by Dara Nelson
Carlos shook his head. My hair whipped in the wind as Aquila came down to hover over us. “Did you see him?” I said, trying to not let the desperation show in my voice. He shook his head. “Where could he have gone, Carlos? What was he saying?”
“I don’t know, Sarah. He kept saying that he had to get away. Can you get into his head?”
I closed my eyes. I knew instantly when I had linked with him, because I saw nothing but black and I felt nauseous. I crouched down on the ground with my head in my hands and tried to listen to his voice, ‘Dark. The dark will make them sleep. Cold and dark. Got to cut them out when they sleep.’
I unlinked and stood up, “I think I know where he is. Follow me, but hang back a bit. I don’t want to spook him. There are still medical supplies in the basement, right? Get a syringe of something that will knock him out.”
Carlos nodded, “On it. Where am I meeting you?”
I jumped up into the sky, “The cave,” I said as I took off for the cave that was in the back side of the small island that was about one hundred yards offshore from us.
I landed silently on the sand and saw him crouched, naked, in the back of the cave, scratching at his forearm. He glanced up at me and I saw no recognition, only fear, in his eyes. “Can you help me? I can’t make them go away. Please don’t hurt me. The bugs, they’re on your clothes too. Don’t come near me.”
I looked down at my dress. I reached down, pulled it over my head. I dropped it on the sand. “Better now? No more bugs?” I said as I heard Carlos land behind me. “Matt,” I said as I began very slowly making my way towards him, “I have something here that will make the bugs go away. Would you like that?”
He nodded as he scratched at his arm some more. Carlos tiptoed up behind me and placed the syringe in my hand.
I turned back to Matt. He was concentrating on his arm, but as I got closer to he looked up at me and I saw panic in his eyes. His crouch changed to a defensive stance. “You’re the bugs. You’re here to take me.”
I shook my head, “No, hun. I’m not the bugs. I’m Sarah, your wife.”
“Liar!” he said as he jumped at me and swung. “I don’t have a wife.” His fist whizzed past my cheek as I ducked out of the way. I grabbed his bicep, spun him around and punched him as hard as I could in the jaw, knocking him down into the sand. I jumped onto his back, grabbed the syringe that I had dropped in the sand, and plunged it into his neck. Carlos helped me hold him down as he struggled for a few seconds until the drugs kicked in. Finally, he went limp. We flipped him over. I threw my dress back on then I picked him up in my arms. We both flew back to the house. Jason and Aquila were waiting for us on the porch. I heard the plane approaching from the distance. “I called for the plane a while ago. He’s charging double because of the short notice, but I thought it was important to get back as soon as possible.”
“You’re right. Good thinking. Carlos, can you go down to the basement and grab about six more syringes? That should be enough to keep him knocked out until we get back home and get him to the clinic where David and Cameron can go to work saving him.”
I snuggled into Carlos on Stefan’s plane and finally allowed myself to lose it. I cried and cried into his chest as the enormity of the situation overwhelmed me. My Matthew, a vampire, an immortal, had a fatal disease. What the hell is happening? I lifted my head up. “Oh, Carlos. I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined your shirt,” I said as I wiped the bloody tears from my cheeks. His tender finger lifted my chin. He tried to hide the sadness in his eyes as he lovingly gazed at me, but it was there. It was there in all of us. “I don’t give a damn about my stupid shirt, Sarah.”
“I know. It’s just that, it’s just that, Oh God, Carlos. I can’t lose him. I just can’t,” I sobbed as another round of tears hit. He pulled me tight and kissed my head, “I know, Sarah. I know. The guys are doing everything they can to find a cure. They’re working around the clock. They’ll find it. I know they will.”
I wiped the latest tears as I whispered, “I know they will, Carlos. But will it be in time?”
“It has to be, Sarah. It just has to be,” he whispered as he pulled me tight.
The limo pulled into the court yard several hours later. I saw Cameron and David waiting there with a stretcher. Cameron pulled open the back door and climbed in the back, “First things first. I need blood samples from everyone in here,” he said as he plunged a needle into my arm. “We’ve identified what the bacteria looks like. Now we need to see how it reacts to everyone’s blood. If anyone has any natural antibodies in their blood, we can use that to try to develop a cure.”
