Love's Challenge (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #5) (18 page)

“Hurry, Carlos,” Troy said.  Carlos ran through the door.  Troy closed
it, spun the lock and wedged a large rock in it to keep anyone else from
opening it.  Everyone was waiting for him in the tunnel. 

“Where’s Sarah?” Bahiti whispered.  Carlos grimaced as if he had been
slapped in the face.  He shook his head.

“One of those things took her.  We need to get everyone to Aaron’s
place.  We’ve got to move fast, before the sun comes up.  Let’s move everyone.
Guys, help the injured and pregnant females.”  Stacy screamed and grabbed her
belly.  Carlos shivered as he saw what was inside her pressing against her
stretched out skin.  He squeezed his eyes shut and thought: please not yet. 
Please don’t tear out of her yet. 

He started running through the cave.  When the last vampire was on the
mountain at the top of the stairs, Troy, Miguel and Luis pulled the branches
down.  When they touched over the rock, it slid back into place, concealing the
staircase.  Everyone who could, took flight.  And they helped those whose
bellies were so large that they made flying difficult.  A few minutes later,
they touched down in Aaron’s courtyard.  Aaron, Cameron and David were waiting
with stretchers.  “Matt and Stacy first guys.  They’re worse off than the
others.  Please hurry,” Carlos said.

“Got it,” Cameron said.  “Can you send Sarah in to help us?  She knows
how we work.  She’ll be a helpful extra set of hands.”

Carlos sank to the ground and grabbed his head in his hands.  Cameron
walked over and squatted in front of him.  “She’s not, she’s not dead is she?”
he whispered.

Carlos shook his head and Cameron exhaled loudly.  Carlos looked up at
Cameron with agony written all over his face.  “One of those things flew off
with her, Cameron.  I need to go look for her, but she told me I had to help
Matt first.  I listened to her and now, who knows where the hell she is.  She
could be hundreds of miles away by now.  She’s gone, Cameron.  She’s gone.  Oh
my God, what am I going to do?” he cried.

“Right now, you’re going to get up and help us fix these vampires.  All
of them.  Then, when your head is right, you’ll form a search party and look
for her.  But if you search now, you’ll be searching blindly and you’ll do
something stupid.  You’ll get yourself hurt or killed, and that won’t help her
at all, will it?”

Carlos shook his head and began to stand up.  “Car… Carlos?” Matt
gasped.  Carlos was at his side in a flash. 

“I’m here, Matt,” he whispered.

“Ssssarah?”

Carlos and Cameron looked at each other.  Not yet, Carlos thought to
himself.  I can’t tell him yet.  “She’s inside, helping David,” he whispered. 
Matt smiled, then closed his eyes and passed out again.  “After surgery,
Cameron.  I’ll tell him after the surgery.”

Cameron nodded his head and began pushing the gurney inside.  Carlos
stayed by Matt’s side.  They wheeled him down the hall and into the make-shift
operating room.  They could hear sounds from the room next door where they were
operating on Stacy.  “Put it in the cage, quick.  Lock it up so I can
concentrate on getting her sewn back up,” David said to Aaron, who was helping
him. 

“Okay.  Carlos?  Carlos!  Focus here.  I’m going to make a small incision
first and insert a camera to see what’s going on in there.  I’m worried about
his heart.  His color is really bad.  He’s blue.  That tells me his heart’s
been damaged somehow.  Hopefully it’s something we can fix.  But if it’s
because it’s been crushed…” he stopped.  He didn’t need to say more.  They both
understood.  “Okay, camera’s in.  Can you turn that monitor a little more
towards me?”  Carlos adjusted the monitor.  “Uh-huh.  Thought so.  Ribs on the
right side all broken.  There are bone splinters everywhere that I’ll have to get
out.  Left side, that’s good.  Heart doesn’t look compressed, but, uh-oh that’s
going to be difficult.”

“What?  What’s going to be difficult?” Carlos asked.

“That.  Right there.  There’s a broken rib that’s punctured the heart. 
It’s plugging the hole right now, but as soon as I pull it out, that hole will
have to be closed so he doesn’t bleed out.”

“How are you going to close it fast enough?” Carlos said.

Cameron smiled at him.  “That’s where you come in.  You’re going to plug
the hole with your finger until I can get in there and stitch it up.”

