The Reluctant Vampire (21 page)

It was Teddy who asked, “Why? What’s going to happen to his clothes? He’s not going to hulk out or something, is he?”

“No,” Drina assured the older mortal with amusement. “But the nanos will force out any impurities through his skin. It’s hard to get the clothes clean afterward.”

“I’ll say,” Stephanie muttered with disgust. “I was wearing my favorite top when I turned. I washed it six times before I gave up trying to get the stink out.” She grimaced, and then added, “The bed I was on was ruined too. They hadn’t thought to put one of those bed-protector things on before laying me in it.”

Tiny was immediately hopping off the bed as if it were hot coals. Without a word, he tugged the blankets and sheets up at one corner to reveal a bed protector underneath with one side plastic, the other cloth. He didn’t return the bedding then, but pulled the sheets off completely and tossed them in the corner of the room, leaving only the protector, muttering, “No sense ruining Elvi’s sheets.”

Edward immediately moved forward with the chains and quickly half tossed and half slid the first under the metal frame. Alessandro pulled it out the other side, and then moved to the foot of the bed as Edward repeated the process there. Once done threading chain under the bed at both the top and bottom, Alessandro straightened and nodded with approval. “Bella. Is good.”

Tiny grunted something of a response and climbed back onto the mattress protector.

Drina moved toward the two coolers Anders had moved to the room earlier. “Did Lucian send any—”

“The green cooler,” Anders interrupted before she could finish, and Drina closed the red cooler she’d just opened, which held only blood, and moved to the second, green cooler. Opening it, she nodded as she spotted the little medical case inside. She knew it would contain needles and ampoules of various drugs. They wouldn’t prevent Tiny’s experiencing the pain, but would dull it somewhat and keep him from getting too active during the worst of it. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be administered until after the turn had started. The dosage would kill a mortal without the benefit of the nanos in their system. She straightened and opened the case to reveal the items lined up inside.

“Are those the nanos?” Tiny asked warily.

“No,” Drina answered. “These are drugs to help you through the turn.”

Tiny frowned, and Stephanie—obviously reading his thoughts—piped up, and said, “Oh believe me, you do want the drugs. They don’t do much, but they’re better than nothing at all.”

Leonora and Dawn nodded in solemn agreement. They were the only immortals there besides the teenager who had been turned. The rest of them had been born immortal and avoided this necessity. Tiny knew that as well and peered from one solemn face to the other, before clearing his throat, and asking, “So what can I expect here?”

When the older women hesitated, Stephanie grimaced, and said honestly, “It’s gonna hurt like the dickens, Tiny. It feels like you’re being torn apart from the inside out and I guess that’s kind of what the nanos are doing.” She breathed out a little sigh, and then added, “But the nightmares are the worst part.”

Tiny raised his eyebrows. “Nightmares?”

“Or hallucinations or whatever,” Stephanie said unhappily. “I was in a river of blood. It was burning, the flames leaping all around me, and I was caught in a current and being dragged downstream. I couldn’t get out, and these mutilated and bloated corpses kept floating by while I just screamed and screamed. And then the current pulled me under, and I was choking on the burning blood.” She shuddered at the memory. “And then I woke up, and it was over.”

“I had the same nightmares,” Leonora said with surprise.

“Me too,” Dawn announced. She then murmured, “I wonder if it’s your brain trying to understand what’s happening inside your body.”

Drina didn’t comment but thought it a possibility. Every turn she’d ever talked to had had the same, or similar, nightmares. Rivers of blood, fire, corpses floating past, and then being pulled under either by the corpses in the water with them or by the current itself, followed by the sensation of drowning on the blood they inadvertently swallowed as they screamed. It was always the same with little in the way of variation.

“Why don’t we just leave it for now and do this another time,” Mirabeau said with a frown.

Tiny glanced at her with surprise, noted her shaky expression, and reached out to take her hand. “It’s okay, Beau,” he murmured. “Better to get it done. If it’s the price of being with you . . . better just to get it done.”

He pulled her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to it, then glanced from Anders to Drina in question. “So where is the shot with the nanos? Give it to me and let’s get it over with.”

Drina felt her eyebrows rise and glanced to Mirabeau in question.

“We haven’t discussed the turn and what takes place,” the woman admitted on a sigh, though Drina supposed she needn’t have bothered. Tiny’s question had given that away.

