Mixed Worlds

Chapter Nineteen - Pretty Sneaky

            When we pull into the garage, Lucas quickly backs the truck up to the door. We both jump out, and low and behold, Jack pulled through and met us with the vervain water and a couple of syringes. Almost completely sober now, I hop into the back and try to pick up a struggling Alex. He’s still groggy from the knockout, but he’s strong. Lucas and I get him sitting up, and I quickly take the items from Jack and begin filling the syringes with vervain. The first I jab into his leg, and the second goes into his shoulder where Lucas stabbed him.

            “Come on, let’s bring him to the room beside Christian.” I start to drag him with the help of Lucas, and Jack holds the doors open for us as we make our way to the sitting room outside of Christian’s cell. Thankfully there’s a chair there, and we’re able to tie him tightly onto it. We step out into the hallway, and lock the door behind us.

            “Okay, can someone explain why there’s another vampire here?” Jack asks. 

            “Ally thinks he’s tied to Christian.” Lucas answers. He takes off his jacket and wipes his face. “We went to the bar off of Bright and went for a couple drinks. We ran into this guy and a human friend of his, and Al got a feeling. We used the blood from your case to spike the drinks, and he stopped drinking it after the first sip. Ally got him outside and while she was distracting him, I pounced and we got him tied up and into the truck. Flash forward a bit and boom, here we are.” Lucas and I both cross our arms and look at Jack.

            “Well, I guess your little problem helped us out after all Jack, good job!” I say sarcastically. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I would like to go throw up and brush my teeth.” I walk down to the end of the hallway and head into the bathroom. Before I turn the water on, I hear a ‘SHE WHAT’ come from Jack. I guess Lucas told him a few more details of what happened. I yack up the alcohol and the fact that I had to kiss a damn vampire, and brush my teeth. I wash my face, and look at myself in the mirror. “Time to get some answers.” 

            I find Jack and Lucas sitting in the kitchen, each with a cup of coffee in hand.  There’s a third cup on the table with a tea bag hanging on the side, and I look at Jack. My face falls sad, and I sit next toJack. “Thank you.” I say as I take a sip of my perfectly made tea.

            “So. To address the elephant in the room, yes I kissed Alex. Lucas was walking towards us, and it was the first idea I had to distract him. No, I didn’t do it out of anger towards you, I got a feeling that he’s either a part of or related to Christian’s nest. He told me he came here two weeks ago from New York, so I went with my gut.” I spill out. “When Anna gets here, I’ll explain all the vamp stuff to her, and explain how Athena is my mother. After that, we’ll figure out a game plan. I’m going to go check on Alex, and see if I can get him to talk a bit.” I look at Lucas. “How much blood do we have?”

            “We have about a dozen bags left. They’re in the fridge in the garage.” He downs the rest of his coffee and sets the mug on the counter.

            “Okay. I’m gonna offer him a half a bag to try and heal up his shoulder a bit. I’ll also grab some more vervain, and dose him up before I leave. I’ll come check in with you guys when I’m done.” Oh, and Luke, I need to get Anna from the airport in a few hours. Would you mind coming with me?” 

“If you tell her I’m coming, I’ll go get her myself. It’s only an hour drive so I can get a quick nap in before I go.” Lucas states. “You need to sleep and so does Jack. I’ll make sure Anna gets set up in a room. We can all sleep for a while and start fresh tomorrow.” 

            “Okay. I’ll send Anna a text and let her know. Smile.” I say as I snap a picture of Lucas. I send it to Anna, and explain a bit more of what’s going on. “She’ll be getting off at gate four at about five-thirty, so make sure to keep an eye out for a fiery redhead.”

I walk away towards the garage in silence. I hope that Alex was sincere back at the bar, and will take an apology from me. He did seem like a nice guy, but you can never let your guard down around a vamp.

            After I grab the blood, I head to the sitting area where Alex is locked up. I unlock the door, and poke my head inside. I see he’s slumped over in the chair, and his shirt is soaked in blood. I close the door, and I run to the spare closet and grab an old tshirt. I find a rag, and go to the bathroom to soak it with some warm water. I kinda feel bad for the guy, I played him a bit and he was ambushed out of nowhere. Nevertheless, if I’m right and he is connected to Christian, who knows how bad this guy really is. I get back to Alex’s room, and step inside. I set everything down on the table across from him, and pull a chair in front of him.

            “Alex, wake up,” I nudge his foot. “I gotta talk to you.” No response. I lean forward a little bit, and shake his knee. “Alex? I have some blood to help with your shoulder. I need you to wake up.” I nudge him again. Finally, he throws his head back and winces. He looks at me, and looks at his shoulder.

            “Pretty sneaky of you to kiss me while your brother literally stabs me in the back. You’ve got a good swing by the way. My head is pounding.” He spits blood off to the side. “Why do you think I would I want to talk to you after all of that?” He asks.

            “Because I’m pretty sure that even though you’re a vampire, I’m getting a feeling that you’re still a decent guy. I’m sorry that things happened the way they did, but I had a gut feeling about something and I wanted to be sure. In my defence, I didn’t know he was going to stab you. I just thought he was going to knock you out.” I turn around and grab the blood off the table. “Did you want some? It’s O neg.” He nods. I rip open the top of the bag with my teeth, and hold it up to his lips. He tilts his head back a bit, and I give him half the bag. When I pull it back, he grumbles.

            “More, please.” He whines.

            “Let’s talk a bit first and we’ll see about giving you the rest. How’s the shoulder?” I set the bag on the table, and grab the cloth. “Don’t worry, this is just water. I’m gonna clean you up and re-tie you so I can change your shirt. Is that okay?”

            “It hurts, and why would you want to do that?” He questions. He c***s his head in confusion, and watches my every move.

