Vampire 101

by Paige Tyler

  Do it. Turn her now before it’s too late.

  The girl opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

  After a moment, she lifted her hand weakly, silently begging him with that one feeble gesture to help her. When he made no move to take her hand, it fell limply to her side again, her eyes closing.

  Kaige ground his jaw. God knew he didn’t want to do this. He’d promised himself he never would. But he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t just stand there and watch her die.

  Swearing under his breath, Kaige gently slipped an arm beneath the girl and lifted her so that she was lying back against his thigh. Cradling her in the curve of one arm, he lifted the other and sank his fangs into his wrist. As the taste of blood filled his mouth, he lowered his arm to hold his wrist to her parted lips.

  It would have been easier if she were aware enough to suck on his wrist. On second thought, maybe it was better she was out of it. If she were conscious, she probably would have tried to push him away, and if he didn’t get his blood in her quickly, she would die. After a few seconds, he saw her throat convulse rhythmically.

  Whether or not she knew what she was doing, the blood was going down.

  When he was satisfied that she’d ingested enough, he moved his wrist to the bite marks at her neck and let the blood run freely over the wound. Not only was it another way to mix his blood with hers, but it would also help seal the wound faster.

  Kaige held his breath as he gazed down at the girl and waited for some sign that her body had started to accept the change. Not everyone’s did. And since he didn’t have a hell of a lot of experience with what happened to a person when they became a vampire other than his own turning—which he didn’t remember much about—he wasn’t really sure what to expect.

  He was wondering if he should give her more of his blood when she stirred in his arms. Relief coursed through him only to be replaced by alarm when she started to have convulsions. He wrapped his other arm around her, holding onto her tightly.

  Shit.

  Was that normal? He had absolutely no idea.

  Feeling completely helpless, Kaige could do nothing but hold the girl and pray her body accepted his blood. If it didn’t, she would die an agonizing death—that much he did know. When she finally went still, he was almost afraid to wonder if that was good or bad. But then he saw the spasm as her chest began to rise and fall. She hadn’t rejected his blood. Thank God.

  Taking off his jacket, he wrapped it around her, trying his best to hide the jagged wound in her neck. He looked down to see her purse lying on the ground. He should probably take that, too. Grabbing it, he gathered the girl up in his arms and headed for his SUV. This was going to be one hell of a long night.

  Chapter Two

  The smart thing to do would have been to take the woman to the vampire clinic, but instead Kaige found himself driving to his home in Nob Hill. When he got to his place—a two-story condo with a view of the bay—he went directly up to his room and gently set her down on the bed. Reaching out, he turned on the lamp on the bedside table. She looked unnaturally pale in the soft glow of the light, which contrary to popular belief, wasn’t a good thing for vampires. It meant they needed blood and usually a lot of it.

  Kaige ran his hand through his dark hair. He was so out of his depth here it wasn’t even funny. He’d never bothered to learn anything about the process of becoming a vampire because he’d never planned on turning anyone. But he had turned someone, and he needed a vampire who had experience with this kind of thing. Like Jensen Flynn, the male who’d turned him.

  Keeping one eye on the girl, Kaige pulled his cell phone from his pocket, then quickly scrolled through his list of contacts and hit speed-dial. Jensen answered on the second ring.

  “It’s me,” Kaige said. “I need you to get over to my place. Now.”

  “Hello to you, too,” the other man said dryly. “What’s up?”

  “I’ll explain when you get here. And Jensen,” Kaige added, “bring your med kit.”

  Jensen was there twenty minutes later, an oversized black duffel bag in hand. “So, what’s the big emergency?” the tall, blond-haired man asked as he walked in.

  Kaige closed the door. “I turned a woman tonight and I don’t have a clue what to do next. I need you to check her out.”

  Jensen lifted a brow. “You’re joking, right?”

