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His smile flickered, and then he nodded. “Thanks. I needed to hear that. I knew al that, but . . .”
“But you stil wondered. It’s natural.”
“Yeah, there was always the question in the back of my mind. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a bloodwhore. But . . . if anybody made it appealing, you would, with your scary badass braids and the way you don’t take any crap from anybody. I’ve learned a lot from you, Menol y. Thank you for that.” Standing, he hit my knee with the file in his hand and headed for the door. “Meet you over in Medical.”
I fol owed him out the door and turned the other way, not sure what to think. Chase had never before admitted any fascination with the vampire culture, and I wondered just how many secrets would crawl out of the woodwork now that he’d drunk the Nectar of Life.
Pushing through the doors into the medical unit, I caught sight of Sharah and motioned to her.
“How’s—”
She shook her head and pul ed me into her office. “He’s slipping. Listen . . . I’ve done some research and there’s one thing I can think of that might kick him over into recovery, but I don’t know how you’d feel about it.”
“What does it matter how I feel?”
“Because . . .” She broke off with a sigh, her gaze darting to the side.
“Just tel me.”
“Vampire blood. Not enough to turn him, but I’ve heard it has healing properties when injected into a mortal.”
Holy crap. So not what I wanted to hear. So not something I wanted to even think about. “He’s not mortal. He’s a demon. There’s no way to tel what injecting vampire blood wil do to him.”
“He’s not healing, Menol y. The wound on his side won’t coagulate.”
I glanced back at the waiting room. Camil e wasn’t there, but Vanzir and Tril ian were. “Do they know? Camil e?”
Sharah shook her head. “No. I haven’t talked to them yet. I wanted to talk to you first before I approached them. If you say no, I’l let it drop. I think the blood should come from you because you’re friends. A strange vampire might gain some hold that could be used against him. I trust you not to do that.”
“How much do you need?”
Sharah held up a syringe that ran to a tube holding about four ounces. “Doesn’t seem like much, does it, to stand between life and death?”
Gravely, I nodded. “Yeah. You sure this wil work?”
“No, but if it doesn’t, I’m sure he’s going to keep slipping and quite possibly die.”
“Fucking ghosts. Why won’t the wound heal? What’s preventing it?”
Sharah motioned for me to take a seat at her station. “The wound came from one of the hungry ghosts—we think it siphoned enough life force off him to weaken his body, and the stake managed to do far more damage than we first thought. There’s no way to give him a transfusion of energy, not unless your friend Vanzir can reverse his feeding technique and give instead of take.”
I shook my head, not wanting to mention that Vanzir couldn’t even take energy from anybody now, let alone give it. “No. Not possible. And there are no magical spel s to infuse him with life force? To strengthen his powers?”
She frowned and pointed to a stack of books. “I’ve been reading al day in hopes of finding something that might work. Camil e knows of no spel that wil help. We don’t have Smoky or Roz here to offer advice. I don’t dare ask any of the sorcery shops because of your run-ins with Van and Jaycee—they’re stil out there and they could easily set it up to poison him as wel as help him.”
I thought of Wilbur, but dismissed the idea. Wilbur was good but not this good. “So . . . the only option you found was vampire blood.”
“Yeah, kind of fal s out that way.”
She sat silently beside me as I contemplated the idea. It wouldn’t turn him into a vampire, but it would create a link—one I didn’t know if I wanted. And because he was demon, it might create other problems that we couldn’t foresee. But the only other option was to let him die. I couldn’t do that, not when my blood might hold the answer to his cure.
Final y, I swal owed my resistance. “Go talk to Camil e. If she’s wil ing, I’l do it.”
Sharah clapped me on the shoulder. “Thanks, Menol y. I know this isn’t easy for you. I know how you feel about sharing blood with others.”
My thoughts drifted back to Roman. That hadn’t been so bad, but this . . . this was no vampire older than the hil s, joining me in ecstasy. Morio was seriously wounded and this might save him, but at what cost? Just as Chase had shifted when he drank the Nectar of Life, this could have serious repercussions on a demon. On a human, it would probably strengthen them for a while, cause euphoria, perhaps even permanently shift their aura. But a youkai . . .
Sharah stood, her scrubs making a scratching sound as she slid past me. I watched as she disappeared down the hal . So many troubles. So much anguish and blood and battle. We were steeped in it. We were al walking under the shadow of death now. Camil e had her death magic, Delilah was a Death Maiden, and I was dead. And the shadow was growing as the days progressed.
