The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  “Yes! It’s perfect, Delano. After all these years, I can be instrumental in bringing down the predator who murdered more than half my company.” Eli’s normally impassive face was wreathed in passion. “Don’t take this away from me, Del. Let me do it.”

  “Eli, my friend, I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t let you do it. I need you here. More importantly, if anything should happen to me, Ainsley needs you.”

  “The success or failure of this gamble hinges on whether or not we can set off an acute hemolysis, correct?”

  “That’s right,” Delano conceded guardedly.

  Eli grinned broadly. “Then I’m your man. I’m AB-freakin’-positive.”

  Ainsley’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding? AB positive? That’s the rarest of all blood types.”

  “Not quite as rare as AB negative, but damned close,” Eli said. “Just over three in a hundred people have it. Fortunately for me, it makes me a universal recipient in that I can receive blood of any ABO type and Rh.”

  “AB positive,” Delano murmured. “Which means that unless our friend Janecek is a member of the exclusive AB club, the results will be catastrophic.”

  Eli laughed triumphantly. “Not just AB. He has to be AB positive.”

  “Perfect!”

  “So I’ve got the job?”

  Delano glanced at Ainsley, who nodded. “It’s yours.” Then he depressed the mute button to bring Janecek back on line.

  “Radak, I’ve found a volunteer for you. It’s my security chief. As you know, he’s not exactly the trusting kind, and he wouldn’t hear of jeopardizing anyone else. Insisted on doing it himself.”

  “Ah, the formidable Mr. Grayson.” Ainsley could hear the lust in his voice. “This will be sweet, indeed!”

  “What it will be is clean and perfunctory,” Delano gritted, “and you will release Mr. Grayson unharmed and unmolested if you wish me to restore Ms. Crawford’s functionality. Is that understood?”

  “That’s so like you, Bowen, to suck all the fun out of anything.” A pause. When Janecek spoke again, his voice was all business. “Okay, when I say go, he’s got one minute to get up here. His hands will be cuffed behind his back, cuffs double-locked and snug, and looped through his belt. When he steps onto the roof, he’ll rotate a full 360 degrees so we can inspect him and ensure that you’ve complied with these instructions. On my signal, he will then approach the aircraft. He will kneel facing the copter, and will cross his legs at the ankles. Is that clear.”

  “Understood,” said Eli.

  “Go!”

  Delano muted the phone while Eli produced his own cuffs.

  “I’ll get one of my guys on the landing to cuff me. It’ll be quicker, and they’ll do it right.” With that he headed for the exit on the double.

  Ainsley wanted to call him back, to tell him to be safe, or to hug him or something, but dammit, there was no time to be lost.

  Oh, God, what if Janecek drained him dry?

  Or what if Eli decided he couldn’t wait for his blood to do its work — or didn’t trust it to do it’s work — and tried to take the vampire out in some other kamikaze fashion?

  Her stomach lurched, and she started hyper-salivating.

  Delano had already picked up the radio. While he gave a rapid-fire update to the team in the security office downstairs, Ainsley pushed back her chair and put her head between her knees.

  She would not faint. Nor would she vomit. She would not.

  “Ainsley, honey, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay.” She sat up again, wiping perspiration from her brow. Swallowing excess saliva, she wiped her mouth, too. “Just a little nauseated there, but I’m all right now.”

  “You don’t have to stay here for this. Why don’t you go sit with Devon?”

  “Is she likely to waken?”

  He shook his head. “Not for hours.”

  “Then I’m staying.”

  “He’s on the roof,” came the voice of the security command office twenty-eight floors below. “He’s turning, turning…”

  Delano came to stand behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her left hand to cover his right and squeezed.

  “Okay he’s heading toward the helo. He’s stopped. He’s kneeling now, legs crossed at the ankle as instructed. The helo’s door is opening … and the subject is out. He seems to be scanning the roof. Now he’s circling Grayson, inspecting the handcuff job.” A pause. “I think … wait … he seems to be saying something to Grayson. Now the subject has Grayson by the hair, tipping his head back. He’s bending … oh, Jesus. Oh, Christ.”

