"I'll heal on my feet." He shoved David's arm off him and rolled off the bed, forcing his limbs to obey him, despite the weakness pervading them. He somehow managed to land on his feet, but as he stood up, the room suddenly spun violently. He had time only to decide he needed to call some magic to help him out, and then blackness consumed him and he hit the floor, unconscious.
***
"Shouldn't he be awake by now?" Jordyn paced restlessly by Eric's bed, skittishly tracking the movement of the setting sun. The pink, purple, and orange sky was magnificent as it stretched over the trees, the streaky clouds reflecting the sun. Normally, she would have sat down on David's back deck and basked in the beauty of nature and the fact she was alive to see yet another sunset. Tonight was different. Tonight the sunset meant darkness was coming. Another night where the sun went down and the not-so-mythical creatures came to life. Another night when the vampire that had attacked them was still at large, another chance for Cicatrice to do terrible things, and another night for Tristan to do what? Become a vampire? Resurrect more monsters? Another night to face with Eric still hovering between life and death.
"Yeah, he should." David was bent over the bed, checking on Eric. He'd been in every hour since he'd moved Eric upstairs, never letting more than sixty minutes go by without checking on him. Ever. "The wound is healed, and his blood appears to be untainted. I don't know. I thought he'd be out for only a couple hours." He straightened up, beads of sweat on his temples. "He was badly injured, though. Maybe there was something else I should have done. I've never had someone that torn up, but still be alive."
Jordyn's heart pounded as she stared at David. "Something else? What do you mean?"
David ran his hand through his auburn hair, tousling what was already a mess. "I don't know, Jordyn. I honestly didn't think I'd save his life. I thought he'd die. I've never seen anyone heal that kind of injury before." He nodded at Eric. "There's not even a scar. He's clearly not entirely human, and I don't know if that changes how I should have treated him."
Jordyn inspected Eric's neck, as she'd done so many times over the last two days. At first, his neck had looked horrible, with a huge, blackened crater where his throat was supposed to be. But hour by hour it had begun to heal, so gradually at first that she'd thought she was imagining it. But now? David was right. "It's completely healed." She sat down next to Eric and traced her finger over where the injury had been. The flesh was soft and warm. Flawless. Even his whiskers had grown back, getting long after almost two days of not shaving. "He hasn't moved," she said.
David frowned at her. "What do you mean?"
"He's been in this exact position since you brought him up here," she said. "He hasn't made a sound, or even blinked. I haven't even seen him swallow. The only way I even know he's alive is because I can feel his pulse." She pressed her fingers to his neck, then frowned. She couldn't feel anything. "Eric?" She shifted her fingers, and still felt nothing. Her heart started to hammer, and then she felt a single, slow, thump of a heartbeat. And then, one more. It was slow, so very slow, but still alive. "Okay, yes, see? His heart's still beating." She looked at David. "But barely."
Frowning, David set his fingers on Eric's neck, feeling for a pulse. He didn't move for several minutes, his face becoming more and more grim as he stood there.
"David? What's wrong?"
For a long moment, David stared at her, then he looked back at Eric, his face unreadable.
Jordyn stiffened. "Talk to me."
He removed his hand from Eric's neck and walked to the window. He set his hands on the window frame, staring out at the swamp. "It's been forty-four hours since he was bitten," he observed.
Jordyn glanced at her watch. "Yes, just about." It was almost eight o'clock, and they'd been attacked shortly after midnight.
David didn't turn around. "The stories tell of a forty-eight hour turnaround time."
She sank down on the mattress next to Eric. "Turnaround time for what?"
"Do you really need to ask me that?"
Jordyn suddenly froze, her fingers tangled in Eric's hair. "You think he's been turned into a..." The words died in her throat. "No. It's impossible. He never died. He wasn't drained of blood."