  “I wish,” Kaige muttered. “It’s not like I did it because I wanted to. I didn’t really have a choice. The girl got attacked by a psycho vampire outside this Goth club I went to tonight. He really made a mess of her. If I hadn’t turned her, she would have died.”

  Kaige didn’t know whether Jensen was more surprised to hear a fellow vampire attack a human or the fact that Kaige’d been at a Goth club.

  “Where is she?” Jensen asked.

  “In my room,” Kaige said, leading the way up the stairs.

  “This other vampire,” Jensen said as they made their way down the hall to Kaige’s bedroom. “Did you recognize him?”

  Kaige shook his head. “Never saw him before. But he wasn’t that strong, so my guess is that he’s been recently turned.”

  The woman was still lying in the same position she’d been in when he’d gone downstairs to answer the door. She hadn’t so much as let out a moan since having those convulsions in the alley, and while he might not know much about what went on during the change, he didn’t think that could be good. He frowned as he followed Jensen over to the bed.

  “Take me through what you did,” his friend said as he took the girl’s wrist and checked her pulse.

  Kaige ran his hand through his hair. “Not much, really. After I chased off the other vampire, I gave her some of my blood. I put some on the wounds on her neck, too. I thought it might help.”

  Jensen released the girl’s hand to examine the jagged tears on her neck. “Savage bastard,” he muttered. He unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out a stethoscope, glancing at Kaige as he put it in the earpieces. “How did she respond after you gave her your blood?”

  “At first, she didn’t seem to have any reaction at all, but then she started to have convulsions. Is that normal?”

  Jensen placed the chest piece over the girl’s heart and listened for a moment before answering. “Completely. The turning process is damn hard on the body, so it’s not unusual for humans to convulse during it.” He put the stethoscope back in the duffel bag. “Her vitals are okay, but not great. She’s going to need a lot more blood.”

  Kaige stared down at the woman lying still in his bed. “She’s going to make it then?”

  The other man shrugged. “It’s too early to tell, but her body doesn’t seem to be rejecting your blood, so that’s a good sign. Just keep her comfortable and well hydrated. I’ll set her up with an IV, so that’ll make it easier. You’ll need to alternate glucose and blood about every four hours or so for the next day or two until she wakes up.”

  Kaige’s eyes narrowed as Jensen took out two bags of glucose solution from his duffel bag. “Whoa. Wait a minute. I thought you’d take her back to the clinic with you.”

  “She wouldn’t be any better off there than she is here. She needs blood and rest, nothing more. Which means you can take care of her here.” He paused. “Even you should know one of our most basic rule: You turn her, you’re responsible for her.”

  Yeah, he knew the rule. But he didn’t think it should apply in this situation. “But I don’t have any experience with this kind of thing. Besides, I can’t just drop everything and babysit some girl. I have classes to teach.”

  Jensen reached into the bag again, this time coming out with some IV equipment. “Have one of your TA’s take over for you.”

  Kaige ground his jaw. “It’s not that simple.”

  Jensen fixed him with a hard look. “Then maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to turn her.”

  Kaige felt himself flush. “I couldn’t just let her d
ie, dammit.”

  “No, you couldn’t.” His friend sighed. “Look, whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to teach her everything she needs to know. Considering you’re a college professor, that shouldn’t be too difficult.”

  “I teach Western European History, not Vampire 101, you know,” Kaige muttered.

  Jensen chuckled, but made no comment as he continued to unload various items from his duffel bag. Once he was done, he set up the first IV bag, going slowly so that Kaige could see how to do it. After that, he showed Kaige how to use the IV to draw his own blood.

  “She needs to have your blood until her transition is complete, which should be in a few days,” Jensen explained when Kaige gave him a surprised look. “I don’t know how much blood you have on hand, but you’ll need to keep yourself well fed, so I’ll arrange to have some more delivered.” He zipped up the duffel bag. “If you can give me a description of the vampire who attacked her, I’ll notify the authorities and see if they can track him down.”

