Reining In (The Network) (12 page)

“I’m sure you already know that it’s not good.” She hesitated again, and I could tell she was trying not to start crying before she finished what she had to say. When she didn’t continue, I opened my mouth to try to say something encouraging, but she spoke up again before I could speak.

“They don’t expect him to make it.” My heart stopped. I knew it was bad. I had never doubted that. But I also never really admitted to myself that I could be losing another friend.

“He’s taken a turn for the worse,” she continued. “They said I should come up right away, because they don’t expect him to make it through the day.” She didn’t bother to try holding back the tears anymore, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would no longer be able to hold in mine. I tried pulling away from her. I just wanted to get out of that car. I wanted to scream. But she wouldn’t let go.

“Khallie, look at me. Please.” I closed my eyes for a moment. I steadied my breathing and finally looked up at her.

“I can’t lose him. You can’t lose him. We have to do everything we can to save him.” She stopped and looked at me, waiting for the words to sink in. When I didn’t respond, she continued.

“You can save him.”

No, she couldn’t be asking what I thought she was. She didn’t understand what she was asking me. This time I did break free from her grasp. I practically jumped out of the car, tripping over my own feet as I hurried to get away from her. I barely caught myself, and as I struggled to pull myself up, Marlene’s arms took hold of me, steadying me.

For a moment, I pondered at how quickly she had got to me, but then I remembered it was her I was trying to get away from. I tried to push my way past her, careful not to hurt her in the process. But she refused to move.

“Khallie, please, listen to me”

“You don’t understand what you are asking me, Marlene. I can’t. It’s not right. I can’t do that to Mack.”

“He’ll die.” Her voice was desperate, and tired. I hesitated, for just a moment. But a moment was all she needed.

“He would die for you Khallie. You know that. But he doesn’t have to.”

I closed my eyes. She was right. He didn’t have to die. But how could I condemn him to a life as a vampire? He deserved better. But he didn’t deserve to die.

“Please, save him. Please.”

I opened my eyes. She looked so frail, so broken. Not the strong woman I had seen yesterday, but a shell of herself. How could I tell her no? How could I condemn Mack to death. My voice shook as I spoke.

“Ok.”

God help me.

Chapter Fourteen

Walking into a hospital room, guarded by armed men, with the intention of turning someone into a vampire is not exactly something that someone just does. It requires planning. Especially considering that the process of transformation isn’t just a bite on the neck, as movies would have you believe.

I had to explain the whole process to Marlene, so that I could put her to use. Vampirism was more like a blood disease. Kind of like AIDS, I suppose. It could only be transmitted blood to blood.

I also explained that, like some diseases, the strains could be weaker or stronger. A child born to a vampire was going to have vampire like characteristics, but would probably not be as strong as a true vampire. Like other diseases, the growing fetus would develop an immunity of sorts. Some were even born without any vampire traits. People, or vampires, like me, were stronger than others.

I was turned by one of the oldest vampires, therefore my blood was strong. This was one of my concerns when it came to Mack. It took centuries for me to be able to control my hunger. I didn’t know if Mack was that strong. But I knew there was no turning back now. I had told Marlene I would save him. I had to. His entire life had been dedicated to keeping me safe. I had to return the favor.

There were a few things we had to do in order to pull this off. First, we had to find a way to infect Mack. Again, biting him would do no good, and with him being in a coma, I couldn’t exactly get him to drink my blood. We decided a syringe was the answer, but I was sure that we weren’t going to get one past the guards.

Even if they knew he was dying, they were still going to do their jobs. And security was tight as ever. We decided we would have to pull one out of the disposal container in his room. The problem was, we didn’t know if there would even be one in there.

The next issue would be keeping everyone out of the room while Mack was transforming. This was the biggest problem. Mack was covered in monitors. The minute his heart stopped, his room would be filled with nurses and doctors trying to restart it. Explaining to them why his heart had stopped, yet he was suddenly awake and alert was going to be a problem.

