~ Twenty-Five ~

“I can’t transport her that way now. It’s too dangerous. She’s too weak and I don’t know what it would do to her,” Aloysius said. His voice was so close but I couldn’t see him.

“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?” Christian asked.

“Here, take my coat. Wrap her up in it. We’ll have to take a taxi. We don’t have another option.”

“A taxi will take so much longer,” Christian argued.

“I know, but I won’t take the risk of something worse happening to her because of the transport.”

“This is insane! I want to pull the stake out,” Christian argued.

My body bounced a little and my head felt too heavy to lift. Someone carried me but I couldn’t see who it was. I wanted to see but couldn’t force my eyes open. Nothing on my body seemed to work.

“I told you we have to wait until we get her back to the apartment. It’s too dangerous out here. We could be interrupted,” Aloysius explained. “I know how you feel, but trust me, this is only temporary. Melinda missed her heart when you grabbed her. She will live.”

“It doesn’t matter. She’s in pain and I can’t stand it. We were too late!”

“No, we weren’t. We were just in time. Had we arrived a second later, she would’ve killed her.”

Why couldn’t I open my eyes? I couldn’t even answer them. I couldn’t tell them that my whole body was on fire, but they had to know. Someone was carrying me. They had to see and feel the flames. Why weren’t they getting burned? All I wanted to do was jump in a pool or soak in a cold bath but I had no way to tell them.

“But we lost her anyway,” Christian said. A hand touched my head softly as I continued to bounce in someone’s arms. It must have been Christian caressing my head. Aloysius’s voice was closest so he must have been carrying me.

“That is only temporary. Our first priority is Lily. We’ll find Melinda. I promise you I will personally hunt her down if that is what it comes down to.”

“Where the hell is Fiore?” Christian sounded angry.

I wanted to tell him not to fight with her, how tired I was of hearing them bicker. A car horn beeped twice and I was handed over to Christian. Aloysius gave the driver the address. He must have looked suspicious because Aloysius explained to him that I was sick.

The talking stopped, as did the movement of the taxi. I smelled Pepé but he didn’t say a word. Instead, I heard him run ahead of us and summon the elevator. Once we exited the elevator, the running started.

“She’s losing too much blood,” Christian said.

“I know. We’ll pull the stake out as soon as we get her settled.”

Oh, God, pull out the stake? It’s still there? My uncooperative arms prevented me from checking. The burning had spread from my chest to my arms, and now my legs. All I wanted was water but I couldn’t tell them. Why weren’t they hearing my thoughts? Why couldn’t I hear theirs?

“Set her down gently,” Aloysius instructed. “Don’t worry about the sheets. I have plenty more.”

“I can’t believe this happened. I should’ve been with her. I should’ve never left her,” Christian said as he propped my head on the pillows. “Why the hell isn’t Fiore here yet?”

A door opened and closed and heels clicked on the tile floor.

“She’s here now. I’ll go talk to her. Stay with Lily and keep her calm. Do nothing else. I’ll be right back,” Aloysius said and the bedroom door closed.

“I’m so sorry, Lily. I never should’ve told you to go without me,” Christian said as he took my hand. I tried to squeeze but couldn’t. I had no strength. This wasn’t his fault and I couldn’t tell him.

The door opened again and two sets of footsteps followed.

“Oh, God, Lily,” Fiore said from somewhere near my face. A hand stroked my hair. “How could she do this?”

“We will find her! But first things first, Fiore, stand here with the towel ready. As soon as it’s out, cover the wound and put pressure on it. Don’t worry about it hurting her. We need to stop the blood flow. Christian, I will hold her shoulders down, you’ll pull it out.”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Christian said with a shaky voice.

“You won’t be causing more pain than she’s already in. You have to do this. Grab hold, I’ll keep her arm out of the way, and one fast yank should do it,” Aloysius explained. “Are you ready?” They must have nodded because I heard nothing. No one bothered to ask if I was ready.

“You’ll find the strength, Christian. Trust me,” Fiore said.

Someone pulled me further down the bed by my ankles. I felt Aloysius climb on the bed and position himself behind my head, hands on my shoulders, pushing me down into the hard mattress. Christian must be the one who climbed on my torso and straddled my legs. Everyone was ready except me.

“On the count of three…” Aloysius said.

I’m not ready! I wanted to scream but it was useless. My mouth didn’t work, my arms didn’t work, nothing worked.

“One, two, three!”

A scream so loud escaped my lips it scared even me. My body was splitting in half and they didn’t notice. The pressure on my chest fueled the fire instead of extinguishing it. I wanted everyone off me. Why were they doing this to me?

“There’s so much…blood,” Christian said. He sounded like he was going to be sick.

“Of course there is. What did you expect?” Fiore snapped.

Please don’t fight now…can’t you see I’m dying?

“Excuse me if it bothers me. She’s my wife!”

“No kidding, Romeo. She’s also my friend!”

