Page 26 of The Rising Dark
“What the hell happened?”Lucretia barked, marching into the fray.
“Found a lair of rogues,” the wounded woman panted, ineffectively stemming the flow of blood gushing from a head wound with her hand.Another lay on the carpet, unrecognisable under a mask of gore.“Eight of the fuckers.Two of them got Pina good, I had to carry her from the car.She passed out about ten minutes ago.”
A low rumble filled the room even through the din of several people trying to help all at once.It seemed to be coming from Lucretia.“Should have waited for backup,” she said, with a voice that raised the small hairs on the back of Michelle’s neck.
The woman, blood pouring down the side of her face, down into the neckline of her shirt, snapped back, “We were ambushed.Seemed like some of them were on guard.”
Brigh bent over the unconscious vampire, who must be Proserpina underneath the pallor of blood loss and gore.Without speaking, she slid her hands under Pina’s shoulders to lift her.The crowd around Proserpina shifted, revealing a shaft of wood sticking straight out of her chest.
“Wait,” Michelle called, taking the steps as fast as she could.“Don’t jostle it.”The vampires didn’t listen, no one turning her way.She pushed past Quintia and held out her hand to stop Brigh from lifting Proserpina.Quickly, she sized up the positioning of the shaft.There was no way of knowing how deeply it had been buried into Pina’s chest.It had missed the heart but could have punctured her lung.Her breathing was shallow and fast, sweat from her pale skin mingling with the blood.
“She needs a doctor,” Michelle said, glancing at Lavinia.Michelle could stabilise her somewhat, but she needed to be in a hospital.
“None around here for miles,” Quintia grunted.
“It would take at least another half hour to take her there, or for him to get here,” Lavinia added.Her green eyes glowed fiercely in the afternoon light.There was a sharpness to her movements, an almost feline grace.Quintia, too, exuded a barely suppressed power.For the first time, Michelle truly felt like she was surrounded by predators.
“Why do you run around with swords but don’t keep a doctor around?”Michelle muttered to herself.Lavinia heard her.
“We used to, but he left last month.”
“Couldn’t stand living with us,” Quintia added.
“Can’t blame him,” Michelle said under her breath.Despite it all, Quintia chuckled.
No doctor around.A woman bleeding out on the carpet in front of her.No sterile equipment, no diagnostic tools.It was a fool’s errand, but there was nothing to be done.
She slid her hand underneath Proserpina’s back, feeling for a possible exit wound.There was none.That was good news, at least.The stake hadn’t gone completely through.A blood-soaked towel lay on Pina’s stomach, and Michelle pressed it back around the wound, stabilising the stake and stemming the flow of blood.
She looked up from her patient, looking into Lavinia’s steady green eyes.“Get the doctor anyway.We need something hard to move her, she can’t stay here in the doorway with everyone milling around.Do you have a board or something?”
Unquestioning, Lavinia turned around to Brigh, and said, “Call the doc, quickly.”Quintia pushed past Lucretia and the vampire with the head wound, grabbed the kitchen door, and with one strong jerk, pulled it clean off its hinges.She turned and held the massive slab of wood up for Michelle’s inspection.“This work?”
“S-sure.”
Barely showing any strain from the door’s weight, Quintia easily laid it beside Proserpina.
Michelle blinked a few times, then refocused.“Okay.We need to put her on the door but try to jostle her as little as possible.”
Lucretia barked, “Hands!”and within moments, five vampires surrounded the patient, grasping her in their strong hands.
“We can slide it underneath her,” Michelle explained.
“Lift!”Luce said, and Pina rose a couple of inches, her head barely even moving.Michelle kept her eye trained on her chest, willing the stake not to pierce the aorta or anything else vital.
“Slide!”The command followed, and within a second Proserpina lay securely on the door.
“Take her to the dining room,” Luce said, and the vampires lifted the door between them.
“Be careful,” Michelle warned, but it was unnecessary.Between them, they carried the wounded woman smoothly through the parlour and slid her, door and all, onto the dining room table as if she weighed nothing.Then, five pairs of eyes turned towards Michelle.
“Now what?”Quintia said.
The weight of expectation bore down on her.The vampires loomed over her shoulder as she looked at Proserpina’s injury.
“Can I have some scissors?”Michelle asked and, within a heartbeat, a pair of scissors appeared at her elbow.Careful not to nudge the stake, she cut through the cotton of Proserpina’s shirt.The clothing stuck to her skin, thick with blood, but Michelle peeled it away to look at the wound more closely.From up close, she could see that the sides of the wood had been smoothed down and polished.Proserpina’s breathing was shallow but even.Michelle leaned closer to the wound, and listened.
Five vampires leaned closer around her.
