The Vampire's Bat (15 page)

Equipment from the stalls they’d emptied out for the
shifters was piled outside and covered in tarps.
That, and all the construction putting in the park models,
and settling the survivors, had kept the entire pack busy and distracted today.
It was no
wonder
to Seamus how
the hunter had been able to get in a few punches.

He could hear the sound of the cold rain splattering
heavily against
the tarp
as they entered the
building. Inside, he could see the stalls were dark, as their doors were left
open, but the hall had a little light. There were two wolves, a black bear, a
black jaguar, the okapi, and the rhino. He hated they were in here, and not in
the house, but there wasn’t enough room and these were the largest shifters
unable to shift. Whether that inability was a choice or not still seemed to be
in question.

He made his way to the first stall and flicked on a
light that was placed there. In it was the black jaguar he had first seen when
he arrived in the basement. Golden eyes stared at him as he approached.
Maysa
stayed by the open stall door.

“Hello, Mister Jaguar, I’ve come to check on you. I
apologize for not being able to come sooner. Are you able to shift?” he asked
as he grabbed a notepad that had information on it. He glanced up and saw the
feline shifter give a short shake indicating no.

“I’ve suspected it isn’t by choice, as a few of the
others can’t shift into their animal forms. From what I am reading, you seem
like you are doing well. You are eating some, you have drunk an amount I cannot
complain about, and you’ve even been able to use the litter
-
box.”

The jaguar growled. Seamus looked up from the paper he
was looking over and saw the black feline lifting his head and giving him an
unhappy look.

“I am sorry for how that sounds, however, you must
realize there are few dignified options for you in your current state. It was a
better option than leaving a mess on the floor. The humans may think you were
nothing but an animal, but you and I know better.”

The jaguar chuffed and laid his head back down, but
Seamus could still see the tip of his tail angrily curling in and out.

“Would you mind if I check you over?”

The jaguar slightly rocked his head indicating no, so
Seamus knelt down beside the feline and checked him over, paying particular
attention to all of his sores and his hind leg. “You are healing slower than I
am used to your kind healing, but I believe it is due to your lack of nutrition
and perhaps what is causing your inability to shift. With more food and rest,
we should see an improvement.

“I don’t know if anyone has asked you, but
are there any family
, friends, or alpha that you would like
for us to contact?”

The jaguar shook his head. Seamus could see he was
tired so he gathered himself up, and, clicking off the light, he quietly exited
the stall.

The two wolves were believed to be sisters. They
stayed together in one stall. They were in rough shape. Both were severely
emaciated, and both had infections and bare spots and sores dotting their fur.
They were even diagnosed with worms.
That
had to have been humiliating for them.
But they were strong and were
accepting as he and
Maysa
applied more medicine on
the sores.

“I’m really quite pleased with your food intake.
You’ll be better in no time.” He smiled down at them.

Moving to the next stall, he observed the black bear.
He had to have been a new arrival to the lab
before we had gotten there,
Seamus thought to
himself
.
The bear still had good weight, but his body sported many breaks and some of
his claws were torn out. He also had deep cuts and fur missing from what looked
like a fight. However, he was docile and easy to be around. Seamus read on the
charts that he was also playful and in excellent spirits.

The next stall was the okapi. She was lying down in a
very thick, soft bed of hay covered over by a blanket, and a large pillow was
under her head. He approached her with a smile.
“Hi there,
sweetie.
You look comfortable.” He grabbed the pad and glanced over it
while
Maysa
crouched down beside her and began
stroking her neck.
“Says here you’ve been doing very well,
even allowing Gale and Connie to give you a good
,
thorough washing.
Did that make you feel
better?”

The okapi slightly nodded her head, and Seamus could
see she, too, was tired. “I’m sorry I’m here so late. I’m just going to do a
quick check on you and then I’ll let you get back to sleep.”

Even though the light wasn’t very bright, Seamus was
still able to notice her colors were brighter now that she was clean, and he
could see more clearly where skin was healthy and others where there was the
starting of infection. He rubbed a special cream over those areas then gathered
his things. “Goodnight, sweetie,” he said as he clicked off the light and
exited the stall with his beloved beside him.