“Well?” Teddy barked. “Where’s the shot? Give it to the boy. Don’t make him sit here worrying over what’s coming. Just get it over with.”

“There is no shot,” Drina said quietly.

“No shot?” Tiny and Teddy echoed as one.

“Beau has to give you her nanos,” Harper explained solemnly.

When Tiny glanced to Mirabeau in question, she hesitated, but then opened her mouth, let her fangs slide out, and lifted her wrist to her mouth.

“What are you doing?” Tiny asked, catching her arm to stop her. “You don’t have to bite yourself.”

“Yes, I do,” Mirabeau said quietly.

“No you don’t,” Teddy said at once. “Tiny’s right. This isn’t a damned vampire movie. Drina there has needles. She can just pull some blood out of you and shoot it in Tiny, and, hey presto, it’s done.”

“That won’t work,” Drina assured him. “It would just be blood. No nanos would be in it. Or, at least, not enough to start a turn.”

“What?” the old man asked with disbelief. “How would that be possible?”

When Drina sighed, it was Harper who explained. “Think of the nanos like rats in a pet-store cage. The shop owner opens the cage and reaches in, and all the rats run to the corners of the cage to avoid being pulled from their nice safe home. Nanos do the same when anything punctures our skin, whether it’s a needle, or a knife, or fangs. They are programmed to keep their host body at their peak, and they can’t do that unless they stay in the body. That is why you will not find nanos in tears, urine, sperm, or any other material that naturally leaves the body. So if you stick a needle into any one of us, the nanos would immediately evacuate the area to avoid removal.”

“No, no, no,” Teddy said firmly. “From what I understand, our Elvi was turned when some vampire fellow was injured in an accident and bled into her mouth.”

“A wound such as the one you’re talking about, or like Mirabeau ripping her wrist open, is like someone tearing away the side of the rat cage and turning it to dump the contents. It’s large and unexpected. The nanos in that area will be caught by surprise and get swept along in the blood that flows out. At least at first,” he added dryly. “If the wound isn’t big enough, or she’s too slow pressing it to his mouth, she will have to do it twice, or even more, to give him enough nanos to get the process started.”

“Barbaric.” Teddy grunted and shook his head. “I don’t know why you just don’t mix up a batch of those damned nanos and keep them for turning people.”

“Because no one’s been able to replicate the process,” Drina said dryly.

“What?” Teddy peered at her with amazement. “You people made them. You should be able to make more.”

“Not us,” Drina said with amusement. “Our scientists did, and they tested them out on guinea pigs first.”

“You mean none of your scientists tried it themselves?” Teddy asked with disbelief. “I find that hard to believe. It was their idea, and they’d surely want to be young and healthy forever too. It’s probably why they came up with them in the first place.”

“Perhaps,” Drina said mildly. “But apparently they weren’t willing to risk trying it themselves until they’d perfected them on others, and Atlantis fell before they decided they were perfected.” She shrugged. “They all died in the fall. We have today’s scientists trying to replicate the process, but they haven’t yet been successful.”

“Is this how you two were turned?” Teddy asked Dawn and Leonora with horror.

Both women nodded silently.

“Barbaric,” Teddy repeated with disgust, and then sighed and glanced to Mirabeau. “Well, then I guess you’d best get to it.”

She nodded, but Tiny was still holding her arm, and he asked uncertainly, “Are you sure you want to do this, Beau? It sounds painful.”

“Not as painful as the turn,” she said solemnly. “And I’d go through this and a lot more to keep you as my life mate.”

Tiny sighed and reluctantly released her wrist with a nod. Mirabeau didn’t hesitate or give either of them a chance to reconsider or agonize. The moment he released her arm, she whipped it up to her mouth. Her fangs were out by the time her wrist reached her teeth, and she bit into it as viciously as a dog, not just puncturing the flesh, but tearing into it and then ripping away a good-sized flap so that it hung from her arm like a torn pocket. Even as blood began to spurt from the open wound, she was turning it to press against Tiny’s mouth.

“I’ll get bandages,” Harper muttered, and headed for the door to the adjoining bathroom.