  “It’s okay,” Delano cut in sharply. “I don’t need a play-by-play of this part. Just tell me when he’s finished.”

  After what seemed like eternity but which probably was no more than a minute, the voice came back.

  “Oh, thank God, he’s done. Grayson is still kneeling there.”

  “Is he bleeding?”

  “Umm … no. Not that I can see, anyway, but I don’t have the best angle.”

  Thank God! Ainsley knew from her own experience that if Janecek had failed to seal the wound, they’d see plenty of spurting blood, no matter what the camera’s angle.

  “Janecek is retreating to the helo. Grayson is getting up now. Whoa!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s okay. He’s okay. He just stumbled a little, but he’s on his feet now, approaching the door. Opening the door. He’s in!”

  Ainsley rushed to the exit and tore open the door. “Eli?” She heard the tread of several men’s booted feet on the steps, and in a matter of seconds, Eli appeared on the landing, a burly man gripping each of his now uncuffed arms.

  “Oh, God, bring him in!”

  She almost bumped into Delano as she stepped back to clear the doorway. He caught her to save the collision, but instead of releasing her, he pulled her back against him.

  “I’m okay,” Eli said.

  “I doubt that,” said Delano, releasing Ainsley to examine Eli. Ainsley saw him squeeze one of Eli’s fingernails. She saw, also, how slow the capillary refill was. “The sit rep I just got said you stumbled when you got to your feet. Sure you’re not feeling a little woozy?”

  He laughed, a giddy, delighted sound, as one of his men released the cuffs. “I’m feeling extremely woozy, thank you very much. Stupid sonofabitch took lots!”

  Ainsley didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she put her nurse face on. “Carry him to the last bedroom at the end of corridor and make him comfortable on the bed. Get that armor off him. As soon as I find the supplies, I’ll be in to start him on whole blood.”

  “I’ll get it,” Delano volunteered. “Everything’s downstairs in the lab. But first, a word for our friend.”

  He crossed to the table and stabbed the mute button. “Goddammit, Radak, do you think you took enough? You gave me your word you wouldn’t harm him.”

  “What?” Janecek’s voice came over the speaker, sounding sated and pleased with himself. “I told you I would leave him ambulatory. Did he not get back inside under his own steam?”

  “No thanks to you.”

  “Yes, well, do tell him thanks. He was every bit as luscious as I knew he would be.”

  “Of course. I’ll just mention that as I’m transfusing him, shall I? I’m sure he’ll be thrilled. Speaking of which, I now have to address getting a transfusion started before I can sit down with Ms. Crawford. I’m going to need better than an hour now. Probably ninety minutes or more.”

  “Then you’d better learn how to multi-task. You have exactly one hour to put Miss Humpty-Dumpty together again, starting right now.”

  Janecek hung up, leaving a dial tone buzzing over the speaker. Delano closed the line, plunging the room into silence.

  Ainsley bit her lip. “Will an hour be long enough for the transfusion reaction to set in?”

  “Let’s hope so. It certainly didn’t take long for Edward Webber, and I doubt Webber imbibed nearly so dee
ply of his second victim as Janecek did just now.”

  “He drank deeply from Eli, but not from Devon. And she’s so small… Are you sure this will work?”

  A muscle in his jaw leapt. “It has to.”

  Ainsley walked over to him on trembling legs and slid her arms around his waist. He closed him own arms around her and squeezed her once, fiercely enough to crush the breath from her body, then pulled away.

  “I know,” she said, touching his face. “The transfusion. Go fetch what we need and I’ll get him prepped.”

  Delano grimaced at the burning in his thigh muscles as he took the last flight of steps in three bounds and shouldered the door to the penthouse open. It was going to take some time getting used to his new — or rather, his old — physiology. He put down the heavy oxygen tank he was carrying, punched in the security code to keep the alarm from squawking, and strode to his bedroom.

  Ainsley greeted him at the door, taking the carry tote from his hand and leaving him with the portable oxygen. “I’ll get venous access established while you get that oxygen on him.”

  Delano thanked his stars for Ainsley’s trauma training. Seconds counted in these situations. “How’s the patient?”

