by L. D. Rose
Not that he had many of them left.
First Tristan, then Ling, now Hector. Cyrus had to admit, the way the hybrid cut them down one by one was impressive. Ling had been an untimely accident, but the others, well . . . Blaze had made good work of them. Work that even Cyrus had to admire. Of course, he mourned the loss of his children, but if they couldn’t defeat a ruined dhampir, then they had no place at his side.
They had no reason to exist.
Ah, Blaze, a hybrid so full of emotion. Rage, passion, fear, even love. After all Cyrus had done to him, after all of their endeavors, the hybrid still managed such a thing as love. And that fierce little detective of his returned that love.
How surprising. How unfortunate.
So many weaknesses to prey on, so many holes to tear back open, so much work to be done. Once upon a time, Cyrus experienced the hybrid’s emotions right along with him, but now they were echoes in aged blood. Cyrus craved that vivid intensity, that essential breath of life, that incredible power over a seemingly indestructible creature.
He longed to invade the hybrid’s most intimate thoughts again, to expose his vulnerabilities, to empower his bloodlust, and to revive that eloquent monster inside him, a monster no different than Cyrus himself.
“Sire,” the mezzo-soprano of Nabila’s voice resonated from behind him as she stepped onto the balcony. “Hector is—”
“Gone,” he finished, hearing no trace of emotion in her melodic tone. From the very beginning, she had despised Hector. Nabila was the flavor of cruel, calculating reason while Hector was blind, mindless violence. As polar opposites of one another, they both had their pros and cons, their talents and faults.
And they both competed fiercely for Cyrus’s attention.
Upon consuming the hybrid’s blood, the pyrokinesis and the ability to daywalk had also manifested in Hector. Nabila only received the latter, which fueled her contempt for him. Tristan and Ling had gained neither, removing them from the equation. The pyrokinesis was yet another reason why Cyrus had to control Hector with an iron fist. It was also why he too admitted relief at Hector’s passing.
Now, only Cyrus could fully take on the hybrid’s magnificent traits.
“Shall we proceed with the next step?” Nabila asked, anticipation trickling into her words.
Cyrus turned to face her, leaning back on the railing, the smell of destruction still carrying in the wind. She stood there proudly, garbed in silver and darkness, a warrior to the core. Her long, jet-black hair fell around her slim waist, loose and billowing freely, her obsidian eyes gleaming in the light of the moon. Long ago, she’d been a fragile mortal, a brittle young woman who concealed every surface of her lissome beauty, who submitted to each demand of the men around her. Now, she was something else altogether, and Cyrus took pride in creating such a stunning, lethal creature.
Now, she only submitted to his demands.
“Come, habibati.” He beckoned her, and she let down her guard, approaching him without hesitation, molding that lithe body against him. He crushed the thick, silken strands of her hair in his fist before seizing her mouth with his. She met him with the same ferocity, tongues sparring and darting along fangs, tasting the blood of their last meal.
When he pulled away, she gazed at him coolly, as if daring him to break her, to make her come undone. No doubt he loved a challenge, but he’d already conquered this terra firma.
Right now he had bigger obstacles to overcome.
“Soon enough,” he murmured, running his finger along the line of her throat, feeling her dull pulse. “You’ll have your turn. But there’s been a minor change of plans.”
She arched a slender brow. “More games?”
His lips curved at her obvious disdain. She was the only creature from whom he’d ever tolerate defiance, because his games clashed with her no-nonsense attitude. “Just a few. But I think you’ll find these a bit more entertaining. Here’s what I need you to do . . .”
He told her. And she smiled.
In about four hours, Valerie learned how to suture wounds, set up an IV, and transfuse blood into a person. And more than once she wondered whether or not she’d gone into the wrong profession.
Between Kaj, Shaul, and Rome, they’d received at least a dozen people during the night. Once Valerie arrived, Kaj and Rome redirected many of the victims back to the compound where Kasen was now located.
Even though they were overwhelmed, Veronica was positively amazing. She triaged each victim depending on the severity of their condition, keeping cool regardless of the horrors brought before her. She was the eye in a hurricane of pain, fear, and hysteria. Her calm words and gentle touch soothed the victims as if solace pumped from her very pores, and they quickly grew to trust her and Valerie by association.
Veronica sedated when she had to, using drugs such as Fentanyl and Versed, and she rapidly stabilized the more critical traumas, ensuring they would remain level until her fiancé arrived in the morning.
A few children had come in and those were the hardest. More than once Valerie had to get away to compose herself and catch her breath. One of them reminded her so much of Elise, inciting unwanted flashbacks and making her lose her nerve. Veronica nevertheless checked in to make sure Valerie was all right, giving her strength and reassurance, even when everything seemed hopeless.
On top of all that, she taught Valerie the basics of emergency medicine with a smile on her face.
“Here.” Veronica set a steaming cup of coffee down on the table in front of Valerie. “Looks like you might need this.”
Do I ever.