The last stall was already lit when Seamus looked in.
He saw the rhino sleeping on the floor with his brother sitting on the floor,
leaning over the rhino’s shoulder, sleeping. He had a laptop that had, at one
time been on his lap but now lay fallen over onto the floor.

Seamus squatted down and nudged his twin. Ryker
snorted but didn’t wake. Seamus shook him a bit harder, drawing a growl from
the rhino.

“Easy now.
I’m just trying to wake my brother.” Seamus tried to calm the black rhino. Even
though he was several hundred pounds underweight, and his horns were cut off,
almost too low, the rhino could still crush all of them. A light nudge from his
heavily boned head would feel like being hit by a car.

Ryker rubbed his eyes and stretched.
“Hi, Sea.
Guess what?”

“What?”

“This beautiful horny stud is my beloved,” he said
joyfully
.

“Congratulations, Ryker,”
Maysa
said with a smile over Seamus’s shoulder.

“Thank you. It was a big surprise. I came out here to
put up three more cameras. When I walked by I felt
whammied
when I scented him. So I asked if I smelt like mate to him, and he nodded yes.
You
gotta
help him, Sea. He can’t shift back. It
isn’t a choice for him.”

Seamus sat on his heels and thought over what his
brother just told him. “I’ll do what I can, Ry. You know I will. He’s not the
only one unable to shift. I’ve got to say, Ry, I don’t know if it will wear off
or how long it will be before I can find a countermeasure. Have you talked to
him about letting you drink from him?”

“Yeah, kind of.
I told him about what happened to you. I didn’t want
him to feel pressured, but
it’s
important information.
You can’t make the right decisions if you don’t have all the information, so I
had to let him know. He’s willing to let you draw blood so I can drink it. It
should do until you can fix whatever it is that’s preventing him from shifting,
right?”

“In theory, yes, but I can’t say for certain. I don’t
know if whatever is in his blood that’s preventing him to shift will affect
you. And there’s no telling how long it would take before he can shift to fully
claim you. If neither of you mind, I would like to take some blood samples, and
if you wish, I can draw extra for you to feed from, but did you tell him it will
start the bonding process?”

Ryker’s bright blush was clear to see in spite of the
low level lighting. “Yeah, I think he likes that idea.”

“If you are his mate, I’m sure he will appreciate
being able to have some kind of claim on you until he can properly claim you
himself, is that right?” Seamus directed the question to the rhino shifter. The
large heavy head dipped in a nod, and Seamus could see the tension leaving the
large rhino.

As Seamus grabbed what he needed from his bag and
proceeded to run a quick exam, Ryker picked up his laptop and took it to
Maysa
.

“I looked up some manufactured home plans earlier. I
found two that I thought would work pretty well. Would you like to see?” He
held up the laptop to show her something on the screen.

“Oh, uh…”

Seamus saw her dart a look his way. “Go ahead,
sweetheart. I’ll leave it to you to choose one for us,” he said before he put
the stethoscope against the rhino to hear his heart beating.

He heard them talking quietly as he continued his
exam.

“I like this one best. This area, would work perfect
with room dividers to be used as exam rooms,”
Maysa
was saying. He could hear the excitement in her voice. “We can use these two
rooms as hospital rooms, and that room as an office or lab. That leaves the
master bedroom as our living quarters. Seamus,
does
that
sound reasonable
to
you?”

Seamus walked over and looked at the plans.
“Sounds perfect.”
He leaned over and planted a light kiss on
her cheek and smiled at her.

Ryker was excited, too. “Cool. There’s one for sale up
near Ottawa. With your permission, I’ll send the guys to go buy it. We can add
or remove any feature, like flooring, after we get it here. I’ll give
Kace
the dimensions in the morning and have him start to
get the foundation going. They already started clearing and leveling the
ground.”

“Thank you, Ryker. That will be great.”
Maysa
looked really happy, and it warmed his heart to hear
and see her like this.

