Necromancing Nim (15 page)

“We need the damn rock.” Colin’s eyes fairly burned holes through the vet’s blue-and-red scrubs. “We need it now.”

The vet crossed her arms firmly over her chest. She seemed not at all intimidated by Colin’s show of dominance. “This is a vampire thing, isn’t it?”

Colin opened his mouth and closed it again, and I couldn’t help but feel a surge of respect for the vet to have rendered him speechless. A handy skill. Maybe she could teach me that.

“Um…” he finally said. “What do you mean?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not stupid. And whatever it is, it is not inside this dog. And I’d say it never has been.”

Colin gritted his teeth but finally said, “Fine. We’ll just keep an eye on him.”

“Probably the best idea.” The vet shook her head in irritation as she collected the X-rays. She also gave Colin a sidelong glance, undoubtedly hinting that he hadn’t paid enough to cover an after-hours visit. Colin pointedly ignored her. I waited until he had his back mostly turned and slipped her a twenty. She pursed her lips as if she’d just sucked on alum. I shrugged, apologetic; it was all the cash I had, and I hadn’t grabbed my bag with my credit cards. Screw it—they could send a bill.

The sky had lightened visibly by the time I bundled Rufus back into the car. Fortunately, the trip home was short—otherwise, I would have had a couple of flaming vampires in my car. And flaming in the bad way, with actual flames, not in the fun way where they made out in my backseat.

As it was, they hightailed it out of my car almost before I had stopped in the driveway, both of them diving for the front door while I helped Rufus out. My neck ached, and I forced back the weak, shaky feeling of doom that accompanied any thoughts of what could happen to me. I just had to have faith that everything would be okay. Otherwise, I’d just start screaming, and that wouldn’t do anybody any good.

As the sun inched up outside, Colin took another look at the bite on my neck, his big hands gentle.

“It’s not too bad yet,” he said. “You might have more time than I thought.” He turned to Sebastian. “What do you think?”

Sebastian examined me as well, silent. When he leaned back, he was frowning. My heart did a flip-flop in my chest, his dourness making me think the worst. But after a moment, he nodded.

“Yeah. Nothing seems to be spreading yet.”

Suddenly self-conscious, I adjusted my collar as Colin withdrew his touch. “I take it you two actually know something about how this progresses?”

Colin nodded. “Yeah. We’ve seen Pieter’s bites before.”

“Louisa,” Sebastian said quietly. “She had a high fever within a few hours, and the bite was black.” He seemed almost to be talking to himself. “Yours is still red, and the wound is hot, but there’s no fever.”

“Maybe he doesn’t have the poison in him anymore,” Colin offered.

“He must,” said Sebastian. “He wouldn’t have bitten her otherwise.”

It seemed a reasonable conclusion, if cold-blooded. I tried not to think about it. “You two should get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll take a swing around the yard and see if I can find anything. Maybe Rufus dragged it outside with him somehow, or tried to swallow it and barfed it up in the yard.”

“Yeah.” Colin headed grudgingly for the couch. I guided Sebastian to Gwen’s room.

With the vamps tucked safely into bed, I took Rufus outside and made a thorough sweep of the yard. Thorough but fruitless, as I found nothing but normal rocks, a few bits of garbage that had blown over the fence in a recent windstorm, a small collection of eggshells and apple cores by the side deck, and the usual deposits Rufus made on a regular basis.

Finally, exhausted and disoriented to the point where I could no longer focus even on the lumps of dirt and grass in the yard, I went inside and collapsed into bed. I did not sleep well.

I woke the first time to Rufus’s soft whine. I felt groggy but not really sick. My neck hurt no more than one might expect from a wound of that kind, and it wasn’t overly warm to the touch. It didn’t feel infected. Maybe I’d managed to dodge the zombie vampire bullet after all. One could hope.

