BloodGifted (28 page)

Chapter 28

Night Watch

ALEC

It was after midnight as Luc and I settled into separate chairs on either side of Laura’s bed in the emergency ward. Once her condition stabilised I planned to move her to one of the suites on the next floor. But for now I thought it best to keep her here, under close observation. It was going to be a long night.

I
watched her as she slept. It had been touch and go there for a while and I knew I’d taken an enormous risk with her life. But it had paid off. Maris was dead, yet she had still managed to nearly kill her.

We
had sped here, running every red light. Taking her to the closest public hospital wasn’t an option—there would be too many questions. Laura’s blood carried the
Ingenii
mutation shared only by Luc and myself and I always kept a unit of my own blood in storage for experimental purposes. Tonight it saved her life.

‘I should ring Judy.
’ Luc’s hushed voice broke in.

‘Mmmm, she need
s to know. Tell her Laura’s sleeping peacefully now. If she can wait till the morning it’d be better.’ I leaned over and stroked Laura’s cheek and forehead. Her temperature was up a bit. Only to be expected.

I stood and changed the blood
bag and checked the IV fluid line just as Carol did her rounds.

‘Shall I bring you some coffee?’ she asked.

I smiled a grateful thanks and she walked out with the emptied bag of blood as well. Within minutes she was back with a steaming cup of espresso.

‘Carol, remind me to give you a raise.’

‘You already have—that’s why I’m still here,’ she laughed softly.

‘You’re irreplaceable! Oh and one more favour. Go to my office, please and bring me the spare mobile I keep on the desk.’

‘Certainly.’ She glanced at the bed where Laura lay sleeping, smiled at me, and left.

Since the previous mobile had met
with a rather violent end, and I couldn’t be without one, the extra I had been given by the phone company would do till I could arrange for a replacement. When Carol came back, I spent some time redirecting my calls while listening to Laura’s steady heartbeat. Soon the anaesthetic would wear off and she’d be sleeping on her own.

‘Judy’s on her way,’ Luc said. ‘I had to let her know
what happened.’

He had
his head bowed over his knees, hands clasped tensely in front of him. Then quite unexpectedly, he began to laugh; his whole body shook with the intensity of it.

‘What
has gotten into you?’ I asked.

It to
ok a while for him to stop. ‘Her blood is poison to our kind! If we’d known that when she was born, there would have been no need to hide her. No one would have dared touch her. The heartache I put Judy and myself through, all for nothing! Laura’s blood was her protection.’ He buried his head in his hands.

‘You weren’t to know. None of us knew. There’s no precedent for what Laura is.’

He lifted his head and looked at me. ‘She could have been safe at home with us. The men would have guarded her day and night as they have these last fifty years.’ His voice broke. ‘You have any idea how many times I wanted to go to John and Eilene and ask for my daughter back?’

‘Luc, listen to me. Even if the Brethren had known about her; known that her blood was fatal to them, you think that would have stopped them? They may have attempted to kill her instead. What if tonight’s kidnapping occurred when she was a child? She wouldn’t be alive now. Think about that.’

‘I want to believe you’re right,’ he whispered.

‘I’m sure of it. As long as no one knew of her existence, she was safe. Your sacrifice was worth it.’

His gaze bored into mine. ‘How long have you known?’

‘Since this morning. I’d been running a few tests and the results were texted to me.’

‘You took a hell of a risk with her life.’

‘I’m sorry, Luc, but I had to. And I was right.’

He let out a deep breath and sat back in his chair. ‘How is it possible? No other
Ingenii
had poisonous blood.’

‘It’s the rare combination of
Ingenii
and vampire, and not just any vampire, but one from the Antonii line—from your father Marcus. Because you were born a vampire, your blood is unlike any other. And that is just as unprecedented as what Laura is and the reason why her blood didn’t kill me during the Ritual. You changed me, therefore
your
blood runs in my veins providing me with the immunity I need to remain as her guardian. Maris, on the other hand, was changed by Sam, who is not an Antonii.’

He nodded. ‘That’s
probably why Marcus, you and I can father children while my men can’t. The transformation made them as sterile as the rest of our kind, but the witch’s curse ensured we had descendants,’ he said bitterly.

‘Speaking of which—
’ I glanced at Laura ‘—does she know you’re Lucius Antonius, Marcus’s son?’

He shook his head. ‘She has enough to
deal with already. It’ll have to wait.’

‘Don’t keep it
too long.’

Hurried footsteps came
from the reception area. Judith. Luc rose and pulled the curtain aside.

‘How is she, Luc?’ They embraced before going to Laura’s side.

‘She’s going to be all right, my love.’

Judith took in the number
of needles in Laura’s arms, the IV fluid, the units of blood and her face paled. She let her shoulder bag drop to the ground and rushed to her daughter’s side. ‘Laura, Laura! My dear one,’ she whispered, sat in Luc’s vacated chair and took Laura’s good hand in both of hers.

Luc
perched on the edge of the bed and together they kept vigil by their daughter’s bedside.

‘I’m curious to know why you avoided seeing her as a child?
’ Luc unexpectedly asked. ‘Jake enjoyed carrying her around, Cal made silly faces to entertain her at dinner and Jean spoke to her in French. She blew raspberries at him!’ They both smiled.

I recalled that time.
Each week Eilene would bring Laura to Judith’s house. There she would spend the day with her real parents and “uncles”. This continued until she reached school age. After that, Luc and the others kept their distance. Only “Auntie” Judith attended her birthday parties.