David spun toward her. "What do we really know about vampires?" he asked. "All we know are ancient stories. They're supposed to be long gone, not running around town ripping people's throats out. I've had over a dozen people in here in the last month who are feeling weird. They have no memory of what happened, and no bite marks that you can see with the naked eye, but they're there. I can find them. Vampires have returned, Jordyn, and we don't know enough about them."
Jordyn bit her lip, her gaze involuntarily sliding past David to the woods behind his cabin. "That's what you wanted to talk to me about at the bar?"
"Yeah. People are getting bitten, and these are just the ones that come to me. What about the ones I don't know about? Three people have been reported as missing, but we both know that it's not unheard of for men to go into the swamp for days at a time, so there may be even more victims that we don't know about, the people who haven't been gone long enough to be considered missing."
Jordyn thought of the woman Eric had heard scream in the woods. "Of course there are vampires, or at least one," she said. "I saw him. I'm not denying that, but what does that have to do with Eric? He's not a vampire. He's been in his bed in the sunlight for the last two days and hasn't burned to a crisp, right?"
"Yeah, but how do we know that matters? All we know are ancient stories from people like your grandmother. Everyone who fought them before is dead. Everyone who knows how to stop them is gone. Everyone who knows their secrets has taken them to the grave." He spread his hands wide in a gesture of helplessness. "We don't know enough about them, Jordyn."
Jordyn's fingers stilled in Eric's hair. "He's not a vampire," she said softly.
"And what if he is?"
David's question hung in the air, a looming threat of danger. She looked down at Eric, who was so utterly still and silent. His skin looked somewhat ashen, but that could have to do with blood loss and the fact he'd almost died. "He won't hurt me."
"Are you willing to risk your life on that one? How well do you know him?"
"I—" She bit her lip, fighting the urge to ease off the bed and put some distance between them.
"We need to get him downstairs. I have a room we can put him in. It should hold him."
She frowned. "A room? What kind of a room?"
"It's a room that I built for myself to keep the bad guys out. It should keep him in okay, at least until we know."
Jordyn hesitated. "Lock him up?"
"You want your neck to look like his?"
"Of course I don't." She glanced down at Eric, remembering what his kiss had been like before he'd passed out. Not his arrogant, domineering kisses that had nearly melted her boots in the jungle, though those had certainly been pretty much amazing. No, she thought of the kiss when he'd been dying. There had been emotion in that kiss. Not just sex. Need. Tenderness. Appreciation. Connection. Was that the kiss of a man on his way to becoming a monster? She shook her head. "No, he's not a vampire. He's okay."
David walked back over to her and crouched in front of her. "You remember Caleb and Susan Hart?"
She frowned. "Of course I do. They got married right after we graduated. How many kids do they have now?"
"Ten, but ten months ago, Caleb went crazy. He bit Susan in the neck and killed her. Drained her blood. Left her dead in the living room."
Jordyn went ice cold. "He loved her. Dearly. He'd give his life for her, a thousand times over."
David shrugged. "He murdered her. The cops say he went crazy. I saw her body, and the fang marks were obvious. He went vampire, and he killed her. He's gone missing, and no one can find him."
"Oh, God." Jordyn thought back to the vampire who had attacked Eric. It hadn't been Caleb. "So, there are more out there. More than just one."
"Of course there
are. We were fools to think they were ever gone. They've probably been living among us this whole time, but something has upset the balance and now they're hunting again." He jerked his chin at Eric. "I don't care how much you like this guy. You barely know him. If he's a vampire, you're not safe, and I care about you too much to risk your life. I don't ever want to see you on the floor the way Susan was." Something cracked in his voice. "You let me put him in the room, or I'll lock you up and then stake him before he wakes up."
"What? No!" She instinctively moved between Eric and David. "What's wrong with you? You don't even know if he's a vampire! You can't stake him just in case!"
"I will." David's eyes were dark and anguished, and suddenly she remembered that night in tenth grade, when she and David had been sitting on the swings behind the school, watching the other students go into the gym all dressed up for the Homecoming Dance. Caleb and Susan had gone in together, and David had broken down right then, confessing that he was deeply in love with Susan, and that she had been the first person he'd ever made love with.