He pulled the syringe out of my arm and then quickly collected samples from Jason, Aquila and Carlos. Then he jumped out, “Bring him, quickly.”
Carlos gently placed his hand on my arm as I instinctively reached for Matt. “I’ve got him, Sarah,” he whispered. In that moment, I realized that he had just as much at stake here as I did, he had just as much to lose. He and Matt had been best friends a lot longer than Matt and I had been a couple in love. More than a hundred years longer. I smiled, sadly, and nodded. He scooped Matt into his arms and stepped out. I followed closely behind, clasping Carlos’ hand in mine the moment it was free. Cameron glanced at me, “Sarah. I know you want to be with him right now. But you need to let us work first. We need to try to slow the progression of this thing in him in order to give us enough time to find a cure. We can’t do that if you’re hovering. Go. Get some sleep. Both of you. I’m sure you need it. I promise I’ll come and get you if anything develops.”
I knew he was right, but that didn’t make it feel any better. I forced his eyes to lock on mine, “Don’t you dare get me too late, Cameron. I don’t want to say goodbye, but if I have to, I want to be able to. He needs me to do that. Don’t take that away from me. Promise me that you’ll get me before it’s too late.”
He stared for a second then nodded, sadly, “I promise,” he said then they whisked him away, leaving the two of us clinging together in the dark. We didn’t move. We didn’t know what to do. The only thing we could do was just stand there and hold on to each other. And so we did. We just stood there as the limo pulled out of the courtyard and into the garage, as Jason and Aquila quietly made their way to their room, as dozens of vampires made their way through the courtyard and inside for the night. We just stood and clung tight. We couldn’t move. We couldn’t speak. We could only wrap each other in love. Finally, after a few hours, I pulled back and looked at him. He smiled at me and wiped the tears from my cheeks, then leaned down and kissed me. We turned and made our way slowly inside to our room, where we collapsed, exhausted, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms, onto the bed.
Early the next morning, Cameron burst through our door. He was too excited to bother to knock. “Sarah! Wake up! Quick!” he shouted as he barged through our bedroom door.
“Oh God, no,” I cried, expecting the worst. I buried my face in my hands. Carlos’ hands were shaking as he pulled me closer. Cameron’s shock quickly turned to sympathy as he realized what his hurried entrance had made us think, “What? Oh, oh shit, no. It’s not Matt. No, it’s you Sarah. It’s your blood. I need you to feed on Aquila right away then give me another blood sample.”
“Excuse me? Did you say that you needed me to feed on Aquila? Are you insane? I can’t do that. Cameron, what the hell are you talking about?”
Cameron forced himself to calm down. He took a few deep breaths and sat on the end of the bed. “Okay. Here’s the deal. Sarah, your blood has some natural antibodies to this virus. They’re enough to slow its progression, but not kill it. But your blood is different than everyone else’s, and that got me thinking.”
“My blood is different? What do you mean? How is it different?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s because you carried Jason, so you have some seraphim DNA in your blood. Your blood adapted to the foreign DNA. It combined with it. So now you have this sort of vampire-seraphim hybrid blood. But it’s mostly v
ampire. I’d say it’s like an eighty twenty mix. So, last night I started messing with the mixture. I added some of Aquila’s blood to yours, mixed them together then tested it on the virus. It didn’t kill it but it completely stopped its growth. Sarah, it stopped it completely. So I added more of Aquila’s blood to yours, until I had about a fifty fifty blend, and, God I still can’t believe it,” he said as he raked his fingers through his hair.
“You can’t believe what, Cameron?”
“It killed it, Sarah. It fucking killed it dead.”
“But why do I have to feed on Aquila? Why can’t we just draw some of his blood and then I’ll feed on it?”
“Because I’m worried that it will lose its effectiveness that way. There’s a timing issue, there’s exposure to air, there’s a number of factors that might diminish or eliminate its effectiveness,” he said.