Drina nodded absently, but her attention was on Tiny. Despite knowing what was going to happen, the violence and suddenness of it all appeared to have caught him by surprise. He instinctively tried to pull away when Mirabeau pressed the wound to his mouth, but caught himself almost at once and allowed her to do it. Still, he choked a bit as the blood coursed into his mouth, no doubt unable to subdue his natural repulsion at the thought of drinking anyone’s blood.

“You have to swallow. Try to relax,” Drina said quietly. Tiny met her gaze over Mirabeau’s arm. Seeing the distress in his eyes, Drina instinctively slid into his mind to help, soothing his thoughts and making his body relax, so that he could swallow as much of the blood as possible before the nanos made the bleeding stop.

Inside his head as she was, Drina knew when the gushing began to slow. It quickly reduced to a trickle, and when it stopped altogether, she released her control of him.

Tiny immediately removed his mouth from Mirabeau’s arm and sank back on the mattress.

“Are you all right?” Mirabeau asked with concern, hardly seeming to notice that Harper had returned with bandaging and was tending to her wound. “Tiny?”

Nodding, he raised his head and forced a smile. “I’m fine. You?”

His gaze slid to her wrist, but there was nothing to see now that Harper had bandaged it. Still, he grimaced at the swath of white and then sighed and asked, “How long does it usually take to start?”

“It differs for different people,” Harper murmured, setting the roll of cotton bandaging on the bedside table. “With some it starts right away, and with others it takes a while before they notice a difference, and then it’s sometimes just a slow onset that builds up.”

“How do you feel?” Mirabeau asked worriedly.

Tiny smiled wryly as he took in the circle of concerned faces around him. But shrugged. “Fine. I don’t feel any different. I guess I’m going to be one of those slow-buildup kinda guys. I—” He paused, eyes suddenly widening, and then began to convulse on the bed.

Chapter Eleven

“Chains,” Harper barked, as Tiny went into convulsions, and the room was suddenly a hive of activity as the group broke off into pairs. Leonora and Alessandro threw themselves at Tiny’s right leg, Edward and Dawn took his left one, Mirabeau and Anders went for the right arm, and Harper hurried around the bed to join Drina at Tiny’s left arm as Teddy and Stephanie tried to squeeze their way up between the others surrounding the bed to help.

Even with two immortals to a limb, it was a struggle to get Tiny chained down. His body was thrashing wildly, jerking his limbs about. It wasn’t until Teddy gave up trying to help hold one of Tiny’s legs to implement an alternate plan that they made any headway.

Harper saw the old mortal straighten and move around the people crowded around the bed. Even so, he wasn’t at all prepared for the sight of the man suddenly grabbing up Stephanie, and pretty much tossing her on top of Tiny’s chest. He then quickly climbed onto the bed, and dropped to sit on Tiny right next to her. The two hung on for dear life as the mountain of a man bucked and thrashed beneath them, managing to stay put and weigh him down, easing his movements long enough for the others to get the chains in place.

The moment Harper managed to get the wrist he and Drina were struggling with locked up, she reached around and grabbed up the bag of drugs she’d let drop. She quickly prepared a shot and jabbed it into Tiny’s arm, pushing the plunger home. Still, it took a moment after that before Tiny’s struggles eased.

“Well,” Teddy sighed, mopping his brow as he climbed off of Tiny. Tucking the hankie in his pocket, he turned back and helped Stephanie off as well, muttering, “That was exciting. Like riding a wild bronco.”

Harper smiled faintly at the man. “It was fast thinking on your part to sit on him.”

“I couldn’t see what else to do.” Teddy shook his head and glanced from face to face before saying, “I suppose it’s a little late for this, but it seems to me it would have been smarter to chain him up before feeding him the blood.”

Drina grimaced. “It seems cruel to chain them up before necessary, and usually you get a little more warning than this. They don’t go into it this quickly as a rule.”

“Right . . . well . . .” He shook his head again and strode to the door, muttering, “I need a drink.”

“She’s a good kid.”

Drina turned from peering at Stephanie, who had fallen asleep in a chair in the corner, and nodded at Mirabeau’s words. They had decided to divide into four-hour shifts. Harper and Drina were taking the first shift with Mirabeau to watch over Tiny. Stephanie was there as well, mostly because the teenager had refused to leave. She seemed to like Tiny and had watched over him anxiously until exhaustion had overcome her, and she’d dozed off in her chair. She’d done so about five minutes before Harper had fallen asleep in his own chair beside Drina.