  Eli opened his eyes. Though his pallor was evident against the dark pillow, he still managed to look reassuringly robust. “The patient can talk for himself.”

  “That’s encouraging.” Delano started the oxygen, adjusted the flow, then lifted the mask to Eli’s face. “But now the patient is going to have to shut up and take this oxygen.”

  Eli grinned. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  After fitting the mask to Eli’s face, Delano looked down to see that Ainsley had already managed to get the large-gauge cannula into his left arm. Eli hadn’t even flinched. He was a better man than most.

  “Good work,” Delano told Ainsley. “Now, let’s trade places so you can get this other arm, while I fix up an IV suspension system.”

  “You make a great team,” came Eli’s muffled voice from beneath the mask.

  “We do, don’t we? Now save your breath.” Delano removed his belt, climbed onto the bed and proceeded to cinch the belt around the arm of one of the blades on the ceiling fan, leaving the end dangling.

  Ainsley regarded the length of leather.

  “Interesting, but I don’t see how we’re going to suspend the bags from that.”

  Delano produced one of a couple of S hooks that he’d found in the lab. “We simply stick one end through a belt hole and voila.”

  “Brilliant! Here you go.”

  She handed up both bags. Carefully, he secured them on the hook and stepped off the bed.

  Delano checked his patient to see that Eli was regarding the ceiling fan IV assembly with a little less admiration than Ainsley had displayed.

  “Ainsley?” Eli said.

  She lifted the edge of the oxygen mask so she could hear his words better. “What is it? Are you feeling okay?”

  “Never better,” he replied, “but if you don’t mind, could you take some of that tape and secure the switch to that ceiling fan?”

  Delano had a mental flash of the fan being switched on, the blades turning, ripping out the IV. He couldn’t help it; he laughed. A second later, Ainsley joined him. Even Eli was laughing under the oxygen mask.

  Ainsley wiped tears from her eyes. “Thank you for the laugh. I really needed it. But you know, that’s not a bad idea.” She picked up the roll of tape and went to take care of the wall switch.

  Delano leaned in to check the lines. Perfect. Ainsley was a consummate professional, even under these rough circumstances.

  “Is there anything more I can do for you before I go back out there to monitor the phone?” he asked Eli. “I’ll be back, of course, for blood samples so we can keep an eye on things.”

  Eli rolled his eyes, which Delano took to be a suggestion to lift the mask.

  “Yeah, there’s something you can do. You can bring the damned phone.”

  “You want to use the phone?”

  “Not a phone. The phone.

  “The speakerphone?”

  “You must have a phone jack in here, don’t you?”

  “Of course, but you’ve given enough to the job for today, Eli. Let us handle it from here.”

  “What us?” he demanded. “Ainsley’ll be stuck in here nursing me, or running back and forth with her attention divided. Just bring the damn phone in here. Oh, and a radio so we can stay in touch with the security cam view of what’s happening on the roof.”

  “He has a good point, Delano. I don’t want to leave him, but I need to know what’s going on up there.”

  Delano fixed Eli with a glare. “You’re not going to take this patient thing lying down, are you?” Of course, his exasperation sprang only partly from Eli’s reluctance to play the patient. He’d been half hoping to shield Ainsley from the next act in this little drama. Looked like that was a non-starter.

  “Did you really expect me to?”

  Delano sighed. “I guess not.” He retrieved the radio, which was sitting with the pile of supplies he’d brought up from the lab, and tossed it on the bed where Ainsley could reach it. “You better have this, in case it squawks before I get back with the speakerphone.”

  When he came back two minutes later with the speakerphone and a spare radio, Eli had the oxygen back on and Ainsley was hanging a catheter bag by clipping it to the handle of the night table with an alligator clip she’d found. Before he could compliment her ingenuity, the radio squawked.

  Ainsley dove for the radio on the bed, but Delano produced the spare he’d pocketed. “Bowen here. What’s the status on the roof?”

  “Looks like activity in the helo, but I can’t tell what’s going on. It’s hard to tell without sound, but it almost looks like he’s trashing the inside of the helo.”