The front of the white mug read, “Doctor by Day, Superhero by Night” in black print. Valerie cracked a smile; she bet it belonged to Kasen. Both women had walked into the break room after things settled down, stealing a couple of minutes for themselves. Now that they’d stopped, exhaustion settled over Valerie in a thick blanket while Veronica was still a ball of energy, bouncing around the Formica counters and working the Keurig.
“Cream and sugar?” Veronica asked as she opened the stainless steel mini-fridge. She wore turquoise surgical scrubs and black sneakers, her long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. She was on her third pair of scrubs for the night and Valerie was on her second. Veronica barely looked frazzled under the fluorescent lights while Valerie felt like she’d been hit by a forty-ton Mack truck, both physically and emotionally.
“Please.” Valerie inhaled the rich scent of Kona. “Thank you for this.”
“Oh gosh, no problem.” Veronica set a carton of light cream, a spoon, and a glass jar filled with sugar on the table. “You’ve had a much longer night than I have.”
Valerie tossed her a skeptical look. Doubt it. Especially considering Veronica’s hours at the hospital and her nights here. “When was the last time you slept?” she asked.
“Ah, well.” Veronica thought about it for a moment. “Twenty-six hours ago? I lost track.” With a laugh, she plopped down in an aluminum chair across the table with her own white mug. Hers read “Genius Juice,” inciting another twitch of Valerie’s lips.
She doused her coffee with cream and sugar. “You sure don’t look twenty-six hours in.”
“I steal catnaps when I can. Sleep is oh-so-very precious.”
“No kidding,” Valerie snorted. “I don’t know how you do this every day. When do you have time for yourself?”
Veronica shrugged, adding cream and sugar to her own coffee. “I manage. To be honest, I don’t think about it much.”
Valerie sipped her coffee with a grateful sigh. “Is Kasen normally here with you at night?”
“Sometimes. We take nights off, but usually one of us works the ERs. Kasen normally hunts for half the night, so I cover for him. Hospitals are overrun as it is and sometimes they have to turn people away, so that’s why we’re
here.”
Valerie nodded sadly. She often transported victims to the hospital, so she knew that all too well. Hospitals only had so many ambulances, too. “How about your heme/onc patients?”
“They have no idea about this. No one does, really. I’d probably get into trouble if the hospital found out,” Veronica said with a good-natured laugh.
Valerie doubted anyone would blow the whistle. Montefiore needed all the help they could get.
“I thought about cutting back on my hours during the day, but my heme/onc patients need me too,” Veronica added. “Maybe I will. Someday.”
“Do you feel safe here?” Valerie asked as her eyes wandered the room. There were no windows but everything was brightly lit, making it easy to forget they were underground.
“Completely. I don’t think the Temhota have picked up on our little operation yet, but even if they have, this is my home. Unless I’m compromised, no vampire can enter here. And Rome made sure I’m never compromised.”
Valerie’s eyes widened. “You actually let Rome into your head?”
Veronica smiled at her disbelief. “Well, he didn’t have permission the first time, but I don’t think he had a choice. I had been under a vampire’s rapture. He’s gained my trust and then some. I think the scariest part about Rome’s ability is I can’t tell when he’s using it. I just know he does what he does because he tells me. And I’m sure he doesn’t tell me everything.”
She rolled her eyes, an obvious point of contention. “He’s shielded all of our minds, so falling into a vampire’s lure is out of the question. How he does it, who knows? He probably rewires something. The less I know, the better.”
Valerie coughed against the sudden dryness in her throat. The thought of anyone invading her mind, regardless of the purpose, chilled her to the bone. Never mind how easily Rome made everyone at the station forget Blaze even existed.
She clenched her fist, remembering the electric tingle she’d felt when they shook hands. She didn’t even want to think about whether he’d done anything to her. “He must be powerful.”
“You have no idea. But they’re all powerful, in their own way.”
“True,” Valerie agreed, recalling Blaze’s infrared vision and pyrokinesis, Dax’s ability to freeze, and Kasen’s capacity to heal. And those were only the abilities she knew about. All of their traits were formidable and creepy in their own right.
“Oh!” Veronica leapt to her feet. “I have something to give you.”
Valerie watched curiously as Veronica opened the freezer and withdrew a red plastic container with a biohazard label on it. She returned to the table before sliding the rectangular box toward Valerie, the container steaming in the warm air.
“Open it,” she said with a grin of anticipation.
Although the container blatantly warned her not to, Valerie popped open the icy lid. Four syringes were lined up neatly, snapped into their plastic restraints and filled with a clear frozen liquid. The needles were capped and Valerie could tell the syringes were spring loaded. Once they hit their target, they would immediately release their contents.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Aspen tree sap, pressurized from wood and diluted with water. Vampires are severely allergic to it and they’ll go into anaphylaxis once injected. It’s a vampire’s proverbial wooden stake.”
“What?” Incredulous, Valerie gawked at her. “How did you get this?”
“I discovered it a few years ago while researching vampire lore and came upon a little fun fact about the cross Christ had been crucified on.” Veronica paused for a moment, as if reminiscing. “It was silly, really, but the sap worked when I experimented with vampire blood Jon had supplied for me. The concentrations you have there are enough to kill a vampire in four seconds.”
