Ever After (21 page)

“Saved her?”

“Yes, she was the victim of a dark coven attack, they left her for dead. Pratt found her in an alley barley alive. Pratt is a follower of course so he couldn’t bear to leave her to die all alone there. He took her back to the coven house and attempted to save her. The vamp that bit her did not give her enough venom to turn her, but just enough to kill her.”

“What did he do then?” Will said softly. “How did he save her?” I could hear the desperation in his voice.

“Well Pratt’s an inventive man; he has studied medicine for centuries. In his early days as a vampire, he spent ten years in the Brazilian rain forest. He discovered a plant there that has healing properties never seen before. The plant was meant to be a cure for human cancer, but it failed in trials as they found it was dangerous. Pratt kept the small amount he had for possible later studies. When he found Emma, he used it on her as a last ditch effort to save her life.”

“What did it do?”

“It was a miracle really.” Doc sighed. “The serum halted the deterioration of her human cells, and pushed the venom to complete the change. She became a half blood as a result, and she did not die.”

“Is she still alive today though?” Will asked cautiously.

“Oh yes, she is fine today. They fell in love and married now they even have a child together, a little girl named Abby.”

“A child?” Will said softly. I could tell he was caught off guard.

I wanted to go to sleep, but this news was amazing to me, maybe I would have a chance after all. I could at least hope now anyway... She became a half blood as a result, but she did not die. I had some hope at least maybe Doc could help me or maybe that Pratt guy, could come here, and try to help me. I felt so cold suddenly, but I was sweating too. I was a major mess. I could not fight whatever was happening to my body. I just had to accept the fact I was basically beyond help and maybe I might even die, if this friend of Doc’s couldn’t help me.

“Will don’t blame yourself, Corrine would have never let you die, she would have forced us to let her give you her blood. I could see the look in her eyes, she would never allow that.” I could feel hot tears sliding down my cheeks. I was sinking in fear and sadness now. I just pretended to be asleep, it was easier that way.

“I will call Dr.Pratt and ask him to come to Maine and help us. I know he will.”

“I hope so, I just can’t take this. I can’t stand to watch her suffer anymore.”

“We will stop all this Will. I will do whatever I have to do to get Corrine better.”

I listened to them for a few minutes. Doc wanted me to rest and so they turned down the lights in the room and let me have some time alone. Doc had to reassure Will the monitors on my wrists would be watched and nothing would go wrong. He reluctantly agreed to leave me alone for a short time.

I thought to myself, I’d pretty much messed up my whole fairy tale. I just couldn’t simply turn into a vampire or a half blooded one, as I should have. I sighed pulling the blankets up around my neck where Will, had bit me. I wanted to scream I was so mad, and cry at the same time. I really wanted to call Will back to the room, but I knew it would hurt him to see me this way.

He had been my rock. He brought me back to life in the past year, when I had nearly given up and thought it was not worth living. I knew I would probably not be alive today if Will had not found me that fall day by the river. I had to be strong now for myself and for him, I had to beat this. I couldn’t just give up, even though it was going to be hard.

I smiled thinking how amazing it was to be in love with William. He was so loving and caring; the bond we shared was so intense. He was all I had ever needed and all I ever wanted; he brought my soul back to life. I was so afraid he was going out of his mind right now over Doc’s news. I wiped my face off, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, and tried to pull myself together. I might be a mess on the inside, but I wouldn’t let him see me falling apart.

The next few hours, I spent in waves of sheer pain. Doc kept me on a steady dose of morphine injections. That night Doc put a line in my arm so with the push of a button I could get instant relief from the agony. Will held me in his arms all night; he whispered to me that he would fix this no matter what it would take. I could feel him crying when he thought I was sound asleep, he tried to hide it.

The morning brought no relief, only more complications. This time it wasn’t me, it was my dad. Will told me the story about what Doc had told my dad at the Halloween party, after the biting incident. Doc told him I was rushed to the treatment center they had both agreed I would go to if things went bad. Doc said he was called out to the garden when I collapsed and sent me on to the center by ambulance. There was no time to tell him about my leaving.

Doc had been giving my Dad reports since we left for his secluded home in Maine, which was where we are now. The fact I had been here for about a week was now the issue. Dad wanted to see me naturally, as any parent would. I doubted Sara cared a whole heck of a lot. I knew there was no way Dad would go much longer without seeing me.

I was afraid it would cause problems for the coven. I had no idea how we could pull off a visit, I felt like hell, and I had to look like it too no doubt. I was supposed to be here getting better, at least that’s what dad thought. That was not the case; each hour seemed to bring more pain and more suffering for me.

Chapter
2

Complications

I could hear raised voices down stairs, jolting me from my sleep. It was two in the morning, but that meant nothing in a house full of vampires. They all slept very little and someone was always awake at any hour, of the night. I was getting use to that, slowly.

“You can’t expect him to stay away from her Doc, she is his child. He will demand to see her, and if we don’t allow him, he will call the authorities.” Lydia’s voice sounded strained, not light, and soft as usual. “You know it only took William three days to recover from Vincent’s attack, and I never left his side. You take Mr. Whitmore’s only child off for some medical treatment, he’s probably not even sure of, and you think he will not demand to see her?”

I could hear Lydia talking, and her words were very true. I knew my dad; he was not going to be put off much longer by Doc.