Sadness coursed through her. "You still love her," she said quietly. "You've loved her all these years."
David's jaw tightened. "She's dead. It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does." She walked over to him and set her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry, David. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to walk in there and see her like that."
His eyes were blazing. "If I'd fought for her back then, maybe she wouldn't have married Caleb, and she'd still be alive. Do you know that one night a couple years ago, she was in my bar with her girlfriends? They'd all had a little too much to drink on their girl's night out, and after they left, she hung out with me. Do you know what she told me? She told me that she'd always loved me. That she made Caleb wait for until she married him, because she kept hoping that I'd come forward. I didn't do it, she married someone she didn't love, and now she's dead."
Jordyn's throat tightened for his anguish. David wasn't the type of man who ever talked about his emotions. Ever. For him to speak now meant that the weight was too unbearable for him to suppress. She shook her head. "You can't blame yourself, David. She was just as capable of reaching out to you. It's not your fault. You respected her choice. It's not your style to try to break up a relationship. You waited, and if she'd broken up with him, you would have asked her out then. It's not your fault."
"She's dead, and she wouldn't be if I'd done something about it. Those are facts." His voice was bitter and angry, harsher than she'd ever heard from him. "So, I'm not sitting back again and letting people get killed because I didn't act. Eric goes into my vault, or I kill him. End of story. Which is it?"
Jordyn stared at him, and she realized he meant every word. Where was the geeky, nice guy she'd been best friends with? David was different. Stronger. More muscular. More powerful. Harder. Bitter. "He's not a vampire. He doesn't need to be locked up."
David shrugged. "I don’t really care. Caleb wasn't a vampire either, until he was. So, decide. Now. Death or imprisonment." He fingered a cord around his neck, and she suddenly noticed that the pendant on the end of it was in the shape of a miniature stake, covered in the same carvings as the stake that she'd expected to find in her grandmother's bag. "What is that?"
His fingers tightened around it. "Protection."
"You carry your own stake around with you?"
"I do." He jerked his chin toward Eric. "So, make your choice."
She knew then that David would kill Eric in his sleep without hesitation if she gave him a reason. He was that certain that Eric could have gone vampire. Slowly, she looked over at Eric. He looked dead. Pale. Sunken cheeks. His flesh was utter perfection. What if David was right? What if Eric had turned? What would he be like when he awoke? "Okay," she said softly. "Lock him up."
***
Locking Eric up was a huge mistake.
Jordyn was certain of it the moment David had slammed the steel door shut, and for the last six hours, she'd become increasingly restless.
She set her hands on the door to David's safe room, pressing her ear to the door, listening. "Eric," she called out. "Are you awake?"
There was still no response.
In one minute, it would be forty-eight hours since he'd passed out. The forty-eight hour deadline since he'd been bitten had already passed, and he was still unconscious. David was now thinking that maybe the clock started ticking when he actually died, which, for their purposes, could have happened when he collapsed after David had treated him.
Less than fifty seconds to go.
"Eric!" She banged her fist on the door, frustrated that she couldn't see past it. There were cameras inside to let the occupants see out into the main house, but David hadn't rigged it the other way, failing to predict that he might have to take a potential vampire prisoner.
She had no idea what was happening to Eric, and it was starting to scare her. What if he was dying? What if he needed help? "Eric!" She hit the door again, and then her phone alarm went off.
She jumped, startled by the noise. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and turned it off, staring at the door. The timer had gone off. It had been forty-eight hours.
David appeared in the doorway. He was disheveled and pale, having spent most of the night in his lab, feverishly working on putting together more powders, in case he got another vampire victim into his practice. "Any sounds?"
She shook her head. "This is ridiculous, David. I need to check on him."
David held up his hand as he walked across the room. He pressed his ear to the door, and rapped lightly with his fingers. "Eric," he called out. "You awake?"
