by Tigertalez
“Good, we hadn’t had a lot of sleep yesterday and none of course, last night,” Seamus remarked.
“I know, I’m exhausted, too. I told Enzo about the manufactured home idea, and he suggested we go with park model homes instead of manufactured homes. They look just like houses but are deemed trailers.” Alphy laughed. “He’s currently out with Betty and some others, buying as many as he can get his hands on.”
Seamus chuckled. “That would be a sight to see.”
“Yeah, I know. I tried to convince Betty to record it and send me the video, but she said she’s too busy. Oh well. Anyway, I sent Kace on ahead to help with the hookups. They’re going to set up a spot beside the house for most of the model homes.”
Maysa’s tired voice added to their conversation. “Could you get at least one manufactured home?”
“If that is what you wish, sweetheart, I will buy you one.” Seamus kissed the top of her head.
“No, I mean for a temporary medical facility.”
“That would be a great idea,” Seamus said. “Alphy?”
“I love the idea. You need the space, and not just later. After we get back home, and we get everyone situated, I’ll make the guys prep the spot we talked about. I think it’ll need a foundation and certainly water, sewer, and electric set up before it arrives, but I’ll make that a number one priority build. We’ll have it set before the week is through.”
“Thanks, Alphy.” Seamus pulled his beloved over to a corner. They were cuddling up on the carpeted floor, using only their discarded jackets as pillows, and yet he hadn’t felt that comfortable in a very long time. Even though, again, his body craved and demanded that he sink his fangs into her, he was too exhausted. He fell asleep just after Maysa did.
****
Maysa helped carry several shifters onto the private jet that was parked inside the hanger. It was the last shifter minus the okapi and rhino. Those two were being saved to ride the biggest of the three jets. She was delighted to see Bronya was one of the pilots, and Nix had accompanied her. The familiarity felt good to connect with.
“Maysa?”
Maysa turned to see Seamus approach.
“We have the okapi and rhino loaded up. I need to fly with them. Would you like to fly with me or with your parents? And don’t feel any pressure. I will support you no matter what you choose.”
Maysa thought about it for a second. She loved her family and normally would have stayed close to them. But Seamus is quite possibly my mate, and I will see the others when we are back on the ground. “I’d like to ride with you.”
Seamus looked relieved when he smiled at her. He reached for her hand and led her to the other plane that was right outside the hanger doors.
It took some doing, but by late morning, finally everyone had arrived back at the alpha house. Located near the house in five by four nice, neat rows, were twenty park model homes. Maysa saw excavating being done and recognized many new septic tanks being put in. The people and equipment were struggling through the mud and light rain.
As he stepped out into the light of the day, she noticed the color of Seamus’s skin and thought he had been looking a bit paler since she met him. He didn’t seem to see her staring when he pointed to the far right.
“About five hundred feet beyond that tree line, is a small half acre clearing. That’s where we are going to put the clinic, and start building the hospital. Alphy said as soon as we pick out a model, he wanted to look into having the guys put in a basement to add to it. That would be great if we can have a lab and a morgue. What do you think?”
Cold, darkness, and pain filled her mind as she pictured the lab in which she was held and experimented on. Icy terror balled in her stomach, causing her animal to take over and she began to shift. Seamus tried to soothe her, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Once her shift was complete, she slipped from her clothes and took flight into the wet sky. She didn’t really know where to go, and really, part of her, and her animal, didn’t want to go too far, but right now, her flight instincts were too strong.
****
Seamus’s heart broke as he watched his beloved fly away. Seeing Nix in the trees caused him some bit of comfort. Nix will watch her for me.
“What happened?” Ryker jogged up next to him.
“I was an idiot. I told her about the basement Alphy wants to put under the clinic. I mentioned it would be nice to have a lab and a morgue.”
“Wow, you usually aren’t that stupid.” Ryker’s face showed his disbelief. “You haven’t claimed her yet?”
