Redemption (The Penton Vampire Legacy) (35 page)

“No, that’s about it.”

She sighed. “I’d rather have Mirren mock me to my face than behind my back, so I’ll take the second option.” She leaned over and finger-combed her hair so that it shimmered around her shoulders when she straightened up. Aidan was tempted to let the lieutenants wait a little longer.

They climbed the ladders, emerging into the kitchen. “They’re in the living room,” he said. “They’ve already realized you’re here.”

“I hate that about you guys,” Krys muttered. “Can’t hear you sneaking up on me, and you know way too much about each other’s business.”

Aidan took her hand as they walked into the living room. Mirren sprawled over most of the sofa, while Will sat in one armchair and Hannah in another. They all stared at Aidan, and then at Krys, with varying degrees of raised eyebrows and smug expressions. Hannah put her hands over her mouth and giggled.

Will was the only one who looked surprised. “Damn. I was going to ask her out.”

Mirren cleared his throat.

“Nice seeing you all. Gotta go.” Krys edged toward the door, her face bright pink. Aidan didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for her.

“I’ll talk to you before sunrise,” he whispered after her.

She grumbled on her way out, “Might as well not whisper. They can hear you, remember?”

Aidan watched till she opened her front door and waved at him, then turned back to the room. “OK, get it out of your systems.”

Mirren twisted on the sofa. “Hell no. As long as it’s you and not me doing the mate thing, I say go for it. You brood too much anyway. In fact, you’re a walking, talking vampire cliché.”

Aidan ignored the others’ laughter, shoved Mirren’s feet off the sofa, and sat down. “Tell me what happened today.”

Mirren grabbed a clipboard off the coffee table and sat up, rifling through sheets.

“We didn’t get every place covered, but a lot.” He handed the clipboard to Aidan. “A team found one member of Owen’s scathe in one of the caves out near the hiking trail—pulled him out in the sunshine and fried his ass. Found one more guy in one of the burned-out mill village basements that still had enough structure to keep him protected. Dragged him out, too.”

“That’s just two,” Aidan said. “Surely they’re not all scattered around like that.”

Mirren shook his head. “Look on the last page, at Jerry’s report.”

Aidan flipped to the last sheet in the clipboard. “So, one of them said that Owen’s been chaining his humans up in the old mill? And nobody’s found this till now?” Hell, he’d been out there himself and hadn’t seen anything.

Mirren nodded. “Yep. I’m wondering if there’s some kind of basement space in the mill that isn’t on the original blueprints—something underneath or on the other side of that collapsed basement we know about—and maybe that’s where they’ve been hiding.”

The clipboard hit the coffee table with a clatter as Aidan threw it aside. “Under our noses, damn it. If it exists, there must be outside access or we’d have seen it.”

“How about we burn the mill? It might run ’em out.”

Aidan frowned, thinking. “We don’t want to burn out the humans, so we’d have to move them or let them go. Any idea how loyal they are?”

“Can’t be that loyal if the man keeps them chained up all day,” Will said. “Maybe we can just go in and release them if we can find them. They’d probably run like hell if we popped their chains.”

Aidan pondered the options. He hated sending the Penton humans out to clean house again, but if they wanted to release Owen’s humans with as little violence as possible, they needed to do it while Owen and his scathe couldn’t fight. Will was right: Owen wouldn’t have earned his humans’ loyalty unless he’d kept them enthralled for so long that he’d fried their brains.

“Let’s send a couple of extra teams into the mill tomorrow,” he told Mirren. “See if we can find them, how many people we’re talking about, and how loyal they are—or aren’t. Let the rest of the searches go on as they did today.”

“What should our humans do with theirs? Just let them go?” Will asked.

Aidan thought for a moment. “Have our people take them to the secure rooms at city hall and lock them up till tonight. Then we’ll scrub their memories, drive them to Atlanta, and release them. We don’t want them coming back here for any reason.”

Mirren headed for the door. “I’ll find Tim and let him pick who goes in with him. He knows the mill building best.” He looked back at Aidan. “Then we burn it?”