So we had to come up with a solution to that. It required a call to the network. It was probably one of the most daring things I had ever asked anyone in the network to do, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was the best idea. But time was running out and it was all I had. I just hoped they could pull it off.

We waited in the parking garage for what seemed like an eternity. When my phone finally rang, we looked at each other in anticipation. Darren Kline’s voice squeaked with excitement when I answered. I had to smile a little as I could almost see him dancing around as he relayed the message to me.

Darren was one of the youngest members of the network, and with youth came enthusiasm. His enthusiasm was matched by his talents, and I had no doubt that he was probably one of the biggest assets we had ever acquired. Darren was a hacker. Not just any hacker, but probably one of the best.

He learned at a young age, and by the time he was 13, he had hacked into some of the toughest systems in the country. He was good, too, having never been caught by any government officials.

But he was also brazen and that’s what got him into trouble. At sixteen, Darren got mixed up with the wrong people. He had been contracted to do a job by some less than reputable characters, and when the job was finished, they decided he was too much of a risk. As luck would have it, I was in the right place at the right time, and Darren was still very much alive.

Bringing him into the network had not only been easy, but was almost a necessity. He had nowhere else to go. We both knew that if he went home, his life was most certainly still in danger. So he dropped off the radar and came to work for me. He had repeatedly proved himself to be invaluable, and this time was no exception.

Before I could even say hello, his squeaky excited voice shouted out, “It’s done. How long do you need?” I took a second to figure how long it would take us to get up to the room and get everything ready. “Give us at least 15 minutes; maybe 20, in case there’s someone in the room when we get up there. I will need 10-15 minutes. Do you think you can swing that?”

I heard him chuckle, and I knew he could do whatever I asked. I hung up the phone and nodded at Marlene. We walked quickly towards the elevator leading down to the main floor of the parking garage. Once inside the hospital, we moved quickly, heading straight for the elevator.

Marlene looked nervous. I wanted to calm her down, but decided not to. It was ok for her to be distraught. As far as everyone in the hospital knew, her husband was dying. Why wouldn’t she be upset? We got off the elevator quickly, and set our plan into motion. We made our way past the guards, who seemed even more tense than usual. Fortunately, we had counted on this, and in only a few moments, we were in Mack’s room. We were disappointed to find a nurse in his room as we walked in.

Marlene went over to close the curtains to the hallway windows. We didn’t want anyone to see what we were about to do. The nurse paid little attention to us, and quickly finished up what she was doing. When she finally left the room, Marlene made sure the door was secured while I quickly got everything ready.

I pried the lid off the disposal container, praying that there was a syringe inside. Fortunately there was one in there, and I reached in and grabbed it. I quickly jabbed it into the vein in my arm, filling it with my blood. Marlene and I looked at each other nervously. The next step would have to wait. Darren had to implement his plan before I could do anything else. We both moved over to Mack’s bed, and got everything ready.

“Are you sure about the needle?” Marlene asked nervously.

“I told you, once my blood enters his veins, it won’t matter. The syringe could be filled with the Ebola virus, and it wouldn’t affect him.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. I’m positive. Believe me, that would be the least of our worries.” Marlene looked at me hesitantly. Her resolve seemed to be wavering.

“It’s not too late to change your mind.” My voice was barely a whisper. I was torn. As much as I wanted Mack to be ok, I didn’t want to do this without his permission. He didn’t have a choice in what we were about to do, and I wasn’t so sure he would’ve wanted me to do it. I didn’t get much of a chance to ponder on it though.

“No, Khallie. We have to do this. It’s the only way.” Just as the words slipped out of her mouth, the lights went out.

The next few minutes seemed to last forever. I handed the syringe to Marlene and grabbed the strips of sheet that she had torn a few moments earlier. Outside the door, I could hear people running around, trying to figure out what happened to the power. Back-up generators lit up the hallways and kept important life support systems going.

