Anita Blake 22 - Affliction (32 page)

‘I’ve never tried to change back this soon,’ Nathaniel said, and his voice was a little shaky.

I hugged him close, marveling at how warm he was, how silken his skin and hair. I buried my face in his hair the way you’d take a stiff drink to calm your nerves. I found the heavy leather of his collar still around his neck, though looser.

‘You’re supposed to pass out after you shift back,’ Nicky said.

‘In case I do pass out, Anita, remember the vampire that bit me in Tennessee?’ he asked.

I’d known about rotting vampires, but the first time I knew that they could infect people with their bite was when one of them bit Nathaniel. He’d lain on a hotel bed screaming in pain and would have died if Asher and Damian hadn’t drained the sickness out of his body, risking their own lives to do it. Asher had been strong enough to be okay, but Damian had nearly rotted to death. I’d saved him by letting him feed on me, and risked dying the same way, but since I’d asked Damian to save Nathaniel, I’d had to try. This was before Nathaniel was my animal to call and before Damian was my vampire servant. It all seemed so long ago and far away now. ‘How could I forget?’ I said, and hugged him tighter. It seemed unthinkable that once I hadn’t loved him, once I had done everything I could to avoid being his lover, and now he was one of the most important people in my life.

‘Ares has only one animal form, like I did back then; he’s not going to be able to heal this any more than I could.’

I went still as we hugged. I raised my face up from his hair and met his eyes. ‘Ares has only one form?’

‘You didn’t know?’

‘He’s a big, dominant, athletic guy; I thought that translated into two beast forms.’

‘Not always.’ This from Nicky.

‘I’m not sure what you’re talking about,’ Perkins said, ‘but I’ve got patients to finish prepping for the helicopter that’s coming.’

‘What about Ares?’ I asked.

‘I’ll send him when the chopper comes back.’

‘No,’ Nathaniel said, ‘he needs to get to the hospital as soon as possible.’

‘Lycanthropes heal anything. There is only so much room in the helicopter that’s coming. I cannot triage a lycanthrope ahead of injured humans.’

I looked at Nathaniel. ‘You mean it will move just as fast in Ares as it did in you in Tennessee?’

‘Probably.’

‘See, you healed just fine,’ Perkins said.

‘I had help, and we don’t have any of that kind of help with us,’ Nathaniel said, and gave me a long, serious look. He meant we didn’t have vampires with us, and even if we did, they’d need to be powerful enough to heal Ares without catching the rotting disease themselves. Asher had been strong enough, but Damian had almost died of it.

I turned back to Perkins. ‘Trust me; this will kill him just like it’s killing Officer Travers.’

‘Lycanthropes can’t get infections,’ the paramedic said.

‘Nathaniel is alive because we had extraordinary … healing help, but on his own without that help he would be dead now. It is the only infection I’ve seen that can be fatal to them. I swear to you that I am not lying to try to get my guy on your chopper. I saw the bodies in the morgue that had this, and a bite near any major artery can travel to organs you need to stay alive. If this gets to his brain or heart, then he’ll die from it.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Perkins said, ‘and I do know that three of the men waiting for transport will be dead within two hours or less without more medical care than I can give them.’

‘Take the brain or the heart of a wereanimal and they won’t heal, they’ll just die. If this infection rots either of those organs, then it’s the same as blowing them out with a shotgun; they’re gone either way.’

‘They know how to treat it better now; it’s not that fast-acting,’ Perkins said.

‘With treatment it’s not, but I’m worried that the higher metabolism he has as a shifter may actually move it through his body faster than if he were human.’

Perkins gave me a narrow look. I fought the urge to yell at him. Nathaniel hugged me closer, trying to soothe me, so I wouldn’t lose my temper. He was right. If I screamed at the nice paramedic he would ignore me, and Ares wouldn’t get on the first chopper.

‘Look, Marshal, we have two men who will die within the hour, and that’s not counting Travers.’

‘How many will fit on the chopper?’ I asked.

‘Six. The clearing is only big enough for a Black Hawk.’

‘Then there’s room for your two critical, plus Travers, and Ares, plus one more,’ I said.

He looked grim, never a good sign. ‘I don’t mean to be harsh, but I have to triage on the basis of severity of injury and likelihood of recovery. If I accept that your friend here has the same thing Travers has, then that doesn’t change my mind. My understanding is that they will have to try to cut away the infected flesh. We don’t have a lycanthrope blood supply, especially not for AB-negative, which is what Nick said he was. That’s the rarest blood type in this country; there’s never enough of it.’

