Hunter's Blood Special Edition (Cursed by Blood Saga) (5 page)

Sean turned as a weak chuckle came
from the large hospital bed tucked into the corner of the room. Walking over he
took the woman’s frail hand in his.

“How are you feeling today, Rissa,” he
asked gently stroking her pale skin.

“I’m a little stronger today. They
seem to think the virus has gotten about as bad as its going to get for the
time being. Now it’s just a waiting game,” she said as she ran her other hand
over the large mound hidden beneath the covers.

“The baby moving much these days?”

“Yeah,” she chuckled and then grimaced
a little in pain. “Dr. Volkmann thinks it’s a healthy sign, but since there’s
no precedence for this, we’re all just taking it one day at a time.”

 “Did they tell you we found Jerard?”
By the tears that filled her eyes, he knew that not only had she had gotten the
whole story, but in much more detail than she needed in her condition.

“I’m so sorry Rissa. If it’s any
consolation he died instantly,” he paused, taking a deep breath before
continuing. “He was stopped before he could hurt anyone else. You have my word,
we did everything we could to try and bring him in first, but in the end, it
wouldn’t have done any good. He was just too far gone.”

A thin trail of weak tears ran down
her cheeks as she nodded. “I know, Sean. They told me. Is it true he injured a
human woman, and as you tried to subdue him, she shot Jerard through the head?”

At her stricken face, he knew he had
to tell her the truth. “No, Rissa, that’s not how it happened. Fuck, I hate
gossip!” His voice was frustrated and angry, but he exhaled slowly, making
himself calm down before he went on.

“I found Jerard in the woods not far
from the Compound, and he was already in the process of attacking the human. He
was intent on killing her, crazed with a kind of blood lust I’ve never seen. I
called his name, but he didn’t seem to hear. I pulled him off the girl…there
was no recognition in his eyes…just blind rage.

“He was so strong. Stronger than ten
hunters, and that’s no exaggeration. I’m ashamed to say, he got the better of
me. He would have killed me too if the girl hadn’t shot him. I can’t attest as
to why she was there, but it appears as though she was hunting something as
well…maybe Jerard. She’s upstairs in the main house. We plan to learn as much
as we can from her before we decide what’s to be done.”

Rissa took a deep breath folding her
hands over her swollen stomach. “Thank you for telling me the truth. I’m glad
it was over quickly then, and that you didn’t come to any harm. I don’t think I
could have lived with myself if anything had happened to you. You do so much
for us all.”

“Rest up, Rissa. If you need anything,
just call, okay?” Nodding once, he kissed her forehead and then started toward
the door.

Stephanie ran up to him. “I washed my
face and hands Uncle Sean, now will you hang up my picture?”

Bending over he picked up the toddler,
swinging her onto his hip. “If I promise, do I get a kiss?”

Squealing the little girl pressed her
still wet face to his cheek and kissed it with a loud smooch. “There! Now hang
up my horsey!”

A wide grin spread across his face as
he put her down. “Yes, ma’am!” he said giving her a mock salute. “Now go ahead,
be a good girl and help take care of your mother.”

Sean watched her bound off toward the
television before glancing back at Rissa. Giving her half a smile, he waved
before heading out to his meeting with Volkmann and news that would only bring
her more sorrow.

***

Volkmann’s office was cluttered, with
medical books and papers strewn across the desk and in piles on the floor. He
sat behind the mess, his glasses perched on top of his slightly balding head,
and a grim expression on his face as he talked.

“The samples you were able to retrieve
confirmed what we had already suspected. Sean, your brother was infected with
the pathogen we’ve been trying to isolate. It was just as you thought. His
faculties were entirely compromised, as the virus had already overtaken his
mental and bodily functions. I’m so sorry.”

Templing his fingers the doctor
continued. “What we’ve analyzed from the information gathered, is that the
pathogen seems to have developed the ability to cross over into actual DNA. It
mutates it, whereas before we thought it just wrapped itself around individual
DNA strands, in effect holding them hostage.”

Mitch Paris, Sean’s second-in-command
on the Hunter’s Council, looked back and forth between his boss and the doctor.
“What do you mean by ‘holding them hostage’, Doc? Are you telling us that this
pathogen has some kind metamorphic capabilities?”

Volkmann’s eyes were bleak as he
looked at the two men sitting across from him. “Yes Mitch, that’s what I’m
saying. This virus has the ability to change our DNA. It seems to manifest
itself over the course of a single moon’s waxing and waning cycle. The end
result is that the change in the DNA becomes apparent when the infected
individual phases at the next full moon. In effect, it causes them to lose all
ties with the human side of their nature. They become utterly rabid.”

“
Holy Shit!
How do we stop the
spread of this bug?”

Frustrated, Volkmann gestured with his
hands. “That’s just it. We don’t know for sure where it was originally
contracted or how it’s primarily transferred. We know it’s a blood borne
pathogen. But we’re not sure if it’s coming from a food source or possibly from
another creature killed or wounded during a hunt. It may even be something
innocuous, something that only mutates when contracted by a supernatural host.

“We suspect it can be spread not only
through the blood, but by sexual contact with an infected individual, as well.
Hence the situation with Jerard’s wife and her unborn baby. Rissa is only five
months pregnant. Although she’s tested negative so far, we won’t know for sure,
since pregnancy compromises blood volume, and she’s incapable of phasing while
she’s with child.
We also won’t know if the baby is infected until it’s
born. Right now, amniotic testing shows nothing irregular, but how the pathogen
will manifest in an infant is yet another question. Will signs of the madness show
right away or will it wait until the child reaches puberty and phases for the
first time? We just don’t know.”

Stunned, Mitch shook his head before
turning to look at Sean. “What about the human girl? She’s still upstairs
right?”

