Wicked Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 4) (17 page)

“Schedule another CT scan immediately,” Ethan said to Bonnie.

Then I felt practically ignored, invisible to everyone as they seemed to move around me in a veritable blur.

Whether I lived to be a hundred years old, I’d never forget the shocked expression on Kat’s face as I was whisked away for a series of scans.

* * *

Only those who’ve endured a severe or prolonged illness can understand the stress and worry of waiting on medical results—results that might determine life or death.

My entire life felt like it lay in the balance, and yet, I was left alone in a hospital bed, wondering what the next few hours would bring.

Would I die?

Would my body manage to survive a transformation into a vampire?

There were no distractions powerful enough to interrupt my seemingly endless streams of thoughts.

At first, I felt affronted for being left all alone.

Then I felt grateful.

The silence was almost soothing; or was that merely the numbness my mind felt from the anticipation?

Everyone’s probably huddled in Ethan’s office awaiting my test results.

Then I felt annoyed that I couldn’t be there with them.

Why should they get to find out something before me? I’m the patient, after all.

I massaged my closed eyelids with my fingertips and felt weariness begin to overtake me.

My existence felt both real and imagined, all in the same moment, like something from a dream or movie.

I heard someone enter the room and my eyes snapped open.

A tall, broad shouldered man in nurse’s scrubs walked over to glance at my chart that was hanging on my wall. Although he didn’t look familiar, he appeared quite comfortable as he made his way over to my IV drip.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Taylor,” he said cordially.

“Hi,” I replied. “Who are you exactly?”

“One of your nurses,” he said. “You can call me Sid, if you like.”

“What’s up, Sid?” I asked.

He produced a small syringe and said, “Everything’s fine. I’ve been asked to apply a small sedative, that’s all. It should help you relax.”

I frowned. “I had one a little earlier.”

However, he pointedly ignored me, so I lashed out with my hand.

I was surprised at how quickly I moved, though my grip felt weakened as I grasped his left wrist.

“No need to be alarmed,” he said.

He dislodged my grip, so I grabbed the end of my IV needle and jerked it from my arm.

Pain lashed through my forearm and I gasped.

He grabbed me by the throat with his left hand, and I vainly pried at it.

“We’ll do this the hard way—”

Though my reflexes felt sluggish, I managed to twist my body and rotate my right leg out from under my bed sheet and over the short bed railing to knee him in the ribs, though it had little effect. It felt like kneeing a side of beef.

Bonnie appeared out of nowhere, striking at his left arm with one hand while grasping him by the neck with the other.

With one swift motion, she dislodged the man’s hold on me and threw him to the other side of the room where he rolled onto the floor.

Kat entered the room with a puzzled expression on her face. “What the—?”

“Intruder!” Bonnie said.

Kat instantly disappeared from the doorway, only to reappear before the fellow, who lurched up from a crouch to stand.

She slammed him back down to the floor and was upon him like a snake striking. With a slam of her fist, she knocked his head back against the floor where he lay prone.

Bonnie moved to Kat’s side and bent down to pick up the small syringe.

“I’ll handle this, Ms. Rawlings,” she said reaching into her pocket.

She extracted her smartphone and began texting.

Kat looked at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He was trying to inject something into me.”

Though I felt somewhat groggy, I tried climbing out over the railing of the bed.

A breeze whipped by me and Kat rolled me back onto the bed, staring down into my eyes with concern.

“What
are
you doing?” she asked.

“I can’t stay here,” I said.

“Well, you’re in no condition to be up.”

I’d already figured that out for myself, but I really just wanted to get the hell out of that bed.

She pressed the flat of her hand against my chest, holding me down despite my attempts to wriggle free.

“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that,” she said. “But you’re not going anywhere.”

I relented and lay still. “It’s sort of amazing what I’ll do to get attention from you, isn’t it?”

She spared me a wan look. “As if you needed to.”

A couple of curious nurses and an orderly peeked into the room, only to be pushed aside by Alton and two men wearing dark suits.