  “The phone!” Ainsley grabbed it from him. “Where’s the jack? We need to get it plugged in. If he’s frustrated, he’ll call.”

  No sooner did she say that when the phone began to ring from the other room. “There!” Delano pointed to a phone jack to the left of his bed, situated right beside an electrical outlet. “Give me the power supply. It has to be plugged in, as well.”

  Between the two of them, they got it plugged in and it began to ring. Delano hit the button to answer it.

  “Bowen.”

  “Your time is up,” Janecek shouted. “Both of you. On the roof. Now.”

  “I told you it would take the better part of an hour. We haven’t used half that much time yet. I’ve barely begun—”

  “Changed my mind.” A pause, filled by labored breathing, as though his earlier roar had done him in. “I’ve decided … I’m in rather … a hurry.”

  A jolt of excitement jittered through him at Janecek’s breathlessness. “Radak? You don’t sound so good. Is something wrong up there?”

  “Nothing wrong. Just need the woman. And you.”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not going to happen until I finish working with Nurse Crawford. She’s only now starting to respond. It’ll take—”

  A crash and a curse. “Waste of time … fixing her. Send her now.”

  “Radak, are you having trouble breathing? Is your heart racing?”

  “What? What did you say?”

  “Are you feeling a little weak, maybe? Or experiencing chest pain?”

  An anguished howl. “How?” he demanded. “How did you do it? How did you poison me?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Fuck you, Bowen. You did so! But how?”

  “I’m afraid you partook of the Merzetti blood, Radak.”

  “No. Impossible. Grayson can’t have … the Merzetti blood. You would never let him spend … so much time … on the front lines. Too risky.”

  “Not Grayson. I told you, I didn’t do this to you. You did it to yourself.”

  “Nooooooooo!”

  “Yes. The girl. You didn’t turn her, Radak. She’s sleeping like a princess in her mother�
��s bed. Her biological mother’s bed.”

  “Bitch!” he snarled. “It was that little whore! You! You knew about this.”

  A female scream. Then the cell phone Janecek had been using crashed to the floor.

  “Lucy!” Ainsley screamed. Then she turned on Delano. “Omigod, what have you done? He’ll kill her now! He knows he has nothing to lose!”

  “She’ll be able to fend him off. He’s weak as a kitten.” He hoped. Jesus, it wasn’t supposed to go this way. His plan was to make Janecek’s plight plain, then dangle the prospect of medical assistance to motivate him to surrender quickly. And dammit, it was a good plan, but the vampire had let his rage get the better of him.

  “Pilot!” Delano shouted. “Pilot, pick up! Pick up this phone, dammit, if you want to live. Do you hear me? Pick up the phone. Do it now!”

  “Hello?”

  Delano’s knees went weak with relief, but he steeled his voice. “Listen carefully. Your boss is dying. I’m a doctor, and there’s no doubt about the outcome. He will die, and he’ll die soon. But I don’t want any harm to come to that nice young woman before he dies, and neither do you. Now tell me, is she all right?”

  “She’s holding her own.”

  “Good. Because if anything bad happens to the lady, I’ll no longer feel constrained not to use my anti-aircraft guns when you try to lift that bird off my roof. Do you take my meaning?”

  “Guns?”

  “Yes, big ones. Did you happen to notice that skylight when you landed? It’s not really a skylight. And even if you should lift off safely, I’ve got your partner. He can’t talk right now, since I’ve robbed him of the power of speech, but I expect he can write if I put pen and paper in his hands. And I’m pretty confident I can persuade your name out of him if I promise to reverse the tracheostomy I gave him. If this does not turn out well, I will hunt you down and feed your own liver to you. Are we understood?”

  “Okay, okay! I’ll help you.”

  “Your boss is still conscious?”

  “Yes. Jesus. H. Christ, he’s looking at me! He knows I’m talking to you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I promise you, he can’t hurt you. By all means, shoot him if you feel you need to, or in defense of Mrs. Michaels, but I really don’t think you’ll need to. Even as we speak, his body is killing off red blood cells in a wholesale slaughter that he can’t possibly survive. Is he having trouble catching his breath?”