Rebirth of the Seer (7 page)

Furrowing my brow, I studied my old friend while
tempted to reach for my cigarettes again
.
My hand slid into my pocket
, and although it made me a liar, I pried into Chloe’s thoughts to discern the intention behind her words. I saw Monica painted as a miracle. The thought inspired a subdued grin as well as the temptation to wax poetic about the gift of a kindred spirit. Just as quickly as the notion surfaced, however, another thought from Chloe’s immediate memory captured my attention.

I issued the question almost involuntarily. “Chloe, who is Julian?”

“Oh, thanks for reminding me,” she began. As she paused to remember the details, her mind filled with detail and painted a clearer picture of the man. He was tall
wearing a long coat, possessing
a thick, European accent and Germanic features which stirred faint echoes of the man I had once called ‘
Opa Fiedler
’. Rather than bearing the dark hair of my grandfather Wilhelm, though, Julian possessed dirty blond locks and had approached Chloe with a painted on smile. ‘
Have there been any unusual cases in the hospital this past week?
’ he had asked, but I read the deadly intent past the false cordiality.

“Fuck,” I said,
interrupting whatever Chloe had started to say in response
.
She furrowed her brow at first, and then let out a tiny yelp when I
gripped
her
shoulders and
turned her to face me
. “How long ago was this?

At first her eyes widened, her expression befuddled, but as I relinquished my grip, Chloe stammered, turning a pallid shade of white. “F-fifteen minutes? Maybe less? It was right before I came up to see you. I, uh… it was what made me think to check up on you.”

“Bloody hell.” Spinning around, I regarded the hospital building while running my fingers through my hair. My mind reeled. “Fifteen minutes. That is too long. Surely he…” I trailed off, sensing fear take hold of me and twist my stomach into knots. It was the same fear I harbored when I carried Monica
from the Council
, inspiring the same determination. Without another thought, I dashed for the doors and damned the consequences of using my vampire speed in front of the human populace.
If anyone watched my sprint into the hospital, I paid them no mind. I needed to get to the third floor, and fast.

Bypassing the elevators, I slammed past the obstruction between me and the stairs and continued my upward ascent. My feet vaulted them two or three at a time, even when I passed a male nurse who stared as I bounded past. Within seconds the last flight of steps was all but a memory. The door opened and a hallway was all stopping me from reaching my watcher.

That was when I spied
him standing next to the nurses’
station.

I skidded to a stop. He stood straight and smirked, as though he knew without needing to be told who I was. ‘
Blasted seer instincts
,
’ I murmured in my mind as he brushed back the folds of his coat and freed a crossbow from a sling. Already loaded, it only needed to be raised. His smirk turned downright vicious.

“There you are, little vampire,” Julian said. “Your executioner has come to deliver your punishment.” Nurses screamed and ducked for cover. Time stood still as he pulled the trigger and a bolt sailed to intercept its target. I had milliseconds to register one last, fleeting thought.

‘
Son of a bitch. Why does this keep happening to me?
’

My sunglasses nearly flew off as I spilled onto the floor and slid into a wall
in my effort to avoid the projectile
. I reached up to adjust them, avoiding the chance to make a bad situation worse. Julian had already caught me unaware. Facing him blind would ensure the next shot did not miss.

I clamored to my feet with less grace than normal. Our eyes met and both of us
regarded
each other with what appeared to be the same posture. He resembled the mental image Chloe had donated, but this time I saw the emerald green eyes and had all the confirmation I needed. If the weapon in his hands did not reveal his identity, the smug, self-righteous way he
eyed me read of a company man. Monica’
s warning
echoed ominously when I caught sight of the sword strapped to his waist.
One way or another, he would be certain I did not walk away from this encounter.

We would just have to see about that.

He
narrowed his eyes
when I attempted to probe his thoughts in all their jaundiced honesty. The being before him was evil and attempting to confront him directly – with me unarmed – would be nothing short of suicide. When I sensed him return the favor, I used the chance to duck
around a corner,
out of his line of sight.
“Is that anyw
ay to greet an adversary
?” I asked, pressing my back against the wall.
The sound of Julian reloading sent a few humans scurrying away from the unfolding confrontation. They paid me no attention as they rushed past.
“You shoot a bolt at him before he can even arm himself? Not very sporting of you.”

