A hoard of nurses descended upon them.
“Lean toward the table, sir.”
“One, two, three,” one of the nurses called.
On the count of three, they rolled Max from Marcus’s back onto the trauma bed. His arms flopped to his sides like wet spaghetti. A high-pitched zip roused him. He’d heard that sound of trauma scissors hundreds of times before. His scrubs were being sheared off. He felt no pain as he watched the nurses poke him in his veins trying to get that “pot of gold” IV line inserted in his collapsed vessels, and the slaps of cardiac electrode pads to his chest felt like mere taps.
“Page Dr. Van Court, stat.”
Max shook his head and mumbled, “Kidnapped.”
A trauma nurse yelled to the unit clerk, “Call the police. Overhead page any available doctor in the house. Get the nursing supervisor and security. Have them lock down the hospital.” The nurse leaned over him. Her face looked distorted, like a “Picasso” in scrubs. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Max rolled his head toward Marcus.
“Sir, what is your name?” the nurse asked.
“Marcus Pemberly. I’m Dr. Cade’s friend.”
Two trauma surgeons, George Toth, his OB/GYN friend, and the cardiologist who he didn’t care for, descended upon him.
“Max!” George called.
“Shit!” the cardiologist yelled.
One trauma surgeon gently unwrapped Marcus’s blood-soaked cravat from Max’s neck. “Who did this to you?”
He opened his mouth, but no words came.
The other trauma surgeon assessed the rest of his body. The cardiologist’s eyes shot straight to the cardiac monitor. He frowned. “Sinus brady, and he’s starting to throw PVC’s.”
Max processed the information. His heart was slowing and it was having dangerous irregular beats. It was the beginning of the end, as he recognized it.
“Something went down in the call room where Max was staying,” George offered. “When I passed by it, there was broken glass and blood everywhere. I was calling security when I heard the stat overhead page.”
The nurse pointed at Marcus. “That man brought Max to the ER, slumped onto his back. Marcus Pemberly, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What do you know about this?” the trauma surgeon asked while glancing up from Max’s wound.
“I was at a Halloween party that turned out not to be what I expected. So I called Max to ask if I could come over for a bit. While we were talking on the telephone, I heard a loud crash, like glass breaking. Then the telephone went dead. I rushed over straight away. I found Max on the floor, his face bloody and his neck cut. I took off my cravat and applied pressure to his neck wound. I scooped him up and ran to the emergency room.”
“You did well,” the second trauma said. “You’ve helped keep him alive.”
Max lifted his thumb. That was a great lie!
“He needs surgery, right away. And he’ll need several units of blood.” The surgeon turned to the nurse. “Call the lab right away.”
Another trauma nurse looked up. “Hey, where did Mr. Pemberly go?”
The bed brakes unlocked beneath him with a squeak. He was being wheeled to the OR. Having run alongside dozens of patient beds, Max knew the corridors leading to the surgical suites by heart. Except now he had the perspective of a ceiling view. As the trauma team swerved the bed into the operating room, Max struggled to open his eyes. Gabriella floated above him, wearing the same diaphanous gown she had worn in his dream. She reached out to him with one hand, while the other one rested on her belly.
“I’ll be with you soon,” she whispered.
“I love you,” Max mumbled.
“I love you, too,” the anesthesiologist joked.
As always, Gabriella had vanished.
Was it another dream, or perhaps a hallucination? Whether it was or was not, he could finally close his eyes.
****
Volk cackled. An evil grin marched across his mouth, showcasing his fangs. The circle of salt caging him was now in a neat pile.
“Your grains of salt are accounted for. I was in a benevolent mood, but unfortunately you’ve changed that.”
He glared at Gabriella. The power of his stare made her feel as if her eyes were about to be ripped from their sockets. She clapped her hands over them and mustered all her energies to counter his vicious play. This was only the start of his games, she thought. The agony in her face faded. She spied the dagger he had dropped at his feet while counting the grains. She’d take the chance. She had to. The pounding of her heart in her ears drowned out all sound. Gabriella drew a quick breath and lunged for the dagger. Her fingers wrapped around the handle, her fist flush to its hilt. Gabriella was primed for his retribution, but he didn’t respond. She inched her eyes upward. Volk had spun around. Something had distracted him. Something strong. Clenching the dagger with two fists, she rolled to her back and sped to a corner. With her feet wide, Gabriella assumed her warrior stance. But Volk’s attention was elsewhere. Gabriella tracked his stare.
