Redemption (The Penton Vampire Legacy) (18 page)

He laughed, flashing a hint of fangs again. “Who would believe you?”

That was the God’s honest truth. As crazy as it all sounded, Krys’s mind begin to crack open under the weight of so much revelation.
My God, everything people believe is wrong.
“So, what now? Are you ever going to let me go?” Would they just kill her when the need for a doctor was past?

Aidan studied her. “Stay here for a month. Help at the clinic until we get past this crisis—I mean help us without me having to enthrall you or force you. Then, if you still want to leave, I’ll make sure you get back to Georgia or wherever you want to go. While you’re here, I’ll pay you well for your time.”

Krys thought of Mark, lying on the ground outside the Quikmart. If she hadn’t shown up, he might have bled out because none of them would have risked taking him to a hospital. And she’d thought Mirren had been afraid of blood. What a joke.

“If I agree to stay here a month, will you let me out of this room?”

“When I’m sure you won’t disappear on me,” he said. “I’m sorry, but it would be dangerous for you to wander off with Owen on the loose, and I don’t know how many vampires he has with him.”

It had been worth a try. Krys nodded, resigned to the room. She’d stayed in worse places. Heck, she
lived
in a worse place, except it had windows. Besides, what choice did she really have? She could be uncooperative and have him keep her enthralled, or hypnotized, or whatever it was, or she could make the best of it. Sad thing was, no one would miss her.

“OK, one month. And I have one more question.” She raised her eyes to look in his, waiting for the familiar dizzy sensation. It didn’t come.

“Why can I look in your eyes right now and nothing happens, and yet sometimes you can hypnotize me?”

“Because I’m not trying to enthrall you now.” He smiled. “That was the question?”

“No!” Krys sounded more strident than she’d intended.

“Then the answer is yes, I’ll have someone come tomorrow and repair your bathroom door,” he said, smiling.

“That wasn’t the question, either.”

He looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

“Can I see your fangs?” She couldn’t help it. The scientist in her had to check it out, see if they were real. She had so many questions, about what role the blood played in their systems, whether they ate or drank, how the fast healing worked, and whether their secrets could be adapted for humans...If she could learn something in her month that might help her understand medicine better, then it would be worth it.

Aidan laughed and pulled himself off the sofa, coming to stand in front of her. Her pulse sped at his nearness, and she
wondered if she had the same effect on him—probably not. No matter what he said about wanting her, she didn’t have the looks for somebody like him. She looked like a flat-chested geek next to that woman Lucy. That vampire Lucy.

He bared his fangs slightly, and she reached out and touched an index finger to the tip of one canine. It was razor sharp but delicate, extending about a quarter-inch longer that of a human, and it was slightly curved. She tugged on it, but it felt real and didn’t give. It was a damned fang.

As she pulled her hand away, she felt a sting and saw blood well up on her finger where she’d nicked the tip. She raised her eyes to Aidan’s. He’d grown still, his irises a wintry blue, his pupils dilated. On his face was an expression of stark hunger.

Damned if this woman wasn’t going to be the death of him. He’d fought a raging hard-on since he got to the suite, and now Krys stood there with her finger in the air, blood trickling slowly from the cut, studying his face as if he was a specimen under a microscope.

Aidan reached for her hand and lifted her finger to his mouth. She didn’t pull away, so he slid his lips around her fingertip, sucking out a tiny extra measure of her sweet, rich taste before caressing the cut with his tongue.

“Oh.” She gasped and pulled her hand away from him.

“You OK?” He stroked a hand down her arm, wanting to hold her but not daring to move too fast. He’d come here tonight expecting her to be overcome with fear and revulsion. Instead, after the shock of it, she’d been more curious than frightened.
And, by some miracle, she still wanted him, even knowing what he was. He could tell from her heartbeat and the heat wafting off her skin. So much for thinking that the truth would drive her away and let him bury his asinine mating instincts six feet under. They’d not only dug their way out; they were building a damned pyramid.

