Baited Blood (2 page)

Fangs.

TWO

M
adison danced from one foot to the other at the end of the Dedhams’ bed.

“Doug!” she shouted at the comatose vampires. “Dodie! Wake up. I need you!”

She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Mike Notchey would be here soon, but it wasn’t Notchey she needed now. What she needed were the Dedhams, and not in a few hours when they would awaken naturally. She needed them
now
.

Madison played with the bracelet on her left wrist. It was the bracelet the vampire council had specially made for her. Samuel had explained that it was made with the hair of each member of the council woven together with the leather, and as long as she wore it, no other vampire could harm her. If that were true, it should keep her safe from the vampire downstairs, though Madison wasn’t sure she wanted to put it to the test right then and there. Besides, even if the vampire in the pool did come around, what would she do with him? She needed the Dedhams or one of the other vampires.

It was then she remembered something Pauline had told her. Doug and Dodie could be roused under emergency circumstances. Madison dug through her brain to remember how.

Blood—that was it. Only the smell of blood could bring them out of their dormant state.

Madison dashed into the master bathroom looking for something sharp. She’d learned that the hair on a vampire’s body still grew, as did their nails. She looked for a razor. She found a man’s electric razor but not one with a blade. Then she spotted a nail file. It was made of metal with a sharp, pointed end.

Madison tried to slice into her index finger, but the file wasn’t sharp enough. She tried again, but no luck. Any hole it would make would be large and painful. Madison left the Dedhams’ bedroom and ran down the hall to the small extra bedroom Dodie used for sewing and other crafts. Rummaging around in Dodie’s craft box for something sharp, she found what she needed—an X-Acto knife.

Back by the Dedhams’ bed, Madison nicked her index finger with the sharp knife, making a small, clean cut. Squeezing the finger to make it bleed faster, she held it in front of Dodie’s nose like smelling salts. She didn’t have to wait long.

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 vampires 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.