"I'm not even hung over, Cooper," she said. "And you left us at 11pm."
"Well, we all know the druggie ballerina can't even operate if there's not something in her blood," Cooper snapped.
"Cooper!" James growled, and Cooper relented, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry."
"I should think so," James replied and then was thrown off balance as Cooper cried out and fumbled for his brother. The vodka bottle smashed and Carmen, in bare feet, leapt back. James had an awkward grasp on Cooper's dead weight and his face was twisted in worry.
"We have to do something, “James said, as Cooper withered. "This is the 2nd time he's hit the deck."
"I really don’t think it’s magic," Carmen said. "Since I'm right here. This has gone on too long."
Cooper squirmed again, and then gagged and vomited, blood spewing everywhere. James met his wife's eyes.
"Call Dr. Octivia," he said, an option discussed before and shot down. The vampire doctor was an expert of diseases and medication for both races. He knew what worked on vampires and what didn't. His adoptive son was even cured of depression by high doses of modern medication. However, he also disagreed with a vampire lifestyle, having more than once exposed his true kind to humans. Each time, he and his family barely escaped the law. While pleasant enough, they weren’t on good terms with the Elders.
Carmen scampered away, to retrieve the phone and make the call. Cooper's pain seemed to ease a bit, long enough to be able to relax.
"James?" He said, his voice sounding small and young. "What's happening to me?"
"I don't know," James said. "But we're going to find out. And we're
going to make you better, kid, I promise you."
A half hour later, James was sitting on the phone with Dr. Octivia, sitting on one end of the sofa, with Cooper’s feet in his lap and his head on Carmen’s lean legs. The two of them were trying not act worried, for Cooper’s sake, although she could tell the phone conversation with Dr. Octivia was not going well.
“I have a Shield, a powerful one, so unless it’s the most powerful witch ever created, I don’t think it’s a spell...I’ve never met a Shield that Carmen couldn’t stop…well, if it was Allium Sativum poison, than as soon as Carmen came around, it’d stop, those things don’t affect a human…Well, I don’t know then,” James exchanged a worried glance with Carmen, who was running her fingers through Cooper’s hair. They had turned the lights off, and lowered the blinds. The symptoms were similar to a migraine and yet, it was impossible. “I think that would be the best solution, these things are happening far too often. We have access to state of the art facilities, as soon as you can. ” He hung up, turning to the other two. “Cooper?”
“Mmph,” his brother answered, his fist clenched in pain.
“Dr. Octivia is going to fly out here as soon as he can get someone to cover his patients.”
“And when will that be?” Cooper’s mood was clearly not the most agreeable. “God damn it, you’re the King, James, can’t you get him to move any faster?”
“As fast as he can,” James replied calmly. “Is there anything we could get you?”
“Less pain,” Cooper gripped Carmen’s thigh, causing her to wince. “I will find whoever is doing this to me, and I will kill them. Can’t you turn it up?”
She laughed nervously.
“Shield powers don’t work like that, my darling,” she glanced to James, across the way. “But I would if I could.”
“You should rest,” James said. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
Cooper seemed to find that agreeable, at least, the human side of him magnified with exhaustion from Carmen, and it wasn’t long before his muscles relaxed and his breathing became regular. Carmen reached across the couch to hold James’s hand, a romantic move that didn’t often happen between them. James gazed at his brother a few moments before he spoke.
“I hope you will understand, my dear, that the divorce papers will have to wait until this gets resolved.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she shrugged, trying to keep her voice down.
“But they will get done, I assure you. You came here for this purpose and it will not be a wasted trip.”
“Sssh, James,” she said, tenderly. “Right now it doesn’t really matter.”
They fell into silence, and then she spoke once more.
“I’m sorry I held you to it so long, really. When I was 17 and needed help, it was everything. But now…”
He smiled at her.
“Carmen, once marriages were only ever made for purpose, and convenience, not love. Love never entered into them. You needed assistance and I provided it for you. It was a dark time for me, and your…powers got me through it. I would say it was a mutual need.”
“Right,” she agreed, looking at him in a way she really hadn’t before. Aside from her best friend, Donovan, there had never been another man to say such kind words to her. Carmen was the Queen on one night stands, and relationships that only ever led to the bedroom. Only James had made it into something more, had genuinely cared about her as a person.
Dr. Octivia didn’t arrive until that night, and each hour was more tortuous than the last. Cooper’s headache was not subsiding, and Carmen, for the first time in her Shield career felt weak and useless. She and James had held hands for 8 hours over the sleeping body, moving only to get food, or allow Nathaniel a moment to whisper encouragement to his brother. Around dusk, Phil had come to sit with them, although he didn’t have much to say.
When Dr. Octivia was escorted into the house, he barely bowed to his vampire kings and princes, something that was built into his blood, before he spoke. He hadn’t so much as touched Cooper, but he didn’t like the colour on his face, or the blue around his lips.
“We need to get him to a hospital, now,” he said. “James, I’ll need access to an MRI machine and a CT scanner. Are you on any friendly terms with the local hospital?”
“I can be so,” James replied.