“Would you like to help me draw the blood,
sweetheart?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Ryker closed the laptop as she dug into the bag for
the items they needed.

He inserted an intravenous line, and after getting
some vials filled and handing them to
Maysa
, he drew
out more blood and put it in an unused specimen cup for Ryker to drink it from.

Seamus could see Ryker’s eyes go blood red, and he had
a wild look in his eyes as he stared at the blood-filled cup. After Seamus
handed it to him, Ryker threw his head back and downed the thick crimson
liquid. Immediately he bowed over and dropped to the floor crying out in pleasure.
His hand dropped to his crotch, and he rubbed against it. Seamus quickly leaped
up and escorted his beloved out of the room. The air filled with the smell of
his brother’s release, and Seamus fought not to make a sour face. He held
Maysa
as they waited, giving Ryker some privacy.

“Crap. Sorry guys. I totally forgot I would, uh, I
totally forgot about that.” Seamus could hear his brother’s embarrassment in
his voice. He walked back around the corner, but
Maysa
stayed in the hall.

“
It’s
okay
, Ry. I take it he’s undoubtedly your beloved.” Seamus smiled as he
gathered everything up. “Does anyone else know the rhino is your beloved?”

“No. I was just supposed to be out here to put in the
cams. Guess I should tell
Alphy
, huh?”

“
Alphy
can wait until the morning,
but maybe when you go into the house to change your pants, you can let Gavin
know where you will be.”

“Oh, right. Thanks, Sea.”

Chapter Ten

Maysa
came out of her sleepy haze slowly. Pleasant heat wrapped around her, and the
scent of her mate surrounded her.
Scent?
I can scent him? My senses are coming back!
Excited,
she thought about waking her mate with a
blowjob, but as her haze cleared, she could hear
Bronya
whispering to Nix just on the other side of the divider. With her bladder now
urging her on,
Maysa
forced herself to unwrap herself
from her mate cocoon, and headed for the bathroom.

After a quick shower, she volunteered to retrieve
breakfast for everyone.
It’s time to face
that fear
.

Maysa
was grateful to her parents and sister who helped her take up several plates of
food. She was glad to have them around. They
were
understanding
of her spending all her time with her new mate. And she
wasn’t surprised, as she returned, to see Nix had been allowed to shift back to
his human form, much to
Bronya’s
relief.

After they ate, she studied blood samples while Seamus
checked up on the other patients. After Seamus had returned and joined her, she
let him know what she had found. “It looks like whatever it is that is
preventing the shifts, is chemically induced. You can see it clinging to the
cell receivers.” Seamus leaned over to look into the lenses of the scope as she
continued to explain her findings. “I can’t tell yet if they are wearing off.
Look at this one.” She pulled out the slide and replaced it with another. “This
one was taken from the same patient when you first freed him.”

Seamus leaned over and looked again. “It doesn’t
appear any different. If it is degrading, it has an awfully slow degradation
rate,” he said.

“Yes. I’m still trying to figure that part out.
I don’t know if it is the same with the shifting, but my
scenting ability is coming back.
”

Seamus’s smile nearly blinded her. “That’s
wonderful news.” He wrapped his arms around her, and
Maysa
returned the happy embrace.

They both heard feet trotting up the stairs, and
Maysa
looked to see Reese. He approached with a somewhat
uncertain smile.

“Hey, Sea, I know I said I would help today, but Tom
and Connie are taking Paul to that specialist you suggested, for that glass eye
thing. Everyone was too busy, so I offered to watch the twins. Is that going to
be a problem?”

“No, that’s fine, Reese. It is good of you to help
them.”

“Thanks, Sea.” Reese looked relieved as he trotted
back down the stairs.

Just minutes later,
Maysa
could hear the sounds of children laughing coming from the playground. Taking a
quick break, she looked out and saw Reese playing with two young twins in the
playground.
It was still wet outside, and a bit
overcast, but it wasn’t raining, so it was undoubtedly a good time to burn
their energy.
She leaned back into Seamus’s arms and sighed wistfully as
he wrapped around her, watching with her.

“They’re adorable,” she said
.

