“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I whisper, but I don’t know that it is. What I do know is that I need to do something more than sob useless words as he tries not to die.
I jump up and rush across the kitchen, grabbing any towel I can find before coming back and dropping to my knees as Artie lies in shock, chest splayed open. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” I press the towels against the wound as I try to find my phone to call Marcus, but I can already hear sirens and car doors.
Chapter Nineteen
FINN
Orin’s the first one through the door and when he sees me, he lunges at me, grabbing onto me, but I won’t let him pull me away from Artie. “Oh god. Oh, fuck.”
“Go to the basement, make sure Aria and Claude are okay,” I beg.
He hesitates and squeezes me again before kissing my forehead. I’m not sure he’s planning on leaving until he sees Marcus in the doorway. He kisses me again and then rushes for the open basement door.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper as Marcus drops beside me. “I didn’t… I’m so sorry.” Marcus has always loved Artie more than most people in his life and because of me… because of me, he’s going to die.
“Shh, babe,” he says as he reaches out and runs a hand over Artie’s face. Artie’s eyes shift to Marcus as he pulls the towel back to see the damage.
“He tried saving me…” I whisper, my own body shaking as I try to get a handle on the situation. “Claude… I don’t know if Claude is still alive… This is all my fault. I shouldn’t be here. You guys shouldn’t be around me.”
Marcus holds me to him with one hand as a sob escapes me. The hand that usually gives me so much strength just fills me with dread because I know I’m putting him in danger. He lifts his right arm up to his mouth and bites his own wrist before letting the blood drip into the open gashes on Artie’s chest.
“What are you doing?” I ask, but he remains fixated on Artie.
When the blood stops dripping, he covers the wound back up and pulls me to him. “Don’t ever believe this is your fault. Will you stay with him while I check on my brother?”
“What’d you just do?” I ask.
Marcus looks up and says, “Karsyn, stay with Finn for me.”
I want to be selfish and tell him not to go, but I also know someone needs to help Claude, so I let him leave as Karsyn kneels next to me. “I’m sorry,” he says.
“I fucked up, Karsyn. This is all my fault.” I dig my fingers into Artie’s coat. “Artie’s going to die and that monster’s not going to stop. What makes me think we can stop him? He’s going to ruin my life. He’s already ruined my life,” I whisper.
“I’m sorry, Finn,” Karsyn says.
I reach out to Artie’s face as he just stares. I’m not even sure he knows I’m here anymore.
Karsyn pulls the towel back and hesitates, probably because he knows what I already do. “What the fuck…”
“Shh,” Marcus says, appearing behind us as he pulls the towel back over it. “Just let him rest.”
“What did you do to him?” Karsyn asks.
Marcus leans over. “What did you not get when I said ‘shh’?”
“What’s going on?” I ask but that’s when I see Orin carry Claude up.
“We’re running them both to Dr. Watson. Come on,” Marcus says as he leans over and picks Artie up.
“Is Claude going to be okay?” I ask.
“He’s lost a lot of blood so he’s healing very slowly, but he’ll be okay. Orin got ahold of Watson who said he would do some maintenance to help him heal faster.”
“Shouldn’t we take Artie to a vet?” I ask.
“We can’t…” Marcus leans toward me and kisses my forehead. “Trust me.”
I nod and follow him out to the car before remembering something. “Karsyn!” I shout.
He turns to me. “I shot the vampire in the head. Can you please check any speck of blood in case it’s his so we can run it for a DNA match?”
Karsyn nods. “Location?”
“Across from the dining table about five feet from the open basement door.”
“I’m on it,” he says as Brooks moves over to me.
“You okay?” Brooks asks as he reaches out to me, and I notice his sleeve is bloody.
I hold my hand out to him. “Did you get hurt?”
He looks confused as his hand hesitates. “No. Why?”
“Your sleeve is bloody.”