Sean nodded. “Yes, and according to
the nurse’s report she’s healing pretty quickly. Considering how grave her
injuries were, it seems to follow that her body siphoned off some of Jerard’s
Were
traits when he attacked her.”

“But you said there was no transfer of
blood between the two?” Volkmann asked a little perplexed.

“That’s right. As far as I know
Jerard’s blood never mixed with hers, but his saliva did. In his crazed state,
he was drooling, and much of it dripped into her open wounds, not to mention
the fact that he bit her. Of course, he was bleeding pretty badly himself, so
anything’s possible. Some of his traits must have transferred, there’s no other
viable explanation for how quickly she’s healing—but we haven’t run any tests
yet to see if the pathogen transferred along with them.”

Mitch and Volkmann looked at Leighton
in shock. “Why not, Sean? If this girl is indeed infected, then she’s a threat
to us as well as to her own kind. You’re the Alpha Council, why haven’t you
done anything about her yet? She should be taken out.” Mitch scowled, his voice
incredulous.

Sean put his hands up defensively.
“Hold on a minute. Like the Doc said, we have no idea if this pathogen is
something that’s infectious only to us. Let’s not forget that she’s not
dual-natured. And she’s most probably not a shifter either. She may be immune.

“Besides, there’s something different
about her. I haven’t had the chance to brief you yet, but she wasn’t alone when
I found her, and it doesn’t seem to add up that she was there randomly. You
should have seen the heat she was packing.”

“Yeah, I heard some kind of crazy
rumor she shot Jerard with a silver bullet. Stupid human myth! Have you
interrogated her yet? Why was she out there armed to the hilt and so close to
the Compound?”

“She’s been unconscious for the past
week, and I didn’t
take her out
to use your turn of phrase for just that
reason. I’m not going to kill someone when they are totally defenseless.
Besides, we need to talk to her first.”

“You said she wasn’t alone. Do you
want me to get a tracking party together to see if we can locate her partner?
It’s been a week, and the scent will probably be obscured by now, but we should
try.”

Sean chuckled. “You could put your
best noses on it, Mitch, but it wouldn’t do any good. The person with her
wasn’t actually a person…or at least not any more…she was with a shade.”

“A shade? As in ghost?”

“Yeah, if you can believe it. That’s
why I said there was something about her. She’s certainly unusual, and I want
to get to the bottom of it.”

Ernst Volkmann cleared his throat. “I
don’t mean to interrupt your little strategy meeting, but can we get back to
the business at hand? I have too much work waiting for me in the lab and not
enough time to get it done. I want blood samples from the human drawn and sent
to me as soon as possible. If she’s absorbed enough of Jerard’s traits, then
she may very well be infected.”

“How long before you’ll know anything,
Doc?” Mitch asked.

Volkmann took a deep breath. “It’s
been a week since the attack, so antibodies should have begun to form in her
blood. It’s still rather soon though, so we might have to grow the culture for
a time in order to be sure. But it’s certain we’ll know without a doubt in a
matter of days.”

“I don’t follow?” Mitch said his face
puzzled.

Sean looked at his second-in-command,
his face grim. “What the doctor means, is that in a week’s time it’ll be a full
moon. If she takes on the traits of a
Were
and she’s infected, then the
virus will most likely do to her what it did to my brother.”

“
Jesus
!”

“Don’t worry, Mitch. Once we know what
we’re up against I’ll have no problem carrying out my duty.” The resolute tone
of his voice seemed to satisfy his second-in-command, yet the idea of taking
another life, Lily’s life, left Sean utterly hollow.

Volkmann stood up pushing his chair
back noisily. “Well, if there’s nothing else then, I bid you good day,
gentleman. Sean, I’ll expect those samples as soon as possible. There’s no
telling what we’ll find.”

Chapter Five

***

S
ean headed out
of the clinic. He had given the nurse Volkmann’s instructions less than an hour
ago, but it seemed the good doctor was chomping at the bit for his samples. He
had gotten a stream of messages from the man on his cell phone, the last one
being nothing short of a dictate
. “Leighton! Go check on what’s taking so
long. I only wanted blood samples for pity’s sake, not a biopsy!”

“Talk about a textbook Napoleon
complex,” Sean chuckled to himself reading the man’s latest text.

Mitch caught up to him in the hallway
by the elevators. “Hey, Sean, got a minute?”

“Sure.” His phone buzzed again.
Holding up one finger, he motioned for Mitch to wait as he answered the call.
“Okay. I’ll be right up.” Snapping his phone shut he pressed up for the
elevator and turned back toward Mitch.

“That was the staff nurse I assigned
upstairs. She’s drawing the blood samples for Volkmann. He’s such a persnickety
bastard, wants me to collect them, myself. Says he wants to make sure they’re
not compromised. Come on, we can talk in the elevator.”

The lift doors opened, and Sean could
feel the weight of Mitch’s eyes as the doors slowly closed. “So, what’s up?”

“Rissa.”

“What about her?”

“Look, I know that Jerard was your
brother and all, but it’s no secret that he was, well let’s just say it’s
common knowledge that he and Rissa weren’t exactly the happiest of couples. If
you know what I mean.”

Sean’s eyes narrowed, “…and.”

“And she’s got a tough road ahead of
her now with the new baby and Stephanie barely out of diapers...”

“Get to the point Mitch. What do you
want with my sister-in-law?”

“I want to know if it would be all
right with you, if I started spending some time with them, you know, to get to
know them better.” Mitch shrugged a little embarrassed by the question.

Sean just looked at him. “You truly
are a mutt. I should tear your head off on principle. My brother’s dead less
than a week, and here you are already staking your claim.”

“It’s not what you think, Sean,” Mitch
shot back quietly.