by Lauren Burd
He opened his bag and pulled out a small bag that held some change and a few folded bills. “They pay me what they can so it doesn’t feel like charity.”
“Oh.” I felt ill. That kid was probably going to go to jail. This day just kept getting worse.
“Now tell me what you got my daughter mixed up in?” my dad asked Samuel, disdain coloring his words.
“I’m sorry, sir. I should have—”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” Thanos said. “I think it may be easier to answer your questions once we reach our destination. We actually require your assistance with one of your daughter’s companions, Mr. Duncan Michaels.”
“And who might you be?”
“My name is Thanos Valerii.”
“Well, Mr. Valerii, I regret to inform you that I have no intention of helping you or Mr. Michaels. If you wouldn’t mind pulling over and letting me and Alina get out, I would appreciate it.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Thanos returned.
“Dad—” I stopped. How was I supposed to explain? There was no way he would believe me. It wasn’t as if I had healing abilities like Duncan or strength like Samuel’s to show off. What could I do to make him believe me? Tell him what he had for lunch? “I’m begging you. If you could just wait a few hours, I’ll explain everything. Then if you still want to leave, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
Thanos and Samuel looked at me as though I were crazy. I knew telling him everything would put him and me in more danger, but I also knew it was the only way he would come with us.
He seemed to consider it for a moment. “Will you at least tell me what happened to Duncan?”
There was no way to tap dance around that one. “He was shot twice in the abdomen.”
“Oh, is that all? I thought it was something serious for a moment.” He leaned his head back against the seat and smirked. When he looked at me again, his smile melted. “You’re not joking, are you?”
I shook my head.
The car slowed and pulled into the parking lot of a fairly new building. Both the driver and guard in the front seat exited the vehicle and opened the doors for those of us in the back. I looked around once we were outside and noticed the signs denoting an animal clinic. Why were we at a vet’s office?
Thanos seemed slightly annoyed when Lucina came out to greet us. My dad stared at her, his mouth agape. I rolled my eyes. Apparently, men still reacted the same way, even under dire circumstances.
“You couldn’t have found a more appropriate venue?” Thanos asked.
“I did the best I could on such short notice.” She appeared annoyed by his reprimand.
“How’s he doing?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.”
I didn’t bother to hide my annoyance. “Is he still breathing?”
Lucina glared at me. “Of course.”
“Come on, Dad.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the clinic entrance. Two guards lounged at the counter inside. One of them seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put a name with the face.
“He’s the second door on the right.” Lucina pointed down the hall.
I dragged my dad along behind me until I saw Duncan lying on a table. He looked so pale under the fluorescent lights. I let go of my dad’s hand and went to stand beside Duncan. I felt a little better as I watched his chest slowly rise and fall.
“You weren’t joking, were you?” my dad repeated, coming up behind me.
I shook my head. “Do you think you can help him?” He was quiet for so long, I turned to look at him. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t help him. We need to call an ambulance and get him to a hospital. I’ll make sure he stays stable until they get here.”
I felt as if he’d just slapped me across the face. He wouldn’t do anything to help him? I couldn’t understand how he could be so callous.
“I’m afraid hospitals aren’t really an option for us,” Thanos said, joining us.
“Then you better start praying for a miracle if you believe in them, because that’s the only thing that will save him without surgery and a blood transfusion.”
“Dad?”
He held up his hand, stopping me from saying anything else. “I don’t know how you got involved in this mess, and right now I don’t care, but we’re leaving.”
He grabbed my wrist and tried to drag me toward the door. I refused to move. He turned to look at me, then pulled harder on my arm. I saw the worry in his eyes as I remained motionless. With a quick flick of my wrist, I broke his grip on me.
“I can’t go with you.”
“What’s going on? What did they do to you?” he asked, cupping my face in his hands.
Tears stung at my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “I was infected with a virus. I wanted to tell you about it, but I hoped not telling you would keep you safe. It didn’t work, though.”
His face paled. “What virus?”
“It’s called the Lamia Virus.”
The look on his face said it all. As far as he was concerned, I’d been brainwashed. Thanos was probably the leader of some cult, and we had abducted him. He was probably expecting us to whisk him off to some room so we could reprogram him, or worse, put him through some ritual. There was only one way I could convince him. I only hoped he would wait around for me. Besides, if I couldn’t convince him, Duncan would be the one to pay the price.
“Will you at least give me a couple minutes? I want to show you something. Then if you still want to leave, you can go.” I already knew Thanos would never let my dad leave, but I didn’t want him being held against his will if we could avoid it.
Dad gave me a skeptical look but nodded.
I left the room and wandered down the hall, going into each room as I went. Rifling through the drawers in the clinic, I finally found what I was searching for in the third room. I went back to where my dad waited.
He stood near the door, appearing as if he might bolt any second. “What did you want to show me?”
