Author: Emily Goodwin
Category: Vampires
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“Come in,” Abby says, reaching for Lucas’s arm. We step in and she closes the door behind us. With wide eyes, she looks Lucas up and down, going into ER doctor mode. “Come into the living room.” She rushes forward and grabs a big blue blanket off the couch, shaking it out and then spreading it over the cushions. “Lay down.”
I help Lucas to the couch. He sinks down, eyes fluttering as he lays back.
“I don’t understand,” Abby stammers, looking at Lucas’s abdomen. “Vampires heal.”
“I know, but he’s not!” I yell, too upset to be rational. I’m not mad at Abby, and I don’t want to wake up Penny. “Vampire blood doesn’t clot. They have to heal or they just keep bleeding. He can’t…he can’t…” I break off, crying again.
Abby blinks a few times and then nods. She straightens up and rolls up the sleeves of her gray pajama shirt.
“There’s an old-fashioned-looking doctor bag in my closet,” she starts and kneels down on the ground next to Lucas. “It has my first-aid supplies in it. Get it.”
I nod and turn, afraid of taking my eyes off Lucas. I blink and am overcome with the fear that if I leave, he’ll be nothing but a pile of ash and goo when I come back.
“Callie!” Abby shouts. “Now!”
I suck in a breath and turn, racing up the stairs. Penny’s door is shut, and I can hear the white noise machine through the closed door. “Sleep soundly tonight, little one,” I whisper and push forward to Abby’s room.
It’s dark, and I don’t know where the light switch is. Not bothering to look for it, I conjure a string of magic and toss it in the air. Usually, the energy I pull from the air is a pretty shade of blue.
But now, with all my fear and anxiety, it’s a pale greenish-yellow. I blink a few times, knowing I’m on the verge of hyperventilating, and go through the master bedroom to the closet.
Everything is neat and organized, and I find the bag easily on the top shelf. I telekinetically pull it to me and race back down the stairs. I can hear water running in the kitchen as I go back to Lucas’s side. He’s still there and opens his eyes when he sees me.
“Lucas,” I start, voice trembling. I kneel down and wrap my arms around his neck.
“It’s going to be okay,” he tells me, weakly bringing his hand to my back.
“It has to be,” I whisper back.
“Did you get the bag?” Abby asks, coming back into the room with a bowl of water and several towels.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, now go into the office at the front of the house and find my sewing box. It’s inside the bookcase.”
I feel a lump of vomit rise in my throat, knowing that Abby is going to stitch Lucas’s skin together with a sewing needle and thread, though it’s not like I expected her to have medical-grade sutures here at her house.
Fighting off the wave of dizziness that wants to crash down on me, I push off the couch and go into the office that’s down the hall from the living room, opening and closing the bookcase cabinets until I find the box.
Abby is pulling on rubber gloves when I come back. She takes the balled-up sweater off Lucas’s stomach and puts it on a towel she’s spread out on the coffee table.
“Cal, get me a damp cloth,” she says as she carefully peels back his shirt.
I wring a washcloth out in the bowl and watch Abby blot away some of the blood so she can better assess the damage.
It’s worse than I thought.
“What could make a vampire not heal?” she asks calmly, cleaning the wound the best she can. The blood just keeps coming as soon as she wipes it away.
“I don’t know,” I say and swallow hard, pushing the lump down in my throat. “Maybe an enchanted blade, but Lucas said it didn’t feel enchanted.” I go around Abby and kneel down by Lucas again, brushing his thick hair back.
“This is going to hurt,” Abby warns. “Normally, I’d numb you, but I have nothing.”
“It wouldn’t work, anyway,” Lucas grunts. “Though maybe…”
I take his hand, needing to feel his flesh against mine. I give it a squeeze, and Lucas looks into my eyes, telling me he loves me without having to say a word.
Abby unscrews the lid to a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and grabs a dry washcloth. She slowly disinfects the wound, and Lucas keeps a steady hold on my hand the whole time.
“That was fun,” Lucas forces out when Abby puts the bottle down.