“Both of you stop it. This is not helping her,” Aloysius said. “As soon as we get the bleeding under control, she’s going to need blood.”

“I’ll do that,” Christian said.

“We’ll have to take turns. She’ll need quite a bit after all this…blood, everywhere,” Aloysius explained. “A little at a time and she should be good as new in a couple of days.”

That long, really? I can’t take this pain much longer. How much blood could there possibly be?

“She’s in for a long couple of days,” Fiore said. Her pressure on my chest felt a little lighter as she spoke, but only for a moment.

“I’m going to call Aaron. He’ll be really upset with me if I keep this from him,” Aloysius said.

“Do you have a mop?” Fiore asked. “I don’t want her to see all this blood when she gets up.”

“Of course, come with me. I’ll get you a sponge and a bucket for the headboard, too.”

How much blood did I lose if they were cleaning the bed and the floor? The pressure on my chest started again after Fiore left so Christian must have taken over. Can you hear me?

Guess not. It was probably best that he didn’t know how excruciating this pain was. I wished I could stop Aloysius from calling Aaron. He and Kalia would probably be on the next flight and they had suffered enough already because of me. What difference did it make anyway when I was just going to die?

“If I could take your place, I would,” Christian whispered. “I promise I will never let something like this happen again. I will never leave your side. I will protect you from now on. I should have all along, vampire or not.”

This wasn’t your fault. I could’ve fought harder but…Maia. I wanted her out of there. She’s…

“I’ll clean the floor if you’ll do the wood,” Fiore said.

“You start. I want to stay here for a while.”

Fiore sighed. “You know none of this was your fault, right?”

“How can you say that? She’s my wife. I’m supposed to protect her.”

I heard water swishing in the bucket and then it plopped on the floor. “She’s been alone most of her life. She’s used to taking care of herself. She expects that.”

“How do you even know that?” Christian asked with anger in his voice.

“When she was in Ireland, Ian trusted her to be out of the cottage only with me. We took a lot of walks together. We talked, compared stories. That’s how we became friends. We opened up to each other.”

“But it’s not like that anymore. She’s not alone anymore,” Christian snapped. I wished they’d stop treating each other like enemies. We had enough of those.

“Christian,” Fiore’s voice was soft, almost a whisper. “It’s not going to be an easy habit for her to break, but she’s a lot stronger than you think. She won’t blame you for any of this; you’ll see.”

“It’s just that…” he took a deep breath. “I wanted to show her that I could protect her now. I’m strong enough. I don’t want her to think she has to fight alone, ever.”

“She won’t. Just keep loving her the way you do. Only a blind man would question your love.” Fiore talked while she continued mopping. Her breathing was more labored, as if she was having difficulty getting the blood off the floor. How much could there possibly be? Maybe that was the reason the room seemed to be spinning so much. A soft knock on the door halted her mopping.

“I think it’s safe to take the pressure off now,” Aloysius said. “I’ll take my turn first since I have to leave.”

“Where are you going?” Christian asked.

“I have to talk to some of the vampires in the area, see why the hunters are working with Melinda. Maybe they know something we don’t.”

“Maybe you can find out why the boy is being used as a bargaining tool,” Fiore suggested.

“I’ll try. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Christian?” Aloysius stood by until Christian moved. Once he did, Aloysius sat on the bed beside me. He raised his wrist to his mouth, I heard the sound of tearing flesh, and then he placed it over my mouth, propping my head with his other arm. I clung to his wrist using my mouth like a suction cup.

The delicious, warm, bittersweet blood poured down my throat and took all the pain away, for a little while. I felt the blood flow down my throat and through my burning veins. My breathing came faster and a thumping sound started in my ears. If I’d had the energy to grab his wrist with my hands and keep it at my mouth I would have, but he pulled away before I was even close to satisfied. “Now, now, just a little.”

The burning in my body seemed to intensify instead of dissipate. How long did I have to endure this pain? How long was I going to lay around completely useless?

“Wait a few hours and then give her some more, but not too much. That stake caused a lot of damage and it will take time for her body to repair itself. Don’t weaken yourselves by giving her too much.” Aloysius said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

The door closed again. I wanted to turn my head to look but it felt like a pile of bricks laid on my forehead. All I could do was stare at the white ceiling.

Time seemed to crawl. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes like hours. I had no idea how long I lay still until light danced through the slatted blinds. I’d been this way for at least six hours. How many more? Sometime during the night, Fiore and Christian had argued over who would feed me next. I wanted to scream at them to stop but still had no power over my body. The burning had stopped and been replaced with complete numbness. I don’t know which was worse.

Finally, the argument was settled and Fiore’s blood is what I tasted next. Again the feeding stopped before my thirst was sated. Christian took her place on the bed and rubbed my forehead for what felt like hours. They chatted about unimportant things until…

“Christian, why do you hate me so much?”

My body jerked and Christian jumped from the bed. “What the hell was that?”