16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Kimble

Despite all the blood he’d consumed over the last few days, Kimble was still far weaker than he should be. It made fighting against the daytime induced sleep impossible. All he could do was listen as Pike whispered sweet loving words and promised he and Cora would be back before dark. Then they’d both left the safety of their new home.

He was forced to lay there helplessly as they went out into the dangerous world.

Pike’s bear was large and strong. That alone would keep him safe from most predators. However, his human was tiny and helpless, and Pike didn’t have the heart of a fighter. He would never strike first, and his hesitation could result in Cora’s death.

Kimble wanted to fight the daytime sleep but forced himself to conserve his strength. If he was lucky, he’d be able to rise just before sunset. It wasn’t much, but with the safety of his flock at risk, every second counted.

He was paying such close attention that he knew the exact moment the cursed sun had lost her grip on him.

Gripping the sheet covering him, he flung it off, or tried to. The simple blanket might as well have been made of woven steel for how heavy it seemed to his weakened state. He was shaking by the time he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed .

Looking up, he focused on the bedroom doorway. It was wide open and the way the house was laid out, he could see across the living room and into the kitchen. There was blood in the fridge there, making that his first priority.

His body protested and urged him to lie back down and wait for the last vestiges of the sun’s bright rays to descend past the horizon. He ignored it.

“Flock,” he whispered to the empty room. The boarded-up windows allowed him to safely make his way from room to room without worry of being burned.

His unsteady gait caused him to stumble and lose his balance shortly after he passed through the bedroom doorway. He fell forward, all his normal speed and agility were absent. He landed on the coffee table, the delicate piece of furniture splintering and breaking under his weight.

Rage and embarrassment filled him in equal parts. Why was he still so weak? He could feel the tantalizing hint of power and strength he’d once possessed. In his past, he was a vampire of distinction.

He couldn’t pull forward a single concrete memory to prove any of it, but in his heart, he knew his current state was a pitiful remnant of what he’d once been.

What was he doing, lying on broken furniture feeling sorry for himself? This was ridiculous. What if his flock walked in and saw him like this? They’d want to leave, and he wouldn’t blame them.

It took several tries, but he finally got back to his feet. Crawling would’ve been easier, but his pride wouldn’t allow it.

Once he was standing, he moved slowly to the kitchen, using furniture and the wall to keep himself steady. His human’s home was quaint and tidy, but it was still far less opulent than she deserved.

Someday, he’d give both his flock everything they could ever desire, and they’d all live a happy and secure life where they never needed to be separated from each other again.

By the time he reached the refrigerator, he was having a difficult time keeping his eyes focused. Dropping to his knees, he opened the appliance door and fumbled around until he felt the familiar smooth bag .

He drank greedily. The bag emptied quickly so he found another. He continued until his fingertips felt nothing but glass shelving. Slumping down, he looked at all the discarded bags around him. There were so many that his belly should be full and his strength returning.

Fear tightened his chest. If anything, he felt weaker. As he stared at one of the empty blood bags, his vision narrowed, the edges eaten away with gray haze. He blinked rapidly and looked up. Everything looked dim.

Was he dying?

Memories of trading power with the bruja for Cora’s necklace floated through his mind. Was that the problem? She’d pulled from his aura, but he’d been doing so much better. It should’ve healed instead of gotten thinner.

When the three of them had been making love the previous night, he’d felt powerful and complete, but his body had given out on him immediately after. That should’ve been a clue that he wasn’t healing as fast as he thought.

He didn’t have time to consider how to fix this further. A strange sensation of floating started as he lost all ability to see. He was unconscious before his head hit the kitchen tile.

***

Pike

Cora drove the top-heavy Van Guts as fast as she dared, but even as she turned corners at a speed that almost lifted the wheels, it wasn’t fast enough for him. He’d felt nothing but rage and panic for twenty minutes and then nothing. He couldn’t even feel the unconscious hum that was always there, even when Kimble slept.

There was a numb, blank spot in his mind, and it was one of the worst sensations he’d ever experienced.