She stared at her fingertip. “It’s healed. How did you do that?”

“We’re predators, Krys.” He needed to keep reminding her, as well as himself. He wasn’t just a man with fangs. “One way we survive is that our saliva contains a chemical that can produce pleasure in those we feed from, and then heal them quickly.”

She shook her head. “So you make it feel good when you feed, and you don’t kill the people you feed from?” She continued to watch her finger, pressing on it, looking for any sign of the wound.

Time for a dose of reality. “A lot of vampires kill their victims. They enjoy it, even make a sport of the hunt and capture. But we’re trying to make a different kind of life here, one where we can remember at least a little of what it felt like to be human. Where the people who keep us alive are treated with respect and friendship. Believe me, keeping you here against your will goes against everything I believe in.”

Krys gave him a doubting look. “Sorry, but you sound naïve.”

Aidan smiled. “You’re not the first—”

The sounds of movement from the hallway caught his attention. Time for her to see another reality. “We may need you tonight,” he said, opening the door. Melissa stood in the hallway, giving them a tentative smile.

Krys frowned. “Mark should be recovered by now.”

“The patient isn’t Mark,” Aidan said. “It’s Mirren. Will you help us?”

Several emotions played across Krys’s face at once—at least one of which, he was sure, was a curse. But after a pause, she nodded and followed him across the hall.

She was treated to the sight of Mirren Kincaid, all six-foot-monstrous of him, sitting on the sofa in a room just like hers. He looked even worse than he had at the meeting two hours ago.

Mirren glanced up at Krys with misery-filled eyes and nodded, then turned a hard glare on Aidan. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let you use these.” He picked up what looked like a pile of silver-linked chains and threw them with enough force that Aidan had to take a step back to avoid being clocked.

“Then you are damned, my friend, because you
will
use them.” Aidan picked the chains up and advanced toward the sofa. “Nobody’s self-control is that good.”

Melissa moved around Aidan to stand beside Krys.

Aidan looked back at them. “Mirren absorbed more of that vaccinated blood last night than we thought. So we’re going to drain out the bad stuff and replace it with fresh blood.” He turned back to his lieutenant. “And he’s going to let us use the silver chain on him so he doesn’t get all nasty and hurt somebody, isn’t he?”

Mirren’s jaw tightened. “Fuck you.”

Aidan took a length of chain and wrapped it around Mirren’s right wrist, then stretched it to a rear sofa leg and fastened it with a padlock. “Sorry,
mo chara
,” he said softly, repeating the action with the right wrist. With his arms secured, Mirren’s
mobility was limited. He slouched further on the sofa and glared at anyone who’d make eye contact.

Aidan glanced at Krys to see if she was frightened, but she and Melissa were whispering. Melissa was explaining how silver reduced a vampire’s strength to that of a human, and Krys was asking about Mirren’s symptoms.

He fought back a smile. “What would you guess is wrong with him if he were human?”

Krys looked shocked till Melissa said drily, “Something you should probably know—they hear everything. There’s really no point in whispering around them.”

“Ah. Well.” She turned a sexy-as-hell shade of pink. “Clammy skin, pallor, tremors.” She frowned as her eyes scanned Mirren’s face. “Have you been nauseated? Vomiting?”

Everyone stared at her except Mirren, who propped his head on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes.

“He has,” Aidan said. “What would your diagnosis be?”

“Probably food poisoning.” As soon as the words were out, she groaned. “I mean, I don’t know if you eat. Well, I guess you don’t eat. You drink, or—something.” She shrugged and blushed furiously.

Mirren started laughing, a low rumble at first, and then a choking, gasping sound. Aidan stared at him. Mirren never laughed. He might smile every once in a while, but laugh?

Aidan grinned at Krys. “I’d say you’re a pretty good doctor.” In more ways than one. She’d defused the tension in the room without realizing it.

