Dodie’s eyes popped open, and her fangs unfurled. Afraid Dodie would mistake her for a fresh meal, Madison backed away, out of reach, until Dodie was fully awake.
Dodie sat up and shook her head. When she noticed Madison, she sheathed her fangs. “What on earth is going on?”
“Downstairs,” Madison choked out. “A hurt vampire.”
Wasting no time, Dodie directed Madison to Doug’s side. “Poke your finger under his nose, then step back.”
Madison did as Dodie asked, barely jumping out of the way before Doug bolted upright with his fangs ready for action.
“Dear,” Dodie said to her husband as he shook off the sudden wakefulness. “We seem to have a problem.”
“There’s a vampire downstairs in the pool,” Madison blurted. “He’s hurt.”
Doug Dedham bounded out of bed and dashed downstairs with the supernatural speed he was known for. Dodie grabbed her robe and followed almost as quickly, with Madison bringing up the rear.
When Madison got downstairs, Doug and Dodie were already lifting the young vampire out of the pool. Dodie, who had the vampire gift of extra strength, was hauling him up by his arms. Doug was in the pool, the water up to his waist, lifting the man’s legs. The two elderly vampires moved the young vampire as if he were weightless. Madison joined them on the edge.
“Careful of the stake,” Dodie told her husband. “We don’t want to make things worse. Now turn him on his side so I can take a good look.”
Doug, his pajamas soaking wet and his thick silver hair still in bed-head disarray, jumped up on the edge like a much younger man and did as instructed. Before becoming a vampire, Dodie had been a retired nurse. Now she dispensed first aid to vampires and their living friends, though mostly to the living when the play got too rough.
Madison leaned in and watched as Dodie checked out the position of the stake from the chest side. “I thought a stake through the heart killed vampires.”
“Usually it would,” Doug told her.
“This is bad,” Dodie pronounced, “but not fatal. I think the stake only nicked his heart. Lucky for him. If it hadn’t touched the heart, he could have pulled it out on his own and healed. If it nicked the heart, it would account for why he’s so weak—that and being left in the sunlight.”
Doug surveyed their property as Madison had. “But who would have put him here?”
“Is it someone you know?” Madison asked. “Maybe he was hurt and found his way here for help. If he was weak, he might have fallen into the pool.”
“I’ve never seen him before,” Dodie said. She looked up at her husband. “Have you, dear?”
Doug shook his head. “Not that I can recall.”
“Very strange.” Dodie carefully moved the stake to see how it would be best removed, drawn through the front or pushed through the back. “Another vampire would have brought him to us later in the day or just pulled out the stake to let the poor boy heal.”
Although his eyes still stared vacantly, the man mumbled something.
“Did either of you understand that?” Dodie asked while she worked.
“I heard it,” Doug answered, “but I didn’t understand it. I don’t think it’s English.” Madison simply shrugged.
“Hold him tight, Doug,” Dodie instructed. “Don’t let him move. I’m going to push it from front to back.”
As the stake was removed from his body, the man grunted again in the unfamiliar language.
“Hey,” they heard a familiar voice call as it came through the kitchen toward the patio. “Where’s the pot roast?”
“That’s Notchey,” Madison told the Dedhams. “I called him when I thought this guy was a regular dead body.”
Madison called to Notchey, “Out here.”
Notchey came out the patio door. “I knocked on the back door. When no one answered, I tried it and found it unlocked. You guys know better than that.”
“I unlocked it,” Madison told him, “before we came out here.”
Mike Notchey was surprised at first to see the Dedhams up so early and out in the daylight. Then he noticed the injured man on the ground by the edge of the pool. He rushed over to them.
“What’s going on here?” asked Notchey, his voice taking on its usual cop tone. He glanced at Madison. “Is this why you called me?”
“Yes,” she explained as Dodie slowly worked the stake through the man’s chest and out his back. “But at the time, I didn’t realize the guy was a vampire. As soon I did, I woke Doug and Dodie.”
“Here, Mike,” Doug said to Notchey, “hold him steady while I help Dodie ease the stake out.”