  Kaige’s mouth tightened as he thought of the other vampire. After the way the bastard had attacked the girl, Kaige would have liked nothing better than to have gone after the scumbag himself, but he knew the vampire security operatives that worked for the local administrative offices were very good at this kind of thing. They’d find him and make the guy pay.

  “You know where to find me if you need anything,” Jensen said as they walked downstairs.

  “Count on it,” Kaige told him.

  After Jensen left, Kaige went into the kitchen to get something to eat. He grabbed a bag of blood from the fridge and poured the contents into a mug, then microwaved it on high for a couple of minutes. Some vampires preferred their blood straight from the fridge, but Kaige had never been able to stomach the stuff that way. While he waited for it to heat, he took out a glass mixing bowl and filled it with warm water. Though Jensen hadn’t specifically said anything about cleansing the wound on the girl’s neck, it might be a good idea to get her cleaned up. He didn’t want her freaking out when she woke up. If she woke up, he told himself grimly.

  Picking up the bowl of water, Kaige took the mug out of the microwave and went upstairs. Setting them down on the bedside table, he grabbed a small washcloth from the linen closet in the adjoining master bathroom, and then walked back over to the bed. Sitting down on the edge of it, he dipped the washcloth in the bowl of water and gently wiped the blood off the girl’s neck. The wound was still jagged, but it was no longer bleeding. With her body’s newfound regenerative capabilities, the bite marks would be no more than faint scars in a few days.

  When he was done, Kaige gazed down at her. She was even more attractive than he’d first thought. Actually, she was beautiful.

  Unable to help himself, he reached out and gently brushed her hair back from her face. She moaned and stirred at his touch, her eyes fluttering open. It had been too dark in the alley to see what color they were, but now he could see that her eyes were a gorgeous shade of blue. For a moment, he was so lost in their jewel-like depths that all he could do was stare at her. Which was why he didn’t see the confusion there right away. He knew he should say something to reassure her, but before he could get the words out, her eyes closed and she drifted off into unconsciousness again.

  Great. He couldn’t even manage something as simple as telling her that she was safe. How the hell was he going to tell her that she was a vampire? He only hoped she took the news better than he had.

  Kaige was about to pick up his mug and go take up residence in the overstuffed chair by the window when he remembered what Jensen had said about keeping the girl comfortable. No way was he taking off her clothes, but he could at least take off her boots. As he carefully pulled off first one boot, then the other, he couldn’t help noticing how long and shapely her legs were. He quickly pulled up the blanket to cover her. He should be worried about saving her life, not ogling her beautiful legs.

  Swearing under his breath, Kaige picked up his mug and walked across the bedroom to sit down in the overstuffed chair by the window. As he gazed at the woman sleeping in his bed he couldn’t shake the feeling that his very orderly, very boring life was about to get a whole hell of a lot more complicated.

  * * * * *

  Savanna came awake slowly. Eyes still closed, she pulled the blanket up to her chin and snuggled into the pillow with a sigh.

  God, she’d had a really strange dream last night. More like a nightmare, really. She’d been at the Goth club Nighttown and there’d been this cool looking guy dressed in leather pants and an overcoat. She’d gone behind the club with him for some reason she couldn’t remember, and the next thing she knew, he’d shoved her against the wall of the building and viciously bitten her on the neck. She’d tried to push him away, but he’d been so damn strong. And the bite had hurt like crazy. She couldn’t ever remember having a dream that vivid before.

  Of its own accord, her hand went to the side of her neck. What the heck? While there wasn’t a huge wound there, the skin was definitely tender and uneven feeling, like she had some kind of scar. Frowning, she pushed down the blanket and sat up so she could go to the bathroom and look in the mirror, only to freeze. Something was very wrong here. Not only was she still wearing the same clothes from her dream, she was also sleeping in a bed that definitely wasn’t her own.