I didn’t bother to ask how Nicky knew Ares’ blood type. I’d ask later after we saved him. ‘A shapeshifter can take human blood, it’s just the other way around that can give someone lycanthropy,’ I said.

‘In most of the western states, even Colorado, the blood supply for lycanthropes and normal humans is strictly separate.’

‘You’re saying that even if we get him there they can’t operate in time, because he’ll need blood,’ I said.

He nodded. ‘I’m sorry, but yes.’

‘What if you had a lycanthrope with O-negative blood type?’

‘One person might be able to donate enough for a conservative operation, but what are the chances of finding a universal donor with lycanthropy?’ Perkins said.

‘I am.’

‘You’re O-negative and a lycanthrope?’

‘I carry lycanthropy but don’t shift form, so technically I’m not a lycanthrope.’

‘It’s not possible to carry and not shift.’

‘So they keep telling me, but I failed my blood test three years ago and so far what you see is what you get.’

He blinked hard, frowning. ‘If you are lying to me, Blake …’

‘I swear to you I’m not. My blood work is on record with the Marshals Service.’

Perkins gave me another suspicious look.

Nicky called out, ‘I hear the chopper.’

‘I don’t hear anything,’ Perkins said.

‘I don’t either, but if Nicky says he hears it, we’ll hear it soon.’ I’d barely finished saying it when I heard the distant chop-chop-chop sound of the helicopter blades. They were distant but coming. ‘I hear it,’ I said.

‘I still don’t,’ Perkins said. It was another couple of minutes before he heard it. Sometimes I didn’t appreciate that I had super-hearing since I was usually surrounded by shapeshifters and vampires.

I said something I don’t say often; I said, ‘Please, don’t let him die, not like this.’

He frowned at me. ‘Damn it, fine, can Nick carry him back to the clearing?’

‘Yes,’ Nicky said.

‘Follow me, and you’re going to have to ride along, Blake. We’ll have to put you in the helicopter equivalent of a jump seat, and only if the pilot says the weight distribution will tolerate your extra.’

‘I’m small,’ I said.

‘You better pray you’re small enough for everyone who needs to be on this chopper, plus one blood donor.’

Nicky picked up Ares easily and followed Perkins. Nathaniel took my left hand in his and spoke low. ‘How’s your phobia of flying doing?’

I stiffened, stopped walking, and almost stumbled. ‘Motherfucker,’ I said, softly, but with feeling.

‘You didn’t think about it, did you?’

‘If I can save him, I’m going to,’ I said.

He squeezed my hand and said, ‘That’s my girl.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I am.’ We kissed gently as we walked, and the first tree limb caught in his hair. It wouldn’t be the last. Becker actually took the ponytail holder out of her own hair and gave it to him so he could braid it. It also inadvertently exposed his body completely. Some good deeds do get rewarded.

Other good deeds, not so much. The inside of the Black Hawk wasn’t that big. We had a pilot, copilot, room for three stretchers, and two small seats for the medics. One of the medics stayed behind to help Perkins with the wounded still on the ground. We put Travers and Ares stacked to one side and strapped a third wounded officer between the medic seats and the stacked stretchers. By the time everyone was secure it was crowded. Did I mention I’m also claustrophobic?

My view was the stretchers, so no seeing outside, which usually helps with the claustrophobia. I was strapped into the seat, though I had to adjust the AR and the shotgun to sit back in it. The vibration of the chopper beat through my body in a steady, punishing rhythm. The nausea that had hit in the woods after the run came back, and I was left breathing deep, even breaths, trying to control it. I also tried to pretend I wasn’t in a whirling machine of death hundreds of feet in the air. There was a gasp that must have been a scream for me to hear it through the earphones and the noise of the blades. I looked up and found Ares trying to sit up. The chopper medic, who had just been introduced to me as Lawrence so I didn’t know if it was his first or last name, unbuckled and tried to force Ares back down, but one flailing arm sent him crashing, and only me putting a hand against his back kept him from falling on the wounded man in the middle. Neither he nor Travers moved.

I called out, ‘Ares, it’s okay!’

