I silently told Banton goodbye.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I dreamed I could hear Banton’s voice, an enraged sound coming from deep inside him. The sounds flooded to me from a deep, dark tunnel. Chaos exploded around me, and swiftly strong arms jerked the handcuffs out of the wall, picked me up roughly, and flew with me through the dark, wet tunnels of the underground. I was passed into another set of arms, but none of them were the warm, strong arms of my Banton. I could hear him, could sense he was fighting nearby. Gunfire erupted all around and someone threw his large body over me to shelter me. I was acutely aware of my surroundings, but I couldn’t move anything. I was paralyzed, trapped inside my own body.
A voice whispered in my ear, “Stay down. Don’t move. I’m Sam. We are going to get you out of here.”
This was no dream. After what seemed like an eternity of gunfire, guttural sounds of struggle and screams, Sam moved over from on top of me, and the strong, loving arms I sought were finally there. Banton was there. As soon as I smelled the clean scent of his cologne, he was picking me up from the floor, and cradling me to his chest. “Chandler, I’m here. Hold on, we’re getting out of here. Oh, baby, just hold on!”
He ran with me down the tunnel, and I could hear running footsteps both in front of us and behind us.
John’s voice faded in from a distance, “You’ve got her! Thank God! Get her up here, we have an ambulance waiting.”
Banton dropped me into a basket, and then crawled in beside me, and pulled me up into his arms. As the basket rose up into the cold fresh air outside, I heard Sam’s voice below us. “Send it back down, and I’ll bring Olivia up.
I wanted to answer Banton, to tell him I was all right. But I couldn’t open my eyes, and couldn’t speak. What was wrong with me? I struggled against the weight holding me down, like a dream I couldn’t wake from. I needed to talk to him, to tell him I loved him, to tell him about the baby!
The ambulance siren wailed over my head, as Banton and John talked with a paramedic. Banton’s hands carefully and softly ran over my body, checking me for wounds. I finally managed to open my eyes enough to see his beautiful face hovering over me.
“Thank God, Chandler. Can you hear me?” I could see the relief in his eyes as he gazed into mine. He squeezed my hand, and I struggled, but I couldn’t move my head or my hand. I could only open and shut my eyes slowly. I was trapped inside my own paralyzed body.
“John, why isn’t she responding?” he asked, frantically stroking the side of my face. He took my cheek in his hand, and moved my head over, exposing the area of my neck where I knew I’d been bitten.
“Oh, God, no, NO… she’s been bitten!” Banton’s voice was frantic.
John’s face came into my view, looking at my neck where Banton was probing. “Banton, we can’t take her to a hospital. We have to take her to Dr. Lane’s. NOW!”
Banton yelled the alternate location to the driver, and gave him an address. The driver argued back with Banton, telling him that legally the hospital was the only place they could take me. I heard a pistol cock, and then saw John’s hand as it held a gun toward the other paramedic in the back with us. The driver immediately changed course, and in a matter of minutes they were unloading me and whisking me through the familiar back door at Dr. Lane’s.
John remained outside with the paramedics as Banton stayed by my side. Blackness began to close in on me again, but I could hear every sound like it had been magnified, even the beat of Banton’s heart as he leaned over me.
“Hang on, Chandler. Please, you’re okay. You’re going to be fine,” he reassured me. I longed to touch his face.
Rough hands pulled the remains of my shirt away from the area around the bite. Dr. Lane probed the area, and then looked down at my face with hard, cold concentration.
He finally began to speak, as though he’d made a decision. “Banton, you have to leave. I need to work on her.”
“No, I’m not leaving. Tell me what to do, to help you. I have to help you!” The desperation in his voice tore at my heart.
“Banton, there is only one thing to do. She’s been bitten, don’t you understand?”
“NO! There has to be something you can do! You have to help her!”
Dr. Lane grabbed his shoulders and turned his face away from me as he shouted at him. “She will either turn into one of the creatures herself, or die. Death would be much more humane. Don’t you understand? I will not let her transform, it would be cruel. You don’t want that fate for her, for her to become one of the undisciplined. I would be doing her a favor, to kill her now…”
“NO!”
Neither one of them knew I carried the gene Banton carried. I’d never told Banton. I hadn’t had the opportunity, or seen the need. I struggled to find my voice, to open my eyes, to let them know it would be all right. Banton screamed at Dr. Lane, and I could hear them struggling in the room beside me. Then John’s voice broke in.
“What’s going on in here? What the hell…”
“Pull him off me! We have to calm him down. He has to face the fact she’s dying, and we shouldn’t save her.” Dr. Lane sounded resigned to his task.
“NO!” Banton’s rage boiled over as he roared, and I could hear him struggling with John, fighting to get to me. “Call Dr. Renault! Maybe he knows something we can do… Call him now!”
“I already have…he should be here any moment. But Banton, there isn’t anything we can do. He will tell you the same thing I have.”
“NO! There has to be a way. Please, just help her. Just help her till he gets here! What will it hurt?” He struggled to be free of John, and I could hear the sobs in his voice now. It was absolute torture, not being able to communicate with them.
