United Service (41 page)
Authors: Regina Morris
He closed his eyes as her fingers danced along his brow. “Your hair looks nice. Did you do something different to it?”
“It’s springtime. I figured it was time for a new look,” she lied. She wanted to admit that she changed her look just for him, but she wasn’t quite ready for that discussion. She needed to find out what was wrong with him first.
“It’s nice. I like the bouncy curls.”
She smiled as she accepted the anticipated compliment. Dixon had a fondness for the Farrah Fawcett look from the show “Charlie’s Angels” in the ‘70s and Sulie had changed her hairstyle a few times to mimic the woman’s tresses. Sulie did the same thing in the ‘90s when Dixon commented on Rachel’s hairstyle in the “Friends” show. Each change in hairstyle had earned her a compliment from the man, but unfortunately, nothing more.
After a brief pause he added, “I liked the short hairstyle too, like the hairstyle you had over a year ago at Easter. This is just … different. It looks real nice.”
Sulie loved how attentive to detail Dixon was. His photographic memory allowed him to remember many fine points. “Thank you, Dixon. Now hush so I can finish giving you your exam.” Her hands dove into his lush hairline.
After another moment of her caressing the nape of his neck, she announced, “You’re anemic.” She studied his tired face. “How long have you been this tired?”
“What? Um … I guess I’ve been tired for a while now. I don’t know.” He motioned with his hands over his body. “I’m falling to pieces. I did do some training exercises with Brandon yesterday, which wore me out.”
“Brandon is less than half your age,” Sulie said about the man replacing Dixon as Colony Director. “Your anemia could be a result of the ulcer you have. Probably a lack of iron in your blood. I better taste it so I can be sure.” Her fangs were not fully extracted, but she rubbed his fingertip across one of the two sharp points in her mouth. A drop of blood pooled, so she licked the small wound and quickly sealed it.
The sample was small, but enough for an accurate reading – even better than having lab work done. At the very least they got the answer immediately without having to wait.
She grimaced as she tasted his blood. “It’s weak. Not much hemoglobin.” She licked her lips clean. “You have a lack of iron in your system. Let’s go have some lunch. I suggest you order a steak and I’ll prescribe some supplements for you.”
“You’re treating me like one of the babies you deliver,” he laughed as he wiped her saliva off his hand and onto his pant leg.
“More gentle than a heel prick for a newborn.” she said, noticing his actions. It wasn’t like he had brought out antibacterial gel and sanitized his hand, but the gesture still hurt. During the exam she had picked up no signs of love from the man. No raised heart rate. No increase of perspiration. No elevated endorphin level. No sexual arousal. No nothing.
Sulie looked away to hide her teary eyes. Human beings were easy to manipulate with a simple compelling, but she wanted Dixon’s love to be genuine. Other than her oath to the President which forbade her from compelling select government officials, including the Colony Director, she couldn’t compel Dixon – not even in a moment of weakness. His mind had been altered when he had accepted the office of Director. No vampire could compel him.
She was just a friend to Dixon. A well trusted friend. Perhaps declaring her love would be the catalyst for him to see her in a new light. Unfortunately, professing her love was not something she wanted to do once they were at a crowded restaurant. She also didn’t want to rush the subject. The man was sick, and he needed to eat. It could wait until after the President’s Camp David trip. But after that, she would tell him. There would still be plenty of time.
“Steak probably isn’t a good idea. You know I avoid red meat because of my cholesterol. You’re the one who prescribed Devolixion to me in the first place.”
“I prescribed Crestor for your cholesterol,” she corrected him.
Looking down at his coffee mug, he said, “I thought Devolixion was also for my cholesterol.”
“Don’t avoid red meat today,” she said, changing the subject. “This afternoon you’ll enjoy a steak and we’ll talk about your diet. I want you eating foods that are rich in iron for a few days.”
He finished his coffee and stood up. “I’m feeling a little better. Let me grab my coat and then we’ll head out.”
She wasn’t surprised that he was feeling better. That was a nice side effect of Devolixion, and one reason she made sure he took it every day. Thankfully she had anticipated his need for more and was able to mix–up another batch of the fictitious drug before heading over. Medically speaking, what she was doing was unethical, but no one ever said love was fair.
Colony Series Book #4
Chapter One
Available Fall 2014
Daniel surveyed the huge crowd with a cautious eye. The amount of onlookers had more than doubled over the last hour and the people had begun to push against the rope–line that marked off the safety zone. The near breach caused the posted agents to forcibly hold them back.
