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"Meet the doctor," Fang said, gesturing proudly to the man, who was swiveling his head with wide open eyes to take in everything.
Fang roughly untied the bandana that was stuffed in his mouth and wrapped around the back of his head.
The doctor rubbed his mouth, then looked to Fang. "Who are you and where am I?"
"You're here to help our friend," Fang said, pointing to me.
Riggs got up and knelt down so he was eye to eye with the doctor. "And if you don't help her, I'll fucking kill you."
"Riggs," I said. "You can't threaten to kill doctors if they can't help people."
"Just did," Riggs said. He jabbed the doctor in the chest with his index finger, knocking him back a step. "And I'll kill you slow if you don't start making an effort right now."
The doctor pushed up his glasses and moved to the side of my bed. He saw me, then noticed Maisey, who seemed to concern him more. "W-which one?" he asked.
"That one," Riggs said. "We'll handle the other."
"She looks anemic," he said, pointing to Maisey. "Y-you should-"
"I said we'll handle that one. Help Sylvie. Now."
The doctor asked me a series of questions and looked through my prescriptions. He seemed relieved to find most of the pills he wanted were already in my impressive collection. He scribbled down instructions for a slight modification of my usual rotation of pills. He wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic and steroid as well, but warned that with my condition, there was no guarantee it would take.
"Then there's no guarantee you'll get to keep living," Riggs said.
I sighed. "Riggs. He's doing his best. Stop threatening to brutally murder him."
Riggs glared down at me like I'd just asked him to do something unreasonable, but he finally nodded.
Relieved, I smiled. Riggs seemed like an aggressive, out of control brute, but at least he seemed to listen to me. Somewhat. I was surprised when he paid me any attention, but Felix and the others seemed shocked. Every time he didn’t bite my head off for talking back to him, I caught them all staring openly, like I was sticking my head inside a lion’s mouth and laughing.
The doctor handed the prescription he'd written to Riggs with shaking hands.
"Call it in to her pharmacy," Riggs said, handing the doctor a phone. "I want to hear it confirmed that they'll give us the pills."
I thought the doctor was about to cry with relief when Fang finally hooded him and was instructed to take him back to where he'd found him.
"Thank you!" I called out as Fang led the doctor back out of the room.
"You don't have to be such an asshole to people," I said. "You know that, right?"
"I'm not being an asshole. I'm making my expectations and the consequences of failing to meet them clear."
"And you're doing it with all the tact of a barbarian."
I thought he was going to blow me off, but Riggs looked thoughtful, then he came closer and sat down. "Did you know your sister was turning?"
I swallowed. "Well... She kind of told me as much the night you showed up. I believed her, but I don't think I really accepted it until I saw her teeth."
"Why would she do that?"
"She wanted to save me. From my condition. She thought she could turn herself, then turn me and cure me."
He sat back, looking at Maisey with a little less of the hatred that seemed to color his expression when he noticed her lately. "What an idiotic plan," he finally said.
"You don't think it would work?"
"It would fix your condition, yes," I said. "But you'd be a vampire. Would you cut off your arm to stop your finger from hurting?"
"It's not the same thing," I said.
"You don't know shit about it. Do you? You have no idea what it means to be one of them."
"Enlighten me, then. Because right now, I see my options as continuing to be a useless burden to everybody who cares about me, or I let Maisey do what she was planning and maybe I can have some semblance of a life. Assuming I survive this mess," I added.
"I'm protecting you, so you will survive.”
“Yeah? Are you going to growl, intimidate, and punch the next virus that tries to wipe me out?”
“I’ll keep you alive. It’s my job. And you will not let Maisey do what she was planning."
"That's not your choice to make," I said.
Anger flashed across Riggs' face. "I'm in charge of protecting you right now. That means it is my call. Vamps have a hierarchy. You get turned by a mutt and you'll be less than a mutt. You'll be trash to them. Like a rat they'd sooner step on than have to tolerate scurrying around under their feet."
"A mutt?" I asked. "Did you just call my sister-"