“What are you giving her?” John’s voice took on the same frantic tone that Banton’s had a moment earlier.
Dr. Lane didn’t answer him. He stepped closer to him, and they were both directly over me. He grabbed the doctor’s arm just as I felt the needle prick the inside of my arm.
“I have to do this.” Dr. Lane’s voice took on a deadly cold tone.
“Do what? Banton’s hand shot out, and knocked the syringe away from Dr. Lane. I heard a click, and out of my peripheral vision, I could see John’s gun cocked for the second time today. Dr. Lane began to back away.
I could no longer hold my eyes open, and Banton’s beautiful face was the last thing I saw swirl out of focus. I could still hear everything as though they were speaking inside my own head.
“Banton, get on your cell. Call Ty, get him here, quick. He’s trained as a medic, he can at least help keep her alive and buy her some time till Dr. Renault gets here.”
Banton’s heart beat faster. I heard the buttons click, and then Ty’s voice.
“Man, where are you? We came to the hospital…”
“Ty, listen. I need your help. Get here quick…Lane Clinic just off Interstate Ten on the north side of the city. Chandler’s been infected,” Banton urged.
“Oh, God. I’m on my way!”
“Hey, tell us what we can do while we’re waiting on you.” I could hear the desperation in Banton’s voice.
“I know she’s got to be dehydrated and in shock. And she’s in extreme pain. One of you get an IV started, do you remember how?” Ty asked.
“I’ll do it,” Banton replied.
Ty continued, “Ok, now does the clinic have monitors for her heart, respiration? Get them going. Call me back, and let me know her bp, respirations, oxygen saturation. Start her on oxygen, too. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” I heard Banton flip his phone shut, and then move back next to me.
I could feel a needle prick the inside of one of my arms, and then another as Banton slid the IV into my vein. I felt him remove the remnants of the shredded t-shirt I wore so he could place monitors on my chest. Immediately registering the slow beep…..beep…..beep of my own heartbeats, I could tell my heart rate was too slow and weak. I forced my eyes open again, and watched silen
tly as Banton worked furiously over me, the tears pooling in his beautiful eyes. It was absolute torture not to be able to tell him I was all right.
I could hear Dr. Lane’s breathing from across the room where John held him at gunpoint. After a few moments, Dr. Lane spoke again, fury evident in his voice.
“You have no idea what you are saving. Banton, she’s already a monster! You must kill her. We cannot let her live. She’s dead, Banton. She’s dead! She is already a monster. You can’t want her like that!”
Banton turned away from me momentarily, his body racked with fury. “How can you possibly know? We don’t know what will happen to her!” he roared at the doctor.
“But I do know, Banton. I’ve seen it before. Believe me, it is awful.” I was suddenly confused. His voice trembled with emotion.
“What are you talking about?”
“My wife, Allison. She was bitten a couple of years after we were married. She transformed, and it destroyed her, the girl she’d been. She couldn’t control herself and I couldn’t help her. There was nothing left of the girl I loved. When I watched her attack a small child, I had to destroy her myself.” I could hear emotion in the doctor’s voice as he related the horrible story from his own past.
“No,” Banton whispered, stroking my face.
“What did you start to inject into her?” Banton asked him suddenly, looking at the syringe on the floor.
“Potassium…to stop her heart. It will put her to sleep soon. I just hope I got enough of it into her,” he said viciously. Banton flew to the floor, and picked the syringe up, taking note of how much medicine was left.
“How much did you give her? How much!” he screamed at Dr. Lane.
I was terrified, knowing how close to death I really was. I could feel my breathing getting more and more shallow, like my body was forgetting how to breathe. I had to will myself to take breaths, to make my heart beat. I was struggling to stay alive.
Oh, God…the baby…Banton…
Like something out of a horror movie, the monitor sputtered, and slowed. The audible beats became fainter. It was a death watch. I couldn’t even count my breaths anymore, couldn’t feel my chest moving. I was barely breathing, barely alive. My mind raced over all the things I wanted to tell Banton. That I loved him with all my heart and soul, that I carried his baby, that I wanted to give it to him more than anything in the world. I feared I would never get the chance. I knew, in my heart this was the end. They were too late. It was cruel fate, not to be able to say goodbye. I slipped quietly…
* * *
Banton kept vigil beside my bed. He continued to sob softly into my hair, and occasionally lifted his head to place kisses on my neck. I fought inside myself, and finally detected a small movement in the fingers of my right hand. I dragged my hand slowly across the table, and brushed his arm. I forced my eyelids open so I could see his beautiful face.
“Chandler…sweetheart…Chandler, can you hear me?” He searched my eyes, and I moved them up and down, to answer yes. He smiled through his tears, and I moved my hand again as he took it in his. He gripped it tightly. “Chandler, you can hear me. Hold on, we’re going to figure something out. You’re going to be fine.” He was reassuring himself as much as me.
“Ty! Finally.” I could hear the relief in Banton’s voice when Ty entered and hurried across the room. He began to hook the rest of the machines up, and checked the IV bag.
“Her oxygen saturation is awful. Breathing is way too shallow.” He worked frantically. “I don’t know what else we can do.”
