Vampires and Vixens (Psy-Vamp) (14 page)

At the hospital, Trish and Hannah paced
nervously in the waiting room. Noah sat with his head buried in his hands,
feeling completely helpless. He’d managed to resuscitate Lydia before the
paramedics arrived, but she hadn’t regained consciousness. They had been at the
hospital for more than two hours with no word on Lydia’s condition.

Doctors and nurses scurried by. Each
time one of them passed, Hannah stared at them as if she could will them to
stop and bring good news about Lydia. The longer she waited, the more she
worried.

Finally, a doctor approached them. He
was a middle-aged man, with pale skin, and thinning brown hair.

“Is she okay?” Hannah asked nervously.

“Can we go in to see her now?” Trish
asked.

The doctor had a grave expression on his
face as he spoke. “Which of you is Hannah?”

“I am!” Hannah moved close to him. “Does
she want to see me? Is she okay?”

The doctor took a deep breath and let it
out. “Your cousin is on life support. We’re not sure why, but most of her vital
organs are just shutting down.”

Noah wrapped his arms around Hannah’s
shoulders from behind.

“She’s going to recover, right?” Hannah
refused to believe anything else.

The doctor shook his head. “Her mother
is coming tomorrow to say her last goodbyes, and sign the paperwork to take her
off of life support,” the doctor explained gently. “I’m very sorry, but we’ve
done all that we can.”

Trish began to cry, and Noah pulled her
in close. He held both of them against his chest and whispered nonsense words.

Finally, they both calmed down some.

“We should call Dominic.” Hannah’s voice
was raspy from her sobs.

Noah looked confused. “Why would we call
Dominic about Lydia?”

Trish wiped her tears, and answered. “She
was still dating him. I guess she lied about them breaking up.”

“Motherfucker!” Noah said harshly. When
Hannah jumped at his tone, he rested his chin on her head and murmured softly.

“The test?” Trish asked tentatively.

“It was positive. I’m pregnant,” Hannah
replied.

“Motherfucker!” Noah repeated.

Noah had a sudden thought. He knew it
was crazy, but he had to try something.

He took Trish’s hand. “Trish, I need you
to take Hannah by her place to pack a bag, and then bring her back here. I know
it sounds silly, but I’m going to donate blood in case they need it. Take the
keys to my truck. I’ll drive you back to your car when you get back.”

Trish nodded.

Then he turned his attention to Hannah.
“You’re going to stay at my house tonight.”

Hannah nodded and then followed Trish
out of the room.

Noah spotted the doctor and hurried
after him. “Can I have a word with you about Lydia Montgomery?”

The doctor stopped. “Of course, but I
won’t be able to release any more details since you aren’t family.”

Noah smiled. “I understand.” He reached
out his hand. “Noah Christiansen.”

The doctor took his hand to shake it.
Noah clasped it tightly, and looked into the doctor’s eyes. “I’d like to see
Lydia now. It won’t be a problem.” There was a moment of hesitation before the
doctor nodded. Noah had spent many years avoiding the use of compulsion, and
he’d used it twice since meeting Hannah. He didn’t release the doctor’s hand
right away. Noah drained just a little energy. The man would feel slightly
weak, but still able to care for patients.

Lydia was in intensive care with
machines hooked up everywhere. It seemed so wrong to see someone like Lydia
unable to even breathe on her own. The nurse looked surprised to see him there.

“Only staff is allowed in the room at
this hour,” she said briskly.

He looked into her eyes. “I’m sure it’s
okay for me to be here.”

She blinked several times then smiled. “Of
course, I don’t know what I was thinking.’

Noah placed his hand on Lydia’s. It was
a long shot, and he knew it. If it worked Dominic had even more to answer for.
Noah reached inside of himself mentally. He felt his own life force combined
with the small amount he’d just stolen from the doctor. He pushed the energy
into Lydia. It flowed through her and he felt her hand twitch under his. That
simple movement made him smile.

He walked out of the room, and down the
hall. He pulled out his phone when he left the ICU and called Nathaniel.

“Noah!” Nathaniel sounded excited.

“We have a serious problem,” Noah said.

“Is Hannah okay?” Nathaniel asked right
away.

