Passion And Fire (Passion #4) (32 page)

“I can’t what babe? I don’t understand.” He tried to get her to clarify but her head slumped to one side, and he saw she’d passed out again. He took her wrist, the one he could reach since the rest of her was pinned by buckled metal, and felt for her pulse. He found it, but it was weak, really weak. He was going to lose her. She wanted to die more than she wanted to be a part of his lifestyle. That stung, really stung. It hurt to know that she didn’t want to be vampire; that she would sooner die than spend eternity with him. Fuck, when had he fallen in love with her?

He climbed back out of the car, feeling almost numb. He thought he and Flame had reached an understanding. He thought they had decided to see how things went between them. Stupidly, he thought they might have a future together, but her vehement reaction proved she wanted nothing to do with him or his lifestyle.

“Damien?” He heard a familiar voice and lifted his head to meet the concerned expression of his sire. “Is she dead?”

Feeling almost detached from everything, Damien shook his head. “No, I just spoke to her.” He lifted his head when he heard the sound of sirens approaching. “Help’s here.”

“Oh Damien, come, we have to let these humans do their work.” Sirene suddenly appeared. “What happened?”

“The police were chasing this car.” He waved at the one half embedded in his sports car. “It ran the red light. I couldn’t get out of the way in time and it hit us. She’s bleeding internally and she’s going to die. She’s going to die. She won’t let me save her. I just...I just found her and now I’m going to lose her.”

“What are you talking about Damien?” Sirene’s voice penetrated the shroud of pain that surrounded him.

“She won’t let me turn her. I wanted to turn her. She’s going to die. She’s got blood everywhere and she’s coughing up blood. It’s bad in there. She’s pinned by bits of car.”

They all turned when the emergency crew turned up. The cop who’d been there from the start asked them all to move out of the way. Reluctantly Damien stepped back with his sire and Sirene to watch as the crew of men began the process of trying to remove Flame from the wreck. They started by towing the remains of the other car away from Damien’s Lotus; the two cars parting with a shriek of grinding metal.

“If she survives this, I need to turn her sire and don’t fucking tell me no. I’m not going to let her die. She’s not going to survive this. There’s so much blood, so much fucking blood.”

“She doesn’t want you to turn her son. You told us that. If you insist on doing this, how will you control her? She could react badly and act out. As a young vampire she will be unpredictable, unstable. I can’t have that, I can’t risk exposure. Are you sure you want her vampire? You two don’t love one another. You have never been interested in a woman before Damien, so why now? What’s different about her?”

Damien stared into his sire’s eyes and he thought about what Fabian was saying. He cared about Flame but did he want forever with her? Forever was a long time when vampire. The pain he’d felt when she’d begged him not to turn her; the pain he felt now at the prospect of losing her meant he cared. Was it enough? Fuck, he had no idea. He’d never loved a woman before, but if the emotions running riot in him now were any indication, he didn’t just care, he loved her.

He thought she’d come to care for him too but obviously not enough. She’d just made that perfectly clear. Still, no matter what, the idea of watching the life drain out of her and for her to be gone forever didn’t sit well with him. No, he had no idea what the future held, but he had to try and save her.  

“I’m not letting her die if I can save her sire. If you would prefer I leave with her, I will but let me try and save her, please. I will teach her the ways of being vampire and if she wants to move away once she’s learned how to control her blood thirst, then I will not hold her back if that’s truly what she wants. Hell, if she’s a problem, I will lock her in the dungeon, but I can’t just sit back and watch her die. If you could have seen her face before that fucking car hit. She and I were laughing and then…then, it was coming at us and she got this look in her eyes, like she was saying good bye. She knew she was going to die, but she doesn’t have to and I can’t let her. Please Fabian, don’t make me watch her die.”

Fabian stared into his eyes for a moment and Damien could see the concerns he felt reflected in their strange pale depths.

“Give him the chance Fabian.” Sirene touched his arm. “We need to get her away from the emergency crews somehow. There will be a lot to clean up from this but I can use a spell.” She reached up and kissed his cheek and Damien knew he was going to win this. No one could persuade Fabian to change his mind like Sirene could.

“Very well my son. You have my permission to try and save her. Turn her vampire.”

Chapter Nineteen

Damien

It felt like an eternity before the emergency team finally cut Flame from the car and hastily placed her into the back of the ambulance. One of the paramedics asked if anyone was coming with her and Damien jumped up. “I’ll go.” He said.

“You’re not going anywhere son; well you are, but not the hospital. I will mind control the paramedics and you’ll be going to our home. Sirene is going to make this all go away with a reversing spell. She is also going to put a blanket spell over the ambulance to mask it. Once I mind control the paramedics, you must commence the change while you’re in the back of the ambulance. I saw how bad Flame is. She won’t make it to any hospital alive; in fact she won’t survive even with every form of modern medicine thrown at her. She dies or you change her and even then she may still die son. She’s in a very bad way. You know what to do don’t you? You know how to begin the change?”

Damien nodded. “Yes sire. Drain her and then feed my blood back to her. Thank you.” He gave them both a look of gratitude before jogging to the ambulance.

Once he was in the back, the paramedics went to shut the doors but Fabian’s arm shot out and halted him. The paramedic looked surprised and then impatient. “Sir, we have to get going. This young woman is in a critical condition.”

“Oh, we know.” Fabian said leaning in to stare closely at the young man. “But she’s not going to hospital.” He locked eyes with the paramedic and while he mind controlled him, getting him to sit in the ambulance, Sirene moved to the cabin of the ambulance to deal with the driver.

Once they were both under their control Fabian returned to the rear of the ambulance. “Ok son, the rest is up to you. I’ve contacted Lucian. He’s on his way to take over the drive to our home.” He started to swing the doors shut. “Good luck.” He said and swung them the rest of the way closed, locking him in with Flame. He was alone with her and the mind controlled paramedic.