Even though the crowd stood a good distance away, Daniel suspected it still posed a threat. The President had just finished a speech at a public auditorium. Daniel’s job was to get him safely to the Beast, the presidential limo which waited out back near the kitchen dumpsters. The decoy limo, with its own agents, protected a fake president at another exit.
From the corner of his eye, Daniel could see the Beast, but he remained steadfast on watching the crowd. The President would be safe once again inside the car with its bulletproof glass, its reinforced armor, and its antiterrorist safety features. Daniel counted off the President’s footsteps. Four more and the human would be safe.
With his vampire hearing, Daniel heard a bullet enter its gun chamber. Fearing for the President’s life, Daniel sprung into action. He was unsure of the direction from which the bullet would come, but he did know the exact location of the President, and that’s all that mattered. Daniel pushed past the two human Secret Service agents nearest the Beast and stood directly behind the President, wedging the man between the opened car door and himself.
A moment later Daniel heard the shot and the bullet streaking through the air.
The crowd screamed. The agents quickly pulled their guns and surrounded the President.
Daniel stood tall and held out his arms to block the President from all angles. The bullet whistled past the line of defense and continued its path. The hot lead missed its mark, but hit Daniel in the jaw where it traveled through to his neck and lodged in his spine.
The pain caused Daniel to cry out. His purple blood sprayed from the wound and covered one of the nearby agents, the cement sidewalk, and the inside of the still opened car door. Involuntarily, his head flung back, and any hope Daniel had of seeing the shooter disappeared.
A mass frenzy of agents jumped the shooter as Daniel felt his knees grow weak. He took a step backwards, towards the President. In the com unit he heard the orders for the Beast to leave. Evacuate. Keep the President safe.
Daniel stumbled, turned, and pushed the President into the car. He noticed an agent from within the Beast grabbing the man and pulling him to safety as well. It caused Daniel to further lose balance. A Secret Service agent, standing on the sidewalk and covered with Daniel’s blood, pushed him the rest of the way into the Beast in an effort to close the car door as quickly as possible.
His head hit the President’s knee and caused more searing pain. Daniel lie on the floor of the Beast as the car sped from the auditorium and entered the streets under police escort. His blood poured from its wound onto the President’s pants, and soiling the floor. He had only detected one bullet, but still didn’t know if the President survived.
The President pulled himself into one of the seats. “I’m fine,” he said repeatedly. The man’s face whitened with fright and Daniel heard the man’s speeding heart rate. He heard all the heart beats of the human’s in the car. His eyes blackened and his fangs extended their full–length. He needed to feed. Feed, or die.
Again Daniel listened as the President proclaimed he was fine. Relief washed over him. He had done his job. But if someone didn’t remove the President from within his reach, the President would be his next meal.
Sulie inspected the President and then declared him healthy. She had been the President’s private physician for his entire tenure, just like she had been for all the presidents since Lincoln. She was another member of The Colony, the covert team of vampires who protected the President. She was also a vampire, just like Daniel. She moved from the President and now sat next to her fallen team member on the floor. “Daniel,” she began, “I need you to look at me. Focus on me.”
Daniel’s initial aged appearance had been in his late sixties. His purple vampire blood gushed to the floor of the car. The blood darkened each moment as the cells of his body aged. In the moments since he had been shot, he had aged ten years.
Sulie leaned over and licked his wound to seal it, but Daniel knew the wound was bad. The determined, yet saddened, expression on Sulie’s face told him as much.
“You can see his jawbone from his chin,” Brandon said.
Daniel’s eyesight began fading, but he looked over to Brandon, the Colony Director. He was human. He had blood in his body. Blood that Daniel needed.
“It will heal,” Sulie insisted. “The bullet is lodged in him. It’ll work itself out soon.”
Brandon injected a syringe of blood into Daniel’s thigh. The hiss of the syringe was slight compared with the sound of Brandon’s beating heart.
Daniel counted the number of syringes Brandon injected into him. He felt the human red blood pouring out his wound and knew it was mixing with the dark purple pool on the floor.
“We need more blood,” Sulie cried out.
Weakness overpowered Daniel and he could no longer see. Before he lost consciousness, he managed to say, “I really loved my life.”
Silkhaven Publishing, LLC
Released 2013
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