Marcus! He’s back. He must have delivered Max safely to the ER. Thank you, Marcus.
He stood in the doorway to the lab, his spine erect, his hands on his hips. You’re welcome. He had shot his thoughts back to her. The pathways to their telepathic communication were reopening. Caught by surprise, Volk’s power must have flickered.
“Leave us be, Volk. Return to Europe, or else...”
Volk roared with laughter. “Or else what, my dear Marcus?”
Marcus shrugged. “Or else, you die.”
Marcus stepped aside, releasing a flood of vampires. K.L’s S.W.A.T. team, plus more recruits, including Anabella and Michael, descended upon Volk. Her army had arrived! But as quickly as her hopes had soared, so had they fallen. Volk tossed her army aside, throwing them against the walls like ragdolls. Her vampire battalion lay moaning and crumpled on the floor.
Marcus rushed at Volk, Kamakazi style.
Volk raised Marcus into the air by his neck. Marcus’s feet dangled. “You wretched bastard!” Marcus rasped. Volk snapped Marcus’s neck and dropped him.
“No!” Gabriella shouted.
She cocked the dagger at her shoulder. But before she could make a run at him, K.L. and Uncle Claude rushed in front of her, barricading her from Volk.
“Take us,” Claude said. “Two for the price of one.”
“Honestly, this has turned out more complicated than it should be. Gabriella belongs to me. What would I do with a fruit and an old, traitorous man! I say no to your offer.”
Volk picked up K.L. and tossed him. K.L. somersaulted in the air before landing stunned onto his back. He grabbed Claude by his shirt and walked with him to a wall. He pinned him there.
“I will go slower with you than I did with Marcus. I want to hear every one of your bones crush before I rip off your head.”
Gabriella lunged at him with her dagger. “You’ll never have me.”
While holding her uncle captive with one hand, he slapped her away. She flew across the room from the force of his single-handed assault. The dagger fell from her grasp. She skidded on her belly until her head smashed against a lab cabinet, jarring it open. “My child,” Gabriella mumbled. She fluttered her eyes open to find Michael curled up inside the cabinet.
With chocolate smeared across his mouth, he brought his finger to his closed lips. “Shh.”
Michael sprang from his hiding place and leaped into the air. He landed on Volk’s back and wrapped his arms around Volk’s neck.
“What the hell?” Volk yelled. He released Claude, who fell to the floor. Claude lay curled up on his side, coughing. He spun Michael around to face him. “You little rat!”
Michael clung to Volk’s neck. Volk squeezed the boy’s stomach. Undigested candy bars in a sea of gastric acid spewed from Michael’s mouth and sprayed into Volk’s eyes. He dropped Michael. Volk grabbed his face and spun around in circles.
“Argh!”
“Bravo, Michael,” Gabriella called. She motioned for him to return to his hiding spot. Michael scampered into the cabinet. Gabriella closed the cabinet, securing him safely inside.
K.L. stumbled to his feet. While Volk scrubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands, he tottered to the fire extinguishers Volk had confiscated. He picked one up and aimed the nozzle at Volk.
“Eat this!”
He covered Volk from his head to his bare feet in a blanket of white foam.
Volk slapped blindly at the frosty froth.
“Allow ‘a fruit’ to help you out.”
K.L. unrolled the hose from the firebox and cranked on the water.
The pressured water punched Volk in the chest, shoving him to the wall he had held Claude against minutes ago.
Volk clenched his fists and began to walk through the stream of water. “You underestimate me. Pity it isn’t blessed!” He shut off the water main, picked up a fire extinguisher, and smacked K.L. on the head with it. K.L. sank to the floor. Volk shook his body like a wet dog, a mad wet dog. He bared his fangs, twice the size they were before, and growled. “I’m done with these games.”
Gabriella snaked across the floor on her belly toward the dagger. She stretched her fingers to grasp it when Volk stepped on her hand, digging his toenails into her flesh. He kicked the dagger away.
