The Merzetti Effect (A Vampire Romance) (34 page)

“Okay.” She drew in a deep, shuddering breath, then let it out. “I’m okay.” And as she said it, she found it was true.

“Good.” He squeezed her hand. “But if it’s all right with you, we’re going to tell Janecek that you’re not okay.”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to tell him you’re having a bona fide, Grade A meltdown. We need to stall him, so that’s what I’ll tell him. I’ll say I refuse to deliver you up in this shape, and he’ll have to give us some time to put you back together. I’ll tell him it has to be your choice, and you have to go out under your own steam.”

“You think he’ll buy that?”

“I
know
he’ll buy it.” His smile had a cynical edge. “He thinks all non-vampires are weak-minded sheep. He also knows I wouldn’t let you trade yourself if you lacked the capacity to make the decision. Oh, he’ll buy it, all right.”

Ainsley frowned. “And while he’s twiddling his thumbs, we’re going to be doing precisely what?”

“If his experience is anything like Webber’s, he should be starting to feel a little woozy. He’ll attribute it to hunger. We’re going to offer him a snack.”

The speakerphone rang, the trill sounding angrier and more insistent than before, although Ainsley knew that couldn’t be so.

“Ainsley, you’re not here, okay? You can listen, but you can’t speak. You can’t sneeze. You can’t make any sound to suggest you’re not closeted in your room having a mental breakdown. Can you do that?”

She nodded that she understood.

Delano stabbed the button to answer the call. “Janecek, you will burn in hell for what you did here tonight.”

Janecek’s laughter filled the room. “No doubt you’re right,” he said, when he’d contained his mirth, “but not before you, Father. Which reminds me, how are you enjoying my new sister?”

“Fuck you, Janecek.”

“Ooooh, I think I got to him. What do you think, Lucy, honey?”

A whimper sounded in the background, and Delano sent Ainsley a warning look not to react audibly. Ainsley covered her mouth.

Delano returned his attention to Janecek. “What you’ve got,
son
,”‌—‌he invested the word with a wealth of disdain‌—‌“is a problem.”

“What do you mean?” Janecek’s voice was suddenly sharp.

“Nurse Crawford is now a basket case, thanks to that atrocity you committed on that child. There’s no way I’m letting her go out there in her present condition. She’s in no fit state to make the decision to sacrifice herself for the hostage.”

A pause. “She’ll make the decision, all right. I’ll just entertain myself with Lucy here until she can’t stand the sound of her friend’s screams.”

“That might work,” Delano agreed calmly. “If I’d let her out of the bedroom so she could hear them.”

“Bring her to the phone right now, Bowen, or I’ll make this bitch pay.”

Delano laid a restraining hand on Ainsley’s arm.

“That would be regrettable, but as you’ve observed, I’m just too damned invested in the greater good to be trusted.”

A stream of vituperative erupted from the speakerphone.

“Oh, relax, Radak. Ms. Crawford would make sure my life was not worth living if I let anything happen to her friend. But understand this, I will not send her out there in her current condition.”

“And her current condition is what?”

“She’s virtually catatonic, thank you. You’ll have to give me at least an hour, maybe more. I’ll use my powers to put her mind back together, but the decision to trade herself for her friend has to be hers. I won’t push a zombie out onto that roof.”

More cursing.

“Are we agreed?” Delano pressed.

“You have one hour.”

“Good. Now, is there anything we can do to accommodate you while you wait? It must have been a while since you fed. I can send out a couple of units.”

Janecek snorted. “Yeah, right. Like I would drink blood from a fucking bag. Blood that you’ve probably siphoned out of that Merzetti whore.”

“Then what would be to your liking? You can’t dine on your one remaining pilot, for safety’s sake, and if you want me to put Ms. Crawford back together, you’ll not touch a drop of her friend’s blood.”

A pause that seemed to stretch forever.

“Okay, here’s the deal. Send me a man from your security staff, and get him up here in one minute so you don’t have time to mess with his blood. I want him handcuffed, with his hands behind his back. I want him to come out on the roof, turn a full 360 so I can check him for weapons. Then I want him to approach and kneel outside the helicopter.”