Fortunately for us, they didn’t keep the monitors running. Quickly, I tied Mack’s arms and legs down. His reaction would be violent, and in order to avoid unwanted attention from the nurses and guards just outside the door, I would have to keep him subdued.

When I was finished, I nodded at Marlene. She inserted the syringe into the tube coming out of Mack’s IV. I had thought sticking the needled directly in Mack’s vein, but decided against it. If we did have unexpected company, I didn’t want some jumpy guards thinking we had tried to poison him. It took a few minutes for my blood to find its way into his veins, and soon the tube was full of the clear fluid coming out of the IV bag. There was no turning back now.

“Nothing’s happening. Is it working?” Panic flooded Marlene’s eyes.

“Just give it a minute.” I said calmly, trying to assure her. But inside, I was as panicked as she was. I knew it would work. I could already hear Mack’s heart starting to slow; but would it work quickly enough. The last thing I wanted was for someone to walk in and see him tied to the bed like this, with the two of us holding him down.

“C’mon Mack, we’re on a deadline here.” I whispered to myself, so Marlene wouldn’t hear. The guards outside the door started shouting to someone, and I was beginning to worry that they would come in soon.

“Marlene, go peek out and ask them if everything is ok. They might start to get suspicious if we aren’t reacting, you know?”

Obediently, Marlene headed for the door and poked her head out. I could hear the muffled conversation between her and the guards; them reassuring her that there was nothing to worry about. I could tell that they were trying to sound confident in front of her, but they were agitated.

I knew they were suspicious. Fortunately, so far, their suspicions had nothing to do with the two of us. I was sure they thought the power outage was some kind of attack on the hospital, possibly an attempt at getting to Mack. I was sure the men who did this to Mack were smarter than to attempt something so stupid. Guess I couldn’t say the same for me.

As she closed the door behind her, I focused my attention once again to Mack. It occurred to me that the sheets may not be enough to hold him down if he tried to break free. We had to keep him subdued until the change was complete. Marlene agreed with my assessment and I quickly climbed onto Mack’s bed and positioned myself over his chest. I prayed that I would be strong enough. Strong as I was; old as I was, I was no match for a new vampire. Certainly not one as big and strong as Mack already was. He would be a force of nature.

Marlene touched my elbow and pointed at her watch; only a few minutes left. We were running out of time. “It’ll work!” I whispered, trying hard not to let her hear the fear in my voice. I gave her my best reassuring look, and tried not to notice the tears streaming down her face. I only hoped she hadn’t been crying when she had talked to the guards.

I should’ve known not to let my guard down. Hell, I should’ve brought handcuffs. Sheets were a bad idea. As I flew backwards across the room, I saw Marlene fall to the ground, as she fainted. The nice thing about age is the experience that comes with it. Over the years, I’d learned to correct a fall, to control my body in any situation. This was handy, especially today. I quickly pushed my hands towards the floor, flipping myself into an upright position, just inches away from the wall. Close one. Had I crashed into the wall, surely the guards would come running, and this was definitely not the time for them to make their entrance.

I quickly sprung back onto the bed, holding Mack down the best I could. His eyes were wild, on fire. I knew he was in there somewhere, but right now, the only thing that could see me, smell me, hear me, was the monster I had just turned him into. I had to get through to him, and do it as silently as possible. So I did the only thing I could think of. I let him bite me.

If a vampire’s blood is strong enough, it carries with it a great many things; strength, resilience, and certain gifts that that particular vampire has. It can also carry memories. My blood had altered Mack’s DNA in such a way that it was almost a match to mine. He would have some of my traits, some of my strengths, and if I was lucky, some of my memories.

That was what I was counting on. For him to see himself through my eyes; to see our friendship; to remember. The more he drank of my blood, the more he would see. My arm burned where his teeth sank into my skin. His attention fell to the task at hand and he no longer fought to push me away.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be interested in letting go of my arm, either. I began to panic. The more he drank of my blood, the weaker I would become. If I didn’t stop him, Marlene and I would have no chance.