Beauty Bites (25 page)

His form blurred, like Ric when he’d escaped the mountainous goon…was it only two days ago? For a moment I lost my focus as Bo became fuzzy, almost misty, with a sound like the wind stirring a thousand tiny leaves. The dirt coating him dropped to the ground with pellet-like smacks. A moment later he solidified in a snap, his naked skin completely clean.

Nikos pressed strips of shirt into my hand. I snapped back into doctor mode and packed the strips into Elena’s wound.

Bo’s head dropped, and he began
licking
around my hands.

“What the fuck…?” I kept packing. Used my elbow to shove him away. “What are you doing?” I got the wound packed and applied pressure. He tried to shift my hands. “Stop that!”

“It’s okay,” Twyla said. “Their saliva heals.”

“You’re kidding.” I glanced at her. She was serious.

I didn’t like it. But vampires existed. What was a miracle or two besides? I slid my hands to one side so Bo could try his vampire therapy. As he began to lick vigorously I asked, “The baby?”

“I can hear its heart beat,” Ric said. “It’s fine.”

I relaxed somewhat. Babies in the womb are incredibly well-protected, packed in fluid-filled human bubble wrap, thick muscular sheeting and a sturdy bone box. Still, good to know.

“
Herregud
. It’s not working.” Bo’s voice cracked as he raised his head. Blood trickled from Elena’s ruined abdomen. “The wound…it’s too deep.”

No vampire miracle. Not good. I readjusted the packing and pressed down.

Elena’s brown eyes were going in and out of focus. Definitely not good. Her breathing was labored. I touched her skin. It was cool despite the July heat.

“She needs warmth.” I pointed at Bo. “Lie next to her.” It would give him something useful to do. Especially helpful if later…

No, that was later. Now was for doing everything I could.

Bo stretched out next to his wife. He kissed her forehead tenderly. “Stay with me, Detective. We made it through Dracula, we’ll make it through this.”

“This…hurts more.” She coughed. “Chilly…” Her eyes closed.

“More heat,” I said. “Her other side.”

“On it.” Ric lay down next to her.

Shivering, Elena’s eyes closed.

“Please, Detective.” Bo’s voice broke. “Stay with me. I need you.”

“The ambulance is coming,” Twyla said.

“Good.” I kept my tone brisk, despite my hammering heart and clammy hands. “Twyla, come here. Keep this in place.” I put her hands on the shirt-bandage. “Keep the pressure up.” When I was satisfied she was holding steady, I moved to take Elena’s wrist.

No pulse. Her extremities were closing down. I went immediately to the carotid in her neck.

A pulse, good. But far too rapid, bad. Her heart beat like a hummingbird, trying desperately to pump blood that wasn’t there. “How long until that damned ambulance gets here?”

“Ten minutes,” Twyla said. “Will that be enough time to—oh.”

My face must have said what I would not put into words. Elena didn’t have ten minutes.

“Maybe the bleeding has stopped,” she said tentatively. “Let’s peek under the bandage—”

“No.” I cut her off. “Keep the pressure up.”

“Synnove.” Bo’s cheeks were running red tears. “You’re a doctor. Can’t you do something? Sew it closed?”

“It’s packed. The best thing is to keep the pressure up and wait for the ambulance—”

“No,” Nikos said. “Call the Ancient One.”

“What can he do?” Ric demanded. “He’s no human doctor.”

“He knows things,” Bo said. “Call him, Nikos.”

“I have no phone.”

“Use mine.” Twyla raised her hands to reach for her back pocket.

“Pressure,” I snapped.

Startled, Twyla pressed her hands back.

Elena started gasping for breath.

I barked, “Whatever we do, do it now!”

“
Theos
.” Nikos grabbed the phone out of Twyla’s jeans. It looked like a toy in his big hand. He hit a speed dial and put it gingerly to his ear. There were no introductions. The instant the line connected he said, “Sir, Elena’s dying.”

The pulse under my fingers weakened. I gritted my teeth. Even unconscious, hearing “dying” was bad.