His brother might be in there. Aidan clenched his jaw and nodded.

“Then we burn it.”

S
now flurries had already dusted the ground with a light layer of white by the time Krys scurried to the Dinosaur and drove to the clinic.

She had asked Mark to buy a new computer and a pile of medical software, and they had arrived. The boxes sat in the lobby—turned out Penton had UPS service just like anywhere else, but she bet none of the vampires signed for their packages.

She had dragged the computer box to the reception desk and was digging the monitor from its Styrofoam packing when Melissa came in, stomping snow off her shoes.

“So, tell.” She grinned and threw her purse behind the desk.

Krys had been expecting this conversation. Aidan had come to get her as soon as the lieutenants left, and they’d spent a long night in his suite. She’d run into Mark when she slipped out just before dawn. She knew that he’d blab.

“I have no idea what you mean,” she said, smothering a yawn as she crawled under the desk to plug in the computer.
When she pulled her head back out, Melissa stood with arms crossed, waiting.

She laughed. “I am
not
going into details, so forget it.”

“But you’re on the permanent menu? Every other day? Or do you want me to go on the sub list? I mean, I’d miss Aidan like crazy but I’d understand.”

Krys stopped in the middle of finding a spare USB cable. She hadn’t thought about it. As much as she liked Melissa, she didn’t want to see that blissed-out look on the woman’s face while Aidan fed from her. There was no point in being ridiculous about it, though. He’d have to make that call. If he wanted to keep feeding from Melissa, Krys would just have to get over it.

“That’s Aidan’s decision.” She plugged the cable into the back of the monitor.

“Uh-oh, girl’s jealous.” Melissa piled pieces of Styrofoam into the computer box, laughing. She picked up the last bit of packaging, stuffed it into the carton, and closed the flaps.

Krys had never felt happier, but she wasn’t going to share that, either.

They spent the rest of the day installing software and playing around with ways to log patients, inventory drug stock, and set up appointments. At four they shut down the computer and got ready to go home.

Krys wondered if she should go to Aidan’s or her own house.
Her house.
She liked the sound of that.

Mark’s car careened into the lot just as they got to the door. He rushed in, melted snow pooling on the shoulders of his leather jacket. “Take your coats off. We’ve had some folks hurt—they’re on their way.”

“Who is it?” Melissa asked.

Before he could answer, Krys held up a hand. “Wait. First, tell me what kind of injuries so we can get ready.”

“Tim got shot, close range, and it looks pretty bad. Couple of others with minor stab wounds.”

Krys left Mark and Melissa at the front desk and went into the exam rooms one at a time, making sure she had what she needed. In a few minutes, Melissa joined her in the larger room, pulling out tape and sutures, bandages and antiseptic.

“Mark OK?”

Melissa nodded. “He’s gone to leave a note for Mirren, although there’s no point. He’ll know something’s wrong with Tim as soon as he wakes.”

“What happened?”

Melissa didn’t get a chance to answer. A couple of men Krys had seen at the town hall meeting opened the door to a swirl of cold air, while two more brought in Tim. She recognized the older man as Jerry, the one who’d been hurt in the mill village fire. He’d been a joker at the meeting, but his expression was grim now.

“Put him in Exam Two,” she told them. “How far behind are the others?”

“Couple of minutes,” Jerry said. “They ain’t hurt as bad.”

Krys pulled out the extension on the exam table, lifting one end to keep the head higher than the feet, and Jerry and the other man laid Tim down gently. His ruddy complexion had turned pale and clammy, and his breathing was ragged. But he was alive.

The facial wounds were all surface stuff. Bruises and cuts, nothing too deep or serious. Pulling on gloves, Krys turned to the gunshot wound, which had turned his chest to a sickening mix of sweatshirt fabric and raw hamburger. She said a quick prayer and steadied her breathing. This was very, very bad.

Using a pair of long-bladed scissors from the exam tray, she cut up the middle of his sweatshirt and pulled the shreds away, then blew out a frustrated breath. He needed an emergency room with a full setup and medical team and an OR, and he needed them a half hour ago.

