“You can administer the red potion,” the redhead said. “Here.” He pulled a white kerchief from the pocket of his suit, then took the red potion back from me—uncorking it and pouring some of it over the kerchief. “Pour it on the cloth, then wipe at her lips or stick it in her mouth. You don’t just want to pour it in—she could choke.”
I took the moistened kerchief and potion, juggling them so I could properly support Jade, then followed the directions and dabbed at Jade’s mouth.
Josh watched for a moment in the rearview mirror, then nodded before returning his attention to the road.
Neither of the vampires, I noticed, had mentioned my bespelled clothes or the general weirdness of the situation.
The red-haired one, however, eyed Jade’s blood. “Elder…” he slowly said. “Do you… to be safe…”
“The poison in her blood doesn’t affect me,” I said. “I’m too old.”
“Ah.” He sat back in his seat looking vaguely terrified.
“I didn’t know that was possible.” Josh gunned the car through a red stoplight after glancing to confirm that a few vampires were standing in front of the rare car at the intersection, holding it back. “But I suppose it makes sense—you can likely heal faster than the poison can affect you.”
The redhead clutched the door. “You just ran a stoplight.”
“I’m aware,” Josh said.
“Could you not? You might like to wax poetry about the sweet embrace of death, but I’d like to survive tonight.”
“I looked—see?” Josh looked left, then right before he blew through another stoplight in which the intersection was blocked by vampires.
The redhead made a noise.
“Look back at Elder Maledictus and tell me if I don’t drive through stoplights that our lives won’t be in danger.”
The redhead sank lower in his seat and gulped. “Point taken.”
A phone rang. The red-haired vampire checked it. “Gavino,” he announced, before accepting the call. “Yes?”
“I’m calling to confirm that Elder Maledictus has Jade O’Neil in his custody?” A deep voice boomed through the phone’s speaker—I was assuming this Gavino was the muscle-y vampire we’d left behind, given I recognized the background chatter as the voices of the vampires who had first arrived when I’d made my command. “I’ve got a member of the Curia Cloister’s task force. She said she recognized Jade before you left,” He paused, then added, “She’s getting hysterical and is threatening to call the Cloisters—ouch!”
“Yes, the slayer is Jade O’Neil,” I said before the redhead could repeat the question to me.
He nodded. “Did you hear that, Gavino?”
“Ow! Yes—stop kicking! I’ll notify His Eminence—we’ll need to stop the Cloisters before they mobilize.”
“If the Cloisters are so concerned, her team should have thought twice before leaving her,” I snarled.
It was an unrealistic sentiment—Jade and her team had been pushed to their limits. If I wanted to assign blame, I should have just stepped in and ended the fight. But it had taken me holding a lifeless Jade to realize that revealing my location to Killian, officially standing against Gisila, none of it mattered.
“Coming up on the hospital,” Josh announced. The inky black sky was more of a dull charcoal from all the light pollution as we turned a corner and the street opened to reveal a brightly lit, multi floor building. “We’ll be taking you to the ER—the emergency room, the place humans go for medical attention in case of emergency. Might I suggest to you, Elder Maledictus, that you only harness a few ER staff? If you daze them all too many will attempt to help, and the uncared patients will suffer and get in the way,” Josh added.
“What are you talking about?” the redhead asked.
“I’ll take it into consideration,” I said.
Josh followed the signs for the ER, slamming on the brakes when he drove under an overhang. “Here. I’ll park—Rupert, go in with Elder Maledictus—”
I don’t know what else he said, I unlatched the door and kicked it open with enough force that the car made an ominous creaking noise. I slid out, careful not to jostle Jade as I transitioned from sitting to walking.
I’d been trying to dab more of the potion on her lips, but I didn’t think she was getting much of it. I put the vial in my pocket, then strode for the front doors which automatically opened.
I walked into the sterile stale scent of filtered air and copious cleaners. A waiting room littered with plastic waiting chairs stretched to my side, but there was a front desk tended to by a man and a woman wearing scrubs.
The redhead—Rupert, apparently—scrambled in behind me as I stalked towards the front desk.
“She needs medical attention,” I said to the humans behind the desk. “Now.” My eyes glowed red as I used a power unique to vampires—pheromones—which made humans pliable and easy to order around. “You will focus on her and give her the best medical care possible and your absolute priority.”
Their eyes unfocused and one immediately turned to a computer while the other picked up a phone and spoke in a lowered voice.
Seconds later a herd of medical staff stampeded into the room—doctors, nurses, and other roles I didn’t recognize due to my general ignorance of human medical care. Confusion creased their foreheads until I took a step towards them and the pheromones hit, making them dreamy faced and starry eyed.
“Medical care, now,” I snapped. “She was shot and there’s something wrong with her head.”
Their eyes stayed unfocused, but they moved efficiently, one of them fetching a stretcher, another pulled out a tablet, while the others scurried around doing more preparatory tasks.
“Possibly a concussion,” one medical staff member muttered to another.
“Check her eyes.”
“Understood.”
One of the humans peeled Jade’s eyelids back and shone a light in her eyes. “Her eyes aren’t constricting—she’ll need an MRI.”
A staff member wheeled a gurney up to me. “After her gunshot wound is addressed.”
The medical staff spoke quickly, but their voices were so neutral—from the hold I had on them—it bordered on uncaring. I gently lowered Jade onto the stretcher and was promptly crowded out as the humans gathered around her.
I clenched my jaw and held in the raging emotions I still couldn’t trace: Jade was my priority. I’d hold it together for her sake.
“Any other injuries?” the nurse—or doctor?—with the tablet asked as they started to push the stretcher down the hallway.
I started to shake my head, but Rupert—who was walking so fast he almost had to trot to keep up, added, “She’s a vampire slayer—a supernatural human.”
The nurse/doctor paused. “Can type O blood still be used for her?”
My mouth felt dry and I wanted to curse my ignorance. I was aware of blood types due to my drink of choice, but I had no idea if or how that affected Jade as a supernatural.
My disregard for humans was finally coming back to haunt me.
“Yes, she can take blood type O,” Rupert said. “But you should record that a potion was administered to the wound. Elder Maledictus attempted to give her an oral potion, too, but we were afraid she’d choke, so it was only dabbed on her lips and tongue.”
“Understood,” the nurse/doctor said, her voice emotionless.