Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

William instantly flashed in behind him and was driving his silver stake toward Nathaniel’s heart as I fell to my knees. My hold on him faltered and Nathaniel started to turn on William, but it was too late. William had plunged the stake deep and hard, it was sure to make it to his heart. The speed at which everything happened and the shock at staking someone as old and powerful as Nathaniel brought complete silence from the ensuing battle.

  Victoria and Ana both were sired from him and had felt the killing blow deep within them. They stopped fighting each other and turned to look at us to see if it really had happened. Nathaniel first fell to his knees, and then he landed forward on his stomach. Before he even hit the ground his body was washing away in ashes that should have been gone over 400 years ago. We all stood there in wonder and disbelief that we had done it.

  “What’s that noise?” William asked cocking his head to the side trying to hear better.

  There was a quiet but steady cracking sound coming from above us. The three of us looked up when suddenly the entire roof came collapsing down on us. With the wall and support beam both missing, there was nothing to hold up the ceiling, and it came crashing down burying me and William under the mess.

  “Juliana! William! Are you two okay?” Ana was calling out to us in alarm.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. I can’t get this off me though, any help?” I told them.

  “Be right there love,” William told me as I saw pieces of the ceiling go flying.

  “Jules, why can’t you get this stuff off you? It should be a piece-of-cake.” William asked concerned as he helped me up.

  “I know, it normally would be, but using that much compulsion wiped me out. If you weren’t there he would have killed me, I couldn’t have held him an instant longer.”

  We went over to where Ana had just pulled herself out of the rubble, not seeing Christian or Victoria with her.

  “Where’s Christian! Is he okay?” I went running over to the corner I had last seen him in and found him lying under a piece of drywall that had him pressed to the wall.

  I could smell blood coming from somewhere, and he was slumped over and didn’t look like he was breathing very well, if at all. Ana pulled the drywall off him and threw it in the corner. We could immediately see where the blood was coming from; there was a large piece of glass that was embedded in his left arm. The fireman pole had come falling down with the rest of the room and was now pressed firmly into the right side of his chest.

  This was my son, my son, but for a moment all I could think about was the blood. I was so weak it was as if I were human again but still had the same weaknesses of a vampire. I shook my head, forcing out all thoughts of human, vampire, and blood, and focused on the fact that if I didn’t do something quickly, my son was going to die.

  I reached out a shaky hand to check for a pulse, when Ana stopped me.

  “I think you should let me do this, you need blood right now. I’m used to dealing with patients that are bloody.”

  “This isn’t a patient, it’s my son. Let go of me.”

  I turned back to Christian, this time instead of feeling for a pulse I just listened. I could hear a thready, but fast heart rate; his skin was pale and clammy.

  “William, pull back that pole will you--carefully. It hasn’t punctured him, but I don’t want to disturb him too much.”

  He moved swiftly over to the end of the pole, pulling gently and easing it away from Christian’s side. I reached out and tore Christian’s shirt from him to get a better picture of what was going on. As soon as it was moved out of the way Ana and I could see bruising already forming where the pole had stuck him.

  I didn’t have a stethoscope, but I did have great hearing now, so I put my ear to both sides of his chest to listen to him breathing.

  “He has really diminished breath sounds on the right side; it doesn’t sound like he’s moving any air at all through his right lung,” I told Ana.

  “Pneumothorax,” she said agreeing with my line of thinking.

  “Juliana, he is losing a lot of blood from his arm, if his lung is collapsed as well, we need to get him out of here and to the hospital before he goes into shock or suffocates,” Ana started lecturing me.

  “You think I don’t know this! You seem to forget that I was an F’ing doctor before you attacked me! We don’t have time to get him to a hospital,” I snapped back at her.

  “William, when we came in I saw a medic box, I don’t know if it was empty or not, but I need it. Try to find it and whatever medical supplies might be left here. Oh, and give me your shirt,” I told him.

  He didn’t question me, just pulled off his jacket, then his shirt, tossing it to me before he started pulling up wall lengths of drywall, and tossing them into a corner. I pulled out the knife I had in my ankle holster, and sliced his shirt lengthwise. I started to tie it around his arm but was having trouble maneuvering him when Ana lifted him.

  “Thanks.”

  She took the length of shirt from me and tied it securely around his arm right above where the glass was embedded. We were making a tourniquet to slow the flow of blood before we removed the glass. I took the second piece I had cut from Williams’s shirt and looked at Ana. She had a firm grip on the glass and both it and her hands were covered in Christian’s blood, while her eyes remained turquoise blue. She was handling this better than I was.

  “Pull,” I told her, and as soon as she pulled the glass out I pressed down firmly over the incision effectively stopping the blood flow. We just had to keep pressure on it and hope it stopped bleeding long enough to get him out of here.

  “I found it!” William called out from an upstairs room.

  He came hurtling down the few remaining stairs and jumped down to where we were. He had a large black tool box with him marked ‘medic’ on the front.

  “It’s full; I found it on the third floor in a cabinet. Must have gotten missed.”

  He was setting it next to me and opening the top, it had I.V. needles, fluid, bandages, various medications, and an airway kit for intubation.

  “It’s perfect. Thank you, William. Can you take over here for me?” Ana was already digging through the box to see what she could find.

