Vampire Most Wanted(48)
“Come, the kitchen is this way,” Jackie said brightly, leading them down the hall as Vincent turned to lock the front door. It seemed they were security conscious, she noted, and wondered about that.
Marcus released Divine’s arm and shifted his hand to her back as they followed the young woman. Divine had to grit her teeth to hold back the shiver the touch inspired.
“We have loads of blood, so don’t be shy. Besides, Bastien is sending more, remember,” Jackie reminded them as she led them into the large bright kitchen at the end of the hall.
Divine watched Jackie move to a refrigerator and open it to peer inside, but then turned her gaze over the kitchen. It was probably every mortal’s dream kitchen; lots of cupboards, a kitchen table, a large island with stools around it, and one wall made up of large windows and French doors that overlooked a pool. She eyed the pool with interest. Divine had loved to swim since she was a small child and it had come naturally to her. They used to say she was swimming before she was walking, although she didn’t know if that were true.
“Here you go.”
Divine turned to see that Jackie had retrieved half a dozen bags of blood and was holding one out to her.
“Thank you,” she murmured, accepting the offering. But she just held it. When she glanced to Marcus and saw that Jackie had already given him a bag, two in fact, and that he had opened his mouth and was raising one to his descending teeth, her eyes widened with alarm. “Wait. Marcus, maybe you should—”
She didn’t bother to finish. The bag was already fastened to his teeth and draining so fast it would have been empty before she could finish speaking.
“Is something wrong?” Jackie asked as Vincent entered the kitchen.
“Oh dear,” he murmured, taking in the situation.
“What?” Jackie asked with bewilderment as Marcus dragged the now empty bag from his teeth, alarm on his own face.
“I didn’t think,” he gasped apologetically, and had barely finished saying it when he cried out and dropped to his knees.
Divine sighed and handed her bag back to Jackie as she knelt next to Marcus. “Can you walk?”
His answer was a roar of pain as he reached for his face, both hands extended in claws.
Divine caught his hands before he could try to rip off his own face and looked to Vincent, yelling, “There’s chain in the back of the SUV.”
Nodding, he turned and rushed out of the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Jackie asked with alarm, shouting to be heard over Marcus. “He was fine a minute ago.”
“That was before he had the blood,” Divine snapped, blaming her for giving him the blood in the first place. But then recalling that the girl hadn’t been an immortal long, and certainly situations like this didn’t crop up every day, she dug deep for patience and as Marcus’s screams dropped to a constant, ululating moan, explained, “The nanos are taking up the blood and rushing to try to finish their repairs. It will be excruciating. Marcus should have been chained or tied down before he was given blood.”
“But then why did he drink it?” Jackie asked with dismay.
“He obviously wasn’t thinking clearly,” she said grimly.
“But he seemed fine,” Jackie argued sounding a little shaky. “He was talking fine, and thinking fine . . . and you let him drive here,” she pointed out, sounding accusatory.
“He was fine,” Divine assured her grimly. “I wouldn’t have let him drive otherwise, but—” Marcus managed to get one hand free of her hold, and she took a moment to grab it up again, before saying, “Look, when he woke up the last time it was because he was no longer in danger medically speaking, and the nanos needed more blood to finish healing him. They back off then, buzzing around inside the body, attacking nonessential organs like the bladder and kidneys in search of more blood—”