Bloodgifted

by Tima Maria Lacoba

  The male was the older of the two—a portly man in his mid to late forties with a receding hairline. The dark circles under his eyes went with the territory. The woman, maybe in her late twenties, wore a navy blue pants suit. Her eager expression gave the impression of one just promoted to detective. I guessed she couldn’t wait to question me.

  They both straightened at my approach. It amused me the way the woman bit down on her lower lip and smoothed her brown shoulder-length hair behind her ears.

  ‘I’m Dr Alec Munro. How can I help you?’

  ‘I’m Detective Senior Constable Delaney and this is Detective Constable Norris.’ He gave me a firm handshake.

  They flashed their respective badges. Delaney cleared his throat. ‘It’s about Detective Inspector Sommers—the assault victim you treated last night and the young lady, Laura Dantonville… Is there somewhere we can speak privately?’ he asked.

  ‘My office. Down the corridor.’

  I led the way, a confident smile concealing my struggle to construct a believable story. The absolute truth was out of the question. I hated lying, yet creative invention was an unavoidable part of my life. There was no way I could divulge the existence of my kind and their part in Sommers’s injury. And I couldn’t see how to leave Laura out of this. The police had found him found in her apartment. How could I explain Laura’s abduction and my failure to notify them? And how might I explain her not being seen by the paramedics or taken to the same hospital?

  Since my transformation, headaches had been non-existent. Now I distinctly felt one coming on.

  ‘Please be seated.’ I indicated chairs near my desk. I could see them taking in the details of my office. Delaney’s eyes homed in on the framed copies of my various degrees and qualifications. Norris had her incident pad at the ready. I had to be extremely careful what I said.

  Delaney began the interrogation. ‘You often work this late, or did you have an early start today?’

  ‘This is a research facility as well as a hospital. I often work through the night on experiments.’

  ‘The paramedics said you treated D.I. Sommers at the scene and gave them your card. Is that correct?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Approximately what time was that?’

  Damn! I’d almost forgotten the three-hour gap between finding Sommers and Laura’s hospitalisation. Carol would have recorded the time on the supply sheet when she fetched the units of blood. If they requested that sheet the time difference would be difficult to explain. I kept my voice even. ‘Sometime after 9.30. It was already dark.’

  He nodded. ‘Tell us what happened?’

  If I couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation, I might have to resort to hypnotism. ‘I was driving past, testing my new GPS device and stopped to check its accuracy, when I heard a scream from the block of units nearby.’ I paused for a moment to give the impression I was recalling events.

  ‘Go on, Dr Munro.’ Delaney’s eyes never left my face.

  ‘We ran in—’

  ‘We?’

  ‘I had a few friends with me.’

  ‘How many?’

  I wondered just then if I’d blundered in mentioning the men. Too late now. ‘Four.’

  ‘We’ll get their names later.’ He indicated for me to continue.

  ‘We found two injured people. A man with severe head injuries and a young woman with deep lacerations to her left arm. It bled profusely. Called for the ambulance. Treated them immediately. One of my friends—’

  ‘His name?’ Delaney interrupted.

  ‘Jake Medsen.’

  Norris wrote it down.

  ‘Go on, Doctor Munro.’

  ‘As I was saying, one of my friends looked around… see if they could spot anyone. Not much more to tell. The ambulance arrived. Gave them instructions and my card.’

  Norris fixed me with her cold, pale eyes. ‘Dr Munro, why didn’t you place Miss Dantonville in the same ambulance?’

  I gazed at her and tried to sound convincing. ‘Miss Dantonville was bleeding heavily. Pulse extremely weak. I made a professional decision to take her directly to this hospital. It’s closer and has a better blood transfusion facility. Probably saved her life.’

  So far I’d told the truth, apart from the GPS device, but I also omitted a great deal.

  Norris looked at me with interest. ‘The paramedics didn’t mention that.’

  I shrugged, as if that wasn’t my problem.

  ‘We’ll check that. Did you see anyone else in or near the building?’ she continued.

  ‘No.’

  Delaney rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn. ‘Forensic team will be out there later today. See what they can find.’