I really hoped that my plan worked. I knew I didn’t heal as quickly as Duncan, but the bruises and bumps I had received during my training showed signs of healing within a few minutes and were normally gone in a couple hours. The small cuts I’d given myself earlier today when I sliced the ties binding my wrist were already gone. I would just have to keep him here long enough for him to see what happened.
I took the small scalpel and put it on my wrist. I saw Samuel’s and my dad’s eyes widen, but neither had time to react before I passed the blade over my skin. It didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would. I gazed down at the wound and swallowed hard. Blood slowly rose to the surface, but it didn’t have the dramatic effect I had hoped. I thought maybe I should have cut deeper, but I didn’t want to end up in worse shape than Duncan.
“Someone call an ambulance,” my dad shouted as he grabbed some towels and lunged at me.
“Why did you do that?” Samuel asked through clenched teeth.
“Isn’t that a little overly dramatic?” Lucina commented.
Thanos chuckled on the other side of the bed.
“Calm down, Dad.” I grimaced as he put pressure on my wound. He made it hurt worse than if he had just let it bleed. “It’s not as bad as it seems.”
His eyes and face showed a mixture of outrage and sadness. “I promise you’ll be okay,” he mumbled.
“That was really stupid,” Samuel said, coming over to help my dad. My dad glared at him as if he might try to rip Samuel to shreds if he attempted to touch me.
“He wouldn’t believe us otherwise,” I argued.
“Have you called that ambulance?” my dad asked Samuel.
“We could have figured out another way to convince him,” Samuel continued, ignoring my dad.
“How? He would have explained anything else away as a trick.”
“What makes you think he won’t believe this is a trick?”
“Because I’m his daughter. Dad, you can
take away the towels.”
“No. I have to maintain the pressure until we can get you to the hospital. Now, is anyone going to help us or will I have to get her there myself?” He glanced around at everyone and then he fixed his eyes on Samuel.
“They are helping us, Dad.”
I took his hand and very gently pried his fingers from my wrist. I saw the panic in his eyes, but we didn’t have time to do it gently. The towels fell off, revealing a small wound stretching from one side of my wrist to the other. It looked a lot worse than it felt. It was nowhere near deep enough to be life threatening for a human, let alone for me.
I went to the sink and rinsed the blood from my wrist so the wound was clearly visible. It seemed as if my dad might have a heart attack while he watched. I grabbed some towels and quickly dabbed at the cut to dry it. The blood had already slowed to a trickle.
My dad appeared confused. He clearly thought the wound was much worse than it actually was. When he got close enough, he caught me off guard and threw me over his shoulder.
I grabbed the doorjamb as he ran through the door, bringing him to an abrupt stop. He tried to pull me loose and get me the rest of the way out of the room. I looked at Samuel, pleading with him to help me. He rolled his eyes as he walked over to try to extricate me from my dad’s overprotective arms.
“Dr. Taylor, you promised to listen to what Alina had to say. Will you please just sit down and pay attention?” Samuel tried to reason with my dad.
“Are you the one who got her involved in this mess? You said you loved her. I trusted you to keep her safe, and instead you get her involved in a cult.”
I wished I could see their faces. I was about to defend Samuel, but he spoke up before I could.
“Yes. I’m the reason she got caught up in this mess.” I heard the pain in his voice. “If I hadn’t fallen in love with her, none of this would have happened. It seems like every time I try to protect her, all I do is put her in more danger, but I can’t bring myself to let her go. So, you can either sit down and listen to Alina before you make your decision about cults, or you can leave right now without her… and without any answers.”
My dad tensed for a moment, but then lowered me to the floor. “I’ll listen, but I can’t promise anything else.”
“That’s fair enough,” Samuel said. We turned around and went back into the room.
“Can we please have the room to ourselves?” I asked.
It seemed as if Lucina might argue, but Thanos nodded.
I waited until it was just my dad and me before going to the sink and moistening some towels. Grabbing a chair, I sat down opposite my dad and handed him the towels. I extended my wrist to him again and allowed him to clean away the small amount of blood that had accumulated since his abduction attempt. He appeared a little puzzled at the wound.
“I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
I smiled. “Just keep an eye on it. I have a lot to explain.”
Recovery
“I’m not really sure where to start. I don’t remember a lot about last year. What I can remember is kind of patchy since the infection. The strange thing is that I remember all the feelings. I guess I should start with the chateau.”
I told about those first few weeks after I woke up with Duncan, then about my first run-in with Samuel and our leaving the chateau. I left out a lot of the dangerous stuff, but when it came to Mom, I told him our theory of what had happened. I also informed him that if he left without protection, there was a real chance he would end up just like her.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Why should I believe any of this?”
“Look at my wrist.”
Not once during our entire conversation had he released his grip on my wrist, but as my story progressed from one unbelievable detail to the next, his focus had shifted from my wound to me. He glanced back down at the wound and gasped. Only a small cut remained.
He turned my wrist over, searching for the trick. He examined it more closely. For some reason, his search for the hidden tubing running up my arm or special effects gave me a sense of déjà vu.