Melissa appeared at her shoulder. “The other two guys are in Exam One. I bandaged them up and told them to wait. Nothing life-threatening. They’ll just need stitch—oh God.” She finally got a look at Tim and swallowed hard. “What do you need me to do?”

“The best thing we can do is try to stabilize him enough to get him to the hospital in Opelika—and if he survives that, they’ll send him to Birmingham or Atlanta,” Krys said, removing the blood-soaked packing and replacing it quickly. “Call an ambulance, then look in the supply room and find something to stop the bleeding.” At Melissa’s deer-in-headlights look, she added, “Should have a name like Celox or QuikClot. And a couple of units of blood.”

Melissa disappeared, and Krys finally noticed Jerry and the other men who’d brought Tim in standing against the wall, watching. Jerry looked scared. “You guys get out of here. Go home or wait in the lobby,” she said. “If you leave, keep your phones handy. Aidan will want to talk to you.” She glanced at her watch. He should be up in a half hour.

Melissa returned with a couple of envelopes and a small cooler. “These boxes say Celox. Is this what you wanted?”

Krys nodded and grabbed one, ripped off the top, and uncovered Tim’s wound. She poured granules in and quickly replaced the packing. Once the bleeding stopped, she could get a better idea of what she was dealing with, but the biggest thing she needed was an ambulance. “Did you call nine-one-one?”

Melissa shook her head. “We can’t.” Her hands shook as she took a wet cloth and began wiping the blood and dirt off Tim’s face. “We have to wait on Aidan.”

Krys glanced at Tim to make sure he was still unconscious. “We can’t wait on Aidan or he’s not going to make it,” she hissed. “Call them.”

Krys hooked Tim up to a heart monitor and blood pressure gauge. She set up an IV and ran a bag of blood to one port and a line of morphine to another. She didn’t know what else to do for him.

His eyes cracked open, aimed at the ceiling.

“Tim? You’re at the clinic. Can you talk to me?”

No reaction. He was in shock; not surprising, given the trauma and blood loss. The man was conscious in name only.

Melissa stood in the doorway. She hadn’t called for help, damn it. Krys turned back to look at Tim.
Shit. Time for a reality check.

She hung her head in defeat. Even if the ambulance was here now, even if they had a freaking helipad, they couldn’t reach an ER in less than a half hour, minimum. No way he’d survive the trip, and she’d be endangering Penton’s secrets for nothing.

“Mel.” Krys motioned her to one side. “You need to get in touch with Tim’s wife.”

Melissa closed her eyes and nodded. “Oh God. Jennifer. She works down at the Superette.”

“Call her, then come sit with Tim a few minutes. I’ll take a quick look at the other guys, then you can suture them.” Melissa had been practicing stitches on a dummy with Krys watching. Now she could try the real thing.

Melissa nodded and swiped a tear from her cheek, pulling her cell phone from her pocket and returning to the hallway.

Krys pulled a stool over and tried in vain to get a response from Tim, talking to him, stroking his hand, while she watched his vitals. He wasn’t stable enough for surgery, even if they had been set up for it. Krys had seen enough gunshot wounds when she’d done her ER rotation. This was unfixable.

Melissa returned from the hallway. “Jennifer’s on her way. I didn’t tell her how bad it was. Want me to stay with him?”

Krys nodded. “Keep trying to get any kind of reaction from him, and call me if you do. We got any blankets?” She opened cabinets along the wall until she found some, and handed Melissa a couple of thermals. “Cover him up. Keep him warm. The longer we can keep him alive, the better chance he has. Call me the
second
anything changes.”

Melissa wiped away more tears with the back of her hand and climbed on the stool. Krys could hear her talking softly to Tim as she headed into the adjacent exam room.

“Sorry it took me so long,” she told the men. One sat on the exam table, the other in a chair. Melissa had been right. Both had knife cuts that would need stitches and minor scrapes a simple antiseptic would handle.