“Her cousin is in the hospital on life
support. They just told us that she’s not going to make it. Her body is
shutting down.”

“Is Hannah there with you?” Nathaniel
asked. “She shouldn’t be alone.”

“I sent her home with Trish to pack a
bag. I’ll have her stay at my house tonight.”

“Thanks, Noah. I’ll get back there as
soon as I can.”

“There’s more,” Noah said. “Hannah asked
me if we should call Dominic, because apparently he never stopped seeing
Lydia.”

Nathaniel cursed in at least four
languages. “I’ll kill him!”

“I was able to push some energy into
Lydia and I’m going to try to steal a little more for her, but you might want to
get some others down here to help out. Hannah will be back soon with her
overnight bag so I can’t stay long. I’ll text you the hospital information.”

“Noah, she’s just a normal human,”
Nathaniel said as if he were an idiot. “You know we can’t give her energy. We
can’t fix this.”

“Wrong,” Noah said. “I’m sure Dominic
knew she wasn’t your average human, and thought he could feed on her more often
because of it. The rest of us just assumed. I feel like an idiot, because the
clues were all there.”

“Which clues?” Nathaniel asked.

“The plants,” Noah explained. “Don’t you
remember how they were all lush and green when Lydia was full of energy? I’m
guessing that Dominic was visiting his mother during those times. When she was
weakened, the plants looked as wilted as she did.”

There was a long silence at the other
end of the line. Finally, Nathaniel spoke. “I’ll be home tomorrow morning. My
father is with me so I suspect he’ll want to deal with this Dominic situation.
In the meantime, I’ll have Justin go to the hospital. Drew is too young to do
any good. I’ll visit her before I go to the house.”

“We have some other things we need to
discuss, but they can wait until you get back.” With those ominous words, Noah
hung up.

The next morning Hannah woke up in
Noah’s bed. He was sitting on a chair beside the bed, staring at the ceiling.
There was no way she could have slept at Lydia’s house, and Nathaniel was out
of town. Noah had tucked her in, and sat by the bed until she fell asleep.
Apparently, he had stayed there all night.

He leaned forward and wiped the tears
from her cheek with one hand. She hadn’t even realized that she was crying
until that moment. He gently stroked her hair. “What can I do to help you?”

“You’re already doing so much. Thank you
for taking care of me. Thank you for trying to save Lydia.”

“Maybe you should call the hospital this
morning to check on her,” he suggested.

Hannah shook her head. “I can’t. I know
I’m a coward, and I should at least call my aunt to see if I can say my goodbyes
too, but I don’t want to see her hooked up to machines. Most of all I just
don’t want to hear that she’s gone.”

Noah dialed the number, asked to speak
to an ICU nurse, and handed Hannah the phone.

“ICU nursing station,” said a dour
voice.

There was a quiver in Hannah’s voice as
she spoke. “I wanted to see how my cousin, Lydia Montgomery, is doing this
morning.”

The nurse’s tone went from dour to
cheerful. “Oh, my! We’re calling her our miracle.”

Hannah sat up. “Miracle?”

“Yes, indeed. Now keep in mind that she
is still in a coma, but she’s breathing on her own now. We can’t guarantee that
she’ll make a full recovery, but she is certainly moving in that direction.”

“Thank you,” Hannah said through her
tears.

“How is she?” Noah asked.

“She’s breathing on her own, but still
in a coma.” Hannah was smiling, laughing, and crying all at once.

“Now aren’t you glad you called?”

Hannah nodded. “Thank you again for all
that you’ve done.”

Noah stood up and moved the chair to the
side of the room. “You need to eat some breakfast.”

“I’m not really hungry,” she replied.

“You have to eat,” he said gently, “for
the baby.”

“Oh my God! I hadn’t even thought about
that since last night. How am I going to tell Nathaniel?”

Noah ran his fingers through his hair. “How
much have you and Nathaniel talked about things.”

“We talk about a lot of things,” Hannah
said hesitantly. “What things are you referring to?”

“Things about your future,” Noah
continued. “Have you talked about what your life would be like together? His
family? Have you talked about children?”

The whole conversation seemed strange to
Hannah, and she wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to know. “Nathaniel asked me
to marry him.”

