Veils Of Eternity

Chapter 4

The emergency room was a whirlwind of sterile noise and the rhythmic beeping of monitors. Chloe acted on instinct, her professional training overriding the sheer impossibility of what she was seeing. She signaled for two orderlies, who hoisted the man onto a gurney with grunt of effort.

​"Vitals are crashing," Chloe called out, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. "He’s hypothermic and severely tachycardic. Let’s get him to Trauma Room Three."

​As they wheeled him through the double doors, Sarah appeared at Chloe’s side, her expression shifting from curiosity to alarm. "Who is this guy? He looks like he fell out of a period drama and into a meat grinder."

​"I found him... earlier," Chloe said, stumbling over the lie. "He’s a Jane Doe for now. No ID, just these rags."

​They reached the trauma room and transferred him to the bed. The bright surgical lights overhead revealed the full extent of his condition. His skin was so pale it was almost blue, stretched tight over a frame that was deceptively lean. When Chloe began to cut away the remnants of his velvet tunic to check for wounds, she stopped, her breath catching.

​There were no wounds.

​The dark red staining his chest wasn't his own. The blood was fresh, but as she wiped it away with a gauze pad, the skin beneath was smooth and unmarked. It was cold to the touch, like marble left out in the rain.

​"His heart," Sarah whispered, leaning over with a stethoscope. She frowned, moving the bell of the instrument across his chest. "Chloe, I’m not getting a rhythm. Is the equipment dead?"

​Chloe grabbed a portable monitor, her heart racing. "Hook him up. Now."

​As Sarah attached the lead stickers to his chest, the machine remained silent. A flat, unwavering line stretched across the screen. There was no pulse, no respiration, no sign of life. Yet, as Chloe looked at his face, she saw his eyelids twitch.

​"He’s not in arrest," Chloe murmured, more to herself than to Sarah. "He’s... something else."

​Suddenly, the man’s hand shot up. He caught Chloe’s wrist with a grip that made her bones groan. His eyes didn't open, but his chest heaved with a sudden, violent intake of air that sounded like a drowning man reaching the surface.

​"Away," he groaned, the word thick with an accent that felt centuries old. "Thy light... it burns the soul."

​"Easy," Chloe said, leaning in close, her voice a soothing contrast to the chaos of the ER. "You’re in a hospital. You’re safe. We’re trying to help you."

​Cassius forced his eyes open, squinting against the overhead LEDs. The paranoia was back, sharper than ever. He saw the machines, the blinking lights, and the strange, transparent tubes filled with clear liquid. To him, it looked like a torture chamber designed by alchemists.

​"Release me, sorceress," he hissed, his fangs grazing his lower lip. He looked at Sarah, who was staring at him in frozen shock. "I will not be a captive to your metal demons."

​"I'm not a sorceress, I'm a nurse," Chloe said, her hand moving to his forehead. She noticed Sarah’s terrified expression and realized she had to get her friend out of the room before the situation became impossible to explain. "Sarah, go get Dr. Aris. Tell him we have a complicated neurological case. Go!"

​Sarah didn't need to be told twice. She vanished into the hallway, her face pale.

​Once they were alone, the tension in the room shifted. Cassius sat up, the movement so fast it was barely a blur. He ripped the leads from his chest and the IV from his arm, his lip curling in a snarl.

​"Thou art the one from the darkness," he said, his gaze settling on Chloe. The hunger was there, simmering beneath his pupils, but he fought it. "The woman of the blue robes."

​"And you’re the man who gave me a fourteenth century gold coin," Chloe replied, standing her ground. She crossed her arms, trying to look braver than she felt. "You don't have a heartbeat, you're as cold as ice, and you just healed from a wound that didn't exist. What are you?"

​Cassius swung his legs over the side of the bed. He looked down at his hands, watching as the tremors subsided. He felt the pull of her blood again, but there was something about her steady gaze that made him feel ashamed of his own nature.

​"In my time, they called us the Damned," he said softly. "The children of the night. But you... you have no fear of the dark, do you?"

​"I've seen enough death in this building to know that the living are much scarier than the dead," Chloe said. She stepped closer, reaching out to touch his arm. "You're starving. That's why you're collapsing."

​Cassius flinched at her touch, but he didn't pull away. "I have survived on the dregs of the earth. But this city... it drains the spirit. I am lost, Chloe. I am a man out of time, seeking a grave that will finally hold me."

​Before she could respond, the sound of heavy footsteps approached the door. Security was coming.

​"You have to go," Chloe whispered, her eyes wide. "If they catch you, they’ll put you in a lab. They won’t treat you like a person."

​Cassius stood, his height imposing in the small room. He looked at the window, then back at her. "Why dost thou help me? I am a predator. I should be thy nightmare."

​"Maybe I'm tired of being everyone's savior," she said, a flash of her own hidden darkness surfacing. "Go. Out the side exit. I’ll distract them."

​Cassius bowed his head slightly, a gesture of old-world chivalry that felt hauntingly beautiful in the sterile room. "I am in thy debt, Chloe of the Blue. We shall meet again when the moon is high."

​He vanished. One moment he was standing by the bed, and the next, the window was open, the curtains fluttering in the cool May breeze.

​Chloe stood alone in the empty room, her heart finally beginning to thud against her ribs. She looked at the monitor, which still showed a flat line, even though the patient was gone. She reached into her pocket and gripped the gold coin, wondering if she had just saved a man or invited a shadow into her life that she could never escape.

​The door burst open, and Sarah returned with two security guards. "He's right here, he—"

​Sarah stopped, staring at the empty bed.

​"Where did he go?" one of the guards asked.

​Chloe turned, her face a mask of professional calm. "I don't know. He just... got up and left. I couldn't stop him."

​But as she spoke, she noticed a single drop of dark, thick blood on her white shoe. It wasn't a smear; it was a perfect, crystalline bead. She moved her foot slightly, hiding it from view, as she realized that for the first time in her life, she had a secret that belonged only to her...