by Mary Hughes
“Sshynnoffa, no!” Ric snatched me, wrapped himself around me and whirled.
Pain skewered my back. Damn, Nikos’s sharp claws had nearly broken skin, and definitely had bruised me.
Ric pushed me away. I spun to yell at everyone and anyone.
White claws protruded from Ric’s belly.
Nikos had impaled him. Only the tips of those lethal talons had reached me.
I covered my mouth with both hands. “Oh, no. No, no.”
Nikos ignored me, growling like a really pissed lion. He raised his other hand high, talons glinting like knives, aimed at Ric’s vulnerable neck.
“No!” I ran two steps and hit Nikos’s shoulder with everything I had.
Maybe he let me shove him off, but all I remember is the sound. Nikos’s talons came out of Ric’s flesh with an unnerving set of thwucks.
Ric groaned.
Crisis Time. I clicked off my emotion and ejected my nausea to spin toward Ric and shove his jacket off his shoulders. Holes in his black T-shirt were seeping blood. “I need to pack those wounds. Then we have to get you to a hospital.”
“No hospitals,” Twyla said.
Nikos was still growling.
“I’m…I’m all right.” Ric’s fangs were gone. His eyes were no longer red but a dulled gray, his face was drawn, and he was panting. “The big guy…is strong. One of yours?”
“My cousin’s. Don’t be a testosterone ass, Ric. A hospital is—”
“Not…necessary.” He raised his shirt.
My eyes were drawn to his rapidly rising and falling six-pack. He’d stopped bleeding. And if I wasn’t mistaken, the holes were already closing.
In fact, before my very eyes, they closed entirely. They even began to lose their pinkness. I stared in amazement. Sure, his burned face and bullet wound had healed quickly day before yesterday, but this was the first time I saw it, watched the miracle real-time.
“Sorry for the scare.” His voice was stronger now, and steadier. “I smelled you with a vampire and just reacted.” He lowered his shirt and turned to Nikos. “I’m Ric Holiday.”
Twyla answered because Nikos was still growling. “Nice to meet you in person. I’m Twyla Tafel.” She elbowed Nikos hard in the ribs. The growling cut, though he didn’t budge a millimeter. “This is Nikos.” Twyla held out her hand. “Synnove has told us so much about you.”
“Any of it good?” Ric glanced at Nikos before taking Twyla’s hand.
“Nope.” Twyla grinned.
Ric’s eyebrow rose, and his eyes shuttled between Twyla and me. “You’re Synnove’s cousin, aren’t you?”
Both of us stiffened. Now he’d ask if one of us was adopted. Unintentionally hurtful, but it would bite anyway. So much for my fairy tale prince.
Ric smiled, a child-like grin of discovery. “So Synnove is African as well as Scandinavian, how fascinating. Who else is in your family tree?”
Something inside me eased. “I’m German,” I admitted. “Mom was a Brandt.”
He nodded. “I don’t know what I am. Some woodpile combination of French and English, I think. I take it the meeting didn’t go well.”
Well, hell. I thought I’d imagined his whole knowing-me-better-than-I-knew-myself thing, but here he was doing it again. I gaped at him. “How did you—?”
“You glow when you’re happy. You’re distinctly not glowing.”
My stomach flipped. For a story I’d imagined, for a relationship that didn’t exist, it felt pretty damn real. “It could have gone better.”
“I’m sorry. Normally I’d have stepped in right away. But with Camille in the picture it will take more subtle handling—”
Bang.
A sharp report from outside stopped him. Fireworks.
Or a gun.
It was followed by a shout, far off. The voice was dark with pain, guttural and deep.
And definitely female.
“Elena.” Nikos spun, swept Twyla into his arms and dashed out the door.
“Elena?” I started to follow. “She must be having her baby—”
My voice jarred as Ric swept me up and followed them. He said, “That’s not childbirth pain.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. That dark? That’s something worse.”
I’ve studied medicine for years. I’ve dissected cadavers. I’ve watched surgeries on living humans, and later assisted.
But what happened next was so horrific that I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped it. I would have myself, except I didn’t know what we’d find when we dashed out of that cabin. I went through that hell because I had to.