“I didn’t come to fight, I came to kill.” His accented speech made him hard to understand and I was in no mood to play translator. The amusement in his voice only served to anger me further. “Now, are we going to play wild goose chase?”

“I think you mean cat and mouse. Where the fuck did you learn English?”

“No need to be insulting.”

“No, of course not. You only came here to murder me.” The sound of Julian’s footsteps caused my posture to stiffen. Quickly, yet deftly, I sli
d a
long
the wall, headed for the
corridor
which ran parallel to my new nemesis
. “Julian, you are a seer, but so am I. Can we not discuss this matter like civilized creatures?”

“You are no seer.” Julian continued to advance. “
The
High Council
itself handed me this assignment
.”
The precise phrase within his surface thoughts was, ‘
To stop your threat against humanity
.
’

“Now, would that be right? To deprive the world of my smiling face and leave it with you to fill the void?”
I reached the end of the hallway and slipped around the corner.
“I would not ask such a ta
sk of you, these are hard shoes
to fill.”
             

“The worl
d will learn to do without you
.”

“Yes, but such a world is a travesty to fathom.” I took a deep breath and shut my eyes, searching for Monica’s fate in Julian’s immediate thoughts. Gods, how I hated being stuck in such a position.
Her doctor had not even granted her a chance to wake from being sedated yet
. Opening my eyes, I frowned. “She has done nothing against you,” I said once I determined he had not yet harmed Monica. Still, orders for her execution accompanied mine. “Her hands are clean.”

‘
She aids an evil being and an enemy of the Council. She has aligne
d herself with the dark forces
.
’

“I don’t make the orders, and I don’t change them on the words of a dead man,”
he said, although the words unspoken resonated with far more impact.

I frowned reflexively.
“Do you even think about this nonsense before you
execute someone
? The girl has not aligned herself with anything but me and I would gladly relieve her of duty if it
meant she would be spared.” Pausing several yards away from an
other
hallway, I
br
ought
my hand to my head, fingers kneading my temples.
Too many things were
vying for a voice inside a mind I could not seem to quiet
.
“Julian, you know as well as I do that no evil resides within her. Allow her to mend and restrict your vendetta to me.”

Just as I began to
hope
him
capable of reason, I sensed his sneer
. “Your tricks will
not work on me, little vampire
. My orders will be carried out as given. Now,
let’s get this over with
.”

“Fucking ironic that
I
am the one attempting to save a human.” Sighing, I glanced around, forced to ad lib my plans again, only now, without the sanctity of my thoughts.
With a few long strides, I reached the intersecting corridor and peered around this corner
, thankful that the hospital staff had taken the hint to get out of the way.
Having successfully
circled the floor, the other
side of the nurs
e’s station became visible.
Monica’s room
was
on
the opposite side
of the building
, just beyond where Julian
first shot at me. It would take everything I had, but maybe…

I acted just as soon as the notion was conjured, knowing that to pause
would only gi
ve Ju
lian a head start. Rac
ing with reckless abandon, I passed a row of shut doors leading to other patient rooms. The final turn ahead of me closed in just as Julian sprang to
action
and moved to intercept.

A few brave humans risked the chance to peek as I leaped over the low wall
marking the front of the nurses’ station
. Their heads turned with the entire motion, and mouths hung agape when I landed
cleanly
on the other si
de. Julian whipped around the corner where I had just been
in time to catch me
exposed.
I lifted a hand on instinct, focusing on the seer with every ounce of determination my frantic mind could muster.

The burst of telekin
etic energy impacted Julian
. It th
rew him back and onto the
floor, his head bouncing off the tile and inspiring a groan. I stared long enough to watch the events play out, and then made my final charge. The door to Monica’s room
was still several feet away when Julian came to a stand. I spied the black space between her door and its frame and thanked the Fates
for the mercy of not needing to wrestle with the latch
.

Despite my immortal reflexes,
though,
each second seemed infinitely longer.
I hit the door with my shoulder and
rebounded
slightly as I made it through to the other side
. A
significant
click and a
warning sense of rushing air
coincided with my
surge
into the dark. I
dropped to
my knees
in time to see another bolt
sail over my shoulder and sink into the wall in front of me.

