Chapter Nine
Alastair:
I wake, groggy and confused. I am cuffed and it is dark. I activate my vampire night vision. It only partially works. I am in the patient room of Amber's cabin. I also am not alone. Amber is asleep beside me in a chair, her head near my arm. Something about her looks off but I can’t place it. I look around, trying to get clues as to what has happened that would lead to me being here, tied up. The light blocking curtains are drawn so either it is daytime, or they have been drawn so the daylight won’t wake me later. That is all I can figure out with my blurred vision. Trying to stay awake and failing I succumb to sleep once more.
Amber:
I wake up and check in on Alastair. He is breathing normally and all his vitals are regular. He could have woken when I slept, but if so, it hadn't been for long because he didn't wake me.
"Amber."
"I'm in here."
"You didn’t come back to the house all of last night, did you at least eat at all today while Fergus and I were at work?"
"I fell asleep for an hour, but no, I didn’t leave."
Fiona sighs and hands me a plate with a steak, potatoes, some spinach and a glass of orange juice.
"You lost a lot of blood and barely ate last night. You have to eat to get your body going again."
"I'm fine. I wanted to make sure Alastair's vitals didn’t change." It has been over twenty-four hours since he snapped. He hasn't woken and it worries me.
"He's resting peacefully and you've done everything that can be done. You need to rest."
"I told you, I slept for an hour."
"You didn’t even bind what was left of your wound to keep it from reopening and bleeding…"
I sigh as Fiona inhales and looks down at the sheet over Alastair, where my head has been. My wound has reopened a bit and bled. The Were virus has mostly healed it, but I haven't had time to let it fully heal. I had to use the cream to push the venom out before it could fully circulate or I would have been a wolf come the next full moon.
"You bled. That will excite Alastair when he wakes."
"He will likely be lethargic, confused, light sensitive and possibly anemic."
"That plant is dangerous."
"That's why I said to not even bother watering it or anything. It requires special care; even touching it with bare skin can cause humans to go catatonic. It’s a more powerful version of the plant. It needs special handling."
"And it can cure asthma?"
"I am using the normal version of it to treat my sister's asthma. One dose a month and her asthma is under control, plus some mild treatments for emergencies which she hasn’t used so far. The plant witch that owns the place I get my bought ingredients from thinks I will be able to use a hybrid version to make a cure, so she volunteered to start the growth process of a hybrid for me, as long as I took it once it sprouted."
Fiona says nothing but looks at Alastair.
"I didn’t think he would end up like this. I didn’t think he would eat one of my plants before knowing what it did. He's always so careful, he won't even touch them. That's why I asked you to water them."
"I'm not blaming you. It is a noble goal and I believe you didn’t mean harm to anyone. I think Alastair ate it because he trusts that you only do good things with your gift, he didn’t expect this."
"I know. I have the fence around it in red to warn off animals, and if I could enchant it so no one but me could go near it, I would, but I can't. I should have warned everyone away from it instead of just you…"
"I was supposed to be the only one coming here. Don’t be so hard on yourself."
I nod and press on my neck. Man, it hurt. I go to the cupboard where I keep my modern medical supplies and pull out a wrapping bandage. Fiona helps me wrap it and tape it off.
"Go sit at your table and eat, I will watch."
I nod and do as she suggests, keeping both ears open for the sound of Alastair waking.
After I finish picking at my food I go back into the room and take over the chair again. Fiona stays until after dark. She goes back to the house after Fergus calls her cell phone. She is reluctant but I promise to call her if there are any changes.
"Fiona, tomorrow I want you to get an IV set up if you can. I don’t have one but I think we should set up a blood bag IV for Alastair. He needs nourishment to heal and wake."
She nods and starts making calls while walking out the door.
I stay awake until a couple hours before dawn. Two days of almost nothing to eat, an hour of sleep, and extreme blood loss, has me zonking on once again.
Alastair:
This time when I wake, I feel a little clearer headed. I still don’t know what is going on but my vision is working and I feel rested rather than groggy.
"You're awake."
I see mom leaning on the floor by my bedside, holding my hand, which is still cuffed. This time light pours in through the window and there is an IV dripping blood into my arm. That will account for the feeling better.
"Do you remember anything?"
"Not really."
"Nothing from the other day?"
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Two days. Amber has slept maybe an hour of that. She's been here the whole time taking care of you. I'm glad I was able to get the blood drip as she suggested. You seemed to get better much faster with it."
"She looks and smells terrible."
Mom smiles and lets out a great sigh.
"She hasn’t bathed in over forty-eight hours and she has barely touched any food. I've been getting her to drink orange juice off and on to keep her blood sugar up, but I wish she would let me take her to the ER."
I look over at Amber's sleeping form. I can see only her hands and face but they look worn out and pale.
"Her neck is bandaged. What happened?"
Amber lifts her head up and stretches. As soon as she see me looking at her, she stands up quickly, holding still for a second looking dazed and dizzy. She takes my vitals and pulls a key out of the drawer of the bedside stand.