Quickly he shifted until he was alongside of her, reaching out to check for a pulse. She was still alive but he wasn’t sure how much longer she would hold on for. Worried about the watery sound to her breathing but not having any kind of medical experience he wondered if giving her oxygen would help.

Deciding it couldn’t hurt her; he reached out and pulled the oxygen mask down over her face, hearing the hiss of the air and hoping it would help her. He had to hurry. If she died, it would be too late.  

He looked over at the paramedic who sat, his expression serene, blank, totally non responsive and Damien realised he could use him to help. Getting blood into the human being changed could be risky and challenging. They had to rely heavily on being able to get the person to still be lucid enough to drink the blood but he was in an ambulance with a paramedic. A blood transfusion would be the most effective way of getting his blood into her once he’d drained her.

Damien clicked his fingers in front of the blank faced paramedic and as if in slow motion, he slowly turned to face him. “I need you to run a line from my vein to hers ok? Do you understand?” The young man nodded. “Ok, well prepare your equipment or whatever you have to do while I tend to her.” He told him and again checked for Flame’s pulse. It was thready but she was still alive.

He dropped down beside her body and for just a moment he allowed his eyes to move over her. God she was a mess. There was so much blood on her. Her hair was glued with blood and streaks of it covered her face. Damien could see a huge gash on her forehead, just on the hairline and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. One arm looked to be at an unnatural angle and she was still breathing in that wet, gurgling way. It wasn’t as loud as it had been but he suspected that was because she was dying, not due to any kind of improvement in her condition.

She was in too much of a mess for him to feed from the main vein in her neck and he needed to monitor her heart rate while he fed. This was going to be tricky given she’d already lost a lot of blood and he had no idea how much could be flowing inside her that he couldn’t see.

He pushed her dress up higher until he revealed her upper thighs to his gaze. Bending down he breathed in the scent of her cunt which still bore faint traces of him despite her shower but he felt nothing sexual. This was all about saving her. When his fangs descended her buried them into her groin, right in her femoral artery and began to suck with deep, powerful draws on her. As he fed, he kept his fingers wrapped around one wrist to feel for her pulse. It felt like he’d barely taken anything from her when her pulse began to slow and grow even weaker. When he raised his head he could tell that she had major blood loss into her abdomen going by how swollen it was looking. For a brief moment he wondered if he could do this, if he could save her. She was in such a bad way. It was going to be touch and go as to whether it even worked, trying to change her.

When the ambulance suddenly started up and began moving he paid no attention. It simply meant Lucian had arrived and was starting the drive to their sire’s home.

“Now, I need to give her my blood now.” He told the mind controlled paramedic and watched impatiently as the man prepared a needle which he inserted into a vein on Flame after several attempts to find one. She probably had so little blood in her that her veins were collapsing. Still the line was in her and hopefully it wasn’t too late.  

He held out his wrist and watched as the paramedic then hooked another needle up in his arm, a clear tube connected between the two. He watched his blood flow down the tube and into Flame’s arm but something was wrong, it wasn’t then flowing into her body. He had no heartbeat to push it and she was too close to death with her collapsing veins for the blood to properly enter her body.

“Fuck, it’s not working.” He snapped but the paramedic had nothing to offer so Damien grabbed the tube and squeezed it. Over and over he did that, slowly pushing his blood into her body. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing it but even when he started to feel light headed, he wouldn’t stop.

Squeeze after squeeze he pushed more of his blood into her until he felt the inside of the ambulance beginning to spin. He’d given her all he could without nearly killing himself. He had to hope it was going to be enough. Now all he could do was wait. Wait for them to arrive at Fabian’s home and wait for her to wake vampire, if she was going to. Suddenly unbelievably weary he leaned back in the confines of the ambulance and let the darkness drag him under.

Flame

It was the rocking motion of being in something that was moving that woke me. Well, I’m not sure waking was quite the word for it. It was more like coming too or suddenly becoming aware of my surroundings.

I opened my eyes, blinking against the harsh white lights that nearly blinded me and squinting as I looked around me. Where the fuck was I?

It looked like the inside of a hospital theatre almost with the oxygen and bandages, blood pressure cuff and an assortment of medical equipment, most of which I didn’t recognise.

I turned my head and saw a man sitting near me dressed in what looked suspiciously like a paramedic’s uniform and I wondered if I was still asleep and having some bizarre dream.

I’m not sure how long I lay there watching everything swaying with the movement of the room until finally it registered; I was in the back of an ambulance. Why, I hadn’t yet worked out but when I swung my head the other direction, the first thing I saw was Damien. He was slumped over and looked like shit, pale, alarmingly pale in fact; so pale the five o’clock shadow on his strong looking jaw stood out against his almost grey complexion. What the fuck was wrong with him.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position and stared down, my eyes widening in horror at all the blood on me. What the fuck was going on? I stared at the blood, then Damien, the man in uniform and the back of the ambulance, and suddenly the fog cleared and my memories came crashing down on me as a painful reminder of what had taken place this evening.

We’d been in a car accident, a bad accident. I’d been pinned in the car and everything had hurt. I remember Damien trying to help me, but we’d had to wait until the emergency workers had cut me out of the wreck. Oh, poor Damien’s beautiful sports car was totalled.

I turned to him but he was still slumped over as if asleep and as I stared at him, bits and pieces of some conversation we’d had, came back to me. He’d been telling me he could save me by changing me and I’d begged him not to do that to me, not to make me vampire. He and I were too new, too volatile and there were no guarantees we’d make it as a couple, hell, we weren’t a couple. Being trapped as vampire for eternity would be the worst thing he could do to me.