  Clutching the blanket tightly in her hands, she looked around the room. The thing was the size of her living room, and decorated in clean, modern lines. Everything from the huge king-sized bed to the art on the walls looked really expensive. She’d definitely never been in this place before—she would have remembered.

  So, apparently she had been at the club last night. Did she have too much to drink and hook up with a guy she’d met there? For all her flirting, that was something she didn’t make a habit of doing. There were just too many weirdos out there for that.

  Of course, if the guy had been amazingly hot, she supposed she might have made an exception. But if he’d been that incredible, shouldn’t she at least remember sleeping with him? But wait, she still had her clothes on. Not her boots, but everything else. That was odd. What the hell was going on?

  An image of a man leaning over her and tenderly brushing her hair back suddenly flashed in her mind. Though the memory was fuzzy at best, she remembered the guy had been gorgeous as hell, even if he wasn’t her usual type.

  This was just too bizarre for words. Most of the time, she barely even remembered her dreams, and now the images were playing through her head like some movie. She closed her eyes and tried to sort them out. Things were starting to come back to her now. She vaguely remembered lying on the floor of an alley, remembered the man picking her up in his strong arms, remembered him setting her down gently on the bed, remembered him talking to her in a soothing voice, remembered him sticking a needle in her arm, remembered some thick, dark liquid slowly dripping from an IV bag…

  Savanna’s eyes flew open and she looked down at her arm.

  There wasn’t an IV sticking out of her arm, but there was a plastic catheter neatly inserted into her skin in the crook of her arm.

  She lifted her gaze to see an IV stand beside the bed. Oh God, it hadn’t been a dream. What the hell was going on? Had she been kidnapped and drugged? Raped?

  Her stomach churned at that. Swallowing hard, she yanked up her skirt and breathed a sigh of relief to see that she was still wearing her panties. If the guy had raped her, he wouldn’t put her panties back on, would he?

  Even so, that didn’t mean the guy who’d brought her here didn’t have something else nefarious in mind. The drugs he’d been pumping into her were proof enough of that. She had to get out of here, and quick.

  Taking hold of the plastic catheter with trembling fingers, she pulled it out and threw it on the bedside table, then pushed back the blanket the rest of the way and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Weak from whatever drugs she’d been given, it took several minutes for her t
o feel steady enough to put on her boots.

  God, why had she worn these? They took forever to get into. She was just shoving her foot into the second one when the door to the bedroom opened.

  Heart hammering in her chest, Savanna lifted her head to see a tall, dark-haired man coming into the room. Even as fuzzy as she was, there was no mistaking those rugged good looks. He was the guy she remembered leaning over her.

  “You’re awake,” he said. “That’s good.”

  His voice was deep and velvety, just like she remembered. Savanna jumped to her feet and backed away from him on wobbly legs.

  “Who are you?” she demanded. “Where am I?”

  The man held up his hand in a placating gesture. “Just take it easy. I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Kaige Travers, and you’re in my house.”

  Savanna’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. What the heck kind of name was Kaige, anyway? Probably fake. “Why did you bring me here?” she asked, not bothering to return the introduction.

  Kaige regarded her thoughtfully for a moment. “How much do you remember about what happened at the Goth club?”

  Savanna’s pulse began to race. There was no way he was referring to that crazy stuff from her dream. Right? “What are you talking about?”

  He hesitated. “You were attacked. I had to bring you here to save your life.”

  “What do you mean, you brought me here to save my life? Why didn’t you just take me to a hospital? What kind of attack?”

  “The hospital wouldn’t have been able to do anything for you. That guy who dragged you into the alley… He was a… You were…” He sighed. “You were bitten by a vampire.”

  Savanna stared at him in disbelief. Okay, that did it. No more Goth clubs for her. She might like to dress all in black and pretend vampires really existed, but she knew enough to separate fantasy from reality. Unlike the handsome, but obviously insane, Kaige Travers.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but—”

  “It doesn’t just sound crazy, it is crazy,” she said. “Vampires aren’t real.”