“Yes, they are. Did you want kids someday,
Maysa
?”

She could feel his body tense. She wasn’t sure what he
wanted, but the answer was important to him. “Yes. I love kids. What about
you?” Now it was she who tensed.

The body behind her
relaxed,
and he squeezed her closer, nuzzling her neck. “Yes, I do, too. It’s odd since
the incident with our parents one would think neither I nor Ryker would want to
be one, but we both want to be parents.”

“You told me earlier that you and Ryker weren’t close
with your parents. What happened?”

Maysa
felt warm breath blow over her skin as Seamus let out a sigh. He held her tighter.
“When Ry and I were about seven, we became big brothers to a sister. When she
turned three, there was an accident that left her seriously brain damaged, and
she couldn’t even eat without assistance. They had to put a feeding tube in
her. Vampires are very humanlike and vulnerable in their younger years before
their change. My parents were embarrassed. There wasn’t a lot of acceptance in
those days for anyone in that condition, let alone vampires. It was so acutely
rare for any vampire to have any physical issues. Ry and I loved our sister and
didn’t care that she was different. We were actually the ones who helped take
care of her for the most part because our parents didn’t want to be around her
anymore then they had to.

“That’s when I decided I wanted to become a doctor. I
liked being able to take care of her. But she got sick, and her body was
struggling to fight off the infection. My parents could have tried to help her,
but they were told it would be more merciful to take out her feeding tube and
let the infection finish her off, so instead, that is what they did. Ry and I
have kept our distance from our parents ever since then.”

Maysa
gasped. Tears stung her eyes as she turned and held her mate close. “I’m so
sorry, Sea. They were wrong. I would never give up on our child, should we be
blessed with any.”

Seamus kept his head berried in her hair as he
squeezed back. “I agree. I wouldn’t either. It’s what drove me to being a
doctor, and wanting to make a hospital.”

“What was your sister’s name?”

“Pearl.
Her name was Pearl Rossi.”

“Do you already have a name for the hospital? Maybe
you can name it after her.”

“We’ve talked about calling it Paranormal General
Hospital. We wanted to keep it neutral because we are going to serve both
paranormal associations.”

“But what about the human side of it?
They will require a name, so how will you explain
Paranormal General Hospital?
How about Pearl Paramedical?”

Seamus paused. “I’ll ask
Alphy
about it, but I like the sound of that. Thank you, beloved.” Seamus bent down
and suctioned her lips to his.
Maysa
closed her eyes
and hummed as her belly flopped and her toes curled. Seamus pulled back and
looked deep into her eyes. “I’m in love with you,
Maysa
.
You have my heart beating in time with your own.”

“Nix!”
Bronya
yelled from the hospital room. A loud crashing
sounded from the room. Seamus cursed as he rushed to help Nix.

Maysa
turned back to the window to observe the kids at play again before heading in
to help, but as she did so, the smile on her face fell. Reese and the little
boy were missing, and the little girl was running towards the tree line,
chasing a butterfly. Without thinking,
Maysa
ran down
the stairs. Her
heart thumped heavily as she tried catching
up to the romping tot, but
Maysa
saw the shadows of the
forest envelop
the girl before she could reach her.

Maysa
slowed just marginally as she scented around for the little girl.
Even in her human form, she could echolocate, so she let
out a twitter. S
he saw the little girl and began running for her.
She also saw a man squatting
nearby,
and a large steel trap
in the girl’s path. Adrenaline pumped hard as
Maysa
put on extra speed and yelled, “Stop!”

Maysa
dove for the little girl and caught her, but in doing so, her next step
triggered a trap.
Snap
.

Pain exploded up her leg, and she could feel it travel
up her spine. The girl screamed as they tumbled to the ground.
Maysa
wrapped around the girl just as spikes shot out,
skewering her left arm and leg.

Scott’s rotting rancid smell drifted through her nose,
but she was too blinded by pain to care. “Ah, now
ain’t
she sweet. Looks like I got you and a
bonus.” Roaring in her ears drowned out all other sound as blackness swamped
her.