“This is going to be even more fun,” Abby says almost apologetically. “Cal, put your hand right here and keep soft pressure on the wound.” She folds a towel over the wound, and I put my hand over it, gently pushing down on Lucas’s beautiful abdomen. Abby takes off her gloves and opens the sewing box, pulling out a needle and a spool of pink thread.
She strings the needle, puts on new gloves, and pours alcohol over the needle and a length of thread.
“Brace yourself,” she tells Lucas. “I’d say take slow, deep breaths, but that doesn’t apply to you, does it?”
“Not at the moment.”
Abby nods and looks up at me. “Don’t watch, Cal.”
My head quickly bobs up and down, and I grip Lucas’s hand tighter, brushing his hair back with my free hand. Abby pinches Lucas’s skin together, swallows hard, and then plunges the needle through his skin. I look away at the last second, counting to ten and then back again in an attempt to distract myself.
It doesn’t work very well.
Lucas’s fangs slide down, and he tenses from the pain.
“You doing okay?” Abby asks. “I can take a break.”
“Keep going,” Lucas says, and I bend my head down, feeling dizzy once more. I feel so fucking pathetic right now, and I know that my fear of losing Lucas is getting in the way of getting to the bottom of this.
Of healing him.
Of figuring out what is happening.
“Callie,” he says softly, and I look into his deep blue eyes. My heart flutters, and I fall in love with him all over again. “It’s okay.”
“I should be the one telling you that.”
He brings his other hand up and wipes away my tears. “You’re usually the one in danger.” He flashes a cheeky grin, but his smile falters as Abby pulls the thread through his skin.
I make the mistake of turning and stealing a look. The world spins around me, and I have to rest my head against Lucas’s shoulder. I’ve pulled bones from animals to use in my spells before. I’ve sliced and stabbed and cut apart demon bodies for easy burning.
But this…I can’t handle it.
“Breathe,” Lucas soothes. “Close your eyes and breathe.”
I can only nod as more tears drip from my eyes, marring his t-shirt. I mentally call out for my father again and start to feel angry when he doesn’t answer me.
I need you, Dad. Please!
“I’m done,” Abby says, snipping the thread. “You okay, Cal?”
“I don’t know,” I say, picking up my head. Stars dot my vision.
“Can you get another washcloth for me?”
“Yeah,” I say before I stand and have to work through the dizziness again. I stagger into the kitchen and open five cabinets before I find the towels. I grab a handful of washcloths and towels and rush back into the living room.
Abby takes one, dips it in the water, and wrings it out. “Get one more,” she tells me. “And then a dry one.”
I do as I’m told and watch her clean up Lucas’s skin. Everything about this looks wrong. It’s like a corpse on an exam table in an episode of CSI that’s been sewn back together after an autopsy, yet blood is still weeping from the small puncture wounds.
“Vampire blood doesn’t clot at all?” She dabs the corner of the wound.
“No,” I tell her. “It will dry eventually, but it doesn’t have the clotting agents that human blood does.”
“Okay,” she says and looks at Lucas again as she thinks. “I’m going to need you to help me clean and dry the little punctures the best we can. I have wound glue—sorry, Lucas, this is going to h
urt, too—and I think that might be enough to stop the bleeding.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
She gets out the glue, breaks off the dry tip, and then puts on more gloves. We work together to wipe away the blood and get a large dot of glue over each little hole in his skin from the needle.
She gives it a minute to dry and then bandages up the wound.
“Is there anything vampires can take for pain?” she asks, gathering up the bloody towels.
“No,” Lucas tells her and starts to sit up.
“Take it easy,” Abby says, eyes going wide again. It’s only then I see the stress on her face. She’s a good doctor, used to seeing bloody injuries, but sewing up a vampire with a sewing needle and colorful thread is new territory.
“Thank you,” Lucas tells her and slowly pushes up. He looks down at his stomach with an indiscernible look on his face.
Fear?
Annoyance?
“You need blood,” I tell him and sit down on the couch. “Now.” I move my hair to one side of my neck and pull Lucas to me. He doesn’t protest, doesn’t try to tell me he’s okay.