Twisting
to one
side, I kicked the door shut behind me. My legs wobbled as I stood – a symptom I attributed to nerves – and my hands shook as I secured the lock. We had no
easy
way of escape. I made it into the room fast enough to save Monica, but
without a planned
exit strategy. My chest rose with a shaky breath. “Time,” I said, “I need time. Bloody fucking hell, now what?”

A pound against the wooden barrier
broke me from my thoughts
. I swallowed hard and spun to face the room, seeing the chair where I had conducted my vigil and dashing to it the moment half an idea came to mind. It wedged nicely beneath the handle when I slid it over and permitted me precious seconds to form the next part of my plan. “Weapons first. Monica second. Son of a bitch, how are we going to get out of here?”

I jumped with the next forceful thump against the door, but resigned myself to ignore the rest. Had I a pulse, my heart might have
been lodged in
my throat, but the fright served enough of a purpose to speed my actions along. “Monica, my dear,” I said as I dashed to her. “I regret disturbing you, but we cannot stay. Let us hope your doctor was competent.”

Taking hold of her wires one by one, I
quickly
pulled the electrodes from her frail body
as delicately as possible. M
achines protested, especially when I removed the heart monitors, but I ignored their cacophonous racket in
favor of moving on to her IV. The b
eeping and
continued
banging gnawed at my nerves. I barely summoned the concentration to fashion a makeshift
secondary
bandage from my watcher’s sheets. Once the dressing was secure, I reached over and ripped the cords for the machines from the wall.

“Come out, little vampire,” a muffed voice
taunted. “You have nowhere
to go.”

“Fuck off, Julian.” I fought a scowl. When Monica’s chest continued to rise and fall in the same rhythmic pattern, I indulged in a calming breath and left her alone for the time being. A shallow closet housed my collection of weapons and as I ran for it, I stripped my suit jacket and threw it onto the ground. The shoulder holster slid on
effortlessly
and securing each knife into their proper sl
ot took a matter of seconds. Fastening my sword into place last, m
y arms threaded
back
through the sleeves of my jacket with ease.
Returning my attention
to Monica, I studied her and frowned. “Consider yourself bless
ed you are lost in slumber, witch
. This would sting if you were conscious.”

I wrapped Monica’s blanket around her body. The pounding had become
more dire
and vexed me just enough
to inspire
the compulsion to challenge Julian directly. We would not be exi
ting through the hallway
, though
.
This only left one avenue of escape.

I
barely completed the thought when
the pounding
ceas
ed. A flicker of fear coursed through my veins like quicksilver, but the decision had been made ju
st as soon as I managed to consider
it. Grabbing the metal intravenous pole, I held it horizontal and charged for the window with all my might. The glass buckled and cracked, but failed to
break and a second attempt merely
made the fissures worse. Drawing a deep breath inward, I gritted my teeth and made one last vie for our escape, not bothering to even steal a glance downward
to assess
the leap
I was about to make
. Our time had expired and we could not afford to hesitate.

I do not recall if I yelled when I slammed the
metal into the glass again. T
his time, shards of window showered downward, creating a berth too narrow, but a berth just the same. I beat on the edges again and again, causing more and more glass to spill on either side of the hole, until an expanse wide enough to accommodate us opened
up before me. I
f Julian yet stood on the other side of the door or had already started for the ground floor
I had no way of knowing
, but I could not chance it either way. Lifting Monica in my arms, I focused on the violated window and ran for the sky before us.

Clearing the exit required me to duck my head and gather Monica tight against my body. Once we made it through, however, the world seemed to pau
se for half a second. I weighed
the distance between us and the ground, kicking my legs just as gravity propelled us toward the street. It would not have been the first time I sailed from such a height, but the injured girl in my arms required me to make a last-moment adjustment to how I bore the shock of impact. My knees buckled. Pinpricks of agony rocketed up my spine.

But we landed safely just the same.

A crowd of dazed mortals stared at us as I cast a quick glance back to the hospital. No sooner did I spy the exit than I saw Julian
charge
through the automated doors, his crossbow in hand. Wi
thout bothering to study him
further, I sprang upright and launched into a m
ad dash, ignoring the
ache radiating through my legs with each step I took. By the time I disappeared down a narrow street, it faded in the backdrop.