I glanced around the room-there had to be something in here to help me. There was no phone. There were no medical kits. But near the door, next to the light switch, was a bright red button labeled "V11."
It looked like a nurses' call button in a hospital room. V11 was the World Council for the Equal Treatment of the Undead's hotline for humans with vampire problems.
And I was up to my ass in vampire problems.
Scrambling to my knees, I slapped my hand against the call button and crab-walked back to Ben. An alarm roared to life, echoing down the hall. I left a bloody handprint on the wall panel.
He still wasn't breathing, and his skin was paler and grayer by the minute. I couldn't hear a heartbeat. His eyes were unfocused, staring off at the ceiling.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered, cradling him in my lap. "I don't know what's happening."
Twin drops of water fell onto Ben's gray cheek, tinged with a hint of pink. Because vampire tears have the tiniest bit of blood in them. And I was a vampire.
This was bullshit.
Before I could release more of those tears, the alarm bell stopped, and the door burst open. I closed my eyes, expecting some sort of vampire SWAT team to come spilling into the room and stake me. Because they were going to kill me. The Council did not tolerate vampires who attacked innocent humans, no matter how newly risen. They were going to come in here and stake me. I could only hope they'd make it quick.
But the expected staking did not come. I cracked one eye open and saw a pretty brunette vampire in a purple Specialty Books T-shirt, standing in the doorway. The ID badge around her neck read "Jane Jameson-Nightengale." Her jaw was slack, and she was shaking her head as she stared at me.
"Help me," I whimpered.
She seemed to snap out of her stupor, glanced down at the dead boy in my arms, and yelled, "Holy hell, what did you do to Ben?"
2
Try to find other vampire sires who inadvertently fell into parenthood to mentor you.
-The Accidental Sire: How to Raise an Unplanned Vampire
Jane Jameson-Nightengale made some sort of hand motion behind her back, and I heard a bunch of clicks from the well-lit hallway behind her. She dropped to her knees beside Ben. "You're not even supposed to be awake right now! How did you bite him?"
Jane's hands slid over Ben's neck and wrists, checking for a heartbeat. Her fingertips lingered against his skin at each of his possible pulse points for several moments. And every time she failed to find a pulse, her face crumpled just a little bit more. Who was Jane, and how did she know Ben?
"He's not breathing. No pulse," she whispered, whipping her head toward me. Her eyes flashed an angry amber. "He's cold. He was only in here for ten minutes. Even with the blood loss, his body temperature shouldn't be this low!"
"I don't know what happened!" I cried. "I bit him, but I only took a little. I mean, I could hear his pulse drop a little as I drank, but I pushed him away, and he was fine. He was talking and laughing about me biting him one minute, and the next, he just flopped on the floor dead. Did he have a heart condition?"
"No, he's perfectly healthy. None of this makes any freaking sense!" Shaking her head, Jane lifted Ben's bitten wrist to her nose. "What the hell? Your bite mark smells funny."
"Well, I haven't brushed in a couple of days," I said, shrugging. "I've been dead."
"No, you haven't brushed in twenty-four hours. I mean-never mind," Jane told me. She yelled toward the door, to someone I couldn't see. "Let's get Ben into a secured containment room. Total lockdown, no one has access but me. Protocol: Jupiter Ascending."
The expected vampire SWAT team-wearing uniforms marked with "UERT," for undead emergency response team-swept into the room on swift, silent feet. They rolled a gurney into the room and gently lifted Ben's body onto it. They covered him with a sheet and rolled him away before I could even object.
All but two of the vampire storm troopers marched out in formation, leaving Ophelia to appear in the doorway, looking shocked and annoyed. "Meagan, how are you awake?"
"I don't know!" I yelled. "All I know is I died in the most embarrassing way possible, and then I woke up here."
"Not the most embarrassing way possible," Jane mumbled, crawling across the floor to grab my face in her hands. She gently, but firmly, pulled my chin down with her thumbs and looked at my mouth. She leaned slightly closer and inhaled.
///