Ric ran so fast the wind beat my face and tangled my hair as if I were in a sports car. What I could see of the trees in the near dark blurred by. If I hadn’t been worried about Elena, it would have been exhilarating.
Nikos ran abreast of us with Twyla in his arms, although at first all I could see were the red lights of his eyes. As my own sight adjusted, it was evident his face was bladed again.
“How can you tell it isn’t childbirth?” I shouted over the wind at Ric. “Elena’s due.”
“Blood.” Ric slurred it, his fangs lengthening.
“Blood is part of the process. That’s normal.”
Elena’s shout, dark with agony, came again.
“Just labor,” I repeated. My reassurances sounded desperate even to my own ears. “It hurts like hell, but it’s not deadly. Mostly.” But now even I could smell the metallic tang.
If it was labor, it wasn’t going well.
“No,” Nikos said. “There.”
A shaft of moonlight cut through the trees like a spotlight.
She lay on the ground of a small clearing, clutching her belly with one hand while she stabbed repeatedly with a knife at a sack scarecrow.
No. Not a scarecrow. A vampire in tattered clothes. He curled over her like a python, mouth wide and fangs dripping red blood.
A shriek stuck in my throat.
Elena’s knife hit home. The vampire flinched. It struck again and he batted ineffectually at it, a confused look on his face.
Nikos transferred Twyla into his left arm, leaped forward and slugged the creature.
The vampire, bare feet and arms trailing, flew into a tree, hitting bark with a sharp crack.
Nikos gently deposited Twyla on her feet. He thrust a hand into his back pocket and drew out a flat black case the size and shape of a bundle of dollar bills. A flick of his thumb and a half-foot leaf-shaped blade shot out, glinting sharply silver on both edges. It looked like a Spartan sword, if they were miniaturized into switchblades.
The vampire pushed erect. Nikos decapitated the monster with a single mighty whack. He swung so hard the blade embedded in the tree trunk behind the vamp like a headman’s axe into a stump.
The head tumbled to the forest floor, hitting with a sound like a watermelon thudding onto a cutting board. My stomach heaved. I’d never seen someone killed before, and the violence shocked me.
Elena moaned, her fingers stiffening over her belly.
Crisis Time. I flipped my switch to lock shock away. This one was personal; I’d have to deal with it later, but for now, I was a doctor. “Ric. Put me down.”
“No.” His arms tightened. “I smell—”
“Elena!” Bo shot into the clearing, naked, dripping dirt. “What the hell happened to my wife?”
“It’s Bo, Ric. Put me down.”
Bo’s red eyes widened. “My God. Elena!” He dropped to his knees next to her and started to grab her. “The blood…so much.” He turned to us. He looked lost and confused and scared, which frightened me. Bo Strongwell doesn’t confuse or scare easily.
“Ric. Now.” I struggled. Ric finally set me down. I ran to Elena and squatted on her other side. “There was a vampire…” I turned her chin. Scanned her neck. Not a mass of blood. A couple pinpricks, already closing.
But I smelled blood. Was it the baby coming? I checked her pants. Dry. Not the baby. What was causing that sm
ell…?
She groaned again. Her hand clutched above the mound of her stomach.
Rivulets of blood ran from between her fingers.
I raised her hand.
Elena’s belly had been slit with a knife.
The laceration was deep enough to see into. Bad. But it was bleeding freely with no embedded objects. Good.
Immediately I put my hands on the wound and pressed. First step, stop the bleeding. Pack the wound and apply pressure. Infection was the least of my worries just then. “Ric—no, Nikos.” He had the blade. “Cut up your shirt. Several strips. Twyla. Call 911.”
I glanced at Elena’s face. Her eyes were glassy with shock.
I didn’t have much time.
Twyla pulled her cell from her pants pocket. Her voice murmured in the background.
“I need to heal her.” Bo’s eyes were brimming red liquid. “But I need to be clean first, right? An open wound risks infection?” He was seriously frazzled, the master out of his element.
His form blurred, like Ric when he’d escaped the mountainous goon…was it only two days ago? For a moment I lost my focus as Bo became fuzzy, almost misty, with a sound like the wind stirring a thousand tiny leaves. The dirt coating him dropped to the ground with pellet-like smacks. A moment later he solidified in a snap, his naked skin completely clean.