Jordyn folded her arms over her chest. "Isn't the door solid steel? How would we hear him anyway?"
"It's not soundproof." David braced his hands against the door, suddenly looking exhausted. "I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to do. He could be sitting in there, silently waiting. They're brilliant predators."
She swallowed, thinking of the attack that had taken Eric down. "I know." After a moment, she walked over to her grandmother's bag and pulled out a tin of the powder she'd used on the vampire who had attacked Eric. "Let me go in there. If he attacks, I'll use this."
David shook his head. "That only works if they're still trying to hold onto their humanity. It doesn't work for those who embrace the depravity. You don't know what he'll choose. The power of bloodlust is intoxicating."
Jordyn cocked her head to study David, surprised by the vehemence of his voice. "How do you know?"
He looked away from her. "I know." His phone rang suddenly, making them both jump. He turned away as he answered it. He listened, then hung up. "I need to go check on someone. I'll be back by dawn. We'll open it then. If he's a vampire, he'll at least be weakened by the daytime. I hope. Who the hell knows how much sun affects them anyway?" He shoved his car keys in his pocket and headed toward the stairs that rose up out of the basement.
"Wait!" She held out her hand. "Give me the keys. Just in case something happens, and I need to let him out."
David glanced at the steel door, and then at her. "No," he said. "I'm sorry, but I see how you look at him. I don't want you to risk your life because you like this guy. We'll deal with him when I get back, I promise." Then, he turned and sprinted up the stairs, ignoring her shout of protest.
Jordyn raced up after him, but by the time she reached the front door, his truck was already pulling out of the driveway. "David!"
Gravel sprayed from his back wheels, and then he was gone, nothing more than red taillights. She growled in frustration, and immediately called him on her phone.
He didn't answer.
"Dammit, David!" She slammed her finger onto the off button, and shoved the phone back in her pocket. Now she remembered why she'd moved away from this town. It was too hard to find her own path when she was surrounded by people who still thought of her as a young girl who needed to be protected and coddled.
She didn't need protection from
Eric. He wasn't a monster, and he wasn't a vampire. What she needed was his help. It had been two days since they'd been back, and she'd made no progress toward finding Tristan, because she'd been focused on Eric.
It was time for him to give up on his beauty sleep. They had work to do. Where to start to find Tristan? Go to assorted graveyards around the town and look for evidence that he'd been raising the dead? Or—
A shadow crept across the edge of David's overgrown lawn.
She stiffened, whipping around to stare at the woods. It was dark now, in the deep of night, the hour when sunlight was nothing more than a distant memory and a vague promise. She held her breath, frantically searching the woods as she eased back toward the front door.
Nothing moved, but the hair on the back of her neck prickled, and her skin crawled, as if invisible fingers were sliding over her flesh. Was it true that vampires couldn't enter a house uninvited? She tried to remember what her grandmother had said, and she had a distinct memory of Oba saying that the night was never safe, no matter where you were.
The sensation of being touched intensified, and she suddenly felt a warmth on the side of her neck, as if someone were breathing on her. She jumped sideways, instinctively slapping at her throat.
Nothing was there.
But she knew she'd felt it.
Something had come for her. Or someone.
She whirled around and darted into the house. She slammed the door and locked it, then raced through the first floor, shutting all the windows as she frantically dialed David. "Come back," she shouted into his voicemail. "Something's outside the house!"
She raced upstairs and shut those windows, her heart pounding with fear. What would glass do to stop a vampire? Nothing. Nothing. No wonder her grandmother had had heavy wooden shutters on the inside of her house.
Something banged against the glass of the window she was closing, and she jumped back, stumbling over the bed Eric had been sleeping in. For a split second, she froze, gaping at the window as she waited for a vampire to burst through to the sound of shattering glass. It was so dark outside, and the light in the room was bright, making it impossible for her to see if anything was there.
Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel) Page 13