Noah looked taken aback. “You’re
engaged?”

“Not exactly,” Hannah replied as she
climbed out of the bed. “You’re confusing me.”

Noah gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m
sorry.” He took both of her hands and pulled her into his arms.

Hannah leaned into him. “Do you think
he’ll be happy about the baby?”

“Yes,” Noah assured her. “I called him
about Lydia last night, and he’ll be home this morning. I told him that I’d
bring you over to the main house.”

“I think maybe I should just walk over
on my own.” Reluctantly, she pulled away from Noah. “Maybe this is a sign that
I should accept his proposal.”

Noah pulled back some, but held one of
her hands. The look on his face confused her. He seemed like he wanted to say
more, but wasn’t sure how.

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” he
suggested as he released her hand. “I’ll fix you some breakfast, and then shower
while you eat. We can walk over together later.”

“Okay, I’ll go shower now.” Hannah still
planned to talk to Nathaniel alone, but she didn’t want to argue with Noah.

After her shower, Hannah quickly
dressed. She waited for Noah to climb into the shower, before slipping out the
front door. As much as she wanted him with her, she needed to tell Nathaniel
about the baby alone. She’d heard Nathaniel’s car before her shower so she knew
he was home.

On the short walk to the house, Hannah
tried to think of a way to tell Nathaniel about the baby. She was pretty sure
he would be happy, but she was also convinced that he would insist on getting
married right away. As much as she hated to admit it, she just wasn’t sure she
wanted to marry Nathaniel. She turned and stared at Noah’s cottage. A big part
of her wanted to go back there. She wanted to talk to Noah about what she was
feeling, but she knew that was unfair to Nathaniel. With a sigh, she turned and
started walking again.

When she reached the main house, the
veranda doors were open. She called out from the doorway. No one seemed to hear
her, so she walked in. There were angry voices coming from upstairs. Suddenly
she heard Nathaniel’s shout. The sound of his raised voice frightened her a little.

Her curiosity made her walk toward the
commotion, but she stopped just outside of the door it originated from. It
wasn’t nosiness, she assured herself. She just wanted to make sure he was okay,
and find out what had made him angry. Well, that was only partially true. There
was some nosiness involved. Lydia’s accusations, followed by Noah’s cryptic
questions, had roused Hannah’s suspicions.

The door to the room was only slightly
ajar, so it was hard to see. There were at least four, probably five men in the
room. She knew one of them was Nathaniel, because she recognized his voice.

“What the hell were you thinking, Dom?”
Nathaniel’s voice was lower but the intensity of his rage still cut through the
air, sending shivers down Hannah's spine. “Never mind, you don't need to answer
that question, because I already know that you weren’t thinking at all!”

“What have I done that is so wrong,
Nathaniel?” Dominic stood in the corner, and she could see him pretty well. His
eyes shifted between Nathaniel to the strange man standing close to him. Hannah
assumed the other man was another one of Nathaniel’s cousins. It was hard to
make out his features, but she was sure that she had not met him before.

When Hannah saw the bruises on Dominic’s
face she nearly gasped. The entire left side of his face was swollen, and there
was a large cut next to his right eye. A trail of blood went from the corner of
his mouth down to his chin. Her eyes shifted to Nathaniel’s hands, and his
bloodied knuckles.

“I ordered you to stay away from Lydia,
not once but twice,” Nathaniel growled. “Your defiance is inexcusable. You know
damn well that you only need to feed a few times a year at your age, not a few
times a month.”

He struck Dominic to the ground, and
kicked him in the ribs twice. “You nearly killed her! You have betrayed your
family, and you deserve to die!”

Dominic clutched his rib cage and gasped
for air.

The strange man interrupted. “Who else
is aware of the unfortunate situation with the girl?” He had a thick accent
that Hannah couldn’t quite place. It was similar to Dominic’s accent, but he
didn’t seem to struggle with English like Dominic did. When this man spoke he
held everyone’s attention. Hannah had no idea who he was, but he scared
everyone in the room.

Dominic stood, almost trembling with
fear. “It has already been taken care of. Is that not right, Justin?”

Justin nodded, but did not look at
Dominic. “I took care of the records at the hospital.”