“Yes, sir. Right away.” Nikos stowed the phone, then knelt next to me, took out his leaf-bladed knife and raised his arm over Elena. “Do not stop me.”

I glanced at him. Then stared. In the wash of moonlight, the stoic Nikos looked absolutely sick. “Nikos, what are you planning?”

He hadn’t had time to get more than a few words of instruction. I didn’t see how he could save Elena’s life with a few words.

“I give her my blood.”

“Your
blood
? You mean, like make her into a vampire?” It kicked me out of my knowledge zone. All the doubt and fear that I’d switched off came flooding back. “No. No way. I know she wants to, but we don’t know what it will do to the baby.”

“No time.” He raised his blade. “Remove the packing.”

“Mine,” Bo snarled, rearing up. “My wife, my blood.”

“It must be the oldest blood,” Nikos said. “That’s mine.”

“Lover. Do you have to?” Twyla’s eyes glistened with tears. Whatever Nikos was preparing to do, the act was significant.

“Yes, love.”

“No.” I barred Elena’s body with both arms. “At least let me deliver the baby first—”

“I heal her.” Nikos grabbed my wrists in one hand and gently moved me out of his way. Arm directly above Elena’s belly, he slit his wrist without a flinch. The first rivulet hit Twyla’s hands as she pulled strips of shirt from the wound.

The gash exposed the liver’s purplish brown, almost black in the moonlight. How did Nikos think he’d heal that? The wound was fatal. “But vampire blood turns humans.” I was panting but I couldn’t hear it as my vision narrowed on Nikos’s arm and Elena’s mutilated belly. A thin stream of blood ran between, as slender as an IV line. I couldn’t hear anyone breathing. Maybe they’d all stopped.

Nothing happened.

It wasn’t working. Well, how could it? How could dead vampire blood heal a live human being? Bo and Nikos hadn’t known about it. Probably the Ancient One had made it up.

“Blood turns the dead,” Twyla said. “As long as she’s alive, this’ll heal her.”

Elena’s harsh breathing and her stuttering pulse said the end was near. Hoping for a miracle but knowing it was too late, yet I begged for one, with all my might, as Nikos poured out his blood.

Still nothing happened.

In the near-silence, a rustle from the bushes crackled clearly.

Ric jerked up. “Who’s there?”

Branches snapped. The thud of running feet went off into the underbrush.

Someone had been watching us.

Ric started to get up. I caught at him. “Keep her warm.” He sank back down.

“It’s not working.” Bo, voicing my fears, made them coldly real. His face was stark white, red tears brimming dark in contrast. “Oh God, it’s not working.”

The thread of blood had become a rivulet. Nikos hadn’t stopped cutting. I’m not squeamish when it comes to blood, but he sliced until the rivulet became a river, sawed until dark sheets were pouring into Elena’s wound. Until his own skin was pale and translucent.

It was unspeakably messy. The blood splashed like rainwater from a gutter, pouring onto the forest floor.

Still nothing happened.

Nikos wavered on his knees. My stomach lurched. It was a horrific sight, Nikos pouring his lifeblood onto Elena’s violated belly. I nearly shouted
Stop
. Stop the horror. Let her die with dignity.

But then…Elena’s gash…heaved. Red flesh started bubbling up like foam, filling the wound. Bit by bit the liver and other exposed organs were covered. Skin rolled out over the gash like tawny masking tape. The gash narrowed to a cut, then a line…and then disappeared completely.

Just as Elena expelled air with a rattle and went still.

I lost her pulse. I pressed harder, rolled my fingers for it, but it was gone. “Fuck. Nikos. Move. I have to start CPR.”

“No pressure.” Nikos’s words were slurred.

No blood pressure, he meant. If Elena’s arteries had collapsed, chest compressions would be useless. Breathing in oxygen wouldn’t do any good without circulation.

“I don’t care.” I tried to shove him aside.

He didn’t move. He was pale and swaying on his knees and his teeth were chattering, but with fierce concentration he stared at his raised hand. It blurred.

