

“I’m afraid not…” the doctor breathed. “Ruby suffered severe damage… I’m afraid she’s brain dead.”