Dracula (A Modern Telling) (11 page)

But
, objectively, I had to admit to myself that she looked much worse. Even from the day before. All color had left her, even her lips and gums, and the bones in her face seemed to stick out more than they should.

Her breathing was awful to hear and Van Helsing sat motionless, not speaking. Lucy closed her eyes and just
lay there, her hand slipping out of mine.

Suddenly, Van Helsing jumped up and grabbed me and took me into the other room. He closed the door, making sure we stepped far enough away that Lucy couldn’t hear us.

“She’s about to die, Jack. Her blood type’s B positive. What’s yours?”

“O negative.”

“Universal donor! Excellent. She needs blood. Lots of it and right now. Roll up your sleeves.”

He opened the door and went out into the hall to ge
t his bag out of the car. I realized he didn’t take my keys so I followed him, and at the door I saw Lucy’s mom open it and Arthur walk in.

“Jack, I couldn’t wait. My dad’s doing better.” He shook my hand. “Thank you for your help.” He turned to the Professor. “And you must be Dr. Van Helsing. Thank you so much for helping Lucy.”

“We’re going to need your help, Arthur.”

“What do you need? Anything.”

“She needs blood, my young friend. And lots of it. Jack is the universal donor. What’s your blood type?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then Jack you call that hospital you work at and get us some B positive or O negative blood right away.”

“Doc,” Arthur said, “I’ll do anything for her. I love her.”

“Would you die for her?”

Without hesitation, he said, “Yes.”

“Good boy!” Van Helsing said, slapping his cheek. “Now do exactly what I say and when I tell you to leave you have to leave. I can test you for blood type in about forty-five minutes to see if you’re compatible. In the meantime, Jack, I need my bag and then you upstairs.”

We all headed upstairs to Lucy’s room. Arthur was asked to remain outside and Van Helsing and I went in. Lucy looked to us but said nothing; she was too weak even to speak. Van Helsing withdrew several medication
s from his bag and using a clean, wide gauge syringe, injected her with something that caused her to sleep. I sat next to her and stared at her, trying desperately not to lust after her, but I couldn’t help myself and I felt guilty for it. Why did the Lord have to make men such horribly sexual beings? Here’s the poor girl bedridden with some unknown disease, pale as a statue, and I couldn’t help but think of what a night of lovemaking would be like with her.

Van Helsing got out several instruments, some of
which I didn’t actually recognize, and began a transfusion. While my blood was draining into Lucy, he went out and began the blood-typing test on Arthur. The surest way was with a laboratory, but in a pinch there is a way to test antigens and then compare them to an online chart with accuracy of about 86%, and it takes less than forty-minutes.

After about half an hour, Van Helsing came storming over and said, “He’s compatible.”

It couldn’t have happened sooner. I’d given blood before but this seemed like an extraordinary amount. I got up and felt dizzy. Van Helsing held me by my arm as Arthur ran over and helped me to a couch. Van Helsing then slapped his back and yelled, “Off with the shirt.”

It was now Arthur’s turn
, and the blood, black and purple, poured into Lucy’s veins.

I could tell after some time that the blood loss was affecting Arthur but he wouldn’t let Van Helsing stop. His cheeks were growing pale and his lips blue. But Lucy’s color was returning to her like some miracle drug was being pumped into her veins.

I took Arthur when he was through and helped him to the same couch I’d been sitting on. I dressed his puncture mark and heard Van Helsing behind me say, “The brave lover deserves a kiss before we leave Lucy.”

I looked back to him and saw him adjusting her pillow. He lifted it
, and as he did so the black velvet band that Lucy had been wearing around her neck—with a pendant that Arthur had given her—moved up just a bit. Van Helsing saw the two puncture wounds in the neck and made a deep hiss of indrawn breath, something I’d seen him do when he was filled with emotion.

He didn’t say anything
, but he touched the puncture marks, and as he did Lucy shied away as if in pain or pleasure. Van Helsing covered her throat again with the band and came over to us.

“Arthur, go home now and eat and sleep. We’ll call a cab for you. I don’t want you staying here. When’s she’s better, we’ll call you to come up again.”

I helped Arthur up and called a cab. We waited outside and I gave him some juice and a few cookies that Lucy’s mother had made. We sat on a bench overlooking the massive front lawn with the gates leading outside far below.

“I love her,” Arthur said. “I was scared for a long time and I was going to call off the wedding, but I love her, man
. I can’t stand to see her like this.”

I nodded. “Van Helsing’s the best doctor I’ve ever seen when it comes to diseases of the blood. There’s not even a close second. If it’s there, he’ll find it.”

The cab came and I helped him in and paid the driver. Arthur didn’t protest as he was nearly passed out already. I waited until the cab was out of sight and then went back up to Lucy’s room and saw Van Helsing sitting on the bed next to her, lost in thought. I sat in the chair next to him and watched Lucy.

The color had returned to her cheeks and her breathing was somewhat normal. I reached out. The cold sensation in her hands had left and she was warm to the touch again.

“What do you think those marks are?” I asked. “On her throat?”

“What do you think they are?”

“I haven’t really examined it yet.” I reached over and pulled down the velvet band. The wound was definitely two puncture marks just over the external jugular vein. It didn’t seem like there was any sign of disease but the edges of the wounds were torn and white, like someone had spilt a white powder along the brim. I thought that maybe the puncture wounds were responsible for the lost blood but the whole room would be covered in blood if that were the case.

“Well?” Van Helsing said.

