For a long time, I just sat there and watched. It was kind of like being in science class and you’re waiting to see if your experiment worked or not.
Lyman was the experiment. Jackson had mixed their two, incompatible bloods together and now it was my job to observe the outcome. What happens to a Helsing if forced to drink vampire blood- hmm?
Watch that question be on the mid-terms.
Well. I sure as crud knew what happened to the vampire. After howling in agony, Jackson just kind of rolled over and stopped living. I can’t say he died; technically- he did that over fifty years ago at the hand of Amos Blanche (one bad ass vampire by the sounds of things). But, whatever the term you might want to use- the fact was that my foster brother was gone now. Yesterday he was all I had left in the world, and suddenly he was gone.
Maybe that’s why I wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere. You’d think your first instinct after watching all that crazy go down would totally be to bolt- get some distance. But, right then I had no spectacular desire to go anywhere.
Just chill out and watch the experiment unfold.
Seemed like neither me nor the girl even thought about calling the ambulance for way too long. She actually called her dad; I thought that was bizarre as heck. I mean- unless Daddy was the world’s greatest surgeon or something.
She was even calm on the phone; “Dad? Can you come round to Lyman’s. Right now. Bring mom.”
Time was kind of suspended for me right then so I’m not sure how much of it passed before the headlights shined at us through the window. Miss Frantic was still cradling her boyfriend (but at least she’d stopped bawling).
Once she heard her dad’s car pulling up outside, she got all the sudden interested in me.
“You have to get out of here!”
Well. If that’s not gratitude for you.
“No way,” I told her, “I’m not leaving here until I know for sure that my foster brother didn’t die for nothing.”
I left out the part that if Lyman died- she would too.
“You can’t stay; if my father finds you…”
“He’d thank me for saving his daughter’s ass- I would think!”
“Listen to me, Mandy- I’ll tell him everything as soon as I can. You have my word. But for right now… you just have to trust me and get out of here. Please. Please. It’s for your own good.”
The girl’s eyes were all big, round and terrified. She seemed sincere enough to me.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Mary-Christine.”
I rolled my eyes. Her name sounded like some Catholic saint or something.
“Alright, Mary-Christine. I’m leaving. But, I won’t be far away and I HAVE to know if he comes out of this alright. Do you hear me? You owe me that much.”
The car doors slammed. Two people. They were coming up the walk. Fast.
She was crying again, but nodding so hard I thought her head might break off.
“And if he comes to… you make sure you tell him he owes his life to Jackson Cole, a vampire.”
I lifted the body of Jackson Cole, my friend, and sped into the kitchen.
I barely made it out the back door when I heard the humans (they smelled like Helsings) coming through the front. And I kept my promise- I stayed close.
~ ~ ~
“You’re certain?” I asked. My heart was contracting with every millisecond he took to answer. “A vampire?”
He nodded. “We’ve taken some blood samples of our own, you know, to Unicorps. You’ve been changed. Sorry Lyman, but that’s how it is.”
“The bastard turned me to save my life.” I felt deflated beyond belief. “He tried to save my life, but all he did was fuck it up.”
“Jackson Cole was his name.” Dave said. “Seems that Mandy Cross was determined that you should know that he gave his life in saving you. Mary-Christine has been talking about nothing else.”
“Big fucking deal, Dave!” I felt quite entitled to cuss. “You guys get to leave the problem, here, in the hospital. Me! I’m suddenly the problem; the enemy. I have to live with this.”
“Yes, I know, but you’ve got to come to terms with this.”
“Yeah, I’ll be first on your table, and you’ll be hammering the African hardwood stake!”
“Hey!” Dave held his hand up, looked back at the door, but the corridor was deserted. “We haven’t got that far yet.”
“But you’re going to.” I felt energized. In fact, I felt damn good. Then I relaxed back onto the pillows, realizing exactly why I felt so good; my arteries were coursing with vampire blood.
Dave patted my hand. “What we have to realize is that we’ve never had a Helsing ‘turned’ before. Any vampire killing a Helsing by drinking his blood would be committing suicide; so there’s no records that it ever happened. So we really don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
I shook my head. “You’re contradicting yourself. You said I was a vampire, right?”
“Technically, yes, because your blood has been ‘turned’ by the vampire blood.”
“But you also said that you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“That’s also correct.” He stood up, and turned to leave, then stopped at the door. “But you also haven’t had any symptoms of needing to feed yet, so we’re hoping that will continue.”
“So I just stay in limbo?”
He ignored me. “Get better, Lyman.” And he walked off down the corridor. He had copped out, and I resented him for it.
Despite my feeling ‘good’, I soon tired and fell asleep again. The silent Fox News on the Television in the corner was my only indication of the passing of time.
That and the meager meals.
I had lunch later, then the doc came round to check on me.
“When do I get out?” I asked as he looked at the charts on the end of the bed.
“When you’re stronger. Maybe a week or so. Maybe two.”
“I feel pretty good right now.”
He looked me in the eye with such gravity that I flinched. “I don’t give a damn if you think you can run a marathon. You may think you’re strong, Lyman, but I’m telling you that you won’t walk twenty feet before falling down, and if you do strain any of the stitches inside your belly holding your innards together, you’ll bleed to death inside before we can say Jack Robinson.”
When the nurse took my temperature the next day, I thought I’d try again. “When can I get out of bed, get these tubes out of my arms?”
“You’ll have to ask the doctor.” Her retreating voice echoed down the corridor.
Hospitals are great places; you arrive busted, and they usually put you back together again and send you on your way. But in between is the bad time. For some just a couple of days. For me, it was going to be a couple of weeks.
My parents were dead, I had missed the funeral, and now I had to sort out the rest.
I was determined not to give in to the boredom of hospital life. If they needed me to lie still for a couple of weeks, I was going to do just that.
I lay with my hand on my belly, wondering just how many stitches were in there.
End.
(A note from the authors)
Hi there guys, Ian Hall here, co-author of the stuff you’ve just been reading.
Lachelle and I appreciate the fact that you buy and read our Vampire High School books, and love the idea that you enjoy the in-depth character histories we’re developing.
If you enjoy the VHS series, please give us reviews wherever you buy your eBooks. It only takes a minute, but gets your views out to thousands of prospective VHS readers.
Also, as a bonus; we’d like to offer you a new deal; absolutely free.
Alan McCartney is a big deal in the first VHS trilogy, and we’d like to send you his back-story free.
Just drop us a line at; [email protected] for your free short.
(Just give us a few weeks to get it to you.)
r />
Lachelle Miller, Vampire High School (Book 1: Gregor Academy)
Vampire High School (Book 1: Gregor Academy) Page 20