“No one is questioning Justin's loyalty
to this family,” Nathaniel said in a much calmer tone. “It is your loyalty that
is under scrutiny at the moment.”

Dominic stepped back. “There was no harm
done.” He turned to the strange man. “Please, I did nothing to endanger the
family. Humans are fragile, and they die every day. I would never betray you,
Uncle.”

“No harm! Is that what you think?”
Nathaniel’s rage was escalating again. His fists clenched and unclenched at his
sides. “That kind of reckless binge feeding almost wiped out our kind. Do you
remember the hunters that tried to eradicate our people? You should remember,
Dominic, after all, you lived through it. You saw your own father butchered!”

Dominic smiled nervously and shook his
head. “The death of one human girl won't cause suspicion.”

The strange man rested one hand on Dominic’s
shoulder. Dominic paled, as if touched by the hand of Death. “We already know
the girl isn’t merely a human,” he said. “Luckily for you, Noah discovered that
fact. Had the girl died, you would already be dead. I still may kill you for
your insolence.” His voice dropped even more. “This might be a good time for
you to discover religion and pray that the girl survives.”

Terror seized Hannah. They were all
insane. Then it hit her that they were saying Dominic had nearly killed Lydia.
None of this was possible. She knew that she should run, but fear paralyzed
her.

Nathaniel grabbed Dominic by the collar
of his shirt. “If your mistake causes me anymore trouble, you won’t need to
worry about the natural aging process.” His warning was chilling, and he glared
at Dominic for several seconds in silence before releasing him.

The strange man nodded at Nathaniel.

Hannah turned to flee, but in her haste
she dropped her purse.

The sound of her purse hitting the floor
startled Nathaniel, and he walked into the hallway. Hannah stared at her purse,
as the shadow of his figure loomed over her. Her eyes were wide with terror,
and she felt her heart pound against her rib cage.

Nathaniel bent down to pick up her
purse, but did not return it to her. “Hannah, I didn’t hear you come in. Noah
told me about your cousin, and I came home right away. Have you eaten?” His
voice was thoughtful and polite. Something in his eyes told her that he knew
she’d heard part of the conversation, but he wasn’t sure how much.

Instinctively she took a step back; her
hands trembled as she glared at him. “You son of a bitch! Who, or should I say
what, are you?”

He took a casual step forward, and
placed his hands on her shoulders. “Why are you so upset, Hannah?”

A shudder went through her as she felt his
hands on her body. His touch suddenly felt unnatural. She pushed his hands
away, and took another step back.

“Take your hands off of me, you
bastard.” She met his gaze. “You disgust me!” She looked around at the others
who had filed out into the hallway. “You all disgust me! I want to know what
you did to Lydia.”

Once more he stepped forward, bridging
the gap between them. “You must have misunderstood our conversation, Hannah.”
He smiled confidently.

His hand touched the side of her face,
but she pulled away from him again. “Liar!” she spat out.

“Calm down, Hannah.” Nathaniel, once
again, placed his hands on her shoulders. “Tension is not good for you or the
baby.”

Hannah's jaw dropped. “Noah told you
about the baby?”

He looked confused. “Noah knows about
the baby? How did he find out?”

“If Noah didn’t tell you, then how do
you know?” Hannah looked over her shoulder, and noticed that Drew and Justin
had moved behind her to block her escape route.

“Come sit down, and let me clarify what
you think that you heard.”

She shook her head wildly. “I don't want
to listen to any more of your lies. I just want to get as far away from you as
possible.” She turned to the stairs, and glared at Justin and Drew. “Get out of
my way!” she shouted. When they didn’t move, she spun around. “Tell them to
move!”

The strange man stepped forward and
scowled at Hannah. “You won’t be leaving, so I suggest that you calm yourself
and do as you are told. Life will be much more pleasant for you if you learn
how to behave appropriately. You really should show more appreciation for the
gift you’ve been given.”

The words were like a fist to the
stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Hannah turned and tried to push her way
through Justin and Drew, but they wouldn’t budge. Both men towered over her,
and she suddenly felt very helpless and alone.