“Oh, fuck,” Carlos mumbled then he suddenly straightened up as I popped
into his head.

‘Carlos? You there?’

Carlos pointed to his head and mouthed.  “Sarah,” then closed his eyes. 

“Hurry,” Cameron whispered.

‘Course I’m here, baby.  Are you okay?’

‘So far.  We’re still flying.  I’m pretty sure we’re going
east, ‘cause the sun’s rising in front of me.’

Carlos closed his eyes and could see what I was seeing, although most of
my field of vision was obscured by Aquila’s chest.

‘I see it baby.  Man, you are flying fast.  Are you still
over towns and buildings?’

‘Yeah, mostly, but there’s a forest up ahead, and he seems to
be heading down.  Maybe to hide out until dark, or maybe that’s where…’
t
he link was broken because Aquila had knocked me out again.

“Shit,” Carlos whispered. 

“She okay?” Cameron said

“Right now, yes.  But, Doc, this is killing me.  You know that, right?”

“Yes, I do, Carlos.  But right now I need your help.  Right now Matt
needs your help.  You can fall apart or look for her later, but right now you
need to do this.  Got it?”

Carlos nodded and stepped back up to the table.  Cameron positioned his
scalpel, looked at Carlos, nodded, and began cutting.

Two hours later.  “Okay, the ribs on the right side are reset.  And I’ve
gotten all of the bone fragments out.  Now we fix the left side, which is the
hard part.  You ready?”

Carlos took a deep breath and nodded.  “Okay, get your hand in here.  The
moment I pull the rib out, plug the hole in his heart with your finger, got
it?  We have to work fast though or his heart will try to heal itself around
your finger.”

Cameron slowly slid the rib out of the heart.  The second the end of it
came out of the hole, Carlos stuck his finger into the hole, stopping the river
of blood that quickly began to flow out.  “Hurry Doc.  God, there’s so much
blood.” 

Cameron moved in with a patch and sutures and quickly stitched most of
the way around Carlos’ finger.  “Okay, pull it out, now!”  Carlos watched as
Cameron’s fingers moved like lightning, stitching up the wound.  “Okay, that’s
holding nicely.  Now we fix these last two ribs.”

They rolled the gurney down to one of the spare bedrooms.  “This is my
only operating gurney.  We need to put him on the bed.  Then you need to see if
you can get his fangs to drop so he can feed.  I need you to stay with him for
a while, Carlos.  Watch him, for me.  I need to tend to the other vampires
right now, but I’ll come in and check on him as soon as I can, okay?”  Carlos
nodded then he carefully moved Matt from the gurney to the bed.  Cameron
wheeled the gurney quickly from the room.  Carlos ran to the kitchen and threw
a few pints into the microwave, then raced back to Matt’s room.  He placed one
pint near Matt’s nose and watched, hoping that his fangs would drop.  Nothing
happened.

“Come on Matt.  You need to feed.  You need to get better.  Sarah needs
you to get better.”  Saying my name did the trick.  His fangs dropped and
Carlos pressed the pints onto his teeth.  “Good for you, Matt.  Sarah will be
happy.”  Matt’s eyes flew open.  “Oh shit,” Carlos mumbled. 

“Sarah?  Where?” he groaned.

Carlos squeezed his eyes shut.  Then he opened them and looked at Matt. 
Matt might be weak, but his eyes were burning strong – eyes that could not
possibly be lied to. 

“Aquila took her, Matt.  I’m so sorry,” Carlos said as he dropped his
eyes. He couldn’t look at Matt anymore.

“Then what the fuck are you doing here?” he gasped then he coughed a few
times.

“Because she told me to come with you.  She told me to stay with you
until you were safe.” 

“Well, I’m safe.  Go fucking find her,” he said then his eyes rolled back
in his head and his monitor flat lined.

“DOC!  In here, quick.  God damn it Matt.  I can’t be the one to tell her
you died.  Don’t you die on me.  Don’t you fucking die.”  Cameron ran into the
room.  He plunged a syringe directly into Matt’s heart then pulled it out. 
“What was that?” Carlos said.