He thrust the blurred hand into Elena’s body.

Suddenly he went white, as if he had lost all his blood all at once.

He yanked his hand back, barely in time to keel over.

Chapter Eighteen

Things happened pretty fast after that. I remember them in flashes. The EMTs arrived. The defibrillator shock restarted Elena’s heart. Nikos had apparently gotten enough blood into her to inflate her blood vessels.

Then, the moment the EMTs stabilized her and announced her pulse and blood pressure were strong, Bo hypnotized them into walking away.

“She needs to be in the hospital!” I got in his face. She’d brushed too near death. “She needs to be under medical supervision.”

“No.” The Viking scooped her into his arms. “She’s full of Nikos’s blood. We can’t be sure what the doctors will find. She and the baby are fine; I hear both heartbeats. No hospital.”

“But—”

“I said no.” Then he took the whole thing out of my hands by disappearing with her in the direction of the cabin.

I ground out a string of curses and started after him.

“Wait.” Twyla’s hand, touching my shoulder, trembled. I turned to see her eyes glistening with tears in the moonlight. “Nikos…he won’t wake up. Can you look at him?”

“Elena should be in a damned hospital.” But I glanced at Nikos’s mountainous body…which didn’t seem quite so mountainous.

Other things were off as well. His eyes looked sunken, his mouth was bracketed by lines and his hair was frosted silver in the moonlight. Apparently the shock and stress were making me see things. “They
both
need a hospital. Why doesn’t Bo get that?”

“It’s the Big Secret,” she said tiredly. “Human authorities ask too many questions. Could you…could you please take care of Nikos?”

“I can try.” I knelt next to him. Nikos was sheet white. He wasn’t breathing. In fact, he looked dead. I touched his skin. It was cool. “Is this normal for a vampire?”

“I don’t know.” Twyla knelt beside me. “I mean, sometimes he doesn’t breathe. But I’ve never seen him like this before.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Ric.

He shook his head, expression grim. He didn’t know either, which worried me.

“Let’s get him back to the cabin. Maybe we can tell more in better light.” And then I could check on Elena too. She and the baby were still my primary concern.

Ric got the task of lugging Nikos’s heavy body while Twyla and I walked behind him. I chafed to go faster but I could barely see as it was.

The instant we got back to the cabin I ordered, “Put him on the couch. I’ll be back.” I got my kit out of my car, threw open the first bedroom door and walked smack into six plus of angry Viking.

Bo snarled. “She needs rest, not more poking.”

“After I see her.”

“Not. Happening.”

I don’t know what would have happened if Twyla hadn’t shouted, “Strongwell! Get out here this instant and give Nikos blood.”

He didn’t want to go but I could snarl too. “You said she didn’t need a hospital. Prove it. Go help Nikos.”

Bo gave me a final snarl and spun out.

With him out of my hair, I hurried to where Elena rested on the bed. Bo had removed her dirty, torn clothes and dressed her in a man’s white T-shirt. I lifted it gently. He’d washed her too. Her belly wound was clean and closed. In fact, I couldn’t tell where it had been. I took her blood pressure and listened to both her and the baby’s heart. They were strong. I’d barely satisfied myself that she was recovering when Bo appeared, rushed me and my bag out of the bedroom and firmly shut and locked the door. But I’d seen enough to know she and the baby were in good hands.

Twyla was alone in the living room. Next to her on the end table sat a full glass of wine, the wine bottle, an empty glass and the Irish cream.

I went to her and hugged her, and kept hugging until her trembling slowed. When she straightened away, I said, “Where are the guys?”

She blinked glossy eyes. “Ric and Bo did what they could for Nikos. He’s resting. Recovering. I hope.” She took a deep, shuddering breath, which seemed to calm her somewhat. She poured me Irish cream and handed me the glass.

I took the bottle with me when I sat down. “And Ric?”

“He said he was going back to the clearing to look for clues. And to dispose of the rogue vampire.”

I shivered and belted Irish cream without any regard for its price, just because it was booze. “So Nikos is resting. Will he be okay?”