****

Seamus felt
Maysa’s
emotions
spike, but he thought it was from the drama with Nix. He had
suffered a night terror when
Bronya
had just stepped
away to use
the bathroom
. He had fallen out of bed just as
Bronya
was returning
.

Nix was a mess. His IV was torn out, and some of his
stitches in the most worrisome places were ripped out. Seamus focused on his
work trying to stop all the bleeding and get Nix back in bed. He didn’t realize
Maysa
wasn’t there until he felt pain shoot through
their link, followed too quickly by the weight of nothing.

“
Maysa
?”
Seamus tried to call for
her through their link, but he was still working feverishly over Nix. Blood was
starting to soak into the sheets. His heart ached as their link remained
silent.
“
Maysa
?
Answer me, sweetheart. Where are you?”
Still nothing.

“
Maysa
?”
He yelled out loud.
Still nothing.
“
Bronya
, run inside and find the guys. Something’s
happened to
Maysa
. Run!”

Bronya
was already rushing out before he told her to run. Chances were she didn’t even
hear him yelling it after her, but he couldn’t stop himself from at least
trying to verbally rush things. Meanwhile, Seamus worked his hands over Nix as
efficiently as he could.

“Sea, I’m so sorry.” Nix tried to apologize.

Seamus wanted to
lash out at
him even though it wasn’t his fault,
so he kept quiet as he worked to
repair the damaged stitches.

Time seemed to stretch on, but
Bronya
finally returned with Reese, and Tom and Connie’s son, Danny who was bawling.
Reese didn’t look too far off from joining him.

“What’s going on?” Seamus asked but he couldn’t stop
what he was doing.

“Danny had to go to the bathroom, really bad. I
thought Abby would be all right for just that little bit of time, but by the
time I got back, she was gone. Before I could do anything,
Bronya
came running to the house. I joined her ‘
cause
I
didn’t know what else to do. They sent me up here while they go out and look
for them. I’m so sorry, Sea.” Reese flopped down on a chair and finally gave up
the fight to hold back the tears.

“Reese, snap out of it. I can use your help.
Bronya
, would you be willing to hold Danny so Reese can
help?”

“Yeah, absolutely.
Come here, little guy.”
Bronya
reached out and picked up the crying tot. The boy wiped his nose on her
shoulder, but
Bronya
didn’t bat an eye. She just
reached over for a tissue and after wiping his nose, cleaned off her own shirt.
Reese wiped his eyes on his shirt as he rushed out into the kitchen to wash his
hands. He quickly returned straightening up the lines that Nix had messed up,
mopping up blood, and handing Seamus items he needed.

Sweat dripped down his back, and his hair clung to his
forehead.
Alphy
arrived with Katie, just as Seamus
finished the last stitch.

“Seamus, report,”
Alphy
said.

“Nix will be
fine
,
but I still can’t hear or feel
Maysa
.”

“I’ve got Slate,
Dultyn
, and
Kace
with his team
trying
to
track the scent trail, but
it’s
slow going.
We don’t know how many more traps this guy set, so I have our team going extra
slow. They’ve already found one other trap
,
but we expect more the
deeper we go into the forest. You and I can follow when you’re ready.”

“Hell yeah I’m ready. It’s all just cleanup now, so
Katie can finish up.” Seamus ran to wash his hands, then grabbing his medical
duffle, he and
Alphy
took off together.

Seamus could sense the blood long before they even
reached the tree line. It was
Maysa’s
, and it had
Seamus’s eyes turning red and his claws extending with his fury.

“Keep it together, Sea. The traps may have been
sprung, but we need to keep our eyes out for anything our guys may have
missed.”

Seamus grunted his acknowledgement but didn’t pull
back. Her blood called to him, and the one who caused it was soon to be dead
because of it.

They caught up to the men who were trying to spring
yet another trap. This was a hole in the ground with spikes sticking up on the
bottom.

“This is one sick bastard,”
Kace
grumbled. “I can smell hemlock on the tips.”

Slate agreed. “The blood trail shows he went past all
these traps. He knew we can follow and knew these would slow us down and
possibly
dwindle
our numbers.”