“I have your word you won’t harm him?”

A jeering laugh. “You would trust my word?”

“It seems I don’t have much choice. I want to make a good-faith gesture, in return for your concession, and for not molesting Mrs. Michaels.”

“Very well. I will leave him quite able to leave the roof under his own steam.”

“A moment,” Delano said. “I need to speak with my security chief.”  Del stabbed the mute button. “We’ve got him! Now we just need to persuade one of the men to submit.”

“I’ll do it,” Eli said.

Ainsley’s objection merged with Delano’s. “No!”

“Yes! It’s perfect, Delano. After all these years, I can be instrumental in bringing down the predator who murdered more than half my company.” Eli’s normally impassive face was wreathed in passion. “Don’t take this away from me, Del. Let me do it.”

“Eli, my friend, I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t let you do it. I need you here. More importantly, if anything should happen to me, Ainsley needs you.”

“The success or failure of this gamble hinges on whether or not we can set off an acute hemolysis, correct?”

“That’s right,” Delano conceded guardedly.

Eli grinned broadly. “Then I’m your man. I’m AB-freakin’-positive.”

Ainsley’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding? AB positive? That’s the rarest of all blood types.”

“Not quite as rare as AB negative, but damned close,” Eli said. “Just over three in a hundred people have it. Fortunately for me, it makes me a universal recipient in that I can receive blood of any ABO type and Rh.”

“AB positive,” Delano murmured. “Which means that unless our friend Janecek is a member of the exclusive AB club, the results will be catastrophic.”

Eli laughed triumphantly. “Not just AB. He has to be
AB positive
.”

“Perfect!”

“So I’ve got the job?”

Delano glanced at Ainsley, who nodded. “It’s yours.” Then he depressed the mute button to bring Janecek back on line.

“Radak, I’ve found a volunteer for you. It’s my security chief. As you know, he’s not exactly the trusting kind, and he wouldn’t hear of jeopardizing anyone else. Insisted on doing it himself.”

“Ah, the formidable Mr. Grayson.” Ainsley could hear the lust in his voice. “This will be sweet, indeed!”

“What it will be is clean and perfunctory,” Delano gritted, “and you will release Mr. Grayson unharmed and unmolested if you wish me to restore Ms. Crawford’s functionality. Is that understood?”

“That’s so like you, Bowen, to suck all the fun out of anything.” A pause. When Janecek spoke again, his voice was all business. “Okay, when I say go, he’s got one minute to get up here. His hands will be cuffed behind his back, cuffs double-locked and snug, and looped through his belt. When he steps onto the roof, he’ll rotate a full 360 degrees so we can inspect him and ensure that you’ve complied with these instructions. On my signal, he will then approach the aircraft. He will kneel facing the copter, and will cross his legs at the ankles. Is that clear.”

“Understood,” said Eli.

“Go!”

Delano muted the phone while Eli produced his own cuffs.

“I’ll get one of my guys on the landing to cuff me. It’ll be quicker, and they’ll do it right.” With that he headed for the exit on the double.

Ainsley wanted to call him back, to tell him to be safe, or to hug him or something, but dammit, there was no time to be lost.

Oh, God, what if Janecek drained him dry?

Or what if Eli decided he couldn’t wait for his blood to do its work‌—‌or didn’t trust it to do it’s work‌—‌and tried to take the vampire out in some other kamikaze fashion?

Her stomach lurched, and she started hyper-salivating.

Delano had already picked up the radio. While he gave a rapid-fire update to the team in the security office downstairs, Ainsley pushed back her chair and put her head between her knees.

She would not faint. Nor would she vomit. She would not.

“Ainsley, honey, are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” She sat up again, wiping perspiration from her brow. Swallowing excess saliva, she wiped her mouth, too. “Just a little nauseated there, but I’m all right now.”

“You don’t have to stay here for this. Why don’t you go sit with Devon?”

“Is she likely to waken?”

He shook his head. “Not for hours.”

“Then I’m staying.”