Nikos pressed strips of shirt into my hand. I snapped back into doctor mode and packed the strips into Elena’s wound.
Bo’s head dropped, and he began licking around my hands.
“What the fuck…?” I kept packing. Used my elbow to shove him away. “What are you doing?” I got the wound packed and applied pressure. He tried to shift my hands. “Stop that!”
“It’s okay,” Twyla said. “Their saliva heals.”
“You’re kidding.” I glanced at her. She was serious.
I didn’t like it. But vampires existed. What was a miracle or two besides? I slid my hands to one side so Bo could try his vampire therapy. As he began to lick vigorously I asked, “The baby?”
“I can hear its heart beat,” Ric said. “It’s fine.”
I relaxed somewhat. Babies in the womb are incredibly well-protected, packed in fluid-filled human bubble wrap, thick muscular sheeting and a sturdy bone box. Still, good to know.
“Herregud. It’s not working.” Bo’s voice cracked as he raised his head. Blood trickled from Elena’s ruined abdomen. “The wound…it’s too deep.”
No vampire miracle. Not good. I readjusted the packing and pressed down.
Elena’s brown eyes were going in and out of focus. Definitely not good. Her breathing was labored. I touched her skin. It was cool despite the July heat.
“She needs warmth.” I pointed at Bo. “Lie next to her.” It would give him something useful to do. Especially helpful if later…
No, that was later. Now was for doing everything I could.
Bo stretched out next to his wife. He kissed her forehead tenderly. “Stay with me, Detective. We made it through Dracula, we’ll make it through this.”
“This…hurts more.” She coughed. “Chilly…” Her eyes closed.
“More heat,” I said. “Her other side.”
“On it.” Ric lay down next to her.
Shivering, Elena’s eyes closed.
“Please, Detective.” Bo’s voice broke. “Stay with me. I need you.”
“The ambulance is coming,” Twyla said.
“Good.” I kept my tone brisk, despite my hammering heart and clammy hands. “Twyla, come here. Keep this in place.” I put her hands on the shirt-bandage. “Keep the pressure up.” When I was satisfied she was holding steady, I moved to take Elena’s wrist.
No pulse. Her extremities were closing down. I went immediately to the carotid in her neck.
A pulse, good. But far too rapid, bad. Her heart beat like a hummingbird, trying desperately to pump blood that wasn’t there. “How long until that damned ambulance gets here?”
“Ten minutes,” Twyla said. “Will that be enough time to—oh.”
My face must have said what I would not put into words. Elena didn’t have ten minutes.
“Maybe the bleeding has stopped,” she said tentatively. “Let’s peek under the bandage—”
“No.” I cut her off. “Keep the pressure up.”
“Synnove.” Bo’s cheeks were running red tears. “You’re a doctor. Can’t you do something? Sew it closed?”
“It’s packed. The best thing is to keep the pressure up and wait for the ambulance—”
“No,” Nikos said. “Call the Ancient One.”
“What can he do?” Ric demanded. “He’s no human doctor.”
“He knows things,” Bo said. “Call him, Nikos.”
“I have no phone.”
“Use mine.” Twyla raised her hands to reach for her back pocket.
“Pressure,” I snapped.
Startled, Twyla pressed her hands back.
Elena started gasping for breath.
I barked, “Whatever we do, do it now!”
“Theos.” Nikos grabbed the phone out of Twyla’s jeans. It looked like a toy in his big hand. He hit a speed dial and put it gingerly to his ear. There were no introductions. The instant the line connected he said, “Sir, Elena’s dying.”
The pulse under my fingers weakened. I gritted my teeth. Even unconscious, hearing “dying” was bad.
“Yes, sir. Right away.” Nikos stowed the phone, then knelt next to me, took out his leaf-bladed knife and raised his arm over Elena. “Do not stop me.”
I glanced at him. Then stared. In the wash of moonlight, the stoic Nikos looked absolutely sick. “Nikos, what are you planning?”
He hadn’t had time to get more than a few words of instruction. I didn’t see how he could save Elena’s life with a few words.