  They’ll find our prints all over the place, I was tempted to say.

  Delaney stood up and extended his hand once again. ‘Thank you Dr Munro. You’ve been most helpful. Norris will get those names now, if you don’t mind.’

  I rattled them off and Norris scribbled away before closing her notebook.

  As they headed for the door, Delaney turned toward me. ‘Let me say how much I appreciate what you did for Matthew Sommers. The paramedics said you saved his life. He’s a friend as well as a colleague… Laura Dantonville’s his girl.’

  ‘Before you go.’ I pushed back my chair and strode around to them. ‘What do you suppose happened before my friends and I arrived?’ I longed to know how close they might be to the truth.

  He let out a resigned breath, as if answering my question was unlikely to compromise their investigation. ‘We think they interrupted a couple of intruders in Laura’s flat. No doubt she saw the aggressors and screamed. That’s corroborated by what you said. At that stage they knocked her out. Matt must have run in and pulled his gun, but someone attacked from the side. At least one of the perps was incredibly strong. Matt’s head was rammed into the doorpost like a tennis ball and he’s not a small man. How’s Laura?’

  ‘She’s going to be fine.’

  ‘Will she be up to answering some questions later today? Need to know what she saw.’

  ‘Unfortunately there’s no knowing how concussion will affect her recall of events.’ I knew Laura didn’t have concussion, but this diagnosis would help avoid mention of the abduction. I didn’t want Laura to lie, just evade the whole truth.

  Delaney and Norris nodded. ‘Thankyou for your help. We’ll be in touch.’

  After they left, I headed back to Laura’s room by way of the fire escape again.

  Luc joined me. ‘Delicately handled.’

  That moment Laura’s voice screamed in my mind.

  I pushed past Luc and burst through the door.

  Chapter 29

  Not Over Yet

  LAURA

  I awoke to find myself out of the Emergency ward and in a hospital room. As fuzzy as my brain felt, the events of the night came back to me and I checked my arms. No needles. Alec must have pulled them out while I slept. It was still dark outside as I glanced in the direction of the window.

  Only then I became aware of someone in the room. Not Alec and not my father, Luc. Something else, a shadow of sorts, but oddly solid.

  Before I had the chance to utter a cry, or press the buzzer, a large hand slammed over my mouth, while another grabbed my good hand in a tight grip. A head loomed close to mine. Even in the weak light I saw who it was.

  Russell.

  ‘Hello Laura,’ he whispered.

  I struggled to claw his hand off my face with my injured hand.

  ‘Keep still. I’m not going to hurt you like Maris did.’

  I shivered at the memory of her sadistic games.

  He said, ‘I’m meant to be delivering you to someone else—like a parcel.’ A nasty chuckle came out of him.

  The thought was frightening. Who had sent Russell to get me? Maris and Douglas were dead. Was there someone else? My stomach lurched. I moved my head not wanting to look at him, but he forced it back until once more we were face to face.

  My e
yes darted to the door. Where’s Alec?

  ‘Don’t expect a rescue this time, dear girl. Alec is busy entertaining the police and Lord Lucien is with Judith. Besides,’ his fanged-smile increased, ‘I’m wearing your ring, so they can’t sense my presence in here.’

  I glanced at his hand. There was my Serpent Ring, sitting atop his finger. How had he managed to remove it?

  ‘Amazing what a drop of your blood can do,’ he said, as if he’d heard my thoughts. ‘The serpent uncoiled from your finger onto mine. Of course, I had to use protection. Just smearing it on my skin wouldn’t exactly be conducive to my health now, would it?’

  That’s when I noticed red drops on the cellotape. Somehow he’d gotten hold of my blood. That wouldn’t have been difficult since some of it dropped onto the ground when Maris ripped into the vein on my wrist.

  ‘Now, I don’t have much time. We must move, my dear girl and not keep someone waiting.’

  No! I tried to angle my face toward the door and wondered how long before someone—anyone—noticed an extra vampire in the place. The lower half of my face throbbed from the pressure of his hand on my mouth.

  ‘He wants you for his mate,’ he said, then tsk, tsked. ‘Pretty desperate, I’d say.’

