Camille (23 page)

All eyes focused on the lad in the tree. I
stepped back next to Dr. Bennett. “Do you think the branch looks
strong enough to hold him?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Especially not a tree
limb that has been dried out by cold and wind.”

Strider scooted onto the branch, but the
movement was slight enough to not cause a stir or catch Emily’s
attention. Strider seemed to be assessing the situation himself. He
moved a tiny bit, and the tree emitted a small creaking sound.

I ran closer. “Be careful, Nathaniel!”

Emily looked back over her shoulder. “Hello.
You’re that fine-looking boy my sister loves.”

My cheeks burned. I turned to Dr. Bennett.
“She’s fortunate that she is out of my reach.”

Strider scooted a bit closer and smiled. That
was all he needed to do. He stretched a strong arm to her. “Why
don’t you take my hand, Emily, and I’ll carry you down on my
back.”

Emily glanced at the basket balanced in front
of her. “First, I need to set them free.” He stretched his hand to
her again. “May I help?”

“Of course!” Emily looked down at me and
winked before returning her attention to Strider. “But first you
must promise that you will never, never, never break my dear
sister’s heart.”

Strider’s brown gaze drifted my direction for
a moment. I shyly looked down at my feet deciding that when Emily
was safely down from the tree, I would strangle her.

“I promise,” he nearly whispered it, but I
heard every syllable. I looked back up at the branch. He was
staring at me, and I wanted to kiss him.

Suddenly a loud crack ripped through the air.
Strider’s eyes widened as the branch beneath him started to give
way. He lunged for Emily and pulled her against his chest. The
breaking branch jarred them and the basket flew from my sister’s
hands, the papery contents floated in all directions, like a
rainbow of fluttering butterflies. Or in this case, fairies.

Emily smiled at them and laughed as Strider
lowered her closer to Samuel’s arms and then dropped her. Samuel
dashed out from under the branch with Emily still giggling in his
arms as it snapped clean off. The spectators drew in a collective
breath as Strider fell to the ground with it. But the gasp was cut
short and silence befell the group as he landed on his feet without
incident. He shot me a look of worry. I glanced around the faces.
While they seemed astonished at what they’d witnessed, they seemed
to easily dismiss it as youthful agility and strength. They
applauded his bravery. The lad had, after all, climbed the tree and
saved Emily without incident.

Dr. Bennett raced over to Emily while I
hurried to pick up the scattered pieces of her paper collection. I
knew my sister well enough to deduce that once free of her laudanum
stupor, she would be distraught about the loss of her fairies.
Strider crouched down next to me to with the basket to help.

“Thank you,” I said without looking at him.
Energy seemed to pulse around him.

“Tis an easy enough task.” He dropped two
fairies into the basket.

“Not this. I mean, Thank you for getting
Emily down safely.”

He held up a paper sculpture. Its wings were
smashed. “This one didn’t make the jump.” I grabbed it from him and
shoved it my pocket. “Elgar was always weak.”

Strider’s fingers brushed the back of my
hand. “The strength I feel,” he said, “I never imagined it would be
like this. If only there were a way--“

“To tame it? There isn’t.” I grabbed his arm.
It was solid like rock under my grasp. “When this—this
transformation takes hold you will not be able to contain it. It
will drive you to murder anything in your path.” I released my hold
on him and I could feel the muscle in his arm relax. “Even me.”

He dropped a handful of fairies in the
basket, stood, and walked away. I glanced up to see Samuel carrying
Emily into the hospital, Dr. Bennett close at his heels. I finished
sweeping the rest of the forest creatures into the basket and
headed inside. With the state my sister was in, I calculated I had
an hour or two to return them to their wires before she noticed
anything was amiss.

Dr. Bennett handed me the fairies one at a
time as I stood on a chair to hang them. Occasionally, I would
steal a glance out the window to the yard below. Strider was
leaning against the tree he’d just climbed smoking a cigar, a
reward from Dr. Bennett.

“Your sister has been through much today. I
don’t think it right to draw blood from her in this state.”