“I give her my blood.”
“Your blood? You mean, like make her into a vampire?” It kicked me out of my knowledge zone. All the doubt and fear that I’d switched off came flooding back. “No. No way. I know she wants to, but we don’t know what it will do to the baby.”
“No time.” He raised his blade. “Remove the packing.”
“Mine,” Bo snarled, rearing up. “My wife, my blood.”
“It must be the oldest blood,” Nikos said. “That’s mine.”
“Lover. Do you have to?” Twyla’s eyes glistened with tears. Whatever Nikos was preparing to do, the act was significant.
“Yes, love.”
“No.” I barred Elena’s body with both arms. “At least let me deliver the baby first—”
“I heal her.” Nikos grabbed my wrists in one hand and gently moved me out of his way. Arm directly above Elena’s belly, he slit his wrist without a flinch. The first rivulet hit Twyla’s hands as she pulled strips of shirt from the wound.
The gash exposed the liver’s purplish brown, almost black in the moonlight. How did Nikos think he’d heal that? The wound was fatal. “But vampire blood turns humans.” I was panting but I couldn’t hear it as my vision narrowed on Nikos’s arm and Elena’s mutilated belly. A thin stream of blood ran between, as slender as an IV line. I couldn’t hear anyone breathing. Maybe they’d all stopped.
Nothing happened.
It wasn’t working. Well, how could it? How could dead vampire blood heal a live human being? Bo and Nikos hadn’t known about it. Probably the Ancient One had made it up.
“Blood turns the dead,” Twyla said. “As long as she’s alive, this’ll heal her.”
Elena’s harsh breathing and her stuttering pulse said the end was near. Hoping for a miracle but knowing it was too late, yet I begged for one, with all my might, as Nikos poured out his blood.
Still nothing happened.
In the near-silence, a rustle from the bushes crackled clearly.
Ric jerked up. “Who’s there?”
Branches snapped. The thud of running feet went off into the underbrush.
Someone had been watching us.
Ri
c started to get up. I caught at him. “Keep her warm.” He sank back down.
“It’s not working.” Bo, voicing my fears, made them coldly real. His face was stark white, red tears brimming dark in contrast. “Oh God, it’s not working.”
The thread of blood had become a rivulet. Nikos hadn’t stopped cutting. I’m not squeamish when it comes to blood, but he sliced until the rivulet became a river, sawed until dark sheets were pouring into Elena’s wound. Until his own skin was pale and translucent.
It was unspeakably messy. The blood splashed like rainwater from a gutter, pouring onto the forest floor.
Still nothing happened.
Nikos wavered on his knees. My stomach lurched. It was a horrific sight, Nikos pouring his lifeblood onto Elena’s violated belly. I nearly shouted Stop. Stop the horror. Let her die with dignity.
But then…Elena’s gash…heaved. Red flesh started bubbling up like foam, filling the wound. Bit by bit the liver and other exposed organs were covered. Skin rolled out over the gash like tawny masking tape. The gash narrowed to a cut, then a line…and then disappeared completely.
Just as Elena expelled air with a rattle and went still.
I lost her pulse. I pressed harder, rolled my fingers for it, but it was gone. “Fuck. Nikos. Move. I have to start CPR.”
“No pressure.” Nikos’s words were slurred.
No blood pressure, he meant. If Elena’s arteries had collapsed, chest compressions would be useless. Breathing in oxygen wouldn’t do any good without circulation.
“I don’t care.” I tried to shove him aside.
He didn’t move. He was pale and swaying on his knees and his teeth were chattering, but with fierce concentration he stared at his raised hand. It blurred.
He thrust the blurred hand into Elena’s body.
Suddenly he went white, as if he had lost all his blood all at once.
He yanked his hand back, barely in time to keel over.
Chapter Eighteen
Things happened pretty fast after that. I remember them in flashes. The EMTs arrived. The defibrillator shock restarted Elena’s heart. Nikos had apparently gotten enough blood into her to inflate her blood vessels.
Then, the moment the EMTs stabilized her and announced her pulse and blood pressure were strong, Bo hypnotized them into walking away.