“Not sure who he is,” Bonnie said. “He tried to inject Caleb with something.”

I peered around Kat’s body to see Alton staring back at me with a tight-lipped expression.

“Even in hospital, you’re quite the troublemaker,” he said.

“Uh, not my idea,” I said.

He spared me a wry expression before focusing his attention upon one of the two men.

“One of you secures the perimeter door,” he ordered flatly. “The other can help Nurse Lund relocate our visitor. I’ll want to have a word with him.”

A shiver went down my spine at Alton’s cold tone.

Meanwhile, Kat very gently helped rearrange my pillows. “Are you okay, my love?” she asked, worry lines forming on her otherwise beautiful face.

I nodded. “Fine now, thanks.”

She pulled the sheet and thin blanket over me as the man was removed from the room.

Alton walked to the end of my bed to face Katrina.

“Something tells me that Caleb was the likely target of the downtown snipers rather than you, Katrina,” he said.

She said nothing in reply but her stony features and tight-lipped expression spoke volumes.

Alton’s attention shifted to me and I could almost feel waves of power emanating from him. “Rest assured, my boy, you will not be left alone again.”

“Thanks,” I said.

He adopted a hopeful expression but then he looked serious again.

“You know something else, don’t you?” I said. “Do you know what’s happening to me?”

At first, neither Kat nor Alton said anything.

“I should let Dr. Reynolds---” he started to say.

“No, I want you to tell me,” I said. “No flowery words, no double-speak. Just tell me like it is.”

Alton’s gaze was sober, like a judge who was preparing to render a sentence.

“You’re between worlds, Caleb,” he said. “Your body is teetering on a precipice, and we don’t know which direction you’ll ultimately fall.”

Kat’s features fell and a look of sadness prevailed. She reached down to take one of my hands between both of hers.

I was almost afraid to ask my next question.

“Will I turn?”

“If you do, then you’ll likely die,” he said. “Your brain won’t be able to sustain the strain in its current state. Kat’s blood may not succeed in healing your brain tissue in time for it to sustain the turning process.”

I swallowed hard to relax the lump that had formed in my throat.

I didn’t want to die.

But I didn’t really want to be a human any longer, either.

It was as if recent events dictated that my longevity depended upon my being a vampire; there seemed to be no other way to improve my odds for survival.

My life had become too dangerous otherwise; remaining human was no longer a viable option.

“I—I’d rather not die,” I said.

I wanted to be turned.

Part of me knew that I
needed
to be turned.

But I had to embrace my humanity if I wanted any chance of continued…life.

Later. I can always be turned later, right?

But then, the choice wasn’t really mine. My continued survival was up to my body. Or rather, it was up to my body’s immune system to overcome the vampire cells that were permeating my body.

The healing blood in my body—Kat’s blood—was what was trying to turn me into a vampire, even as it healed the damage to my brain.

My savior was also my damnation.

Dammit.

Kat squeezed my hand between hers supportively.

I rubbed at my forehead with my free hand.

“Fight it, my boy,” Alton said.

I looked up at him. “What?”

“You’re not merely a helpless pawn,” he said. “Sheer willpower can accomplish things that modern medical science can’t even begin to understand, much less replicate.”

Willpower.

I cocked one eyebrow at him as he moved to stand next to me. He reached down to grasp my shoulder as he looked into my eyes in an almost paternal fashion.

In that moment, I felt a sense of immeasurable reassurance from him, and I wished I’d had a father like him when I was growing up.

“There’s no line drawn in the sand here,” he said. “This isn’t your only opportunity for a transformation, you know. And it’s not something to be entered into lightly. There are accommodations that can make the transition much more bearable, and we haven’t prepared any of that yet.”

Accommodations?

“And besides, we have so much more left to accomplish before then,” he said. “Think upon that.”

Okay, that sounded pretty cryptic.

Then, without another word or before I could query him further, he turned and quietly exited the room without even looking back.