He twists his arm and looks at where the blood spots his sleeve. “Oh, I scraped my arm on the busted door trying to unjam it when we arrived. I’m fine,” he assures me.
“Okay,” I say as I rush to the car as Marcus starts it. As soon as I shut the door he begins driving, and I turn in my seat to watch Artie who’s still just staring. He’s not shaking or panting and that’s worrying to me. It’s clear he’s in shock after what happened and when a dog is in shock, it’s not a good thing.
A touch on my leg makes me jump. Startled, I look at Marcus’s hand before reaching out and taking it with my prosthesis. “I’m so sorry, Finn. I shouldn’t have left you. He knew we left. He was waiting for us to leave you alone.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “How can you even fathom apologizing? I did this. Claude and Artie are hurt because of me. Nothing you did caused this, Marcus! If you were here tonight, you could have been hurt just like him.” I start to pull my hand away, but he takes it and holds it close to himself.
“Knock it off. Stop beating yourself up over this. Did you call him over, Finn? Did you ask him to attack you? Of course you fucking didn’t. He’s a monster who wants to control what you’re doing. He honestly thinks he owns you. We both know if he wanted you, he would have taken you today. It’s clear that Claude might have slowed him down, but he couldn’t have stopped him.”
“He… he talked to me,” I say. “He said that he wanted me to leave the VRC because it was unsafe… it sounds like he was pissed about me getting shot because of it… it left a blemish on me. So he wants me to leave, but why do I have to fucking leave? Why do I have to do what he wants? What right does this fucking monster have to ruin and rule my life?” My voice is shaking as it rises, and I know I’m being selfish by even wanting to stay with the VRC. “So… all of this is my fucking fault for joining the VRC? The women who died? Perez? Tonight?”
Marcus squeezes my hand. “Finnigan. Please listen to me. This is not your fault. I feel fucking guilty about it, but I know it’s not my fault either. It’s his. It’s always been his and… tonight tensions are high. We’re upset; we’re thinking rashly. So let’s just worry about the here and now, and then we’ll go from there, okay?”
I nod and he lifts my hand to his lips before kissing it.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. I’m so sorry you went through that,” he says.
“Can you tell me what you did to Artie?”
He hesitates before nodding. “It’s not something I share because I honestly don’t know how or why. I mean, there’s clearly something in a vampire’s body or in their blood that allows them to heal quickly. I don’t know if it’s something that’s changing in me, but about twenty years ago Artemus got hit by a car. In a moment of desperation, I gave him some of my blood and it healed him—”
I stare at him in disbelief. “Twenty years ago? Don’t Irish wolfhounds live to be ten at the most because they’re such a large dog?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? Maybe? I like how you’re acting like you have no idea what’s going on when you… did you turn your dog into a vampire dog?” I ask.
“There’s no such thing as a vampire dog!” he says. “It just… heals him a little bit for some reason… and then he just stopped getting old. I honestly don’t know if he’ll never get old or if he’s just aging differently because of the blood. I even had to pretend he died once because people kept commenting on how old he was! I had to rename him and everything!”
“Can you heal people that well?”
“Not that
I’ve noticed. It still has small healing properties, but not to this extent.”
“Do you… do you think he’ll live?” I ask hopefully as I look back at Artie.
“We’re going to hope. That’s why I didn’t want to take him to the vet because I don’t want to deal with questions, but hopefully, he’ll be okay.”
He pulls into the parking lot behind Orin’s car. As I get out of the car, I realize that my limbs ache. Any type of quick movement or being pulled by my prostheses makes me ache, but it’s tolerable. It’s so much better than many things that could have happened or what I put the others through. A part of me feels like I deserve it after everything everyone else suffered. Quickly, I pull open the back door for Marcus to pull Artie out. Then I help him with the front door where Charlie is there to greet us. “Hey, I heard you have a four-legged patient for me. Right this way.”
“Marcus, I’m going to go see Claude,” I say.
“Of course.”
