Longest Days (The Firsts) (25 page)

Humans were just so
fragile!

He entered the darkened room and walked up to the girl who bore little resemblance to the lovely young woman he’d met only hours earlier with the brightest smile he’d ever seen.  He remembered his first reaction when he saw her at the door of the villa.   Innocence, purity, beauty.  The wild mass of rich chocolate brown hair was gone, shaved, and her head was wrapped in bandages.  The soft features were swollen and discolored.  What a shame. 

He put his hand on her and tried to sense her energy.   Jake wasn’t first blood, so he did not have their powerful abilities, but he was still a strong vampire, and could read energy levels.  Hers was nearly gone.  Yes, she was dying.

Walking over to the door, he locked it and moved back to the bedside.  He’d already compelled the nursing staff to ignore anything happening in this room.  The girl  was intubated, so he unplugged the equipment, pulled the tube, and sat down beside her.  Using a small pocketknife he usually carried with him, he neatly slit his wrist and held it to her mouth.  She gave no resistance as his blood pumped into her.  After a few moments, she gagged
.  A
good sign,
he thought.  No reaction to vampire blood would mean she was beyond help.  Unless he turned her.

It didn’t look like that would be necessary.  Thankfully.   Too much responsibility.    This past year had been a bitch and he didn’t want any more complications.   He was thinking about making some changes.   Didn’t know what, though.

She opened her eyes and looked at him.  Jake pulled his wrist away and stared back.

“Hi,” he said, aware that, even in her condition, she seemed confused.  “You’ve been in an accident.  I’m your…” He hesitated, then smiled.  “I’m Dr. Jacob.  We’re taking very good care of you.  Just go back to sleep.”

But she didn’t.  She stared at him with frightened eyes until he “impressed” her to sleep, which she finally did.   

Well, his work was finished.  He just had to stick around to make sure that any blood tests they ordered were destroyed for the next few days, and compel her to forget. 

Luckily, in a hospital, there were plenty of window-free rooms he could over-day in.  And a cafeteria filled with, if not good, at least edible food.  He headed there now after leaving a compulsion with the nurse that if anyone came for blood, to call him on his cell phone.  

On the fourth floor, that time of night, the cafeteria was deserted.  The food choices were poor, but he was hungry, so he took what he could, and sat down with his tablet computer to look at real estate.  He was just feeling restless these days and didn’t really know why.   Thought he might want to take off for a while.  There was a moment a few weeks ago when he found himself asking if maybe he had just been alive too long.

Jake shook his head and stretched.  Just another crazy year.  No need to fall on his sword.  Anyway, he had a mission right now, and that took priority over everything else for the moment.  He cleaned up, tucked the small computer back in an inside pocket of his jacket, and walked like a normal human back up to the sixth floor where his little human was hopefully continuing her vampire-blood assisted recovery.    The nurse smiled as he passed her station, and automatically reached up to smooth her hair.  That wasn’t compulsion.  She was just reacting to him.  He knew he was sexy, and the reaction was common.  This part of being vampire he’d always loved.   Giving her a wide smile, he leaned down and touched her cheek with a sensual “impression.”   As he walked away
he heard her moan quietly.

Entering the still darkened room, he expected to bring the girl alert and assess his progress. 

That didn’t happen.  She was gone. 
What the
fuck?!   
With her injuries, she shouldn’t have been mobile yet.  It had only been about an hour.  He checked the bathroom.  Empty.  Hurrying back out to the pretty nurse, he leaned over the counter.

“Where’s the girl?  The one in 602?  The car accident?”

She looked confused.

“She’s comatose.  She’s still in her bed.”

He shook his head.  “No, she’s not.  Did you see her come by here?  
Did you see her leave
?”

Now the nurse looked completely confused.  Jake put his hands on her head.  Uh, uh.  What the…

Competing compulsions.  Someone else had compelled her tonight.   
He
was compelling her to tell him the girl’s whereabouts and someone
else
had compelled her to forget.

Okay, well, she had his blood in her.  He should be able to track her.  As he walked out of the ICU, he reached for her.  Nothing.  He tried again, using all his vampire abilities .  No.  He couldn’t find her.

Fuck!  
Jake grabbed his cell and dialed.  When he heard it pick up, he sighed.

“Koen, we’ve got a
big
problem!”

Thank you for continuing the journey with the Firsts as Daniel and Eillia find love again.   If you haven’t read them, check out the first and second in the series, Forbidden Days and Endless Days respectively.

C.L.Quinn is a fictional character in a novel called Last Best Hope, by T.C. Butts, a post-apocalyptic story told diary-style by Charlie Quinn, who wrote vampire novels for a living before fireballs came and the world as we know it was destroyed forever.  So if you enjoyed her work, check out Charlie’s own story, also available on Amazon.com