Because he’s not, and there’s no use in him lying to me this time.
His mouth meets my neck, and he takes just half a second to find the right place to sink his fangs into my flesh. I wrap my arm around him, bringing one hand to the back of his head.
Abby stands, staring at us, and gasps when Lucas sinks his fangs into my neck. I wince from the pain of his fangs popping through my skin but then feel instant relief when I know he’s replenishing some of what he’s lost.
Lucas licks up the blood that drips down my neck and then sucks down a mouthful, arms going around my body. He holds me tight at he pulls more blood from my body.
I let my eyes fall shut and keep his head against me, not allowing him to pull away yet if he tried. He can drink a substantial amount of my blood and I’ll be okay. A little weak, but okay.
“Callie,” Abby says, voice strained. “That’s enough.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, and I start to fall back from Lucas’s weight on me. He sucks hard, and I know I’ll have a bruise in the morning.
“Cal,” she says again and steps closer. “That’s enough!”
“Not human, remember?”
“Not fully human. Part of you still is, and that part is still susceptible to human ailments. Like losing too much blood.”
Lucas pulls his head back and laps at the blood on my neck. “She’s right,” he tells me, licking his lips.
“Do you feel better?” I ask, bringing my hand to my neck, needing to cover the two little bite wounds on my neck. Unlike vampires, my blood does clot—faster than the average human. Lucas told me so, which works to our advantage.
“A little. I’m…I’m tired,” he says, almost as if the words are foreign to him. “But it’s not like how I normally feel tired.”
Lucas is on top of me, having laid me down as he fed off of me. He probably shouldn’t be putting that type of pressure on the wound.
“Lie down on your back,” I tell him.
He wiggles his eyebrows. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I’m going to make sure you didn’t pop your stitches.”
“Kinky.”
I shake my head. “You’re impossible.”
“That’s why you love me, isn’t it?” He slowly sits up, wincing as he moves.
“Partly. The other part is your money.”
“I knew it.” He laughs and makes a face.
“Yeah, that’s going to hurt,” Abby says, still standing there looking at us with shock on her face. “I couldn’t laugh for days after I had a C-section.” She turns her gaze to me. “I’m going to get you some water. You lost a lot of blood, too.”
“Not more than usual,” I say, which only makes Abby frown. She’s gone from fearing vampires to supporting my marriage to one in only a few months. I have to give her props for that. Getting used to the idea that Lucas drinks my blood is still hard for her to grasp. Hell, it’s still a little weird to me. Even weirder is Lucas liking when I drink his blood.
Lucas and I carefully resituate on the couch so he’s lying on his back. I’m hanging off the edge of the couch, but the discomfort is distant in my mind. All that matters is that I’m here, next to Lucas. I push his hair back again, tears in my eyes.
“Told you I’d be okay,” he grumbles.
“Right,” I reply, but we both know he’s far from okay. Abby stopped the bleeding…for now. “Close your eyes,” I tell him and rake my fingers through his hair. “Rest for a bit and then we’ll go home.”
He nods and lets his eyes fall shut, reaching up and taking my hand. I love him so fucking much. He has to be okay.
He just has to.
“Thank you, Callie,” he whispers and retracts his fangs.
“Of course, Lucas.”
“I don’t mean for bringing me here and having your sister sew my skin together with pretty pink thread.”
My lips twitch up in a half-smile. “You noticed?”
“Eliza will like it, at least.”
“Eliza is going to freak out,” I counter.
“Best not to tell her. Not yet, at least.”
“Can she sense when you’re in danger?”
He shakes his head and slits his eyes open. “She’ll know if I die.”
“Well, it’s not going to come to it.” I gently hook my leg over his, careful not to put any pressure on his stomach. “If you didn’t thank me for taking care of you, then what are you thanking me for?”
“For this.”
“Are you delusional from lack of blood?”
He smiles again. “Possibly. But the fact that you’re with me, that you love me enough to marry me…” His eyes flutter shut.