Once Notchey had a firm grip on the vampire’s shoulders, Doug took hold of the stake, moving it slowly through the man’s back. He finished easing it out as Dodie’s front portion disappeared into the man’s body. As soon as the sturdy shaft of wood was out, the wounded vampire let loose with another jumble of words and released a heavy sigh of relief. A few seconds later, his eyes shut, then reopened. When they did, they were no longer vacant and staring, although they were far from focused. After another few seconds, they rolled back into his head.
“We need to get him out of the sunlight.” Dodie’s brow furrowed with concern for her patient. “He’ll recover consciousness faster.”
“We need to get all three of us out of the sunlight,” Doug pointed out, “while we have strength left to get him into the house.” He was referencing the fact that sunlight, while not fatal to vampires, did sap their personal enhanced powers, especially strength, rendering them weak and feeble as exposure continued.
Dodie looked the young man over. “He certainly is a strapping lad.”
Madison had to agree. Now that he was out of the water, she studied the naked vampire. His body was as well developed on dry land as it had appeared in the pool. His face was slender, his cheekbones high and fine. She had to work hard to keep her eyes from wandering over his exposed genitals.
To her side, Madison heard a small chuckle. Turning, she saw Notchey watching her with amusement. Her face burned with embarrassment. “What?” she shot at Notchey as she quickly turned away.
Doug and Dodie tried to get the man to his feet. Notchey stepped in, taking Dodie’s load. “Here, Dodie, let me do it.”
“Thank you, Mike,” Dodie said, stepping aside. “I’m afraid my strength is waning.”
Notchey slipped one of the young man’s arms over his shoulders and wrapped his own arm around the man’s waist, letting the hurt vampire lean against him. Doug, even as his own strength diminished, took the other side.
“Get some sheets,” Dodie instructed Madison, “and spread them over the sofa in the den. We’ll put him there for now.”
Madison ran ahead to get the sofa ready for occupancy while Dodie supervised the slow and careful moving of her patient.
When the men lowered the vampire onto the sofa, he let out another gush of words. Doug shot a look at Notchey. “Anything you recognize?”
Notchey shook his head. “Nothing I’ve heard before.”
The vampire on the sofa closed his eyes and leaned his head back as Dodie covered his body with another clean sheet and patted him gently on the shoulder, conveying without words that he was safe now and in good hands. This time, he seemed to be resting, rather than slipping back into unconsciousness.
“Would someone get my first-aid kit for me?” asked Dodie, unwilling to leave her patient’s side.
“I will,” volunteered Madison.
She took off upstairs to retrieve the medical bag Dodie kept handy. When she returned, Doug was on the phone, leaving an urgent voice mail for Samuel to come by the house as soon as he could. The head vampire always checked his voice mail and e-mail upon rising.
As she handed the bag to Dodie, Madison noticed the vampire’s chest wound. “Is it closing already?”
“Yes.” Dodie removed antiseptic and a gauze pad from the bag. “The external wound should be completely gone by the day after tomorrow. We vampi
res don’t heal in seconds like on TV, but we do heal quickly.” She applied the antiseptic to the wound. The vampire flinched a bit but didn’t open his eyes. With Notchey’s help, they turned the young man on his side again so Dodie could swab the back wound.
“As with humans, cleaning it will speed up the healing,” Dodie explained. “Even if we aren’t in danger of infection, it removes foreign particles that could slow the process.” She studied the young man on the sofa with a compassionate eye. “But if the stake nicked his heart, I’m afraid this young man will be down for about a week.” Dodie put the antiseptic back into her bag. “The heart is the one organ that is slow to regenerate in a vampire,” she explained. “If it was badly damaged, it might take him longer to heal. We may not know for a few days how bad the internal injury was. The only way we’ll know is by how quickly he bounces back. It will also depend on how long he’s been a vampire. The older the vampire, the quicker the healing process.”
“Really?” Madison was surprised.