Rufus was acting a bit desperate, and I realized I’d completely forgotten to take him out while I was scouring the yard. While he did his business, I took another quick gander around the yard. Nothing. Which was just ridiculous, because the yard isn’t that big. I sighed, thinking I should mow more often, and headed back inside. I wilted back into bed, and Rufus, after turning around about nine hundred times, finally collapsed with me and fell immediately into doggy sleep, breathing warmly on my feet.

The sun shone painfully bright on my face when I woke the next time. Rufus was squeaking again from the other room, making quick scrabbling noises on the kitchen tile. This time his odd vocalizations sounded less like
I need to pee
and more like
there is a horrible deadly squirrel trespassing on our property
. I smiled a little to myself. Such a shitty guard dog.

Then I sat up.

The whole world dipped under me. I grabbed the side of the bed to keep from falling off the mattress onto my face. A chill washed through me, followed by a wave of heat.

Not good.

I concentrated for a few seconds and managed to get my balance back. But at this point, it was painfully obvious that I was sick.

Carefully, I made my way to my feet. Everything around me seemed to be spinning, sweeping past my vision in ever-tightening circles. Basically, my bedroom had turned into a teacup ride.

I sat down abruptly, legs out in front of me, and lowered my head to my hands. I needed help. Rufus, who had gallumphed into the room and was now sticking his tongue in my nose, did not qualify.

“Go fetch a vampire.” I could barely whisper; the movement of air out of my lungs to make words seemed to throw my balance off even more. Rufus sat and lolled his tongue at me, no comprehension in his big, stupid, brown eyes.

He probably wouldn’t have had much luck at vampire-fetching, anyway, even if I’d been able to get the concept across to him. It was broad daylight, warm sun peeking in past the blinds. My vampire guests would be asleep or comatose or dead, or whatever properly described the state they entered during the day. It would probably take more than a seventy-five-pound dog bouncing off the mattress or the couch to wake them up. Why hadn’t we worked this out before the sun had come up and I’d fallen asleep? Maybe they didn’t care anything about me after all, if they’d just abandoned me here to become a vampire zombie while they snoozed away.

Shit. Things just kept getting better and better. I could stay here, stretched out on the carpet, and hope things didn’t progress too much further before nightfall. Or I could drag myself into the living room, where Sebastian would be snoozing on the couch, or across the hall into Gwen’s room where Colin had put himself up for the day.

Across the hall seemed like the best bet. It was only the rough equivalent of a five- or twelve-mile walk, while the idea of somehow navigating the entire length of the hallway seemed about as likely as walking from Denver to Baghdad.

The need to make a decision receded as darkness rolled over me, cold and clammy. I fought it, my brain screaming at me that if I succumbed, I wouldn’t wake up again. But the weariness proved relentless, and I succumbed anyway, sprawling out face-first on the bedroom carpet.

Romantic relationships with vampires are on the rise. The reasons are obvious—vampires are awesome in bed, or so we hear. However, before taking the leap into a long-term hookup with a vamp, it’s important to think about basic necessities—vitamin and mineral supplements, lots of green leafy vegetables, and maybe even a prescription that will increase your blood volume.
—
Redbook
, August 2002.

Chapter Ten

“Stupid fucking dog.” Colin.

“Give the dog a break. He was on a mission.”

“He stuck his tongue in my mouth.”

“I thought you liked that.”

“Not when the tongue tastes like Alpo.”

“You’ll survive. C’mon. We need to get her back into bed.”

“Still nothing.” Colin. I heard him speaking, sensed his presence and heard a rustle that must have been Sebastian, but I couldn’t make my eyes open. I had no idea how much time had passed. “How hard can it be to find one stupid rock?”

“Twice as hard as it is to find a smart rock?”

“If we don’t find it, we’re going to have to cut her head off. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to do that. Seems like I’m starting to like her.”

A pause. “It won’t come to that.”

“You don’t know that.”

Sebastian didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure if I was awake or asleep, dreaming or experiencing reality, but either way, the silence gave me no hope.