“This isn’t possible. It would have been discovered by some doctor or some research facility by now. There’s no way a virus can do this.”
“I didn’t really believe it when Duncan told me, either.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
I smirked. “Would you have believed me?”
He colored, remembering his earlier reaction. “I guess that would be a good reason to keep it secret. So, why did you tell me now?”
“Well, there were a couple of reasons. The first was to try to keep you safe. The second was to help Duncan. He’s not healing the way he should, but we can’t take him to the emergency room.”
“Does he heal like you?”
I shook my head. “He’s a healer. His throat was crushed one time, and it healed in a matter of minutes. Thanos said he’s probably not healing right because he’s lost so much blood.”
He seemed conflicted. “I want to help him, but I can’t. If I perform surgery outside of the hospital, I would lose my license. Not to mention I haven’t performed an exploratory surgery since my residency. Then, there’s the risk of infection.”
“I don’t think you need to be concerned about infections, and losing your license is the last thing you need to worry about. In case you weren’t paying attention, someone just tried to have you killed.”
“True. But from what you were telling me, it could have been Mr. Valerii who planned the attempt on my life. Why should we trust him?”
“It’s not like we have a lot of options. We tried doing it on our own. Mom was killed, and you were almost killed. We have to trust someone at this point, and Thanos seems to be the only one who hasn’t lied to us.”
“That you know of.” He stared thoughtfully at my wrist. “There should be some bags for donating blood around here. We’ll need two to three pints. Do you know what Duncan’s blood type is?”
“He’s B-negative,” Lucina answered, opening the door.
I gave her a dirty look as she came into the room. I couldn’t believe she’d been eavesdropping on our conversation.
“Well then, anyone with O-negative and B-negative can give him blood. Do you know if the viruses can be mixed or will they cause reactions?”
Lucina shrugged. She stuck her head out of the room, and Thanos soon joined us.
“From the research Dr. Williams performed, it can cause a reaction similar to the effects of being infected with different strains of the same virus. It will cause it to mutate and become a stronger virus. There is a risk that the mutation could kill him,” Thanos answered.
“Who infected him?” my dad asked.
“I did,” Lucina answered. “But I’m A-positive.”
“I think our best option would be to get three or four human donors. Then we won’t have to worry about interaction between different strains of the virus.”
“It will still weaken him until the viral load increases in the donated blood.”
“Where are you planning to get this blood?” Lucina asked. “It’s not like we have access to a blood bank.”
“What about your assistant?” I asked.
“I didn’t ask for her blood type when she was hired.”
“Then ask her now.”
“I’ll go ask her,” Samuel said from the doorway. He returned a couple of minutes later. “She’s B-negative, so there’s one donor.”
“I’m O-negative so that gives us two donors,” my dad said.
“Can you do it with only a couple of pints?”
“I might be able to, but I don’t know how much blood he’s lost. I’d hate to start cutting and find out we don’t have enough.”
“It will have to do,” Thanos said. “We can’t rob a blood bank or find other donors.”
I played surgical technician and nurse for my dad, so I got a front row seat. It didn’t take him long to find the first bullet, but as
he searched for the second, Duncan began to bleed more heavily. His heart rate spiked, and we ran through our first pint of blood in no time flat. Finally, he located the second bullet and sutured the nick in Duncan’s main artery. As soon as my dad stopped the bleeding, Duncan stabilized, and we gave him the second pint of blood and two bags of saline.
“I can’t do anything else for him.” My dad took off his gloves and mask, and tossed them in a biohazard bag.
“Do you think he’ll make it?” I asked.
“If he were human, I would give him a fifty-fifty chance. If what you said earlier is true, I would say he’s got a pretty good shot of pulling through.”
After cleaning up, I sat with Duncan until about two in the morning. I wanted to be there with him when he awoke. He’d saved mine and my dad’s lives; I owed him so much. The least I could do was sit here with him. It was almost two in the morning when Samuel appeared.
“We have to get going. Your father said Duncan is stable enough to move, and we need to be gone before the staff show up.”
Two of the guards came in and lifted Duncan onto a makeshift gurney to carry him out to a waiting car. I climbed in and rested his head on my lap. My dad and Samuel didn’t appear thrilled about the seating arrangements, but they didn’t say anything.
It felt as though we drove forever before slowing down. Duncan appeared to be out of danger and sleeping comfortably. Samuel slept next to me with his head resting on my shoulder. My dad was passed out on the seat across from us.
I nudged Samuel gently. “Samuel, wake up.”
He groaned slightly before raising his head. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Not long,” I lied.
“How’s Duncan doing?”
“Better. I think he’s sleeping now.”
The driver and a guard came around and opened the back doors.
My dad sat up at the sound. He appeared disoriented as he looked around. When his eyes landed on me, he seemed to relax. “Where are we?”
“I think we’re at the hotel. Should we wake up Duncan?”
“I’m already awake. I was just relaxing.”