“Yes,” Dodie answered, keeping her eyes on her patient. “Doug heals much faster than I do from physical injuries. On Samuel, this same chest wound would be almost unnoticeable by now.”
Samuel La Croix was the oldest vampire Madison had met so far. He’d been sold into slavery as a young boy in Africa and had been turned into a vampire during the time the Romans ruled Egypt. By contrast, Dodie was the youngest vampire Madison knew. She’d willingly turned vampire to spend eternity with Doug.
When Doug returned to the den, he was dressed, and his hair was combed back away from his face. His strong jaw was set with concern for his wife. “Why don’t you go back to bed, sweetheart,” he told Dodie. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“I couldn’t sleep a wink now.” Dodie glanced at the clock on the mantle. “Besides, we’d be up soon anyway.” She picked up her medical kit. “But I will scoot upstairs and get cleaned up.”
“I can watch him,” Madison offered after Dodie left, “if the two of you want to go back to bed.”
“Thanks, Madison,” said Doug. “But it’s best a vampire stay with him, especially since he can’t communicate with us. We’d have more control over him if he spooks or turns violent. Now that he’s out of the sun, his strength will start returning. But if we’re going to stay up, let’s close the shutters so it’s darker in here.”
“Where do you think he came from?” asked Notchey.
Madison went to the two large windows in the den and closed the plantation shutters against the intruding sunlight. “You think that tattoo can tell us anything?”
Both men looked at her at the same time, but it was Notchey who spoke. “What tattoo?”
“The one at the small of his back,” answered Madison. “I noticed it when you brought him in, right before you put him down on the sofa.”
“You mean, when you were checking out his ass?” teased Notchey.
Madison flashed Notchey a sour face, but her blush told the truth.
With a jerk of his head, Doug enlisted Notchey’s help. Together, they turned the vampire onto his side and checked out the area on his low back. The vampire groaned slightly but didn’t open his eyes. Just above the divide of his buttocks was a small mark.
“Is that the Star of David?” asked Madison.
“No,” Doug answered in a chopped, harsh voice.
Notchey leaned in for a closer look. “It looks sort of like the Star of David. It’s definitely a six-point star, but it has something in the center—a circle or something. It’s difficult to tell.”
“It’s a hexagram with an eye in the center,” Doug announced as they shifted the man onto his back once again. “And it’s not a tattoo. It’s a brand.” His face clouded over as he spoke. “I thought I saw something there when Dodie was removing the stake, but I didn’t want to believe it. Guess I was hoping it was just a birthmark.”
Madison looked at Doug with wide eyes. “You mean, he was a slave or a prisoner, something like that?”
“Of sorts.” Doug nearly spit out the words.
Notchey asked, “You sure it’s not a gang tat or some other organization?”
“It’s definitely not a gang tattoo.” Without saying another word, Doug turned and lifted the back of his shirt. Reaching back, he pulled down the waist of his jeans a couple of inches, showing Madison and Notchey the same brand in the same place on his body.
THREE
B
y the time Samuel La Croix got to the Dedhams’, the wounded vampire was strong enough to sit up and eat. Since the Dedhams did not keep human blood in the house, Dodie had made him a concoction of various types of animal blood. She was a whiz at mixing flavors to stem the monotony of drinking blood every day. She and Doug dined out when they wanted human blood.
When the nameless vampire first tasted the thick red brew, he’d grimaced and nearly spit it out, but one look at Dodie’s disapproving eye changed his mind. He swallowed, then let out a string of words in his own language to let everyone know it wasn’t his flavor of choice. When he’d eyed the two humans with a hungry eye, Madison fidgeted with the bracelet strapped to her wrist. The young vampire noticed and studied her, his brow scrunched in curiosity. Once he realized neither Madison nor Notchey were on the menu, the vampire drank Dodie’s blood smoothie, draining the glass in three big gulps. Dodie refilled the glass and he downed that, too, but less quickly.