“No, I don’t want to push her.”
“I get that, bro, I really, really do, but you’re getting whiter than I am. You need to do something. I can’t lose you.”
Seamus wanted to laugh at his twin’s comparison, but the devastated look on Ryker’s face removed all humor and replaced it with more heartbreak. “I’ll try, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now.”
“Seamus!” Slate called out to him with urgency. Looking up, he saw Slate running out of the house followed by Henry. As Slate came towards him, Henry quickly stripped and shifted, bounding towards the tree line in the direction Seamus had just pointed to, to Maysa. “We got an injured sentry incoming. Someone placed a trap on the property.”
Seamus could feel his body growing sluggish and tired and knew it was from the lack of blood, but he wasn’t going to give in just yet. “Who’s injured?” he asked.
“Peter. He was on sentry duty.”
Seamus made his way up to the infirmary. Katie was there, along with Reese, doing some kind of bookwork at the table. “Katie, we need to get ready. Slate just informed me Peter just got hurt. He said it’s a hunter’s trap.”
“Anything I can do to help?” Reese asked from his seat at the table.
“How about you wash up, too, just in case?” Seamus said, forcing a smile towards the eager teen.
Henry carried a wet, bloody, and slightly muddy, Peter up the stairs. Seamus didn’t need to direct him to the hospital room. Looking at Peter, you couldn’t miss the three spikes that were sticking out from his right shoulder and the side of his chest. Slices in his skin where spikes had grazed but didn’t embed were deep enough to clearly see bleeding tissue. Peter was moaning and grunting with the pain. He would cry out whenever anyone bumped the spikes.
Seamus had Katie hook up an IV and a bag of blood on the IV stand while he assessed the injuries and vital signs. After two and a half hours, and exhausting all his last bags of blood Seamus kept stored, Peter was stable and asleep. As soon as he felt relaxed in that knowledge, as he headed to the bathroom, Seamus slipped into darkness, plummeting to the floor.
****
“Seamus!” Maximus yelled as he lunged to catch the collapsing doctor. He awkwardly caught the vampire but unable to hold him, had to slowly let him slide down to the floor. He wasn’t about to let go of the frightened bunny that he held in his other arm.
“What’s going on? What happened to him?” A woman ran up and knelt down beside the doctor.
Max leaned over and sniffed at the doctor. “When’s the last time he fed?”
“I don’t know. He’s very private about that,” she answered.
Others Max didn’t recognize gathered around. But he was new, having just arrived with the others this morning. A shifter he did recognize, the alpha, rushed into the room as another was lifting the doctor and carrying him into the hospital-like room, to a bed partly hidden behind a partition. The female began taking his vitals.
“What happened?” The alpha’s voice projected a fierce command to answer, and when everyone looked back at Max, he knew he was the one to have to do that.
He sighed and began petting the rabbit in his arms to calm her, but it also calmed him just a bit. “I came in to have him look over my beloved, and was near when I saw him go down.”
Alphy’s shoulders relaxed a little bit. “Well, he did have a hell of a lot to deal with in Buffalo. He must just be exhaust
ed. I’ve just never seen him like that before. In fact, he’s been through worse.”
Others in the room began talking to themselves until a slight, red-headed man, darted into the room. “Seamus!”
“Whoa now, Rye,” the alpha ordered, stopping him. “Katie is checking him over, but he should be fine.”
“No, you don’t understand. We have kind of a connection. It’s physical, so it isn’t like I can talk to him in his head like we can do with our beloveds, but I can feel him and something is wrong.”
“I’m afraid he’s right.” The woman, who Max now knew was Katie, walked over to them. “I don’t understand what’s going on with him, but he’s more than just out cold. His vitals are more indicative of a coma.”
Gasps were heard around the room, which was still filling with people. A very few Max recognized from the trip they took to Buffalo. The one Alphy had called Ryker pushed past and into the room.
“How is that possible? Could he have been exposed to something in the lab?” Slate asked.