  My brain went numb. Whoever it is has to be completely out of his vampiric mind! I closed my eyes and mentally yelled for Alec even though Russell wore my ring. The door flew open and Alec stood there. His deep lavender eyes were alien, inhuman, and his razor sharp fangs slid out.

  Rather than fearing him, I thought he was the most wonderful sight I’d ever seen.

  In a blindingly fast move, Russell dragged my body into a sitting position, placed himself at my back and held me against his chest like a human shield. One hand gripped my jaw.

  Luc burst into the room just behind Alec. In the space of seconds they had dropped the human persona and pale reptilian eyes glared at Russell.

  ‘Gentlemen, gentlemen,’ Russell calmly said. ‘Come any closer and her head will face backwards.’

  Alec’s eyes blazed as he looked from Russell to me and back again. He took a step forward and Russell tensed.

  ‘Alec, stop. He will do it,’ Luc warned.

  ‘It’ll be your head on backwards, if you dare hurt her,’ Alec said.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Luc asked.

  ‘Let’s say I’m repaying a debt and this young lady’s the payment.’

  ‘To whom?’ Alec stood at the foot of my bed, hands folded over his chest. Slowly his face returned to human form.

  Behind me I felt Russell laugh. ‘You really don’t expect me to reveal that, do you?’

  Alec and Luc glanced at each other.

  ‘Let her go and we’ll come to some sort of arrangement,’ Luc said.

  ‘If I release the girl, I want your guarantee of a safe passage out of here.’

  ‘In return for a name,’ Alec said.

  Russell didn’t reply. From his quickening heartbeat, I guessed he had backed himself into a corner. He couldn’t deliver me to whomever had sent him—that one was definitely out—and if he killed me, he might as well commit suicide. Alec and Luc would pounce on him in a second. And Russell didn’t come across as the suicidal type. On top of that, he had failed whoever sent him to get me, so he was in big trouble from all sides.

  Yet I couldn’t just sit here and wait for him to make up his mind as to his next move, or for Luc and Alec to decide how to get me out if this. Surely there was something I could do. I hated being helpless.

  Was my blood the only dangerous thing about me? That thought triggered an idea. What if my other bodily fluids were just as poisonous—saliva, sweat…etc? What would happen if I spat on Russell’s hand? Would it burn his skin?

  I looked at Alec. ‘Can you hear my thoughts?’

  ‘I can hear them,’ his voice said in my head.

  I double-blinked. ‘Even though…?’

  ‘We have a connection, whether we’re wearing the rings or not.’

  ‘So you heard all that?’

  He gave me a barely perceptible nod. Luc’s eyes darted from Alec to me and back again. A faint smile appeared on his face. I had the feeling he knew we were communicating telepathically.

  ‘Russell, it’s over. Give up,’ he said.

  Behind me, Russell stiffened and twisted the ring on his finger. The movement made me recall something Luc had said about the ring itself attacking the wrong bearer. Whoever had sent Russell either didn’t know or didn’t tell him. And it was already beginning.

  ‘Alec, the ring!’

  ‘I know. He won’t be able to stand it for much longer. Any minute now and he’ll have to loosen his grip.’

  ‘The ring doesn’t recognise you,’ Alec said to him. ‘It’ll get hotter, start to burn, eat right through flesh and into bone.’ He held up his own ringed-finger. ‘Mine feels cool.’

  Russell was silent, almost as though afraid, yet he kept that neck-breaking grip on me.

  I smelt the awful aroma of burnt flesh and he hissed and squirmed.

  Why doesn’t he just take it off?

  ‘He’s afraid,’ Alec’s voice said in my head. ‘He knows the moment he moves, I’ll get him.’

  ‘I think it’s best if Laura and I left,’ Russell said.

  ‘No way!’ I cried as he tried to lift me from the bed.

  ‘Laura, tell him about your saliva. It might make him flinch.’

  ‘Russell, if you try to drag me out of here, I’ll lick you. And if you think my blood burns, wait till my saliva hits you. All my bodily fluids are like acid. Feel!’ I extended my tongue and licked the length of the forefinger he held near my mouth.