“I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

He stood up. “I have to go back tonight.
There’s several items I need and I have a lab assistant I need to coordinate with. You stay with her tonight, and don’t let her out of your sight. Not for a second.” He paused. “This sounds like an odd request, but Jack you can’t sleep tonight. I’ll speak to her mother and have her relieve you in the morning so you can sleep, but you can’t sleep tonight.”

As he was leaving, he poked his head back in. “Remember, no sleep.”

September 7-Continued

I was hardly
alone with Lucy an hour when she woke up. Seemingly, all the life had returned to her. She stretched and smiled her incredible smile at me and held my hand which, again, made my heart do jumps. She said she was hungry and I had her mother fix something for her. Lucy ate and drank like a wild animal, devouring the entire meal, several cups of juice, and some dessert. When she was through, she went to the bathroom to take a shower and I sat by her window and stared out at the afternoon sun.

She bounded out of the bathroom in nothing
but a robe, her hair wet and curled.

“We’re going out tonight,” she said.

“We can’t go out. You need to rest.”

“I feel great.” She ran
into the bathroom for a minute and then back up to me, a smile across her beautiful face as she placed her hands on my thighs and leaned in close. “Please take me out, please Jack. Please please please please—”

“All right, all right. We’ll go.
But only for a little bit. You have to come back and sleep.”

She squealed with delight and kissed me on my cheek before running back to t
he bathroom to finish getting ready. When she was through, we went downstairs and her mother was overjoyed to see her up and about.

“Van Helsing’s a miracle worker, Lord bless him,” she kept saying.

We walked to my car and Lucy skipped there like a child. Even though it was cold, she was wearing a black dress with the black velvet band around her neck and she looked like she could’ve been on any modeling runway in the world.

“That’s your car?” she said, pointing t
o the Mercedes. “I love it!”

She jumped in and I started the
car. We sped away down the driveway and out of the gates.

“I want to go to downtown,” she shouted, once we were on the road.

“That’s like an hour drive.”

“Jack,” she said pleadingly, placing her hand again on my thigh, “I’ve been in that bed for days. I couldn’t even move or watch TV. Please take me
into the city, help me forget about all this.”

At that point, I couldn’t have denied her even if I’d wanted to. If I’m being truthful with myself, I could think of nowhere else I’d want to be other than on a long drive with Lucy.

September
7-Continued

When we arrived in Boston
, Lucy ran from restaurant to restaurant until she found one she liked. It was upscale with dim lighting and the snobbiness from the staff that comes with it. I couldn’t believe she was hungry again. I had lost my appetite and so just had some white wine, but she devoured a steak, fries, a salad and two rolls. When she was through, we went out and parked on the street while she made me flip through my CD’s and find something happy.

The temperature had to be in the low fifties
, and though I was freezing it didn’t seem to bother her at all. At one point she ran into the middle of a busy intersection and started spinning like a child in the middle of a rainstorm. I had to grab her and pull her off the road.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I said.

Just then she planted a kiss on me. It was … electric. Her lips were soft and her kiss tender as she slid her tongue lightly into my mouth. I tried to resist but she held me by the back of my head. When she pulled away, she had a seductive grin on her face and took my hand as we ran into a bar.

The music was loud. I had heard that saying that if the music’s too loud you’re too old and I agreed. Lucy ran to the bar and instantly struck up a friendship with three or four girls there, taking shots with them as I stood behind. Every few shots she would turn around and
kiss me.

“Is that your boyfriend?” one of the girls asked.

“No,” she shouted over the music, “my doctor!”

The girls were getting thoroughly sloshed and I tried to warn Lucy several times that she shouldn’t be consuming alcohol.
She would just laugh and kiss me and take another shot. As a physician, it’s hard to feel more helpless than when a patient disobeys your suggestions right in front of you.

Two of the girls began kiss
ing, to the hoots and hollers of the men around us, and Lucy jumped in, making it a three-way kiss. She held her hand up to me and motioned for me to join. I shook my head and looked at my watch, indicting it was time to go.

“My doctor says we need to go,” she shouted.

“No,” one of the girls said, “come with us. We’re going to the Blood Burn concert tonight. Bring your doctor. He’s cute.”

Lucy leapt into my arms. “Please take me to the concert, Jack.”

“No way. We need to leave now and get you in bed. You’re already drunk.”

“Jack, take me to the concert.”

She looked directly into my eyes and it melted my soul. Her beauty, any woman’s beauty, seems to have the power to overcome a man’s reason at any time. Men fight and die and cheat and destroy for that type of beauty.

“I
… no, Lucy. We have to go.”

“I’ll just go without you and who knows what kind of trouble I
’ll get myself into. At least if you were there you could look out for me.”

She was right, of course. She was an adult in good health. I couldn’t restrain her. So I agreed to drive her and her new friends down to the concert.

It was held at TD Garden and there must’ve been fifteen thousand people there. We came in during the opening act and the girls didn’t have extra tickets so I had to buy them from a scalper at almost a two hundred dollar markup. We got in and the arena was dark and filled with fog and flashing lights. The opening act was still playing, some electronic band, and we went out onto the floor and Lucy began dancing to the music.

She would grind her body against me and it sent, again if I’m being honest, waves of pleasure through me. I’ve never known a girl as seductive as her. She moves in a way that rouses passions in me that I thought I could control.

Her friends, probably after seeing I drove a Mercedes, jumped on me as well and began kissing and clawing at me. I stood and, to my shame, took in the attention.

By the time the main act came out, the girls were sobering up and one of them pulled out a joint of marijuana. I absolutely refused to let Lucy smoke it in her condition
, and she reminded me that she was an adult; and I reminded her that it was still a crime in Massachusetts to smoke it in public and that the police were all around. She agreed and I thought at least I was able to prevent that.