“But you do know how much it hurts to stop, right? We filled you in on what happened to me that one time that I stopped. It was hours before I could function again.” I said.
He nodded, “I know, Sarah. But the fact that you can stop is the reason this might work. And I think maybe the more you do it, the less pain you’ll have when you do stop.”
I turned to Carlos and said, “He might be right. When I stopped when I was sharing the pints with Jason in the tomb, the pain didn’t get any better, but the recovery time seemed to get shorter.”
I turned back to Cameron, “Fine. But Aquila has to agree to this. I’m not doing this without his permission. Besides, if I bit him without his permission, he’d snap me like a twig.”
“I know. That’s why I went and talked to him first this morning. He’s fine with it. He’ll be here shortly.”
I stared at the door, “Now? You want me to do this now?”
Cameron nodded. I jumped when there was a knock at the door.
I opened the door. “Come in,” I said, suddenly feeling nervous. Aquila ducked his head as he walked inside. We both sat on the couch. A worried Carlos sat on my other side. I suddenly remembered what Aquila had told me earlier, “Should we be doing this now? I mean, with the problem that you’re having. You know, your need to mate? Is it safe for me to do this now or could it be a problem?”
Aquila smiled, “You’re right to be worried if the need was still there. But I took care of that this morning. The female, Bahiti, is now carrying another son for me.”
“She is? Oh, okay. Ummm, I’ve only bitten and stopped once before. It causes me a lot of pain, but I can do it.”
Aquila nodded, “I know. And I’m not worried. Where would you like to bite?”
“Uh, the wrist I suppose. Yes, the wrist,” I said, feeling that the neck would feel too intimate. I looked at Cameron as Aquila held his wrist out to me, “How long?”
Cameron looked at his watch, “Let’s do five seconds. Okay?”
I nodded, “Okay, but shout it out for me. There’s no way I can count in my head when I’m trying to stop.”
Cameron nodded. He spread out his blood drawing supplies on the coffee table to be prepared. “Got it,” he said, “Ready?”
I closed my eyes and dropped my fangs then I looked at him again, “Ready.”
“And, go,” he said. I buried my fangs in Aquila’s wrist.
Every nerve fired in my brain. The sound of his heart pumping was deafening in my ears, drowning out the sound of Cameron’s voice. I barely heard a muffled, “Five! Stop now, Sarah!” My body screamed at me to continue – this was awesome, amazing, almost as sweet as innocent blood – but I fought that desire. I squeezed my eyes tighter, growled at myself then forced my head to pull back, tearing the skin on his wrist in the process. I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. The room began swimming. I groaned again as I forced my teeth to retract, then the room went black as I passed out.
“Sarah?” said a whispered voice. It was Cameron.
“Honey? Wake up. Are you okay?” Carlos whispered.
My eyes fluttered and tried, unsuccessfully, to stay open. I tried to find my voice, “Stop whispering,” I choked out.
“We’re not whispering hun. We’re shouting. Come on, wake up. Please?” Carlos said as he gently patted my face.
Shouting? They’re shouting? Fuck, this is not good. My head was pounding. I grunted and forced myself to sit up. Whoops, not a good idea. I immediately felt nauseous. “Oh crap,” I said as I leaned forward over the rug and vomited blood. Carlos and Aquila tried to quickly move their feet out of the way. “What the fuck? Cameron? Why is she throwing up?” Carlos said.
“I, I’m not sure,” Cameron said.
I shook my head, “No,” I said as I coughed and spit out a little more blood, “this has happened before when I had Aquila’s blood inside me. In the cave. I thought it was because I was pregnant. But maybe it was him. Maybe his blood just makes me nauseous. No offense, Aquila.”
“None taken. I’ve seen this happen in others. It’s the vampire blood trying to force the foreign seraphim blood out. Others throw most of it up. For some reason, you only throw up a small amount, Sarah. I don’t know why, but you are able to absorb much more than other vampires.”
“That must be why her blood is so effective in killing the virus.”
“Yeah, but Doc, if this works, how often is she going to have to feed? How often will she have to go through this? This can’t be good for her,” Carlos said as he rubbed my back.