As Laura grew to adulthood, the memory of them
would have faded. They figured it was safer she didn’t know her true parentage and Luc was extremely careful that none of our kind ever suspected whose child she really was. I tended to avoid those gatherings.

I looked from Laura from them.
‘After all this time you’re asking me now? You both know how I feel about the Dantonvilles and I’m not going to apologise, Judith.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s all right, Alec, I understand. My father was not a good man.’

Wh
at an understatement. ‘I didn’t want to become attached to a little girl who was the granddaughter of my enemy.’

‘Oh Alec. I’m so sorry. We should have known,’ Judith said
. She reached across the bed and squeezed my hand in a heartfelt gesture. ‘But she’s my daughter too, and we’re not enemies.’

I smiled. ‘No, we’re not.’

There was silence again for a while. Laura’s breathing was steady. Every now and then she stirred in her sleep and murmured something incoherent.

‘I’m moving her to one of the private suites,’ I said to them. ‘She doesn’t ne
ed to be in emergency any more.’

I went to the duty desk and
arranged for Laura’s transfer to a vacant suite. Two of the nursing staff accompanied me. We removed the needles from her arm then wheeled her from the emergency room and into the elevator. The others followed. There was enough anaesthetic left in her system to prevent her waking as I lifted her from the gurney and onto the bed.

Luc did
his best to persuade Judith to go home and get some sleep. She looked physically and emotionally drained from the last few days and it was taking its toll. Her hands shook as she tucked the blankets around Laura. Luc took her elbow to steady her as she stumbled around the bed.

‘Judy, Laura won’t wake for many hours yet.’

She looked at him, torn between exhaustion and a mother’s reluctance to leave her injured child.

‘If there is any change at all, I’ll ring you straight away. In the morning you’ll be refreshed and ready to see her. Please,’ he begged her.

She sighed. ‘All right, at least I know you’re here with her.’ After a last longing look at Laura, Judith left the room. Luc said he would escort her down to her car.

After ensuring Laura was comfortable, and with a small jug of w
ater by her bedside, I left the room and closed the door behind me. Laura was safe. The danger was over and I was sure Sam and Terens were taking their revenge. As I stood there, leaning against the door, I tuned my senses to hear how things were progressing in the theatre. Antonius and Kwome were there—the executions had begun.

I tuned back out
rather than listen to the rebels begging for their lives and instead thought back over events of the last two days, and something became glaringly clear. As far as the Brethren had been aware, Judith’s only child had died in infancy. Now, for the first time in over eighteen hundred years, there appeared to be no heir. All the rebels had to do was wait. What’s fifty years to our kind? They attend the Ritual, expecting to hear the Elders declare there is no successor then, lo and behold, I walk in with Laura. No wonder the number of shocked and hostile faces. Why didn’t I make the connection at the time?

My pager beeped. I was wanted at the reception desk.
I checked my watch. It was four in the morning. The only people working at this hour were medical personnel—like me—shift workers, drug dealers and the police. I had a feeling it was the latter.

I took the fire escape stairs down to Reception.
My hunch had been right. Two plain-clothes detectives awaited me. They exuded the air of confidence and cynical expression common to police. I’d noticed the same thing with Matthew Sommers.

The
male was the older of the two—a portly man in his mid to late forties with a receding hairline. The dark circles under his eyes went with the territory. The woman, maybe in her late twenties, wore a navy blue pants suit. Her eager expression gave the impression of one just promoted to detective. I guessed she couldn’t wait to question me.

They both straightened at my approach. It amused me the way the woman bit down on her lower lip and smoothed her brown shoulder-length hair behind her ears.

‘I’m Dr Alec Munro. How can I help you?’

‘I’m Detective Senior Constable Delaney and this is Detective Constable Norris.’ He gave me a firm handshake.

They flashed their respective badges. Delaney cleared his throat. ‘It’s about Detective Inspector Sommers—the assault victim you treated last night and the young lady, Laura Dantonville… Is there somewhere we can speak privately?’ he asked.

‘My office. Down the corridor.’

I led the way, a confident smile concealing my struggle to construct a believable story. The absolute truth was out of the question. I hated lying, yet creative invention was an unavoidable part of my life. There was no way I could divulge the existence of my kind and their part in Sommers’s injury. And I couldn’t see how to leave Laura out of this. The police had found him found in her apartment. How could I explain Laura’s abduction and my failure to notify them? And how might I explain her not being seen by the paramedics or taken to the same hospital?

Since my transformation, headaches had been non-existent. Now I distinctly felt one coming on.

‘Please be seated.’ I indicated chairs near my desk. I could see them taking in the details of my office. Delaney’s eyes homed in on the framed copies of my various degrees and qualifications. Norris had her incident pad at the ready. I had to be extremely careful what I said.

Delaney began the interrogation. ‘You often work this late, or did you have an early start today?’

‘This is a research facility as well as a hospital. I often work through the night on experiments.’

‘The paramedics said you treated D.I. Somme
rs at the scene and gave them your card. Is that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Approximately what time was that?’

Damn! I’d almost forgotten the three-hour gap between finding
Sommers and Laura’s hospitalisation. Carol would have recorded the time on the supply sheet when she fetched the units of blood. If they requested that sheet the time difference would be difficult to explain. I kept my voice even. ‘Sometime after 9.30. It was already dark.’

He nodded. ‘T
ell us what happened?’

If I couldn’t come up with
a plausible explanation, I might have to resort to hypnotism. ‘I was driving past, testing my new GPS device and stopped to check its accuracy, when I heard a scream from the block of units nearby.’ I paused for a moment to give the impression I was recalling events.