“Are you okay, Pike?” Cora asked. “You’re moaning.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. He hadn’t realized he was making any sounds. “I’ll try to stop.”

Cora made an exasperated sound. “I don’t care about that. Are you in pain? Is Kimble in pain? Talk to me!”

“I think he’s dead,” Pike whispered, even though he didn’t want to contemplate it. “He’s gone from my head. There’s nothing there. And I don’t feel right. It feels like… ”

His words trailed off. How did he describe the sensation of your soul dying while your body was still breathing? He might not be able to see auras like vampires could, but he knew Kimble’s wasn’t as vibrant or strong as it should be. Was this what happened to a flock when the vampire died?

“He’s not dead!” Cora announced, aggressively dodging right to pass an SUV using the bicycle lane. Several cars honked at her, but she ignored them as she’d been ignoring all the angry drivers.

“Do you hear me, Pike?” Cora asked, her voice more a demand for obedience than a question. “He’s not dead. Whatever’s wrong, we’re going to fix it. If he needs more blood, we’ll get it. If he needs a vampire doctor, we’ll find one. This is not how we end.”

Pike tried to focus on Cora’s commanding voice instead of his own fear and discomfort. “I’m so scared,” he admitted. “If I lose Kimble then I’m gone too.”

“All you have to do is listen to me,” Cora said. “Because I’m not going to let either of you go!”

She kept talking to him, sometimes demanding that he respond. She helped keep his terror from overtaking him, so by the time she pulled into the driveway, he wasn’t a sobbing, shaking mess.

Fear made him an uncoordinated mess as he fell from the van and stumbled several strides, almost going down face first before he caught his balance. He felt unsteady, as if suffering from vertigo. Cora flung open her door and rushed around the van to him.

“Lean on me,” she urged, wrapping a steadying arm around his waist. She was surprisingly strong for such a small human. He was able to support himself, but Cora added a stabilizing effect. If he fell while Cora was helping him, they’d both end up on the ground, so he focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

Soon they were in the house and faced with broken furniture and a trail of blood across half the living room.

“This looks bad,” Cora mumbled as she steered them into the kitchen, following the red trail. The sight that met his eyes made Pike go weak at the knees.

“Kimble!” he cried out. Pulling away from Cora, he made it the two strides to Kimble’s side before he collapsed to the floor .

Kimble was lying unconscious in front of the open refrigerator. There was a massive piece of glass sticking out of his chest and several small pieces embedded in his arm and shoulder. Blood was seeping from the wounds and pooling on the floor.

With a shaking hand, Pike cupped Kimble’s cheek. His skin was cold and felt lifeless.

“No,” he moaned, hunching over as tears flowed down his cheeks. “No, you weren’t supposed to leave me like this. We were going to live long happy lives.”

“Pike, I don’t think he’s dead,” Cora said. Pike looked up to see that Cora had peeled back one of Kimble’s eyelids. “His eye is twitching a little. I think he’s still alive. Or you know, undead. Whatever, he’s still with us.”

As he watched, Kimble’s eye moved again before Cora let go of the lid. Sitting back, Pike rubbed his face and focused. “What do we do? How do we fix this?”

Cora blinked at him. “How would I know?”

“I, uh,” Pike’s mind blanked. He didn’t know anyone he could call for advice that wouldn’t take advantage of Kimble’s weakened state. The people he trusted didn’t know any more than he did.

“Imani!” Cora shouted and fumbled her phone out of her back pocket. “Imani’s a vampire. She might know what to do.”

Pike noticed her fingers shaking as she tapped on the screen. Even though he wanted to comfort her, he was too distressed to do anything but watch the phone as it started ringing.

“Hi, Hellion, what’s up?” Imani answered cheerfully. They could hear murmured words in the background, then Imani’s voice moved away from the phone. “If you’re hungry go eat, I’ll be down after I talk to Cora.”