“I’m fine, honey,” I said as I smiled weakly at him. I held my arm out to Cameron. “You need to draw blood, right?”
Cameron and Carlos looked at each other. “See Doc? You’re not fine, Sarah. Cameron drew blood an hour ago. David came in and got it. This is too hard on you, honey.”
I turned and mustered up as much strength as I could as I looked at Carlos. “Carlos, if this works, if this saves Matt and others, if this is a cure, then, no, it’s not too hard on me. Nothing is too hard on me if it saves him.”
Carlos looked at me for a second then nodded as he cupped his hand on my cheek, “Okay,” he whispered as he leaned his forehead in to mine.
Cameron started gathering up his supplies as he stood, “I’m going to go help David. You and Aquila should go and feed. Replenish yourselves. Gain your strength back. I’d ask you not to do too much physical activity, Sarah, to keep your strength up, but I know you well enough to know that would be a ridiculous request,” he said, then he winked at me. I blushed as Carlos pulled me tight to his chest, “You got that right, Doc.”
“What an awesome reputation I have,” I said sarcastically.
“It is an honor to have that reputation among seraphim’s, female. We have extremely high sex drives, but every time we mate with fertile females we create new lives. That is why female seraphim’s are sterile. They help keep us satisfied without creating a population explosion. The females with the highest sex drives hold the highest ranking in my species.” Aquila said.
“But there aren’t female seraphims now, right? You and Jason are the last two, right? What are you doing to, I mean, how are you coping?” I said.
“We’re not. We’re suffering, basically. . Jason and I are going to find as many willing female vampires as we can to repopulate our species.”
“Well, good luck with that buddy. I’m sure you’ll find many. But not this one. This one already gave you a child, unwillingly I might add,” Carlos said, barely containing his anger.
Aquila looked down at his hands, “I know,” he whispered, “but it was the only way that I could prove that our two species could co-exist. It had to be the strongest vampire I could find. One that I knew would survive the birth. She was the only choice. I think you understand that. You don’t like it, but you understand it.”
“He does,” I said as I patted Carlos’ hand.
We all got up and headed to the kitchen to eat.
As we silently ate in the kitchen, Cameron burst in, barely able to contain his excitement, “Sarah. It’s worked on every test in the lab. We’re going to transfuse
that pint you gave us into Matt now. If it has a positive effect, we’ll need you to feed again and then give us more blood, okay?”
I glanced at Aquila, who nodded, “Okay. But I’m going to need a bucket this time,” I said, smiling.
“Damn it. I don’t like this, Doc. You’ve got to try to come up with another way. This is going to be too hard on her,” Carlos groaned.
“I know, Carlos. I’m working as hard as I can. But for right now, this is the only success we’ve had. And, umm, well, umm,” he stammered.
“What? What is it? Spit it out,” Carlos growled.
“Well. It’s just that I want to make sure that you don’t catch this thing. You already have some of the antibodies in your system, probably because the two of you share blood already,” he held his hand up as I started to protest, “I know, I know. You’ve shared blood with Matt too. And, yes, he had some of the antibodies in his system too. But not enough. Actually, we’re not exactly sure yet how much is enough. But I want to be safe. So I want you to test this immunization I’ve developed. I’ve already tested it on David and myself. I’d like you to be next.”
Carlos rolled up his sleeve, “Sure. Give it to me.”
“Not here. I can’t give it to you here. It has to be administered in a controlled environment,” Doc Cameron said.
“A controlled environment? What the hell does that mean? What’s going to happen to me?”
“Well, the two of us had a violent reaction. David nearly destroyed the lab and he broke Ryan’s leg. We think it’s from our bodies trying to fight off the foreign substance.”
Carlos rolled his eyes, “Great,” he mumbled.
I patted his hand, “I’ll stay with you sweetheart. I’ll help you get through it.”
“No you won’t, Sarah. I don’t want to hurt you. You’re already going through enough. Doc, you lock me in one of the cells in the dungeon, got it? Let’s go do this now,” he said as he stood up.