Kat sighed. I looked into her sharp green eyes.

“What?”

“Don’t even ask me what he meant by that,” she said with a shrug. “He certainly hasn’t consulted with me on the matter.”

While I was willing to bet that annoyed her in no small way, frankly, I was too exhausted to contemplate the matter further.

I lay back against my pillows feeling wearier than I recalled in a long time; my mind felt both hazy and tired.

Kat sat on the edge of my bed, gently caressing her soft cool fingertips across my forehead.

I closed my eyes and soon felt myself drifting off to sleep.

“Rest well, my love,” I heard her whisper.

* * *

It was late morning on the sixth day following my surgery that Ethan, Kat, Alton, and Paige gathered around me for a discussion. The mood in the room seemed ominous to me, though Ethan offered me a reassuring expression. And while I considered him to be a sincere person, I wondered if it was more a practiced response than genuine optimism.

“Well, let’s have it, doctor,” Alton said.

Paige closed the door to the room and Kat moved to stand next to me, reaching out to hold my right hand between both of hers.

“Caleb, I realize you’ve already spoken with Alton about the gest of things,” Ethan said. “Based upon previous extensive studies, it’s readily known that a vampire’s conversion process, commonly referred to as the turning, occurs first in the area surrounding brain stem.”

“I don’t suppose I could read the white papers on that,” I quipped.

Ethan smiled. “Those might be hard to come by.”

Kat arched her brow at me.

I shrugged. What could I say? Levity was sort of a defense mechanism for me.

“As conversion centers near the brain stem, the direct application of Katrina’s blood in that region during your operation was a delicate process. We placed blood close to where it would most ideally stimulate efficient healing of the damaged areas while hoping to avoid the conversion process,” Ethan explained.

“So the vampire cells are currently converting my brain tissue?” I asked.

“They’re attempting to,” he said. “Fortunately, you have a strong immune system and we’ve been injecting you with some of the strongest antibiotics available, so the vampire cells are being hampered. However, we’re at a stage where the vampire cells may be gaining the upper hand.”

I wondered if anyone else in the room found it ironic that my hope of survival involved overcoming Kat’s blood and its attempt to overwhelm me.

I half expected Paige to say,
I warned you Kat might consume you in the end.

As those odd thoughts and symbolisms floated through my mind, Kat perched on the edge of my bed and enfolded me in her arms.

“What now?” I asked, looking up at Ethan.

His attention reverted from me to Alton, who nodded.

“At this point, there’s not much more that we can do but wait,” he said. “But if things progress negatively, we don’t want to draw any undue attention here in the hospital. Already, the episode with your attacker risked undesirable exposure.”

“Who was Sid, anyway?” I asked.

“Sid?” Paige asked.

“He said his name was Sid,” I said.

“Sidney Darzoli was a midrate assassin who won’t be troubling us any longer,” Alton said. “And soon, neither will those who sent him.”

“Agreed,” Kat said.

Ethan cleared his throat. “As I was saying, Caleb, I think that it’s time to discharge you. There’s very little else we can do here that I can’t provide you at home, and you’ll probably feel more comfortable there.”

A sense of uneasiness pervaded in me.

“So, there’s nothing more we can do except wait?” I asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Ethan said. “Although we’ll have around the clock nursing assistance for you, and I’ll be available at any time, if needed.”

My eyes scanned the faces in the room, each looking somber and quiet.

“We’ll make you very comfortable, my love,” Kat said in a tight voice. “You won’t want for anything.”

A lump formed in my throat. I felt like a patient being placed on hospice.

Alton walked over to me and placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “We’re not giving up on you, Caleb. And to be brutally honest, we’re not sending you home to die,” he insisted, gazing down upon me with a self-assured expression. “We merely need the privacy of somewhere discreet, and the estate meets both yours and our needs quite nicely. Understood?”

To be brutally honest…

Alton had always shot straight with me when using our secret phrase. It was our agreement, of sorts.