“We must.” I waved my arm around the room
nearly toppling off the edge of the chair with my theatrics. “She
lives in a bloody asylum. I hardly think having her blood drawn is
a unique event.” I jumped off the chair and stood in front of him.
“I think your theory is a good one. Let’s test it.”

“I agree.” He glanced at my sister who slept
like an angel under her heavy blankets. “But I’ll draw your blood
instead.”

“Mine?” A seed of jealousy sprouted in my
chest. Was he trying to protect Emily because she belonged to him?
After all I was no relation.

He grabbed both my hands. I tugged them out
of his grasp and stared up at him.

“Cami, don’t you see? Where is your
scientist’s logic? If you showed no signs of infection after being
bit, then you must have immunity. Whether it came from your
sister’s blood or not, you were the one who fought off the
transformation. Your blood will be our surest bet.”

I looked out the window. Less than a month
ago, he was merely a specimen. Now just having a pane of glass and
an expanse of yard between us made me miss him. I would risk
anything to save him. Suddenly, how right it seemed that my blood
be used for the task. I picked up the basket and stepped onto the
chair. “Let me hang the rest of these before you bore holes in
me.”

****

“That is all? That’s all you intend to take?”
I stomped after Dr. Bennett pressing a bandage against the slit in
my arm.

He stopped and twisted around so abruptly I
smacked in to his chest. The traitorous dimples appeared beneath
his beard as he smiled down at me. “You and your sister exchanged
only a small amount of blood that night, and it was enough to save
your life.”

He turned and walked away and I continued my
march behind him. “But we had days before the next full moon. There
was plenty of time. Now time is short. Surely, you know enough
people at the hospital that you can borrow an instrument for
transfusion.”

He stopped again, but this time I was ready
for it. When he turned there was no smile. His blue eyes darkened.
“It’s too risky. Besides, I know nothing of the technique. I will
not experiment on you.”

Dr. Bennett lit a lamp in the dark kitchen.
“Let’s put some water on to boil. I could use some hot tea. It’s
been a long day.”

“But you were willing to experiment on him.”
I pointed up the stairs.

Dr. Bennett’s gaze shot to the stairwell.
“Cami, lower your voice. He’ll hear you.”

“I believe it’s too late for that. Nathaniel
knows he’s your specimen.” I leaned closer now because the rest I
truly didn’t want Strider to hear. “You could care less about him.
In your mind, he’s already your prey.” His face blanched in the
wavering light. “Well, do not bother to shine your silver bullets,
John Bennett, because this hunt is over. Boil your own water.” I
headed to the stairs. I was sure he’d call after me but only
silence followed me up the stairs.

Strider was sitting upon the work table
browsing through an anatomy book when I returned to the lab. The
tension in my shoulders eased as he glanced up at me with those
extraordinary brown eyes.

“Why are you sitting up there?” I asked.

Strider motioned toward the cot with his
head. My gaze followed. In the shadow of the rickety bed, Dutch
crouched with fur standing up so straight, the stripes had
vanished. Apparently, the cat had decided to take the matter into
its own hands, or in this case paws. Normally, the animal never
ventured into the lab. I walked over to the cot and gave it a
shake. Dutch skittered past snarling and slicing the air with his
claws before dashing from the room.

“You’d better get down from there. If Dr.
Bennett sees you on his table, you’ll wish you’d taken your chances
with the cat.”

He hopped down and scratched the skin
surrounding the incision. “Now I know what your sister must go
through.”

I grabbed his hand and held it out to get a
better look at his forearm. The skin was red and swollen. “It
couldn’t be infection this soon. Besides, Dr. Bennett took every
precaution to avoid it.” I could not organize the thoughts flashing
through my mind. Was my blood already producing immunity in his
system, or was he having a terrible reaction to it? Perhaps we were
wholly incompatible. “I’ll get Dr. Bennett.”

I turned to leaved, but he held fast to my
hand. I faced him again. He stepped closer. Strider picked up my
hand and laced his large fingers through mine. My gaze lifted to
his face. His incredibly handsome features seemed more vivid than
before, and the air around him seemed to pulsate. Any girl with a
clear thought in her head would have been terrified, but my
thoughts had not been clear since the moment I’d first met
Nathaniel Strider.