Nathaniel’s hands massaged her shoulders
from behind. “I can’t let you leave. I know that you’re upset, but soon you’ll
understand that we belong together. You are not going to leave me, ever.” His voice
was just above a whisper. “You know I will always take care of you.”

Gathering all of her strength to respond
to his eerie declaration, she turned to face him. “I thought I knew you, but I
was wrong. I saw the real you today, and you are a monster.” She fought back
tears.

“How can you say such horrible things to
me, Hannah?” Nathaniel asked, oblivious to any wrong doing on his part. “You
just don’t understand what I’m offering you.”

The strange man spoke again. “These
hysterical fits will stop at once.”

Nathaniel looked at the man. “Please,
let me handle this, Father.”

He gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “This
begging for forgiveness is totally unnecessary. She will not leave, despite her
current wishes. Whether or not she forgives you is entirely irrelevant at this
point.”

Hannah began to tremble. This man
couldn’t possibly be Nathaniel’s father. She couldn’t imagine him being older
than his early thirties. None of this seemed real.

Nathaniel looked into her frightened
eyes, and spoke quietly. “Trust me; our life together is going to be
wonderful.”

“I would rather die than spend the rest
of my life with you,” she spat out.

He flinched as if she had struck him. “I
have given you the gift of eternal life. From the beginning of time, humans
have longed to possess that and it’s yours.”

Hannah let out a dark, humorless laugh.
“Eternal life? You are completely insane.”

The sound of her phone ringing startled
them all into silence. She reached quickly for her purse, but Nathaniel pulled
it farther from her reach. He took out the phone. “I’m going to answer this
phone. If you say one word, I will have to send someone over to make Trish
believe you were never friends. It won’t work with Caitlin so I will just have
her brought here.”

“No!” Justin shouted.

Hannah turned to stare at him for a
moment, and then returned her attention to Nathaniel.

“Please,” Hannah begged. “I promise that
I won’t say anything, just leave my friends alone.”

The phone started to ring again.

“Hello,” Nathaniel said as he answered
the phone. There was a brief pause while he listened. “Hi, Trish.” He paused
longer. “No, she’s sleeping. She was pretty sick this morning. Did you hear
that I’m going to be a father?” He paused again to listen to Trish. “I couldn’t
be more excited. We were already planning to get married, but now I think we’ll
bump up the date.” This time there was a much longer pause. “Sure, I’ll tell
her.” He hit the end button, and then put her phone in his shirt pocket.

A sick feeling came over Hannah as she
realized how effortlessly he’d just lied. Had he ever been honest with her? She
moved closer to Nathaniel, and looked up into his eyes. “Please let me go,
Nathaniel.”

His eyes closed, and he sighed. When he
opened his eyes, his face showed no emotion. “You are one of us now, Hannah,
and you cannot ever go back to being what you were before. You
will
be
my wife.”

“So we’ll just be one big happy family
with the man who nearly killed my cousin?” Hannah snapped.

“He will be gone within the hour,”
Nathaniel assured her.

“Where?” Hannah asked. “Are you calling
the police?”

“What should we tell them?” asked
Nathaniel’s father. Then a thought seemed to occur to him. “We could kill him
if that would make you feel better about the situation.”

Dominic took a step back, and stared at
her wide-eyed.

“Would that make this right for you?”
Nathaniel asked. He was serious.

It took Hannah a long time to process
this question. They had really just asked if she wanted them to kill someone. “Are
you joking? You can’t just kill him.”

“There was a time when he would have
already been dead,” Nathaniel’s father explained calmly.

Hannah started to shake her head back
and forth as if she could force herself to wake up from this terrible
nightmare. When she looked up at Nathaniel, tears were streaming down her face.
“I am begging you to let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone what happened. No
one would believe me even if I did tell them.”

Nathaniel looked down, and shook his
head. “I’ve already told you that you’re not going to leave me. When you became
pregnant with my son you became one of us. Even if I wanted to let you go, you
can’t survive on your own.”

Her hands moved protectively to her
belly. “What are you?”

“We are superior to humans,” Nathaniel
explained with pride. “Only a select few humans, like you, can ever reach this
state. You’ll need my help to adjust, and to survive. I’m not sure there is a
good word to describe what we are.”