“I don’t know, but several of us were in that same lab, and we’re fine,” Alphy answered.
Max looked down at the bunny in his arm. He didn’t want to have to say anything, but it was clear his options were few. He sighed heavily. “I believe I know what is wrong with him.”
He didn’t expect the room to become as quiet as it did. Even Ryker reappeared, pushing his way closer.
“He hasn’t claimed his beloved yet, so he isn’t locked into just feeding from her, if that’s what you are thinking,” Ryker said quietly.
“That doesn’t matter. Vampires need blood at least every few days. Once a vampire mates, they have to have their beloved’s blood, but that change doesn’t always start with the bonding. As soon as we sense our beloved, our bodies start to chemically alter themselves. It usually happens faster the more we are around our beloved. But our bodies change at different rates, so some would take longer than others to be in the condition he is currently in. But from what I saw he was really close with her…”
“So it might have sped up his change?” Ryker asked.
Max nodded. “Yes. How long ago it was he scented her, and how fast his body was changing, and how long it has been since he last fed before he scented her, are all contributors to the end result. My father scented my mother only slightly, and it took him four months to finally find her. He was almost to the point that Seamus is in now by that time, but he had just finished feeding when he scented her in the alley, and he hadn’t been able to sense her at all until he found her so he was able to feed a few times more before his body fully rejected any other blood consumption.”
“Oky, hold on,” Slate said. “It might not mean anything in this case, but I’m curious. I know when a vampire mates, let’s say a human, you can’t feed from any other blood source, but what do you do when the two destined mates are both vampires?”
“Their body changes differ from those of a mixed bonding. As I said, as soon as we scent our beloveds, our bodies start to chemically alter. Our bodies react to what theirs does or does not offer.
“Vampires never really had problems with a mixed bonding like so many other paranormals do. In fact, many hope their bonding will be mixed because when two vampires bond, they still need their beloved’s blood, but they have to drink from other sources, too. The difference is their bite no longer causes the donor to orgasm, and the blood they drink from the other sources is flavorless to them, like water. My father hated wrapping his lips around someone else’s skin, and hated to see my mother feeding from someone else. Many feel the same. It causes problems at times, but because of modern medicine, they usually just get blood transfusions instead of direct feeding. Nonetheless, they still need their beloved’s blood. That is why many vampires want a mixed bonding.”
“Wait.” Slate held up his hands. “I was always told no vampire can tell for sure who their mate, er, beloved is unless they taste them. It seems pretty obvious that Maysa is his beloved because he can’t drink from anyone else? It seems like a pretty easy way to tell.”
Max lightly scoffed. “First of all, like I said about my father, you can feed for a short time afterword, depending on how fast your change is. No one can predict the amount of time that would take. Added if that supposed beloved was another vampire, you would have to drink from other sources anyway. Second, no one wants it to get this far before they figure out if the person is their beloved. It’s dangerous and deadly, and I’m sure it has been painful on a physical level.”
Alphy held up a hand to hush Slate, who seemed to take offense to the tone Max used.
“So if you are unable to claim the shifter in your arms, you will end up like Seamus?” the alpha asked.
Max paused before answering. He didn’t want to frighten her with the truth of the answer, especially when she needed more time to heal from her ordeal, but he wasn’t going to lie to her and his new leader needed an answer. “If it gets that far, I would hope to fall into a coma first. Perhaps because it was so long since his last feeding, it weakened him first. I don’t know for sure, but the pull to bond with your beloved is so great, that it intensifies your cravings. The only time a vampire who isn’t rogue, would possibly bite without permission, is when their cravings for their beloved get too powerful. Some go feral for a bit, pushing themselves onto him or her forcibly. Eventually, because of the lack of blood, they weaken until they go into a coma. The timeframe for this can vary with each individual and circumstance.”