Valerie’s jaw slackened. “Aspen was the wood Christ was crucified on?”
“That’s the rumor. And aspen is the only wood that works. Unfortunately, pine doesn’t do a damn thing,” Veronica said with a chuckle.
“Wow, that’s amazing.” Valerie eyed the syringes, thinking of all the implications and innovations this kind of weapon could bring. “Does anyone else know about this?”
“Kasen recently notified the government and they’re working on mass producing it for the military and civilian sectors. He wanted to perfect it first before we unleashed it unto the world.” Veronica shrugged. “But we have our own personal stash here and I wanted you to have some.”
“Thank you,” Valerie said, grateful and a little overwhelmed. She closed the container, her fingers growing numb. “And, by the way, you’re a freaking genius. I would’ve never thought of something like this.”
Veronica waved off the compliment. “I figured since you and I lack superpowers, it would be useful. Just stick it in the fridge when you get home. It doesn’t go bad or anything, but you want to preserve the potency. Give a few to Blaze if you want.”
“No way, I’m hoarding these for myself. He has his fire, I have my tree sap.”
Veronica grinned. “That’s more like it.”
As Valerie’s thoughts turned to Blaze, her worries came back to the forefront. She wondered how he was doing, what he was doing, and if he was all right. “It must be hard to watch Kasen go at night,” she said quietly. “You know, ah—”
“Because he might not come back?” Veronica finished, lifting a brow. “Especially now after this new blood ordeal? Of course it’s hard, I won’t sugar coat it. But I’m used to it, between my dad being a police officer and Jon being Jon. All the men in my life seem to have a suicidal streak.” She let out a lighthearted laugh. “I guess you’d fall under that category too, though.”
“Yeah, but when it’s you it’s different. You pretend like you’re invincible and you avoid thinking about the fact you’re not. I guess I’ve never been on the receiving end of that situation. It definitely makes you see things differently.”
Like how easy it is to lose someone you love.
Veronica sipped her coffee, gazing at Valerie over her mug with her shrewd, chocolate brown eyes. They were the same color as Jon’s—well, human Jon—except the intelligence there was a whole different flavor. “You care about him, don’t you?”
Valerie didn’t ask who because they both knew who Veronica spoke about. She idly traced the handle of her mug, her chest tightening as she remembered the feeling of watching Blaze leave, of seeing him injured, of the possibility of never touching him again. She hadn’t felt that kind of gut-wrenching fear since . . . since her dad died.
“Yeah, I do.” She forced herself to meet Veronica’s gaze, lips curving. “A lot.”
Veronica grinned as if happy to hear it. “There will be ups and downs, but that’s what I’m here for. We ladies have to stick together.” She winked, her eyes glittering with humor. “And I’ll tell you one thing, those boys love as hard as they fight. Once you’re hooked, there’s no turning back.”
Valerie laughed. “Oh, I know, trust me.”
They exchanged knowing smiles when both of their cell phones went off. They laughed at the irony of it before they checked their devices. Deron’s name lit up Valerie’s caller ID and she stood, answering it while walking to the far corner of the room so she wouldn’t disrupt Veronica’s conversation.
“Hey, D. What’s up?”
“Hey, Val, you’re up,” he said quite cheerfully for five in the morning. “And you’re alive. I’m impressed. How you doing?”
“Good, good.” She chuckled, happy to hear his voice. She had to admit, she missed him and all of her colleagues at the station. It felt like an eternity since she’d last seen them. “You know, just keeping busy.”
Really busy.
“Any word on when you’ll be back?”
“Not yet.” She pitched a sigh at the reminde
r. “I haven’t had a chance to come by yet.”
“Well, you can come by today. You’ve got a package here waiting for you.”
Valerie creased her brow, her intuition taking center stage and sounding the alarm. “A package? From who?”
“No return address. It says urgent though, so I figured I’d let you know ASAP. Are you expecting anything?”
“Ah,” she racked her brain and came up with nothing, which only worsened her sense of foreboding, “I’m not sure. Not that I know of.”
“It passed the bomb squad’s check. Kind of feels like a videotape, like one of those ancient VHS numbers. You’re not ordering old pornos and shipping them to the station, are you?” he quipped, but he sounded tense, uncertain.
“A videotape?” Valerie’s mind reeled with the possibilities, none of them good. “No. I mean, I don’t know what it is.”
“Well, if you can’t make it in today, I can hold on to it for you or I can drop it off at your place.” He paused expectantly, waiting for an answer.
Valerie measured her options. She wasn’t in the mindset to face Geoff right now, or anyone at the station. Any other day would’ve been fine, but not today. And now that her curiosity was piqued, she wanted to know what the hell was in that package. Maybe the smaller dose of her partner was a better option to chew on.
“Would you mind coming by my place? I mean, as long as it’s not too much trouble. Maybe in an hour or so?”
“Of course I can.” The happiness in his voice made her smile. “I have craploads of paperwork to catch up on, so hell yeah, I could use a distraction.”