            “Like I said, I think that you’re at least half decent, and I feel bad for your shoulder.” I shrug.

            “Okay. That would be nice. Does that mean you’re gonna pull the knife out too?” he gives me a cocky smile and raises an eyebrow. God, even soaked in blood he’s still gorgeous.

            “Maybe. I’m gonna tie your waist, and then I’ll clean up your shoulder. If you behave I’ll pull the knife out. Then you can put on this shirt.” I say as I toss it onto his lap. “How you act, will determine how this goes, okay?” I look into his eyes.

            “Yes. I don’t know why a hunter is being nice to a vampire, but I appreciate it.” He says. He sits back, and waits. I go to the wall behind him, and find some rope and zip ties. I tie his waist to the chair, and he doesn’t move. I come back in front of him, and slowly remove his wrist restraints. He keeps his hands in place until I take a step back, and then he rubs his wrists. “Thanks.” He says quietly. He leans forward the best he can, and attempts to take his shirt off. “Ah, fuck.” He winces, forgetting about his shoulder. “I may need some help with this part if you don’t mind.”  He looks up at me.

            I nod, and walk to his uninjured arm. I lift up the bottom of his shirt, and pull it up under the rope. He slides his good arm out, and I lift it up over his head. “I’m gonna take this the rest of the way off, and then I’ll take out the knife. Take a deep breath and count to three. It might tug a little.” He begins to count, and on two I quickly pull the knife out. 

            “OW f**k! What happened to taking the shirt off first?!” He yells. 

            “Because you probably would’ve tensed up more and that would’ve made it more painful. Now sit still.” I pull his back into the chair, and take the rest of his shirt off. I trace my fingers along the outside of his wound trying to ignore the tingles, and sadness washes over me. I rest my hand on his back for a moment and notice his skin is hot like he has a fever. ‘Or if a human had an open wound.’ “You’re hot…” I say under my breath. I completely forget about vampires sensitive hearing when Alex laughs.

            “Not exactly what I was expecting, but thanks for the compliment.” He laughs again.

            “Oh shut up. I meant your skin is hot. That’s not normal...” I crouch down in front of him and stare at him. “You’re not a full vampire, are you? That’s why you’re not healed and still bleeding! Unless you feel like you’re dying, that’s the only thing I can think of. It doesn’t look like you’re dying to me.”

            Alex’s eyes widen. He breaks eye contact, and looks the other way. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His chest is bare, so I pick up the blade and push him back. “What the…? What are you doing?!” He squirms.

            “If you don’t tell me the truth when I ask you a question, I will literally cut it out of you. So what’s it going to be?” I point the blade in the centre of his chest, just below his neck. 

            “Okay! Okay! Just sit down and stop pointing that thing at me.” I sit. “You’re right. I’m half vampire, half human. I’ve been looking for my father, so he can tell me where my mom is and get the vampire part of me out. I don’t want this life.” He looks me in the eye, and I can see that he’s telling the truth. I hesitate, but I slowly begin to untie his ankles. I hold the knife at him, setting it on my thigh. He looks at me again.

            “Half vampire half human… so you were born like this, yes?” I ask.

            “I’m pretty sure that’s the only way I could possibly be half, vampire.” I roll my eyes.

            “What’s your fathers name?”

            “Christian. My mothers name is Jane.”

            My eyes widen. “Are you sure that’s his name?” I feel the colour drain from my face and suddenly my mouth feels very dry.

            “Yes. Why?” He asks. He raises an eyebrow. “Do you know him?”

            I drop my head. “Yes. Him and some of his followers slaughtered my family almost a decade ago. I became a hunter shortly after that, and I ran into him once or twice.” I look to the door leading to Christian’s room. ‘And I’m totally not holding him hostage.’ “I’ve been trying to find out where his nest is, and figure out how he knew my father.”

            Alex reaches forward, and without flinching he sets a hand on my knee. “I am so, so sorry. I know my father is not a nice man, and he does whatever he wants. He’s a spoiled brat who uses his power to do nothing but hurt people.” We make eye contact, and I see his eyes begin to water. I set my hand over his, and I feel like I’m about to tear up too. His touch has a comforting sensation that spreads goosebumps all over my body, and we both begin to calm down. He clears his throat and blinks hard. I pull my hand away and stand up to go back to tending to his shoulder.

            “I’m gonna start cleaning this up. It might sting a little.” I begin to wash his wound that still isn’t healing. It stopped bleeding, but the wound is still open. I wipe away the dried blood and when I get closer to the cut, he winces. “Sorry, I’m trying to be gentle.” I wipe again. “I’ll give you some more blood when I’m done. Hopefully that helps heal you more.” He nods. I finish cleaning his shoulder, and walk to the table and pass him the blood bag. “Here.”

            He takes the bag, and finishes it in one go. “I need more, please. I need more blood to heal.” He pleads. I sigh and take out my phone and send a text to Lucas.

            -Bring me two more bags of o neg. knock when you get here.

            “Okay. Someone’s gonna drop it off to us. We need to keep talking.” He nods. He tosses the bag on the floor and sits back. “Why are you in Kansas? Is it to look for him?” He nods again.

            “I followed his scent to a gas station in Colorado a few months ago, and it went dead. I checked all the surrounding states and this was my last stop. I pulled into the bar because I smelled a supernatural presence, and then I ran into you.” He folds his hands in his lap, and continues. “I don’t know how to get my vampire genes out, but I need to try everything I can. The only thing I won’t do is summon a demon. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

            I think for a minute. Do I help him out? Do I see if I can heal that part of him? He’ll live a long life sure, but I can only imagine how long he can hold off until he needs blood again. Or if he can even survive without that part of him. 

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 CONTINUED ON PART TWO