"Is he coherent enough to take the cuffs off?"
Mom nods and Amber un-cuffs me, quickly doing hands and feet before returning the chair to its place near the window and sitting in it.
"What happened?"
"You don’t remember the day I came home from my trip at all?"
"I remember parts of the day. I didn’t feel well and I couldn’t figure out why. If I had gotten tainted blood everyone would be sick and vampires don’t get sick from anything other than that…"
"You didn’t get sick. Alastair, you need to take it easy for the next two weeks. Blood three times a day; Fiona is going to get you a pass for the first week of school. I don’t care if it's warm or cold or in a thermos so no one can see what you are drinking, but you need to do it."
"Is that really necessary? He seems fine…"
"We don’t know if there are any lasting effects. Him squinting when he looks at me means he's still light sensitive. The blood will dilute the effects and help him heal faster. It is better safe than sorry. I'm going to talk to the witch about destroying the plant, but that also means I won't be able to study it and make sure there are no permanent side effects, meaning the more blood he consumes the better his chances of a full recovery. We have to hope the vampirism will fight it off with the help of blood.
"I assume that's why he was able to go almost eight hours with no visible side effects. His vampirism was fighting off the effects. If he had had blood fresh from the vein it might have even stopped the effects entirely, but we know a vampire that drinks bag blood is not as strong as one on the vein."
Mom nods.
"If you think it's best, that's what we will do. But should you destroy the plant? Your sister…"
"Is being treated for her condition. She's stable, a cure isn't needed right now."
Amber had looked so happy when she saw me awake. Now she is being so cold. What happened? To her neck, to her sister, t
o me…
"Fiona, I'll call Fergus and then the witch. You stay with Alastair."
Mom seems uncomfortable and just nods again, saying nothing but pulling the chair closer as Amber walks to the door.
"What happened to your neck?"
"Nothing, don’t worry about it."
She leaves the room; I hear the cabin door shut and her whispering on her cell.
"What happened?"
"You ate the fruit of one of her plants when watering it the other morning. It had a… an adverse effect on you."
An adverse effect? I am handcuffed and Amber is acting like… "Her neck. What happened to her neck, mom?"
I sit up slowly and look at the door. Amber is still outside, on the phone. She sounds choked up.
"Alastair, let it go. She doesn’t want to talk about it."
"Mom, I was handcuffed, Amber is bandaged on her neck, it doesn't take a genius to figure out I bit her."
"Alastair, don’t think about it, I beg you. It wasn’t on purpose, you were hallucinating, and you weren't yourself at all. You wouldn’t hurt her normally."
"Did you report me for attacking a human?"
"Of course not!"
Why does she say that like she feels betrayed because I asked? "Why the hell not?! I almost killed her didn’t I?! You should have!"
"Amber told your father and me to pretend it never happened. She made up some excuse to miss her visit with her sister and no one else has been here to see any of us. No one knows what happened, except the family."
"You listened to her when she said not to tell?! I attacked her, you need to report it!"
"You were under the influence of a foreign substance and no one was seriously hurt."
Are they serious? Amber looks all skin and bones and ready to fall apart if a breeze blew in her direction. She is pale, her pupils aren’t normal, she smells funny, and there is nothing stable about her right now.
"How bad was it?"
"I don’t know. When we pulled you off her in your dojo, she tied her neck off with a shirt. There was… there was a lot of blood. I still keep begging her to get a transfusion but she refused to leave until you woke. I brought her a change of clothing, but she's still so filthy. When I came back from getting the missing ingredient for the antidote, she was on the floor, unconscious. The bleeding had stopped and your father was standing there doing nothing, so I assumed she was alright…"
"She was unconscious and he didn't help her?"
"He blames her for this. It was her plant that did it…"
"She didn’t poison me on purpose, did she?"
Mom shakes her head and tears cloud her eyes.
"She blames herself as well. She was so worried. I've been so afraid we would get you back only to lose her. She hasn’t had a transfusion or had enough rest and food to recover the lost blood. And she's been caring for you nonstop…"
"You said no one was here, right? Why do I smell wolf’s bane? Was there a wolf here?"
"Her clothing smelled like a werewolf and the wolf's bane cream she makes to push the venom out…"
"She got herself bit by a wolf?"
"No, she put werewolf venom in her system to mostly heal the wound and then used a cream to push the venom out. She passed out for a while after."
I look up as dad enters and Amber stands behind him, refusing to look at me.
"So you and the teacher were right, it can save a human from venom if used fast enough."
"The cream I have is diluted a lot, so I was allowed a minute to heal. It would have to be injected within a minute of being bitten if we wanted it to be of practical use. Fiona, you promised."
She seriously made mom promise not to tell me what happened to her?
"Amber, I'm sorry… I…"
"It's not your fault Alastair, it’s mine."
"That's the only thing we have agreed on since you moved in with us."
"Dad, get out! Mom, get him out of here, I need to talk to Amber alone."
Dad storms out, glaring at Amber, who looks like she will burst into tears at any minute. How the hell am I going to fix this?
