“What is this?” I asked him, staring at the IVs.
“One has chemo medicine. The other is a blood transfusion. They gave me one yesterday too. They said it would help me build up my white blood cells.”
My hands started tingling.
“Rumor came by to see me last night after you and Jamie left. She was really interested in you. Man, her tits are something else. She asked about you.”
I frowned. My head was spinning.
“Oh, come on, Layla. I didn’t tell her anything.”
I stared at Ian. Was my mind playing tricks on me? He already looked different. “No, I’m sure you didn’t, it’s just--”
“I can hear my blood thundering in my veins,” he interrupted. “Two days ago I felt like I was on death’s doorstep. Now I just want to . . . I don’t know what. My head is full of weird ideas.”
I clutched the frame of the door and inhaled deeply.
“Layla?”
I looked at Ian again. His sweet blue eyes had already started to lose some of their pigment. My words were lost. I did not know what to say to him. My head spun. I rushed out of the room.
“Layla?” I heard him call.
I ran down the hallway.
“Layla!”
I ran outside and burst into a sob. After a few moments, I felt someone approach me.
“Are you alright?” the man asked. I noticed he was wearing a stethoscope.
“Are you Dr. Madala?” I asked, wiping away my tears.
He nodded.
“I’m Layla. I’m Ian’s . . . sister-in-law. Can we talk?”
The doctor suddenly looked uncomfortable. He looked around. “Not here,” he said and led me back inside. Just inside the door there was an office. The doctor unlocked the door, and we went in. He closed and locked the door behind him.
“You were the doctor who saw Ian the night we arrived?”
“Yes, I was.”
“And what was your prognosis at the time?”
The doctor looked at me. I could tell by the expression on his face he already knew what I was getting at. “He was in the advanced stages of cancer.”
“How have you been treating him?”
“Chemotherapy , mostly,” he said.
“Did you put him on the blood transfusions?”
The doctor looked at his hands and then back at me. “No, Dr. Rostov started that round of treatment yesterday.”
“Isn’t there a third doctor here? They told us there were three.”
The doctor rested his hand on his forehead. “She had an accident.”
“I see,” I said looking closely at him. “Let’s be frank.”
The doctor sat back in his chair.
“Is there any hope for Ian?”
The doctor shook his head. “He’ll become one of them.”
“Why are you helping them?”
“I am curing people. I am helping the sick who are brought here. It’s just, after they leave my hands . . . Look, either I help them or they kill me.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Almost five months.”
“What are they doing with these people? Eating them? Killing them?”
“Many here are pets. Rumor and the others drain them just a little, drink some of their blood, enjoy their bodies. In exchange, the pets get a little of the vampiric gift, a small dose of the blood. It gives them beauty, strength, health, longer lives. It is a deal many choose to make. Especially in these days.”
“Not you?”
“Not me. I once enjoyed being human.”
“And what about Ian?”
“Ian is now a pet whether he knows it or not. But I understand it is Rumor’s intention to offer immortal life.”
My stomach shook. “I need your help. Please, talk to my people. They need to see these creatures for what they are before it’s too late. I need to get my people safe, and until they believe me, I can’t do that. Please, they will believe you. Please talk to them.”
“Every eye in this place is already on you. They watch your every move. I can do nothing for you without risking myself. It is a risk just talking to you.”
“What if we take Ian off the blood?”
“The cancer will return and kill him.”
“We saw something strange. The blood of the undead seemed to, well, it seemed to make one of Rumor’s people return back to their mortal self. Maybe Ian--”
“No,” Dr. Madala interrupted. “You’re right. It will return him to a mortal life, but he will return fully intact and with whatever mortal ailments he once carried. The vampiric seed only provides its healing power while he carries its magic. Becoming a vampire does not, as we were lead to believe, kill you. It simply transforms you to another state of existence, something different from human.”
“Just like the undead.”
“Yes, just like them.”
I stood. “Then there is no hope for Ian.”