“It’s Kimble,” Cora cried out. “I think he fell on my coffee table and has a big shard of glass embedded in his chest and there’s blood everywhere. He drank about ten bags that we had in the fridge, but he’s not healing or moving. We don’t have any more blood to give him. What do we do?”

“Have him drink from Pike, he’s plenty big enough to handle some blood loss,” Imani said.

Cora shook her head at the phone, even though Imani couldn’t see it. “He’s not conscious, Imani. We can’t make him bite anything. ”

“Pike, you there?” Imani called out.

“Yeah,” Pike croaked. His throat felt like it wanted to close up as tears pressed at the back of his eyes.

“Slit your wrist, put it to his mouth, and let the blood pour in. His body will know what to do,” Imani ordered.

“What about the giant piece of glass sticking out of him?” Cora reminded her.

“Fuck, I’m not sure. Normally I’d say pull it out, but he should’ve been able to do that himself so there might be something else going wrong here. Let me call Briar and see if she and Tobias have any insights.”

The call ended before he or Cora could say another word. Pike was already looking around for a knife. Reaching up, he grabbed one out of the holder on the counter. He moved to Kimble’s head, then sliced his wrist and held the wound over Kimble’s mouth. The first few drips splashed the vampire’s lips, but Cora was quick to use her fingers to open Kimble’s mouth wider to allow the rest to flow in.

Cora’s phone rang. Picking it up with one hand, she tapped to answer. Pike didn’t look. He remained focused on Kimble’s face, watching for the slightest change.

“Who is this?” a male voice demanded.

“You called me, so who the fuck are you?” Cora answered back.

“I’m calling you on behalf of Imani Alexander, friend to my flock. If you don’t wish my assistance then I can hang up, my duty fulfilled.”

The voice sounded vaguely family, and Pike had to search his memory for a name to match it. “Tobias?”

“Ah, Pike, you remember me despite how brief our meeting was,” Tobias answered, his tone warming.

A brief smile slid across Pike’s face, even as another tear escaped to slide down his cheek. “It’s hard to forget Briar. I’ve never known a human female so ready to pick a fight in my life, especially with a drunk troll shifter.”

“Yes, you were the bouncer that night. You still have my thanks for intervening when my human’s judgment was so flawed.”

Pike could hear Briar in the background. “Hey, I could’ve taken him! I’m tough! ”

If things weren’t so dire, Pike might have laughed. “If you’re thankful, could you help my vampire, Kimble?”

Tobias’s voice turned all business. “Switch to a video call and let me see him.”

Cora fumbled with the phone and then swept it slowly over Kimble’s still form.

“Maksim!” Tobias said, clearly shocked. “That’s Maksim Laske. I thought he’d died years ago.”

Tobias knew who Kimble was? Later, Pike would consider how helpful this might be, but he was too scared to care about Kimble’s past right now. He needed Kimble to have a future first!

“This is bad,” Tobias continued. “His aura is weak and getting weaker. Did one of his flock die?”

“No, I’m perfectly healthy, but I left him alone today and didn't come back before he woke up,” Pike wailed. “This is my fault!”

“Stop whining,” Tobias barked across the phone.

“Dude, don’t be mean,” Briar snapped in the background. “He’s scared!”

“Can you help us?” Cora asked.

“I believe I can, but all of you will owe me a favor,” he warned them.

“Anything,” Pike agreed.

“Wait I don’t…” Cora started, but her words trailed off when Pike caught her eyes, begging with his own.

“Fine, I’ll owe you a favor,” she snarled, then rattled off her address. “If you can’t save him, I’ll kill you instead.”

Instead of getting angry, Pike heard Tobias laugh. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. “You’re feisty, like my Briar. It’s amusing in her, but if you threaten me again, I’ll separate your soul from your body.”

Pike heard Briar shouting angry words before Tobias ended the call.

“What an asshole,” Cora muttered, dropping the phone to the floor. Her angry expression dissolved, and Pike saw tears gather in her eyes as she lifted her gaze to Kimble’s face. “But I’ll kiss his ass if he can fix you.”