“Lane tried to kill her, he gave her potassium, trying to stop her heart. What can we give her to counteract it?” Banton asked frantically.
“I didn’t get enough into her, or she would be dead already,” Dr. Lane spoke up.
I heard the door open, and someone else entered the room. “Dr. Renault, you’re here.” I could hear the relief in John’s voice once the Aldon doctor from New Orleans arrived.
“She’s been bitten. It’s been over two hours since she’s been here. I told Banton there’s nothing that can be done.” Dr. Lane’s voice was dead, with no emotion.
“What do you mean?” Dr. Renault asked.
“She’ll have to transform. There isn’t anything we can do for her, except let the potassium I gave her run its course,” Dr. Lane repeated his earlier assertion.
“No, she won’t transform. Not completely. Don’t you know?” He looked around the room.
“What do you mean?” Dr. Lane’s voice rose.
“She carries the gene. I can detect it. She’s a half-breed. I thought you knew.”
“What?” Banton found his voice as he cradled my head in his hands.
“She’ll only transform to the extent you have. She carries the gene.”
“How do you know that?” John demanded from behind him.
“An Aldon can sense it. I knew the day I helped you with Banton. It’s like a glow you put off. It’s only evident to the fully transformed or born creatures of our kind. Didn’t Everett tell you?”
Well, he told me, I was just dumb enough not to share, I was thinking to myself. I was relieved Banton finally knew I would be all right. He sobbed into my neck as he held me.
“Banton, we need to draw some blood, run some tests.”
Dr. Renault worked frantically over me, his movements swift, so fast I couldn’t follow him. He gave me two more injections, and then drew blood quickly into vials, Ty continuing to assist him. “We do need to address her injuries, although she should heal quickly now.”
“And we need to get some fluids into her. She is severely dehydrated.” Dr. Lane’s concern returned, and I could hear agitation in his voice for not knowing what Dr. Renault had known. John ushered Banton out into the other room, as the two doctors worked over me.
“Don’t let that man near her!” I could hear Banton struggling with John to come back through the doorway.
“Banton, you have to understand, I didn’t know! How could I? I promise I want to help her. Let me assist him.” Dr. Lane seemed genuinely remorseful.
As the fluids began to flow into my veins, I began to feel calmer and more human. Blinking became easier and I could feel my throat again. Closing my eyes, I let sleep take over now that I knew everything would be all right.
I alternated between waking and dreams. I sensed Banton beside me, stroking my hair and holding my hand in his. I was so frustrated I couldn’t voice my feelings to him. Dr. Renault and Dr. Lane came back into the room to talk to Banton.
“Why hasn’t she regained consciousness enough to respond? Is she in some sort of coma?” Banton asked.
“We’re not sure, but we suspect the venom had more of an effect on her nervous system, with her being so dehydrated and malnourished when she was bitten. She has gone in to a much deeper state of shock than you did when you transformed,” Dr. Lane replied.
“Can you start her on something, something to help with the pain, the nerves, like you did me? I mean - don’t wait, like I did. Start her now, I don’t want her in any pain!”
“Well, it’s not that simple. That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” Dr. Lane’s voice was suddenly softer.
Then Dr. Renault spoke up. “Her heartbeat is stronger now, Banton, and so is the baby’s, but we don’t want to put any more drugs in her system.”
“What? What do you mean, the baby’s?” Banton asked softly. I opened my eyes, and gazed up into his. Tears began to pool in his eyes as he studied my face.
“You didn’t know?” Doctor Lane asked softly. “She’s pregnant, Banton. Just barely. We were only able to pick up a heartbeat on a sonogram after her tests showed to be positive.”
“Oh, Chandler,” he whispered, pressing his face against mine. I struggled to find my voice, but I couldn’t feel my throat, and it seemed my brain couldn’t connect with any muscle in my body. I fought with the will to move my lips, my hands, anything. My frustration level was building by the minute, as anger took over.
Abruptly the monitors went wild, and I could sense my chest heaving up and down, like I’d run a five mile marathon. I continued to stare up into Banton’s tortured eyes.
“Sweetheart, calm down. Doc, what’s wrong with her? Do something to help her, please!”
“Chandler, you have to calm down.” Dr. Renault’s voice broke in.
Dr. Lane spoke then. “We have to give her something, to make her sleep, calm her nerves, even though she is pregnant. It would have to be better for the baby than this.”
I felt another prick inside my arm, as they injected me with another medicine. I immediately felt a warm rush, and everything faded from view.
* * *
I woke to the sound of Banton’s voice.
“Oh. Yes! Can you tell already? Is it a boy?”
“No. It was just a figure of speech, when I said him.” It will be three or four more months before we can tell what sex the baby is. I’m just so relieved we can see movement and I can detect a heartbeat. She was bleeding heavily earlier, and I was afraid she was miscarrying. The Orco who attacked her… I’m afraid there is some damage. He really roughed her up.” I could hear anger in the Aldon doctor’s voice.
“She’s still bleeding, but it seems to be tapering off. The next few hours will tell.” Banton smoothed the covers over me as he searched my face with his eyes. He lowered his head, and rested it on the bed beside me.
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