I head to the main examination room Watson uses and find Claude on the examination table.
“As long as I’m still beautiful after it all, it’ll be fine,” Claude says to Watson.
“I see you’re okay,” I say as I walk in.
Watson looks over at me and smiles. “Finn, please tell me you’re alright?”
“I’m fine,” I assure him as I go to Claude’s side. The wound must have been worse than I thought because he’s still healing. Someone his age should have healed by now unless he was just that close to death. “I’m so sorry.”
“He’ll be fine,” Watson assures me. “He’s just healing slowly because of blood loss, but I’ll get him pumped full of some good blood, and he’ll be fine.”
I nod, not trusting my words.
“I promise,” Watson says.
“Thank you, Claude,” I whisper as I squeeze his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, it’s nothing. Even if I want to strangle my brother ninety percent of the time, I still have to make sure his precious things are okay. And now you guys get to dote on me all the time. Let’s start now. When’s our next date?” he asks.
I stare at him in disbelief. “You want to go on a date with me? After the last date left you half-dead?”
“I’m afraid a date with Karsyn would go similarly!”
I snort because I’m more than afraid it would as well. I turn to Watson who’s hard at work. “Thank you for seeing them. I know this isn’t really your… thing anymore but I trust your medical knowledge more than anyone. Hell, you made me walk again. Tell me any other doctor who’s accomplished that.”
Watson raises an eyebrow. “And you stress me out every time. My little beauties keep getting scratches on them!”
I snort. “I’m careful with them! I carefully used them to punch someone the other day.”
His eyes narrow as he points at the door. “Leave before you give me a heart attack.”
“I will. I’m going to check on Artie.”
“And then when you’re done, I’m giving you an exam.”
“I’m fine,” I assure Watson.
He doesn’t seem convinced. “Remember that one time you told me you were fine, and I finally pinned you down and your leg was so red from you refusing to take it off that I had to take it from you?”
I shudder at the memory. “It was awful.”
“But your leg felt better, didn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“See?”
I shake my head and head back to the other room to check on Artie and Marcus. When I step into the other room, I nearly break down when I see Artie sitting up. He looks stressed and shaky, but he already looks so much better. I drop down in front of him and sink my fingers into his wiry gray hair as I take a breath.
“Thank you, Artie,” I whisper. “You’re such a good boy.”
His tail wiggles, like he’s trying to wag it, and I have to look away before it makes me start crying.
MARCUS
I have to stay neutral. I have to stay calm even though I’m enraged inside. How dare that monster target what is mine? How dare he believe that Finn belongs to him like he’s an object?
I’m forcing myself to stop shaking from pure rage.
“Babe, I’m going to check something very quick,” I say to Finn who is sitting on the floor with Artemus’s head on his lap. Artemus is still with us nearly two hours after the incident, so I’m hoping that means he’s going to pull through. Charlie has him on some heavy painkillers, so I can’t tell if the medication has him acting a little better or he really is recovering that much.
“Okay. You’ll just be in the hallway, right?” Finn asks, and I can tell he doesn’t want me to leave. It’s selfish of me to still go but I have to get away just for a moment.
“Yes, I was just checking on Claude. I’ll be right back.”
He nods, so I step through the door to where Charlie is heading back toward the room to check on Artemus and Finn. “Hey, could you just sit with Finn for me… for a moment?”
She smiles and gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Of course.”
“Thank you,” I say as I walk into the hallway. Instead of going into Claude’s room, I continue down the hallway, deeper into the house and away from the chaos. When I reach the door leading into the next room, I stop and stare at the wall. I want to punch something. I want to shove my fist through the wall until it hurts. I want to destroy something.
I’ve never felt this level of uncontrol before because I am always in control. Yes, I’ve had cases that have twisted and turned and pulled me this way and that, but never in my life have I been unable to face something, unable to be positive that when I find them, I’ll stop them.
“Are you alright?”