Alphy’s brows were high up on his forehead. “Wow, that’s serious. I didn’t know all of that, and I’ve been around vamps most of my life. Seamus is one of my best friends. We grew up together.”
“You didn’t know?” Ryker snorted. “I didn’t know, and I am one.”
“How is it you didn’t know?” Max asked.
“The coven I grew up in wasn’t very big. It only sustained fifty some-odd in numbers. And it was rare to find your destined. Most just had babies together. The ones who did find a destined, were always mixed. Not even my parents are destined.”
“Slate, have you been in touch with Nix? He followed Maysa when she flew away.”
“No. We won’t know anything until both, or at least one, of them returns.”
Alphy turned to Slate’s mate. “Katie, how’s Peter?”
“We were able to remove the spikes and stabilize him, but he’s in a lot of pain and Seamus used all the blood we had, so if he develops a complication, I’m not sure how much I can do.”
The fluff in his hands placed her front paws on his chest. Max looked down at the shifter he was sure was his beloved, and reassuringly smiled down at her. Looking back up at his new alpha, Max decided to ask to be excused. He’ll have to wait until later to get her medically checked out. “Alphy, is there anything else you need us for?”
“No, not right now, thank you, Max.” With a final nod from Alphy, Max exited the building and headed for the park model home he was assigned, with the bunny tucked securely under his jacket.
Chapter Eight
Maysa felt the fur on the back of her neck prickle. She knew someone was watching her, and she was hoping it was a pack-member. Now that she’d gotten rid of the spike of fear she endured, she felt bad for leaving Seamus. He was nothing but good to her, supporting her through everything, and he’d worked so hard to save her family and the others from the lab. Guilt ran through her body as she recalled hearing about the shifters that couldn’t be saved. She was troubled that she didn’t find help sooner for everyone in the lab.
Maysa grabbed a high branch and hung from it for a little bit as she felt a powerful urge to return to Seamus surge through her. She needed to stop and think things through.
Her mind played over the events of the past few days. Thoughts of Seamus dominated her contemplations. I shouldn’t have run away. He would never let anyone hurt her, or anyone else. The way he had held her whenever she allowed, always raised her confidence. And since the raid on the lab, he
had been particularly clingy. She loved it, but she hated that it had to have stemmed from what he’d seen at the lab. Another surge of strong need to return to him nearly overcame her.
Maysa swung from the branch, watching the rain fall from the darkened clouds. The peaceful sound of the tapping rain calmed her. She knew she had to return but was embarrassed over her reaction. She wanted to enjoy the quiet just a little longer before heading back. She hadn’t gotten used to the busy pack and now it was nearly doubled making it several times busier, but the unsettling feeling to return grew and she couldn’t resist it any longer. Taking flight, she headed back towards the pack house.
Maysa landed on the windowsill outside the upstairs infirmary. The window was shut, but she could see movement inside. Katie came to the window and shook her head. “I’ll be right out. Come inside to the gym.”
What’s going on? she thought. Maysa flew down and shifted, then opened the door and walked into an empty gym. That in itself was very odd.
Katie came downstairs holding a lab coat and handed it to her. “I hope you don’t plan on running again, Maysa. Seamus needs you,” she said somewhat cryptically.
Maysa put the long white coat on. “Why? What’s going on? Where is he?” she asked.
Katie gave her a sympathetic look. “He’s in his bed. Maysa, he’s fallen into a coma.”
Maysa nearly fell to her knees in shock. Her eyes stretched almost painfully wide, and her heart could be heard pumping in her ears. Before she could ask what had happened, Ryker trotted down the stairs and over to them. Katie looked back at him, and a look Maysa couldn’t place, passed between them before Katie turned and headed out of the gym.
Ryker took a deep breath. “Maysa, I want you to know that I’m angry at this whole situation, but I’m not going to hurt you. You have got to stop running, at least from Seamus. Because you didn’t trust Sea, you both are in danger now.” His eyes were a little red from crying, and his voice broke as he said the last sentence.