Lydia went on.“I don’t blame him for being irate. His child is deathly ill, and he naturally wants to see her.” I could hear other members of the coven down stairs also. They seemed to be having a meeting about me.

I felt guilty bringing this on them all, the followers were peaceful vampires and never wanted to draw attention. My relationship with William, was definitely giving them more contact with humans than I figured they wanted. I worried the other coven members might be mad at me. I strained to hear the rest of their conversation.

“Well we will have to move her to real clinic, won’t we?” I heard Roth asked.

“It’s too dangerous to move her Roth; she’s much too fragile right now.” Doc replied firmly.

“What about the clinic in Shelton, we could use it just for a few hours, while her dad visits.” Riley added, he was the youngest vampire and vey soft spoken. I hadn’t realized they had all come out to Doc’s home in Maine, until now.

“That’s a good idea, but we have to keep her away from all human doctors or nurses, if they were to examine her.” Doc sighed loudly. “It could expose us all; it would only take one nurse checking her pulse or temperature, while one of us was not looking. It would be all over CNN, she would be a medical headline in no time, a freak of nature. The simple fact her body temperature, alters between 81 degrees and 109 is enough to rule that whole idea out. That’s hard to hide from human medical staff.”

“We need to stage a clinic then, that’s the only way.” William’s smooth voice calmly announced.

“Good Idea!” Roth agreed.

“We could do it; he would never suspect a thing!” Riley added his voice excited.

“Yes, well I think that may be the answer.” Doc smiled as he looked around the room. “I think we can pull it off, and get some medical equipment up here. We could stage some patients, and medical staff. It would only be for a short time and I can work up some medical documents to show Corrine’s progress.”

I had to smile now, it was a brilliant idea, and it would be so wonderful to see dad again and maybe Gran if she could make the trip. I felt so disconnected from her and dad, it made me sad. I knew it was just the ways things had to be for now, but it still made be cry sometimes. I was happy to know they had a plan to get us all through this, nice thing about vampires they have a lot of experience at covering up weird things.

“Let’s set it up then, and get this done so we can focus on getting Corrine better.” I heard Lydia announce. I could hear the other coven members talking and agreeing with her. The coven was very large but many of the members did not all live together, but in typical single-family homes as “
normal
” people. They gathered when the coven faced problems and always came to agreements together as one unit.

William came in later and kissed my forehead, and smiled at me. “Well we have to get you ready to see your father.” I smiled up at him losing myself in his deep blue eyes.

“Can we see if Gran can come up too? I miss her so much.”

He nodded and smiled. “I’m sure we can see if she would like to come up.”

Chapter
3

The
Set
Up

The other good thing about vampires is they have really big bank accounts too. Being immortal had some pretty sweet advantages, like you got to amass a huge pile of money over several life times. The coven brought in everything needed to transform the grand old mansion into a full-fledged cancer treatment center. They moved at an amazing pace, they had the whole thing set up in two days. I on the other hand was the only thing they couldn’t “re- vamp” pardon the pun.

I was really not doing well at all as Friday morning arrived, (the morning before the visit). I was in horrific pain. I woke up curled into a ball. My chest hurt and the air stung my lungs when I inhaled. William of course was camped out in my new mock “
hospital
” room, so he saw everything I went through. I gasped in pain, my head swimming as I broke out into a sweat. I felt like I was on a roller coaster that was out of control.

I could only take short panting breaths that morning, as I had a death grip on Williams arm. Doc was in my room before we even had a chance to agree to call him. Another good thing about vampires, they sensed human pain from a mile away. I guessed that’s why so many of them went into the medical field. They were gifted at helping humans, at least Followers were.

Libby, one of the younger coven members came into my room. She had been a nurse in her human life and was now assisting Doc in my care. The pain, Doc told me after another morphine shot, was my body’s way of resisting the change. My system was fighting it, and I was losing the battle. I spent all afternoon in a haze of drugs, all meant to ease the excruciating pain I was in. The only problem was they were hurting me too, making me sicker by the day.

My dad’s flight to Maine was to come in at nine thirty Saturday morning. I tried my best to be in a good mood, as Lydia and Libby did my hair and helped me into my “
hospital
gown
”. I was hurting so bad, even dressing was a job. I had to try to at least look like I felt good though.

That’s what dad was expecting to see. I groaned as Libby brought in a makeup kit. In addition, she began to add some much needed color to my cheeks. I hoped I could look good enough so dad would not suspect anything was weird. I knew if Sara was with him, she would be watching my like a hawk, and that wasn’t going to be a good thing. This pain I was in was nearly impossible to hide.

“It will be ok Corrine; your dad’s flight is scheduled to leave here at one o’ clock. So you won’t have to fake feeling great for too long.” Lydia smiled reassuringly at me.

I could never seem to get over the fact she was Williams mom, she looked all of about maybe 26 years old. I admired her long wavy black hair and porcelain skin. I had to imagine when she did get around humans; the guys went nutty over her. I never asked how old she was when she became a vampire. I did know in the time of William’s birth, women had kids at a very young age and married young too. I figured she was probably in her twenty’s at the time of her human death.

Chapter 4

The Visit

I waited nervously for my dad’s limo to arrive from the airport. The weather had been pretty bad lately so it was delayed due to snow and ice on the runway. Doc, William, and Dr.Pratt (or just Pratt as the coven called him) and Lydia waited in the room with me. My room’s window faced the circle drive so we would all know when the limo arrived. My stomach was in knots as we all waited.