“How far off was I?” she asked.

“I told you the pandemic vaccine turned human blood poisonous to us.” Aidan looked down at Mirren. “Our enemies have gotten a supply of vaccinated blood. The buckshot that caught
him last night had been scored and then soaked in it. He didn’t get enough to kill him, thanks to you, but he got enough to make him sick.”

Krys looked worried. “I don’t know what to do for that.”

“All you have to do is hit a vein,” Aidan said, nodding at Melissa. She handed over a needle, an IV line, some empty bags, and other supplies.

“Explain it,” Krys said. “What am I giving him?”

“You’re not giving, darlin’. You’re taking,” Mirren answered. He was still slumped against the sofa back, but he watched her through hooded eyes. “You have to bleed me out.”

“Oh, no.” Krys thrust the needle back at Melissa, who shook her head and retreated, hands up.

“It’s the quickest way for him to get better,” Aidan said, wishing he’d spent more time preparing her for this and less time acting like a love-starved idiot. “If we wait for the poison to work its way out of his system, he’ll be out of commission for at least a week. I really need you to do this.” He paused for a beat. “Please.”

She squared her shoulders and nodded, then took the IV bag from Melissa and walked to the sofa. Mirren had closed his eyes again but she talked to him softly as she worked. “Are you sure this won’t kill you?”

Mirren grunted. “No, I’ll just wish I was dead.”

“Once you’ve drained him enough, we’ll feed him,” Aidan said. “The chains are for your safety, not his.”

Krys blinked but didn’t respond. She tied off Mirren’s arm, found a good vein, and deftly slid the needle in and taped it in place. Other than a slight flare of his nostrils, Mirren didn’t react as the blood raced through the tube and began dripping into the bag.

“Is that color normal? It’s more magenta than crimson.”

Aidan stood next to her. “Yeah, that’s about right.” He was still amazed at her calm. She was clearly in her element around medicine, even if it involved vampires.

“How much blood do I take?”

He shook his head. “I’ve only seen this done once before. Keep draining till the bloodlust starts. You’ll know when you’ve taken out so much he can’t stand it and he’s trying to break the chains. Then he’ll have to feed.”

“Oh, my God.” Krys and Melissa looked at each other, one horrified expression mirroring the other.

Mirren cracked one eye open. “You better have plenty of donors on hand, A. Otherwise I’m coming after your ass.”

“Tim and Jennifer are on their way,” Melissa said, and turned to Krys. “They’re Mirren’s familiars.”

“Check with Will,” Aidan told her. “He was rounding up a couple of others as well.”

After Melissa left to track down Will, Aidan took Krys’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You cool with this? Melissa can probably handle it if you want her to.”

Krys looked at Mirren a few moments, and then shook her head. “I’m OK. Tell me exactly what I need to do.”

He admired her courage—whatever core of steel was inside her that made her look squarely at what frightened her and confront it. Maybe he’d be able to handle Owen better if he had a big dose of it himself.

“Change out the bags when they need it. When he really starts struggling, let his fams take over. They know what to do.”

“Won’t you be here?”

He’d like nothing more than to take his daysleep in her room, in her bed. But that would require a trust he didn’t have,
a trust no vampire gave easily. He’d never met daybreak any place that wasn’t his alone and completely secure—or at least not since the early days with Owen.

“Dawn will come before long—that part of the vampire legends is true. Mirren will probably stay awake because of the procedure, but as soon as he feeds, he’ll be out for the day. He can just stay here and one of his fams will stay with him.”

She frowned as she switched out IV bags, looked up at Mirren, and found him watching her with intense eyes that were already beginning to silver with hunger. “Probably not what you had in mind when you came to town, is it, darlin’?”

“Uh, no. It’s...” She jumped when Aidan rested a hand on her shoulder. He might have exaggerated how calm she was.

Mirren closed his eyes and clenched his fists, straining slightly against the silver chains as blood began filling the second IV bag.