“Uh, uh, uh. How unladylike.” He released his hold and reached his hand down to her. “All you have to do is come with me. Then all this chaos will stop. Take your rightful position by my side.”
Gabriella stood. His eyes shot to her belly.
“You whore!” Volk snatched the dagger and raised it over his head, the tip directed at her heart.
Gabriella held her breath and hugged her belly. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to her unborn child. She stared into his coal eyes. She wouldn’t cower to him. The dagger dropped from his hand and clanged to the floor. Volk’s scream pierced her ears. He arched his back, and his eyes rolled back into his head. Smoke rose from his body. Volk collapsed to the floor. The skin melted from his back. Gabriella grimaced as the acrid smell of his smoldering flesh filled the lab.
Claude stood with his hand raised, the empty bottle of hydrochloric acid in his grasp. “I couldn’t let him take you or the child growing inside of you.”
Volk spun around. Gabriella eyes widened with shock at his exposed blanched vertebra. But like black magic, his skin began to zip back up.
He took a preparatory step towards Claude, primed to rocket at him. “I will tear you to pieces!”
Gabriella grabbed the dagger.
“You evil-monger!” Barbara yelled.
Volk twisted his head to look at her.
Barbara? Her ditsy vampire progeny stood at the entrance to the lab with her talons drawn and her eyes shooting daggers into Volk’s surprised ones.
“You will not breath upon, much less lay a hand on, my creator and my beloved!”
“Run, my love!” Claude shouted.
“No!”
As his eyes tracked peripherally at Gabriella, Volk swatted Barbara away like an annoying fly. “I’m impressed, Gabriella. You’ve turned a mortal. I used to beg you to do that for me.”
“I’m the one who begged,” Barbara said. “Now you will beg for mercy.”
“Enough of this drama!”
Volk flew into the air and sped at Barbara. She opened her mouth and launched a missile of fire at him. His suspended body went up in flames before it crashed to the floor.
Gabriella nearly dropped her dagger. “Shit!”
Claude’s mouth fell open.
“Gabriella,” Volk rasped. “I’ve always loved you.” He held out his burning hand to her. His flames licked at her, and her body grew hot from his heat. “Join me.”
She stepped back. “No. You didn’t love me. You coveted me.”
Volk opened his mouth and screamed, “I will return for you.”
Fantasies of a dying vampire.
His body turned to ash, except for his heart, which beat on.
Gabriella raised the dagger over her head and plunged it into his pulsing organ. It melted into a red puddle among the ruins of his once immortal body. Only his teeth with fangs extended remained. Gabriella picked them up and displayed them victoriously. “He’s mine now!”
But her victory roar died to a moan as she looked about the lab, taking in the ruins Volk had left behind. Her army lay wasted upon the floor. Her heart felt as if it was splitting as her eyes fell upon K.L. and Marcus. Barbara and Uncle Claude ran to her. They embraced in a trio of both conquest and agony.
“Michael!”
Gabriella rushed to the cabinet and opened it; Michael sat trembling inside. She held her hand out to him. “It’s all right,” she said softly. “It’s over now. You can come out.”
Michael climbed out and collapsed into Gabriella’s arms.
“Shh, it’s okay.” She stroked his hair. “You were so brave.”
“I didn’t want him to hurt you, or anyone else anymore.”
She looked into his eyes. “He won’t.”
Michael took her hand and squeezed it nervously. “Where’s Anabella?”
Gabriella hung her head.
Michael ripped his hand from hers. “There she is! He ran to Anabella and crouched beside her. He cradled her head. “Anabella! Anabella! Please, I need you!”
Anger replaced the despair that had coursed though her veins. “He won’t win, even in his death!”
Gabriella stood in the center of the carnage. She closed her eyes. She had to try. Gabriella placed her hands by her sides. Her mind whirred with the sounds of moaning about her. Their cries amplified in her head. Her ears burned and her body shook. She slowly raised her arms. Her fingers trembled and she could feel the tips of her talons breaking off. “Rise. Rise. Rise,” she chanted.