Lawrence sat down in his chair, so I could see past him to Ares. His wide, frightened eyes turned and found me. I watched his face get calmer as I unbuckled and moved carefully so I wasn’t standing on the third wounded man. I used the other stretchers as part of my handholds, but everyone else was unconscious so they didn’t mind.

Lawrence spoke into my headphones. ‘Can you calm him down so I can check his vitals?’

‘Yes,’ I said. The helicopter hit a little turbulence, and I didn’t really have my helicopter legs yet. Ares grabbed at me, and I gave him my left hand to hold, our arms bent at the elbow like we were going to arm-wrestle. I felt a spasm that ran through his arm. He writhed on the stretcher, face grimacing in obvious pain. He was mouthing something, saying something, but I couldn’t hear it through the headset. I took off one earpiece and bent closer.

‘Something’s wrong,’ he said.

I turned so I could yell into his ear. ‘You’re hurt.’

‘No, it’s more, it’s …’ He writhed again, hand convulsing on mine until I almost had to tell him,
too tight
, but he loosened it on his own.

I touched his face, got him to look at me, and said, ‘Medic needs to check you. You gotta let him do that, okay?’

His eyes rolled with the pain, but he said, ‘Okay.’

I turned and motioned to Lawrence. I started to let go of Ares’ hand, but he held on tight, as if he were afraid for me to let go, so I kept hold of him, just moving his arm back with me. It also meant he couldn’t accidentally hit Lawrence with it again. If Lawrence needed me to sit down and give him more room, I would, but if it helped calm Ares and I could stay where I was, I’d do it.

Lawrence worked around me, but he’d barely touched him when Ares’ body convulsed so violently that if I hadn’t had his hand in mine his arm would have swung out again. I held on tighter and yelled next to his face, ‘Ares, it’s okay. He’s helping you.’

‘I just need to check you, no needles, nothing bad,’ Lawrence said in a voice raised over the noise.

‘No,’ Ares said in a strangled voice.

‘Let him do his job, Ares,’ I said, bending over his face. From inches away I watched his eyes turn to hyena gold. The energy of his beast crawled up our joined hands and down my spine. ‘No, don’t you dare shift in here!’

‘Can’t help it … he wants me to shift.’

‘Who wants you to?’

‘Vampire, her master, it’s … he can control my … beast.’

‘Not through a bite he can’t,’ I said.

‘Land,’ he said, ‘land, I can’t hold on. He’s … it’s … calling me.’

‘Not possible, not like this.’

‘It’s like the bite, the rot … it carries a piece of him with it. It’s not just a disease, it’s him … it’s him.’

‘Who?’

He screamed full-throated, wordless, and then he found his voice again. ‘Hurts, God, it hurts!’

‘Ares! Don’t …’

He used our joined hands to pull me close and I was left looking at his face from inches away, upside down, as if I’d put his head in my lap. His hand was almost crushing mine. ‘I won’t be me when I shift. Do you understand? I won’t be … me. He … will control. He will control … me.’

‘Shit.’ I whispered it, but my face must have let him know that I understood, because some tension went out of him. He trusted I’d take care of it. I only hoped I could.

Lawrence said, ‘Does he mean what I think he means?’

‘We land now,’ I said.

Lawrence shook his head. ‘We can’t.’

‘We have to get Ares out of here before he shifts.’

He hit the microphone and said, ‘Is there any place to land now?’

The pilot’s voice came over the headset. ‘That’s a negative.’

Ares convulsed again, and the energy of his beast raised the hair on my body. He growled, and the sound vibrated loud enough that Lawrence could hear it over all the other noises. He gave me wide eyes and got back on the headset. ‘We’ve got a problem and we need to be on the ground ASAP.’

The copilot turned in his seat just in front of us and asked, ‘What the hell was that?’

‘Shapeshifter,’ Lawrence said.

‘Landing would be good,’ I yelled.

‘Negative, repeat negative, there is nowhere to bring us down safely,’ the pilot said.

I got on the headset. ‘Shapeshifter is about to lose his shit, we need him out of here before that.’

‘We were assured the shapeshifter had control of himself, or we wouldn’t have let him on our bird,’ the copilot said.

‘Normally he does, but trust me. You want him out of here before it happens.’

‘We got no landing site for at least the next ten minutes. Can he hold it together for that long?’

‘Ares,’ I said.

He looked at me with his hyena eyes. His body convulsed and I almost had to cry uncle. He was going to crush my hand if he didn’t stop.