I look over at Watson who is heading my way with Orin by his side.
“Sorry, I kind of just wandered around your house,” I say.
Watson shrugs. “Wander away.”
“I just… had to step away for a moment, but I’m fine, and I’ll go back now,” I assure them.
Orin walks up to me and crosses his arms over his chest before leaning against the wall I’d been debating punching a hole through. “It’s hard, isn’t it? Not being in control. Not positive that you can keep Finn safe.”
I nod because it’s clear he understands my pain. Hell, he’s had to deal with it for fucking years. “I’m just… I know it sounds condescending or something, but I’m fucking used to being the one in charge. I’ve never gone up against a vampire that I can’t put down, and now I’m faced with one who is threatening the person I love most? How am I even supposed to handle that? How do I deal with that? It’s driving me mad. I should always be able to protect Finn.”
Orin sets a hand on my shoulder and I find it strange that someone who isn’t Finn is trying to comfort me. Generally, people just leave me to handle everything on my own. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this. It’s not easy and I wish there was something more we could do.”
“I will find this man and I’ll make him regret the day he looked at Finn and decided that Finn would be his, because he’s not and he never will be. Finn only belongs to himself.”
Orin gives me a smile. “Thank you.”
Watson leans toward me, catching my eyes. “For tonight, I thought maybe it would be best if all of you slept here? I have a few guest bedrooms that could accommodate your family, Orin. That’ll give you time to get the doors and other things fixed around the house tomorrow.”
“Are you sure, Watson? We don’t want to put more people in danger,” Orin says.
“Seriously?” he asks. “Finn might not be part of my family, but I’ve taken care of him for many years. Of course I don’t mind. I’ll go get things arranged.”
He leaves, so I head back toward the room but before going inside, I turn to Orin. “I know that man is trying his hardest to scare us off. He’s doing this to show that he could destroy all of us, but I’m not going to be bullied into this. I will stop him.”
“And I will help you,” Finn says defiantly.
I turn to see him through the cracked door. “Finn…”
“But we have to be smart and play by his rules, at least until we have something to go on,” he says.
I nod, knowing we have no choice and I have to trust Finn.
Chapter Twenty
FINN
“You’re… here,” Karsyn says as I walk into work.
“Just to gather some things, and then I’m going back home. Did you miss me?” I tease as I walk over to him and ruffle his hair.
He growls something at me and tries batting me off. “Absolutely not. I’ve actually been able to get work done and think!”
I give him a look of shock. “Wow! I don’t remember the last time you used your brain. Marcus! Karsyn is trying out ‘thinking’!” I shout.
“Don’t hurt yourself, Karsyn!” Marcus says.
Karsyn clearly doesn’t think we’re as funny as we think we are. “Ha fucking ha. You’re both comedians. It’s been nice without either of you for the past two days. Although, my peace and quiet has been interrupted by this Claude person texting me. How the hell did he get my number?”
Marcus hesitates. “I… don’t know.”
“Go tell him to take a hike,” Karsyn growls.
Marcus nods approvingly. “Sure. He’s been annoyingly staying with us, so I’ll help him take a hike right to your house. Boy look at the time. I think we need to go. Right, Finn?”
“Sure, sure,” I say, realizing that this might pertain to Marcus telling Claude he’d get a date with Karsyn if he watched me.
I return to my desk and grab some paperwork I want to take with me and stuff it into my bag. At the moment, we’re not quite sure what we should do. Clearly, that monster is determined to keep me away from the VRC, so for now, I think I’m going to step back in the hopes that more people don’t get hurt. If he’d been alone with Claude a moment longer, he would have killed him, and Claude is a true vampire. There are so many people in my life that aren’t as strong as him because they’re not as old, like Karsyn and Aria. Orin’s older but I know he also couldn’t face that man in a fight even if he had to; Orin’s just not a fighter.
How to Elude a Vampire (VRC: Vampire Related Crimes Book 2) Page 19