“This is bizarre,” Carmen said, shaking her head. “You’re supposed to be immortal.”
“He is immortal,” Nathaniel assured her. “He is.”
“Carmen,” Dr. Octivia apparently knew who she was without even meeting her. “I don’t want you to let go of him. Whatever magic this is will probably send him into Torpor if you let go, it’s that strong. I need to see what it’s doing to his body, inside.”
“Aye aye,” she said, following the doctor’s orders. Only then did Phil, the tallest and broadest of all of them, step forward. Cooper was looking at them with glazed eyes, as if it was a dream, and Phil knelt to pick his kid brother up. He had heard the word Torpor, no doubt, and Carmen half wondered if this was some sadistic move to catch whatever his brother had. But she didn’t say anything as James drove them to the hospital, his jaw clenched in fear.
“There are some ways, Carmen,” he said, clearly reading the expression on her face. “To force a vampire into Torpor that he will never awaken from. Alive, preserved, but gone.”
“A coma,” she said, aware of Phil’s self chosen Torpor. She turned around, her hand still clasped in Cooper’s, who was trying not to cry out in pain. “Don’t worry. I’m the most powerful Shield there is.”
“Then I can only imagine how much worse this could be without you,” Cooper managed and then let out a strangled cry.
Once at the hospital, James worked his magic to let Dr. Octivia into the MRI room. Part of it was brute force and threats, but whatever it did worked. They stood outside the booth, the only place that she couldn’t be near Cooper. Nathaniel and Phil were seated in the uncomfortable plastic chairs by the door, while James paced the hall. Her heart breaking, she went over to him, offering her arms and he nearly fell into them.
“It’ll be ok,” she said, placing a hand on the very spot on his head that was giving his brother trouble. “Whatever it is.”
He stayed in her arms quite awhile, regulating his breathing and regaining his composure.
“Thank you, Carmen, you are very kind.”
“Compassion gets me into boy’s beds. I take all types,” she smiled at him, although it was a poor attempt at a joke. “I noticed we passed a city office on the way here. Hopefully this will be over by morning, and we can kill two birds with one stone and stop in, hmm?”
“I have a hard time seeing all of this alright by morning,” James replied, and she kissed him lightly on the cheek. She had never been this romantic with him, and although it was foreign, it felt oddly comfortable.
Their hands were clasped together an hour later, when Dr. Octivia came bursting out of the MRI room, 2 scans in his hand.
“Carmen, back up,” he blurted out, and her jaw dropped.
“Excuse me?”
“Whatever you have to say, Dr,” James’s jaw clenched. “You can say it in front of Carmen.”
“I understand that,” Dr. Octivia replied. “But we need to give this room a wide berth if she’s involved.”
“Why?”
“Look,” he walked down the hall to one of the clinic rooms, and the others followed, stunned into silence. Placing the scans on the light on the wall, he flipped it on.
“Do you see that dot there? Cooper has a 3 blood clots in his brain, threatening to block the flow to his spinal cord.”
“What?” James’s mouth dropped.
“Did he used to get headaches as a child?”
“Yes,” Phil blurted out, surprising them all. “I remember more clearly than you, it wasn’t that long ago for me. He did, Cooper was a sickly child.”
“Becoming a vampire saved his life,” Dr. Octivia said. “Had he not, at the moment he did, he would have been dead within 72 hours. These clots, from my experience, are moving fast.”
“Oh my God,” Carmen’s hand went up to her mouth. “I did this to him.”
The Doctor was compassionate, but nodded.
“Exposure to the Shield meant they began to move again. As of now, I’d say he has 12 hours before they burst.”
“But he’s immortal,” James protested. “We are the Elders, nothing can kill us.”
“Vampirism did not cure Cooper’s issues, it just immobilized them, as I suspect it does with many other diseases. The body is not cured, it ceases to live and so illness doesn’t matter. But if they burst, he will cease to have brain function at all. And if he dies a human, without being turned again, then his body will not retaliate.”
“So Cooper is dying,” Phil said, slowly. “And if Carmen..”
“You mean him no harm, my dear,” Dr. Octivia said. “But listen to me. If word gets out to the Shield community that one of the Elders has this weakness, it could be the end of him. The rest of the Shields will do anything to take down vampires, its why they were created. And we caused quite a disturbance leaving the house the way we did, I imagine.”
James’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Cooper! Cooper’s alone!”
With not quite vampire speed, they rushed back to the MRI room, Carmen on their heels. To their horror, the room was empty.
Chapter 3
“It’s going to me, of course,” Carmen had enough of listening to the bickering that was existing between the brothers. After searching the hospital, in every nook and cranny, they had reconvened at home. All of Cooper’s favourite places had been searched, and it was becoming more and more clear what had happened; exactly what they feared. They had attracted attention of the Shields, and somehow, the hospital had been infiltrated. Wherever Cooper was, he didn’t have much time. The clock was counting down the hours until he ran out of time, especially if he was with the Shields.
“Carmen don’t be stupid,” Nathaniel snapped at her. “It’s no secret that every single Shield wants you dead. With you out of the way, a new active Shield can be chosen, and they don’t have to deal with their Queen Shield being a rebel who helps the very things they were created to kill.”