Chapter Ten
Amber:
Fiona follows Fergus out, giving me an apologetic look. I rub my neck. I am not entirely scared of being alone with Alastair, but parts of me remember the attack and are not prepared to go through it yet again.
"It's not your fault. You would never do something to hurt anyone. I was careless, I let my guard down."
"Because of me. I've been trying to get you to let your guard down around me since we met, Alastair. Fiona has been too. I know she told you to be more tolerant of me and to let me depend on you and humor me. You got comfortable around me and you almost died because of it. Your dad was right…"
He comes over and hugs me.
"He's not, Amber, he's just angry. You are growing that plant to help your sister. To cure her. I did something stupid like pick and eat it. In no way are you at fault."
I hug him back and bawl. So much has happened in the last few days, and I have held it all inside because Alastair was the top priority. When I stop crying I realize we are sitting on the bed and the clock says almost an hour has passed.
"Feel better?"
I nod. "A bit. I'm tired. My neck hurts. I think the bleeding has started again. It did earlier too. I wasn’t able to let it heal all the way."
"Is my blood still contaminated?"
"A bit, but very minor for a vampire."
"If it wasn’t, I could give you a drop and it would heal you."
I smile. "Thanks for the thought, but I don’t know what all the stuff in your blood would do right now."
"How about other bodily fluids? Like saliva?"
"That should be fine. Are you worried about your food tasting funny or something?"
"No. I… this will sound crazy."
I laugh and lean back on the bed, flopping down, determined to never move again.
"Because a human living with supernaturals isn't the epitome of crazy."
"Blood would be better, it would heal everything wrong, but I can lick your wound close. It'll heal it up without a scar and there would be no more pain."
"I don’t care about a scar."
"But you are in pain. You saved me, let me help you."
Well, this is getting super awkward. "I don’t need it, Alastair. I'll be fine. Now that you are awake I can start taking better care of myself. I'll be ready for school in a week, no problem."
He sighs and flops down next to me.
"I'm sorry. I didn’t know I was attacking you. I don’t even remember it happening."
"Of course you don’t, you were drugged."
"I remember sensations."
I hop out of bed and grab a pen and paper. "It might be useful to write down everything you remember. To aid in creating a preventative, so we know what senses to target. If you can recall anything. I can make sure it's anonymous. But a written record would be good. It's up to you, though. It's your experience."
He sighs and continues staring at the ceiling. I am sitting in a chair next to him, pen and paper ready for him to tell me to move so he can write. But it doesn’t look like I am getting this record anytime soon.
"I'll talk about it. If you want a written account, go ahead and take notes."
I pick up the pen and wait patiently. It will probably be hard to talk about losing control. Especially for Alastair, who is the epitome of control.
"Most of the day is fairly clear. I remember watering your plants, eating breakfast, working out. I mowed the lawn since dad got called into work and mom said she had to grocery shop. Some things are a little hazy, I can't remember exactly how long it took to mow the lawn but there was nothing that was off enough to worry me. Dinner came and I was eating. You came running in and my sense of smell went into overdrive. I could smell your blood.
"Usually we have control over our senses; we can dull them so we don’t smell everything, get overwhelmed with mixing smell
s and vomit up everything we eat. We dull them to be almost like a human nose, but always on alert for certain smells like werewolves. Werewolves' being our natural enemies, our nose is programmed to always try to sense them. When you walked in, my sense of smell took over. I couldn’t control it and all I could smell was your blood. My family being in the room allowed me to barely hold on to the predator in me. It knew they would be able to stop me from attacking you. I went to the dojo to work it off. I wasn’t sure what the hell was wrong with me but I thought I could work it off. But the more I hit things the more I lost control. Then…."
"Then, I walked in alone and you completely lost it."
"I wasn’t able to stop the bloodlust. It's never happened before, even when I was first learning control, I never lost it that badly."
"So your bloodlust took over and I was a tasty smelling snack."
I don’t mean it in an insulting way, but Alastair flinches. It is slight and I don’t think he expected me to notice from the corner of my eye, but I am watching his reactions as he speaks so I can write them down as well. I need to find a way to prevent this from happening again, in case anyone the vampires don’t want to know finds out. Information always gets out.
"It wasn’t just bloodlust."
"What else?"
"You smelled good."
"I know that's why you tried to eat me."
He rolls over, facing away from me and towards the floor. I am not angry. Geez, he has to stop torturing himself over this.
"Alastair, don’t be ashamed, the drug took over. It wasn’t really you. You don’t have to feel bad."
"I don’t mean you smelled like food. You just smelled… really good."
Does he mean I, myself, smelled good? What had I done? I had been wearing a perfume I liked and bought. I have never really done perfume …
"Maybe my perfume was a contributing factor in your control loss."
"It wasn’t the perfume. I could smell it but that wasn’t it."
Poor Alastair looks ready to throw himself off a building. All his big talk and big walk only to find he is human like the rest of us. I can’t help but chuckle.
Adopted Into the Supernatural Page 8