“He’s on the roof,” came the voice of the security command office twenty-eight floors below. “He’s turning, turning…”

Delano came to stand behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her left hand to cover his right and squeezed.

“Okay he’s heading toward the helo. He’s stopped. He’s kneeling now, legs crossed at the ankle as instructed. The helo’s door is opening … and the subject is out. He seems to be scanning the roof. Now he’s circling Grayson, inspecting the handcuff job.” A pause. “I think … wait … he seems to be saying something to Grayson. Now the subject has Grayson by the hair, tipping his head back. He’s bending … oh, Jesus. Oh, Christ.”

“It’s okay,” Delano cut in sharply. “I don’t need a play-by-play of this part. Just tell me when he’s finished.”

After what seemed like eternity but which probably was no more than a minute, the voice came back.

“Oh, thank God, he’s done. Grayson is still kneeling there.”

“Is he bleeding?”

“Umm … no. Not that I can see, anyway, but I don’t have the best angle.”

Thank God! Ainsley knew from her own experience that if Janecek had failed to seal the wound, they’d see plenty of spurting blood, no matter what the camera’s angle.

“Janecek is retreating to the helo. Grayson is getting up now. Whoa!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s okay. He’s okay. He just stumbled a little, but he’s on his feet now, approaching the door. Opening the door. He’s in!”

Ainsley rushed to the exit and tore open the door. “Eli?” She heard the tread of several men’s booted feet on the steps, and in a matter of seconds, Eli appeared on the landing, a burly man gripping each of his now uncuffed arms.

“Oh, God, bring him in!”

She almost bumped into Delano as she stepped back to clear the doorway. He caught her to save the collision, but instead of releasing her, he pulled her back against him.

“I’m okay,” Eli said.

“I doubt that,” said Delano, releasing Ainsley to examine Eli. Ainsley saw him squeeze one of Eli’s fingernails. She saw, also, how slow the capillary refill was. “The sit rep I just got said you stumbled when you got to your feet. Sure you’re not feeling a little woozy?”

He laughed, a giddy, delighted sound, as one of his men released the cuffs. “I’m feeling
extremely
woozy, thank you very much. Stupid sonofabitch took lots!”

Ainsley didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she put her nurse face on. “Carry him to the last bedroom at the end of corridor and make him comfortable on the bed. Get that armor off him. As soon as I find the supplies, I’ll be in to start him on whole blood.”

“I’ll get it,” Delano volunteered. “Everything’s downstairs in the lab. But first, a word for our friend.”

He crossed to the table and stabbed the mute button. “Goddammit, Radak, do you think you took enough? You gave me your word you wouldn’t harm him.”

“What?” Janecek’s voice came over the speaker, sounding sated and pleased with himself. “I told you I would leave him ambulatory. Did he not get back inside under his own steam?”

“No thanks to you.”

“Yes, well, do tell him thanks. He was every bit as luscious as I knew he would be.”

“Of course. I’ll just mention that as I’m transfusing him, shall I? I’m sure he’ll be thrilled. Speaking of which, I now have to address getting a transfusion started before I can sit down with Ms. Crawford. I’m going to need better than an hour now. Probably ninety minutes or more.”

“Then you’d better learn how to multi-task. You have exactly one hour to put Miss Humpty-Dumpty together again, starting right now.”

Janecek hung up, leaving a dial tone buzzing over the speaker. Delano closed the line, plunging the room into silence.

Ainsley bit her lip. “Will an hour be long enough for the transfusion reaction to set in?”

“Let’s hope so. It certainly didn’t take long for Edward Webber, and I doubt Webber imbibed nearly so deeply of his second victim as Janecek did just now.”

“He drank deeply from Eli, but not from Devon. And she’s so small… Are you sure this will work?”

A muscle in his jaw leapt. “It has to.”

Ainsley walked over to him on trembling legs and slid her arms around his waist. He closed him own arms around her and squeezed her once, fiercely enough to crush the breath from her body, then pulled away.

“I know,” she said, touching his face. “The transfusion. Go fetch what we need and I’ll get him prepped.”