A hand patted my face, not quite hard enough to sting. I flinched and raised a hand to protect myself from the unexpected assault.

“What?” I protested. “What?”

“Wake up, Nim.” Colin’s voice seemed to come from a long way away, like tuning in uncertainly on a distant radio. “Show me you’re awake.”

“I talked, didn’t I? Jesus. Quit hitting me.” I swatted his hands away as if they were bugs. I tried to roll toward him, but the horrible, woozy vertigo took over again.

“Look at me,” he commanded. I opened my eyes in obedient reflex a split second before it occurred to me to be annoyed by his bossiness. At least he wasn’t using his vampire whammy on me. “Nim. Look at me.”

I did. I don’t like being ordered around, but he sounded…scared. Colin was never scared.

In his eyes I saw the same shaky edge of fear I’d heard in his voice. His hand cupped my chin, turning my face more fully toward him.

“Nim, you’re getting worse. We need to do something. Now.”

I blinked, trying to register what he was talking about. Oh, right. Vampire bite, turning into a zombie, yadda yadda yadda holy shit. “The stone?” The words felt like rocks in my mouth, difficult to speak around.

“Scoured the yard again. Still can’t find the fucking thing.” Colin’s voice was tight. “We have to do something, Nim.”

I clenched my teeth, angry and terrified at the same time. “What? What do we do?”

“We have to stop this now—”

“Holy water.” Sebastian’s voice broke gently through Colin’s. “Holy water will hold it off for a while.”

“Not long.” Colin’s words came in a near growl. Despair grated through it.

“Long enough.” Sebastian, in turn, sounded calm and firm, more reassuring than Colin had been. “We’ll find the stone.”

“What if we don’t?”

Sebastian didn’t answer. I shivered from fear, anger and sickness all combined. I felt awful. Weak and sick, laced with pain and heat.

I felt like I was dying. I didn’t want to die. “Do whatever you have to do.”

“Fine,” Colin bit out. “Where’s the holy water?”

“In my bedroom closet. Bottom shelf, with the rest of my work stuff.” It was far too many words to try to produce all at once and left me teetering again toward blackness.

“Right.” He went to rummage for it while Sebastian settled next to me on the bed. He touched my face, then lifted my wrist to test the pulse. His soft touch felt like sandpaper on my skin.

“How bad is it?” I whispered.

His eyes met mine, a weighty worry in the blue depths. “It’s bad.” He touched my throat, testing the pulse there as well. I flinched at the slight contact. “The holy water will help but only for about eight hours. And I have to warn you. It’s going to hurt like hell.”

I swallowed, then clenched my teeth as best I could. “Do it.”

Sebastian’s gentle hand brushed my hair back from my forehead. It felt like a white-hot piece of metal being stroked over my skin, and I gasped with the pain. He withdrew. “I’m sorry.” He leaned down toward me, his sincere gaze locked to mine. “It’ll be okay.”

I nodded. I believed him. Which, in retrospect, was probably about the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

“I think we’ve got enough.” Colin had returned from the closet with a couple of bottles out of my stock of holy water. I swallowed, wondering what he was going to do with it. I assumed he’d pour it over the wound on my neck, and it would burn like alcohol poured on an open cut, and the bite would smoke and hiss dramatically, which I would unfortunately miss because I would just pass right the fuck out.

He held a bottle toward me. “Drink it.”

I blinked, taken aback. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“No. I’m not.”

Sebastian, whose bedside manner had proven infinitely better than Colin’s, took my shoulders and gently helped me sit up. Still, his careful touch hurt. I gritted my teeth, unable to hold back a sharp hiss.

“Shh,” he said soothingly. “Just relax. I’ll be right here.”

“It hurts when you touch me.” Maybe I was being too blunt, but it just came out. His hands on me, meant to comfort, hurt like hell. He needed to know.

Sebastian gave me a concerned look—a step or two even more concerned than it had been already. “I’m sorry. Let’s just…get you situated so you can drink this.”