I blink back tears and press my lips to his. “Rest,” I whisper, and he nods before going still.
“Callie?” Abby says softly, coming back into the living room holding a glass of water. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah,” I reply, just as soft. I slowly pull away from Lucas, ungracefully falling off the couch. I stand and realize just how covered in blood I am. “Sorry about the blood. We’ll…we’ll replace the couch if it’s stained.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Abby hands me the glass of water and waves her hand in the air. “I hate that thing, anyway. It’s so big and bulky, but Phil didn’t want to get rid of it because it’s comfortable.”
I take a drink of water. “It is.”
Abby lets out a shaky breath and looks at Lucas with concern. “Is he sleeping?”
“Yeah. Vampires literally look dead when they sleep.”
“Oh. Makes sense. I wanted to check the wound and make sure I didn’t need to put any more glue over the stitches.”
“We can.” I perch back on the edge of the couch, and Abby comes over. She makes a move for Lucas and then stops.
“What if he wakes up?”
“Then he wakes up.”
“Will he, um, bite me?”
I cock an eyebrow. “Do you bite people when you’re woken up?”
She tips her head and then quickly shakes it. “No. But I’m…I’m not…”
“He’s a vampire, Abby, not a dog. He’s not going to get startled and bite you. You’re more likely to get an energy ball to the face if you wake me up.” I look at my hands. “My powers have been a little wonky ever since Michael started unlocking my angel-ness.”
“Angel-ness?”
“You know what I mean.”
She carefully peels up one edge of the bandage on Lucas’s stomach. “I do. Do you, um, feel different now that you have angel-ness?” She’s nervous, not trusting that Lucas isn’t going to spring up, grab her by the throat, and pin her to the ground.
Some vampires do react that way when woken, just as some people can get violent when woken suddenly. But Lucas isn’t like that.
“Not really.”
Abby narrows her eyes and hesitantl
y reaches down, pressing her finger against the first stitch.
“What?” she whispers and leans in closer before quickly scrambling back and pulling a stethoscope out of her bag. She puts it on and moves to Lucas’s chest.
“What are you doing?” I ask, looking at her like she’s lost her mind. Why else would she be checking Lucas’s heart rate? He hasn’t had one since he was alive and forced to fight in Rome.
Abby jerks her head up, brows pushed together. “I thought you said vampires don’t have heartbeats.”
“They don’t.”
“Then why am I picking up one?”
Chapter 3
“What?” My voice echoes around us. Abby is talking crazy. That’s impossible.
“I hear a heartbeat. It’s faint and really, really slow. But I hear it.”
“No…no…that’s not possible.”
“Listen for yourself if you don’t believe me.” She takes the stethoscope off and hands it to me.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “I believe you. It’s just…it’s not possible. His heart hasn’t beat for over a thousand years. There’s just no way.”
“I’ve heard people call vampirism a disease. Is there any chance it can regress?”
“It’s not a disease. It’s dark, ancient magic. There’s no way it could—” I cut off and spin around to look at Lucas. “Holy shit.”
“What?” Abby rushes out.
“Magic.”
“I’m not following.”
“Move over.”
“I need to put a bit more glue on this stitch. It’s weeping blood.”
“It can wait.” I push her out of the way and kneel down next to Lucas, putting my hand on his chest.
“Callie?” he whispers, eyes slowly opening. “What are you doing?”
“It’s okay,” I tell him, tears filling my eyes. “I’m going to make you okay.” Squeezing my eyes closed, I splay my fingers and breathe in the energy swirling inside of him. It hits me hard, and I jerk my hand away. “It’s a curse.”
“Curse?” he echoes.
“I can feel it. You’ve been cursed.” I inhale, trying to ground myself, and put my hand back on his chest. Darkness swirls inside of him, pulling and pushing me at the same time. It’s heavy and oppressive and is making it hard to breathe. “The magic is…it’s old. Unlike anything I’ve felt before.” My stomach churns from the darkness in the energy. If I could absorb it all and take it away, saving him, I would.