  Russell yelped, jerked his hand away from my jaw and I bolted forward.

  Everything happened at once. Alec prised me free as Luc seized Russell and threw him to the other side of the room towards the window. Sunrise was near.

  Alec joined Luc and forced Russell face down onto the ground. He snarled and snapped at them, then screamed as Luc broke off his finger with the Serpent Ring attached and examined the appendage and the area I had licked. ‘Not a mark. It’s only your blood, ma petite,’ he said, as the golden serpent slid into his palm. ‘Hold out your hand.’

  I did so and the Serpent Ring coiled itself, once more, around my finger.

  It flared brightly before dimming to a deep, dark red. Its companion on Alec’s finger flared in response. We looked at each other a moment, until I turned away, still feeling Alec’s gaze on me.

  ‘You tricked me, dear girl,’ Russell called out through pain-gritted teeth.

  His voice broke the momentary silence and brought me back to the present urgency.

  ‘Sorry,’ I shrugged. ‘You gave me no choice. Nothing personal!’ I turned to Luc. ‘He knows the ring makes its wearer undetectable and how to steal it using my blood.’

  He and Alec exchanged glances.

  Luc crouched low, until his face was barely an inch from Russell’s. ‘How did you come to know that?’

  Russell struggled but Alec held him firmly. He angled his head to face Luc. ‘You don’t expect me to answer that, do you?’

  Luc rose and lifted the window blind. It was dark, but faint pink tendrils of light were seeping around the edges of the clouds. ‘The choice is yours. Either tell me what I want to know, or face the sun.’

  ‘You’re going to kill me anyway.’

  ‘There’s a difference between dying slowly, painfully and the quick death I could offer. Answer my question.’

  ‘A little bat told me,’ came the reply.

  ‘Then I’ll keep you here till the sun rises!’ Alec threatened him.

  A flash of lightening lit the sky, followed by a clap of thunder, then rain started pelting down. Russell gave a grim laugh. ‘Looks like the sun’s not interested in coming out to greet me.’

  ‘That doesn’t change a thing,’ Luc said. ‘I’ll take your head off, regardless of whether I do it with my bare hands or use the sword.�
�

  ‘Really? In front of our sweet little Ingenii?’

  I swallowed and felt myself pale. Would Luc really kill him—in front of me? The very thought made me shiver with dread. Yet in spite of that, something in Russell’s mocking tone brought out the devil in me. ‘I may be tougher than you think!’ I said, hoping my angry father wouldn’t put it to the test.

  ‘Luc, let’s take him back to the house. There’ll be more time to question him there,’ Alec suggested. ’The morning shift will be doing their rounds soon and I don’t want my staff alerted.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  Luc took hold of Russell’s other arm and hoisted him up. Russell didn’t struggle. He looked straight at me where I sat on the edge of the bed and said, ‘This isn’t over yet, dear girl.’

  There was a sudden tinkling of glass; the sound of a thud and the bored smirk on Russell’s face gave way to surprise then shock. He slumped in Alec and Luc’s arms and his body began to crystallise. His skin turned almost translucent, hardened and delicate blue veins snaked their way up his neck and over his face.

  They let go and jumped back. The next instant Russell’s body shattered into a million pieces and rained down onto the floor, his intact clothes crumbling down after him.

  ‘What… what just happened?’ I asked, stunned.

  ‘White oak bullet, ma petite.’ As one, they rushed to the window, opened it, leaned out and sniffed the air. ‘Damn rain! I can’t get a scent,’ Luc said.

  ‘That's the second time tonight I’ve seen white oak bullets.’ Alec left the window and crouched down next to what was left of Russell’s body.

  ‘Vampire hunters?’ Luc suggested. ‘Used to be their favourite weapon of choice. But they haven’t been around for at least a century.’

  ‘That wouldn’t make sense. Why kill Russell when they could have me or you?’

  ‘I’m going out for a quick look.’ Luc raced out the door.

  I couldn’t stop gazing at Russell’s remains. How could a physical body just disintegrate like that? It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t human.