Strider leaned his face toward mine and
kissed me lightly. I could sense that he was holding back what
might have been a much more ravishing kiss. Energy radiated from
every inch of him. “I suppose we’re connected for life now.” His
mouth was so close, I could feel his breath on my face as he
spoke.

I moved closer this time and pressed the side
of my face against his chest and listened to his frenzied
heartbeat. “I think we’ve always been connected. Even before we
knew each other. That is why my life has been so bizarre, Nathaniel
Strider. It was fate. It brought you to me.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Aye, only it
brought you to me.”

We stood like that for a long moment, in each
other’s embrace, pretending that we would live happily ever after
until the sound of a throat clearing in the doorway broke us from
our imagined fairy tale ending.

Dr. Bennett stepped into the room. His lips
were pulled tightly, and he did not look at either of us as he made
his way to the stack of notes on his work table. He rummaged
through them and marched out with stiff shoulders.

Strider stepped back. “He is angry at me for
touching you.”

“No, he is angry at me. We had some heated
words a few moments ago in the kitchen.”

Now Strider would not look at me either.
“I’ve been thinking,” his gaze remained fixed on the floor,
“perhaps I should leave for now. Until this whole thing is
over.”

“Over? If only it were all that simple.” I
walked back to the shelves to continue the mission I’d begun when
I’d first walked into the lab. The chloral hydrate bottle sat at
the front edge of the rows of bottles. “Now, time is short,” I said
confidently, “and you have an assignment.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What are you up to,
girl?”

“Can you get us access to a family crypt in
one of the cemeteries tomorrow night?”

“Just name the graveyard, and I’ll get us
in.”

“The graveyard is no matter, Highgate,
Brookwood, one of the others. But we must have entrance to a
mausoleum. And not one made of bricks and mortar. It must be solid
stone.”

His eyes widened with interest. “Aye, those
are the expensive ones. Lots of rich people buried inside. But
there’s usually not much loot inside.”

I wrapped the chloral hydrate in a cloth so
Dr. Bennett would not see me carrying it out. “No matter. You will
not be stealing from the corpses anyhow.” I walked up to him, rose
up to my toes, and kissed his cheek. “You’ll be spending the night
with them.”

****

My mind flashed from fear to rage and back to
fear again as I searched frantically for the pistol and bullets.
The unsteady desk wobbled as I rummaged through the drawer contents
one last time. A musty smell lingered in the air of the small
office as I glanced around hoping he had left it lying amongst the
piles of articles and books. It was gone. Dr. Bennett, apparently
worried that things would go bad quickly, had taken the weapon. At
first, I’d intended to confront him about his cowardice, but I
refrained. The chloral hydrate was my only defense now, and I would
use it.

Footsteps sounded on the wood planks of the
floor behind me. I twisted around and pushed the drawer shut with
my bottom. It was Strider. He looked weary from lack of sleep. I’d
heard him pacing the guest bedroom most of the night. His arm was
still wrapped with the linen we’d used to keep him from scratching
his skin raw.

“How is your arm?” I asked stepping away from
the desk and masking the worry in my expression.

“Feels like I have an army of ants crawling
through my veins.” He raised the arm, and I took hold of his hand.
His skin was hot as if a fever raced through him. I touched his
warm forehead, and he pressed it hard against the palm of my
hand.

“’Tis no fever,” he said quietly, “not in the
usual sense anyhow.” I lowered my hand and my eyes. The intensity
of his gaze was too much for me. By now he could sense that
something magnificent, something horrific, something unimaginable
was taking hold of him and nothing could stop it. “I’ve talked to
my friend, Hale, at Brookwood Cemetery. Everything is set for
tonight.” His hands reached for my waist but dropped as Dr. Bennett
stepped into the room.

“What are you two doing in here?” Although
the question was directed at both of us, he looked straight at
me.

“I had not seen Dutch this morning, and I
worried that he might have wandered into your book study. Nathaniel
was helping me look for the cat.”