“They want me,” she confirmed, her eyes not leaving James. “Yes, of course they do. And so when I walk straight into their arms, and offer my cooperation, they will accept a trade or I will take my own life, there and then. And you know as well as I do a Shield lost in pain will never transfer the powers.”
“Carmen,” James barely spoke her name, his gaze so intense it could cut through walls. “You cannot…”
“I can and I will.”
Phil took one glance at his brother and slammed his hand down on the mantel piece.
“Carmen, James is king and you will…”
“No!” her voice was sharp, her eyes full of fire. “James is king of the vampires, and until my chest no longer draws breath, I am Queen of the Shields. You want your brother back, I’m your only bet and you all know it. I have to go alone, you three will be no use anyways, as mortals. If they see you there, they could very well cut his throat. Remember that you are mortal around my kind, I’m the one with the upper hand.”
“she’s right,” James sounded so broken and weak at that moment, nothing like the strong king that he normally was. What an impossible choice it was, to choose his brother or his wife. “She is right.”
A silence fell over the room, the only sound the mortal heart beat of the Shield which might be extinguished. She stepped forward, taking James’s hands.
“I will come back. We have unfinished business.”
He laughed, although his eyes were shiny with tears.
“Yes, I know. Please do.”
“ I will,” oblivious to the rest of the room, she leaned in and kissed him. This wasn’t a normal kiss filled with passion and lust. This was a slow and quiet kiss, so much communication passing between them in a single moment. This was a kiss filled with love, something they had never exchanged in their ten years together. “Got to go.”
Carmen knew exactly where the Shields would be congregating if they had Cooper, and she pointed her car in that direction without a second thought. There was a scared burial ground, not too far from here, where many Shields were buried. After all, this was the Hell mouth, where all supernatural creatures fought for space.
She turned off her phone, not wanting the boys to distract her from what she had to do. She played over the scenario again and again in mind, thinking how she would word it, what she would say. But what kept interrupting her thoughts was not fear, but James’s broken expression, watching her go. She had never wanted to be beside him more than right now.
It was almost nightfall before she reached the burial ground, and she could see, even from a distance that she was right. There was an unearthly glow from the graveyard, where hundreds of candles were lit, and the Shields, all in white, were gathered.
She had never felt any connection to them, distant relatives and supernatural’s just like her. She had nearly rotted in Foster Care for years, and they never pulled her out, disregarding her as a broken child when her parents died. It had been a vampire who rescued her, who sponsored her, and another vampire who married her to save what she loved, and she never forgot that.
She pulled over to the side of the road, pulling out her car keys, but not locking her door. With any hope, she would need it open to make a quick getaway.
She was all in black, a contrast to the white Shields, who turned when she approached.
“Carmen Rouge,” one of them stepped forward, a redheaded Shield just like her who she vaguely recognized. Carmen cocked her head, with a sadistic smile.
“It’s Carmen Black, actually, technically. I haven’t been one of you for ages. I believe you have something of mine.”
The Shield sneered.
“A marriage made in hell,”
“Not quite,” Carmen replied, holding her ground. “I’m proposed to make a trade, so listen up. The Black Prince safe and sound. For my life.”
This made them pause
“Your life.”
“I’ll take my own life,” Carmen had a knife in her hand lightening quick, pressed against her wrist. “Or you may take it for me. Or
who knows, you may even beat me into submission,” she smiled. “Do whatever you want, but you give him back.”
“You see, Carmen, that almost fits into our plan,” one of them said, approaching closer. All of a sudden, Carmen felt a knee in her back and she grunted, doubling over. The knife clattered to the ground, and she felt strong arms grab her. “Except we’ll have you in our grasp and the Black Prince dead at our feet. See? Almost the same.”
She screamed at the top of her lungs, thrashing her legs, but it did no good. They pushed her forward at a rough pace and all she could see was a haze of white as they passed through the hundreds of Shields in white robes. She gasped for breath and before she knew it, she was hurled into a cold stone tomb, into the darkness. She spun around, screeching but it made no difference. The door was pushed shut and Carmen was left in darkness.
“ARG!” she spun around, trying to feel for the wall, trying to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. And then she heard him.
“Carmen?” Cooper’s voice was broken and cracked , such pain she had never heard from a vampire before. Following his harsh breathing, she found him curled up against the wall, every muscle tense with pain.
“hey, Hey. I’m here, it’s ok. Are you ok?”
“Urg, no,” he seemed to be fighting every instinct to not crush his skull with his hands. “I can’t take this anymore, Carmen, I can’t do this anymore.”
“Hush,” she pressed her lips to his forehead, which burned. “Hush, I’m going to figure this out.”
“There’s no way out,” he said, his voice breathless. “I’ve tried everything. The only way out is that door, which takes the strength of 10 men to move. And surrounded by so many Shields, I barely have the strength of a child.”
“Ok, so that’s not our only option,” she said, trying to think. “ We could... do you think if they believe you are dead, soon enough, they’ll let me take your body home?”
Binded (The SHIELD Series) Page 2