“Good blood.  Injected directly into his heart.  Hopefully it’ll
kick-start it.”  Good blood – or blood from innocent, good people – helps
vampires heal more quickly and makes us even stronger but it was also
incredibly addicting – worse than heroin or meth for humans – so we stayed away
from it whenever possible and fed on blood donated by prisoners, or what we
called evil blood because they were far from innocent. They both stared at the
monitor, still flat-lined, while Cameron did CPR.  “I don’t know, Carlos. 
There must be something to help him come back.”  Carlos closed his eyes and
tried to find me.  
‘Sarah?  Sarah honey?  I need you to wake up, honey. 
Matt needs you,’

‘Matt?’
I whispered as I slowly regained consciousness.

‘Quick, Sarah.  Link with him.  He needs to hear your voice. 
Now.’

I popped into Matt’s head. 
‘Honey?  You okay?  I need to hear your
voice baby.  Please talk to me.’

The monitor blipped once, then again then it finally became steady. 

‘Sarah?  Is that you, baby?’
Matt thought.

Carlos collapsed into the chair.  Cameron quickly checked out Matt’s
vitals then ran back into the other room where he had been in the middle of a C-section
on Bahiti. 

‘Hi honey, yes it’s me.  You have to get better for me. 
Please promise me you’ll get better,’
I thought.

‘Okay, I promise.  But where are you?  I’d get better faster
if you were here holding my hand and giving me kisses.’

‘Ummm, I’m helping with the other vampires.  I’ll be there as
soon as I can, okay?’

‘Okay.  Tired now.  Gonna sleep for a bit, k?  I love you,’
he thought.

‘
I love you too.  Sweet dreams,’
then his mind went silent as he
fell asleep.

‘Carlos?  Stay with him, Carlos.  You have to stay with him
until you’re sure he’s out of the woods.  Promise me, Carlos.  Please?’

‘But Sarah, I have to come find you.’

‘No, not yet.  Right now you have to stay with him.  You
can’t leave him to come find me until you’re one hundred percent certain that
you can tell me that he’s alive and okay.  I’m fine so far.  As soon as he
stops somewhere for a while, I’ll let you know landmarks, I promise.’

‘Okay, Sarah.  But please be careful.  You know what those
things are capable of.  I love you so much, Sarah.’

‘I love you too,’
then I saw Aquila’s hand moving toward my head.  
‘Gotta go
now, he’s knocking me…’

Carlos’ chin fell to his chest as he grimaced from the pain in his
heart.  He knew I was right, but that didn’t make sitting there waiting any
easier. 

“Sarah?” Matt whispered.  Carlos’ head shot up.  He had no idea when, or
how, he had fallen asleep.  He moved over to Matt’s side.  “Hey, buddy.  You
should feed.  I’ll go get you some blood, okay?”

Matt licked his lips and nodded slightly.  Carlos stepped out of the room
and leaned up against the wall for a few seconds. 

“You okay, Carlos?” Aaron whispered.

“I have to tell him again, Aaron.  I already told him once that one of
those things took Sarah, but he was so out of it that he doesn’t remember, so
now I have to tell him again.  How am I supposed to do that, Aaron?  How can I
tell him twice that one of those creatures that impregnates vampires has the
love of his life?  How, Aaron?  She’s the love of my life too and I’m barely
holding together myself.  He’s hanging on by a thread, how can he handle this?”

Aaron smiled slightly.  “He’ll handle this and you’ll handle this because
she needs you both to handle this, Carlos.”

Carlos stared at him for a minute.  He knew Aaron was right.  I needed
Matt.  I needed Carlos.  How many times had I saved them?  How many times had I
helped them?  Now I needed their help and, by God, they were both going to be
there for me.  He nodded and pushed off the wall.  As he walked past Aaron
toward the kitchen, he placed his hand on Aaron’s shoulder.  “Thanks, man,” he
said then he moved on.  He heated four pints and brought them into Matt’s
room.  Matt watched him as he walked in.  He ate then watched Carlos again. 

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?  You telling me that Aquila took her.  I
thought I dreamt it, but I didn’t, did I?” he whispered.

Carlos squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.  “No, Matt.  It wasn’t
a dream.  I wish I could tell you it was, God I wish that more than anything,
but I can’t.”

“Jesus, no.  But, but, she was in my head earlier, right?  That was real,
right?  She’s been in touch?  She’s trying to tell you where she is, right? 
She’s trying to show you?” Matt asked.