While the vampire ate, Doug tried pantomiming to get some information. First, he pointed at himself and said Doug. Next, he pointed at Dodie and said Dodie. The young vampire parroted the words. Doug went through it again, giving both his and Dodie’s names when he pointed. Next, he pointed at Madison and Notchey: “Madison. Mike.” That was followed by pointing his finger at their guest and shrugging.
With a flash of understanding in his eyes, the young man pointed to himself. “Keleta.”
“Colletta?” Doug asked, pointing at the young man’s chest.
The young man shook his head. “Keleta,” he repeated more slowly. He pointed again at himself. “Name. Keleta.” His voice had a rich accent that no one seemed to recognize, but at least they now knew his name. Doug, Dodie, and Madison repeated it. Keleta rewarded them with a nod and a small smile. Notchey stayed in the background, observing. Keleta repeated all their names to make sure he’d understood them correctly. When Samuel showed up, they had gotten no further than the names, since it was apparent that Keleta spoke only a few words of English. Before Samuel could interview Keleta, Doug gave him a rundown of what had transpired, from Madison discovering the body in the pool to noticing the tattoo, including informing Samuel that he had the same tattoo.
Samuel asked to speak with Keleta alone. As everyone filed out of the den, Samuel asked Doug to remain. Dodie, Madison, and Notchey could only stare with blunt nosiness as Doug apologetically closed the door to the den, shutting them out.
“Do you think Samuel understands his language?” Madison asked.
They were in the kitchen. Disappointed by the pot roast ruse, Notchey eagerly accepted Madison’s offer of turkey chili as compensation. Dodie took charge of heating it up for Notchey and Madison for their Sunday supper. Madison had protested, saying she was capable of taking care of feeding them, but Dodie insisted, replying that looking after them gave her something to do while they waited.
It wasn’t lost on Madison that Dodie was agitated. Madison had known Dodie Dedham for about four months, but during that time the older woman had proven unflappable, a solid rock in times of trouble. Now she seemed worried and nervous. Madison watched the older woman as she took the chili out of the microwave, gave it a half-hearted stir, and put it back in for more heating time, leaving the metal spoon in the plastic dish. Before Dodie could press the start button and set off sparks, Madison jumped up and stopped her. Without a word, Madison opened the microwave and retrieved the spoon, then put the microwave back into action.
When she saw her error, Dodie’s mouth turned downward. She raked a hand through he
r light auburn hair and looked about to cry. Madison took Dodie’s cold vampire hands between her warm ones, led her to a seat at the kitchen table, and took the one next to her.
“You said Keleta’s going to be fine in a few days.”
“And he will be,” Dodie answered, not looking at Madison. The old woman seemed a million miles away, which was so out of character.
Mike Notchey took a seat at the table across from Dodie, his astute investigator’s mind honing in on Dodie’s vibes. “This isn’t about Keleta’s well-being, is it, Dodie?” When Dodie still didn’t look up, he continued probing. “Two things could be going on. One, you’re worried someone knows you and Doug are vampires.” No reaction. “Or, you know who dumped that kid in your pool.”
When Dodie’s eyes snapped up sharply to meet his, Notchey knew the last question had found its mark.
“Who was it, Dodie?” he asked. “Another vampire? Or a beater with a score to settle?”
“My gut,” Madison interjected, “tells me this wasn’t the work of a beater.” She paused, then looked at Dodie. “And what about the brand on both Keleta and Doug?”
That question really snapped Dodie out of her daze. “Doug showed you that?”
Madison nodded. “While you were out of the room. Keleta has one just like it.”
Dodie looked down again. “I thought it was the same mark. I noticed it when we were bringing him in here, but I hoped I’d been mistaken—that it was just a birthmark or something like that.”
“Doug said he’d hoped it was just a birthmark, too.” Madison squeezed Dodie’s hand. “What has the two of you so worried?”
“What does the brand mean, Dodie?” asked Notchey.
The microwave beeped, signaling that the food was heated. No one got up from the table to get it.
“What does the mark mean?” Notchey asked again.
“It’s not what,” answered Dodie in a small, troubled voice. “It’s who.”
Baited Blood (A Madison Rose Vampire Mystery) Page 2