Sounds of bodies bustling rang in her ears. Gabriella opened her eyes. She’d “mass healed.” She’d done what she’d never done before. But it came at a price. Spent from the immense energy she had summoned to do so, Gabriella collapsed.
K.L., Marcus, Uncle Claude, and Barbara surrounded her.
Her uncle tapped her cheek. “Gabriella, my dear, my very blood!”
Gabriella struggled to right herself, but her legs wouldn’t hold her.
K.L. cradled her. “You killed Volk. You healed us. You’ve had quite a night.”
“Not I, but we.”
“We need to get you to the E.R.,” K.L. said. “I’ll make sure you get a transfusion.”
“Transfusion!” Marcus called. “I was out of it. Max is in the operating room and needs blood.”
“Take care of Max. I’ll be okay,” Gabriella said, her voice waning.
“No, you are with child. You need nourishment. Don’t fret. It’s not good for you. We will take care of you both,” Marcus said.
“Absolutely,” K.L. added. “Claude and Marcus, you take Gabriella to the E.R. Barbara, you and I will get all units available. S.W.A.T., you clean this place. We don’t want any inquiries as to what happened here.” K.L. clapped. “Everyone go to work!”
Michael tugged at K.L’s lab coat. “What do you want me to do?”
K.L. squatted. “You can be a messenger. Spread the word that Volk is dead to all the vamps.”
“I can do that!” Michael grabbed Anabella’s hand. “Come on. We have to tell everyone the good news. Then we can really have a party to celebrate!”
He waved to Gabriella. “Bye, Dr. Van Court.”
Gabriella waved weakly. “Happy Halloween, Michael.”
Michael smiled. “You, too.”
Chapter Fifteen
Accompanied by Claude, Marcus carried Gabriella into the ER.
“Oh my God! It’s Dr. Van Court!” a nurse cried out. “Hurry! Bring her to room 2. Dr. Cade said you were kidnapped. He was assaulted and is in surgery.”
Gabriella felt every squeeze of her heart. “How is he?”
“I don’t know. Th
ey’re working on him. He has injuries to his face and neck. They’re giving him plasma expanders until they can get blood. The lab phones rang and rang, but they finally got through. Blood is on the way.”
“I’m so relieved.”
What could she say? The truth? That the lab was trashed during a vampire war?
Marcus laid her down on the bed. “I need a doctor in here, stat!”
“I’m a doctor,” Gabriella softly joked.
“You don’t count, dear. Not tonight. You get to play patient,” the nurse said.
Gabriella slipped off her scrub top. She knew the drill. They’d hook her up to the cardiac monitor and assess her from head to toe. Oh, no. They’d surely notice that her belly was bigger than when they last saw her. She clutched the waistband of her scrub pants. She had to think of something quick.
“Who did this to you, Dr. Van Court? Dr. Cade was too weak to say who assaulted him. The hospital is on lockdown. You’re safe here.”
“Someone disturbed.”
“That’s for sure. We’re relieved you’ve been found. The police want to speak to you. But we need to attend to you first. Does anything hurt?”
Only my heart. “No. I’m just flustered.”
The nurse looked up at Claude and then Marcus. “Mr. Van Court, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in ICU? My God, you just had surgery. I’ll have the unit secretary call the unit. In the meantime, go lie down in the other room until they come to get you.”
“I feel fine. I’m not going to leave my niece after what happened.”
“The police will want to speak to both of you. And here they come, right behind Dr. Toth. An OB is the only doctor available now. Your back-up ER docs are on the way in.”
Great, an OB. There’s no fooling him. “Hi, George.”
He wrinkled his forehead. “Gabriella, we were so worried. Max said you were kidnapped, and the call room is in shambles. Were you with him?”
“No.” She lied. It would make it that much more complicated to explain. “I’d left him to go check on my uncle.” It was a partial truth.
“Yes, she came to see me,” Claude confirmed. “She wheeled me to radiology, and she disappeared while I was waiting for my x-ray. I started to worry, so I got up and looked for her. That’s when I heard her scream. I shot out of my wheelchair and followed her cries that seemed to be coming from a stairwell. That’s when I bumped into Marcus.”
Fang Hospital (Dr. Gabriella Van Court, Book 1) Page 12