  Christian’s arm started bleeding again the second I let up on the pressure.

  “The tourniquet isn’t helping. He’s losing too much blood,” I told her.

  “I found some suture. It’s old, but it’ll hold for now. I can sew fast; you take care of his chest.”

  I turned away from her looking to see what I could use to help decompress his lung. The only thing I could find was an I.V. needle, I looked for the largest size I could find. I pulled out the needle and a glove from a sterile package, and ripped off the tip of one finger.

  “Kiddo, this is not going to feel good.” I cringed a little as I did it, but I pushed the needle into his chest wall until I felt a slight pop, then a whooshing of air. I put the tip of the glove over the needle creating a one-way valve. I could already see his chest starting to rise and fall more evenly. The trauma from the pole hitting him had caused air to become trapped around his lung, collapsing it. By getting rid of the air that was trapped, his lung could re-inflate so he could breathe again.

  “How you doing Ana?” I asked looking over at her and William. She looked like she was just finishing tying her last suture.

  “Done. Okay, William let up slowly. Let’s see if this stuff will hold.”

  William lifted his hands off Christian’s arm stopping his role as a makeshift tourniquet, and we stared intently at his bicep, waiting to see if it were going to start bleeding again. When it didn’t and his breathing steadily became more even, we decided it was safe to move him. William started a quick I.V. on him and ran some fluids into him while Ana ran to get the truck.

  We carefully loaded him into the backseat, by this point I was useless. I was getting so weak I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to stand. I sat in the back with Christian resting his head on my lap. I was rubbing the
hair back from his face wishing I could do this again. Be his mom again.

  “Ana, why did you pass the hospital? We need to get him there as soon as possible, he’s doing better, but I don’t think it’s going to hold for long.”

  “We’ll have someone come pick him up and take him there. I promise he’ll be safe and taken care of. We need to get home first.”

  She was radiating tension from her, and was speeding faster than I’d ever seen her drive before. William was sitting up front with her, and hadn’t said anything about it, which I thought was odd. What was going on? I started thinking back on the night and realized a few very important things.

  “Where’s Victoria?”

  Silence.

  “She got away. When the building collapsed and we went for Christian, she ran, but not before telling him she’d be back for him,” Ana said apologetically.

  “Why are you in such a hurry to get home instead of the hospital?”

  “The sun is almost up, Jules can’t you tell?”

  “No, I’ve felt weak since Nathaniel. What will the Council do now that he’s dead?”

  Silence again.

  “There’ll be an investigation into his death; they are looking at him for some other things already. Mostly human deaths and making himself too conspicuous,” William replied.

  I continued brushing Christian’s hair out of his face, and he started to stir a little. We had just pulled into the garage when I realized the full extent of what they had told me.

  “I thought the only humans allowed to know about vampires were human servants or slaves assigned by the council?” I said warily not letting go of my grip on Christian when Ana and William went to take him from me. God I was tired.

  “Yes, and we need to get you inside. The sun is about to rise.” William told me shortly giving me his hand to take.

  “Then whose human slave is going to be trusted with my son's life?” I asked still not budging.

  Christian was starting to move now, and I could tell his pain was starting to penetrate his unconsciousness.

  “Jules, we must go now! We can discuss this later!” William was yelling at me.

  “No, we will discuss it now. Who is on the Council? Tell me right now, William,” I glared back at him, barely able to keep my eyes open.

  Ana was opening some sort of door that I hadn’t seen before that led into the ground.

  “Who has the power to take my son from me, for a second time, just for seeing me?”

  I clutched Christian tighter hoping that by clinging to him, I wouldn’t lose him again.

  Defeated, William let out a weary sigh, “Ana and I are on the Council. I wouldn’t have let the others turn him though, I swear it!”

  William was stepping toward me, reaching out to take Christian from my arms, when suddenly Christian’s eyes opened, and he looked up into my eyes with a clear recognition of who I was.

  “Mom?”

  “Christian.”

  At that moment, I felt the sun rise and my world faded to black.

  Coming soon . . .

  Rising Son: The Juliana Lucio Series

  Book Two

  With friends becoming enemies, and enemies becoming friends; it’s hard for a vampire to know who to trust anymore.

  After the death of Nathaniel, a 400 year-old Master Vampire, some questions are starting to be raised within The Council as to just who, Juliana Lucio is, and what exactly her unique abilities are. William and Ana are no longer able to keep Juliana or her role in Nathaniel’s death a secret, and just as she thought her son Christian was safe; he is pulled deeper into the vampire world than Juliana ever imagined possible. They must meet with the Council’s director to discover her fate. All the while trying to unravel the mystery of who is betraying the Council to the rogue vampires calling themselves, The Coven, which are trying to oust vampirekinds existence to the world. The two factions are teetering on the brink of a war that’s threatening to spill over onto humankind. Will they be able to stop the threat in time, and will Christian ever break free of the vampire’s grasp or will the traitor in their midst get the best of them all?

  For a preview of chapter one go to: www.lcdecarlo.com

  L.C. DeCarlo is a native of Arizona, and has been working in the medical field for the past seven years now. She has two children, a husband, and a dog that all drive her crazy at times, even though she can’t live without them. When she isn’t writing, working, going to school, or taking care of her family she does freelance photography, and is always on the look-out for new models.