Crimson Death

I went to Pearson. “You can’t do this,” I said.

“We have to help him if we can, Blake.”

“It’s too late, Pearson. Even if they can put the fire out and put him on fluids or whatever and keep him from dying, he won’t heal. He won’t even heal as well as a human being. Fire is one of the few things that a vampire cannot heal from, at all.”

Pearson frowned at me. “What are you saying, Blake?”

“I’m saying that the vampire will be trapped in that body as it is now, but maybe not die ever. Eternity like this is not mercy.”

Pearson looked at me for a second, then blinked and blinked again. “I don’t know what to say to that, other than the ambulance is here. Once the medical personnel get on site they are in charge.”

“Pearson, even if they can do this, don’t let them.”

“It’s out of my hands, Blake.”

“Fuck,” I said.

One of the medics was putting out the fire, and the other one was putting a blanket over the flesh that had stopped burning. I knew that normally they would not have let anything touch third degree, or whatever degree the vampire had burned to, but keeping the fire from reigniting in the sunlight was more important than anything else if they meant to actually save him.

They covered him in a layer of blankets. They got him on the gurney and because they kept him out of direct light they were able to get him in the ambulance. I saw them start an IV before the door closed them inside with the vampire.

Jake and Nicky came up to me, and Jake said, “They need an armed guard.”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked.

“I wish I were.”

“That man is too hurt to do anything to anyone,” Pearson said.

“He is not a man, Superintendent. He is a vampire,” Jake said.

Pearson shook his head. “No, no. If you had wanted to help, the time to do it was before the ambulance got here.”

“In the future we will offer more aid. We did not dream that you would try to save what was left,” he said.

Domino, Edward, and Nolan were running toward the closed ambulance. I don’t know what had alerted them, but I’d learned if Edward was running to run with him. Jake and Nicky came with me, and the distance was short enough that Pearson was beside us when Edward reached the doors. Domino and Nolan faced them, rifle and handgun at the ready. Edward didn’t wait for us to clear the last few feet, but opened the doors, as if even one more second was too long.

67

I SKIDDED TO a stop on the other side of Nolan, bringing my gun up before I even looked inside the dimness of the ambulance. It took a second for my eyes to adjust from the sunlight to the shadows. Domino yelled, “No shot, no shot!”

Nolan echoed him. “No shot, no shot!”

“No shot!” Edward yelled from the far side of Domino.

I was left staring into the back of the ambulance to see the nightmare of blackened flesh and bone that was the vampire curled around the paramedic like he’d used the officer inside to shield himself. He was feeding at his neck. It was a normal feed; the man would survive if we could get him out in time. I didn’t have the angle, but Edward had a head shot; I knew he did and then I realized the second paramedic was behind the struggling pair. There was no shot that wouldn’t hit him. Fuck!

The paramedic yelled, “Get us out of here!”

I hopped up into the ambulance as Nolan climbed inside. There wasn’t room for anyone else. I heard someone shout my name, probably telling me not to be stupid, but it was too late. I was committed. Nolan put his gun against the vampire’s forehead, but the other medic was still in the way. It would go through the vampire and into his chest. The vampire’s victim’s eyes were unfocused. He’d stopped fighting, because the vampire had mind-fucked him. At least he wasn’t scared anymore. The other paramedic was scared shitless and I didn’t blame him.

I tried to ease further in so I’d have a shot from the side, but the vampire growled at me and his eyes flared blue again. The color looked too alive in the blackened skull-like head. The vampire bit harder into the neck, tearing at the flesh just a little bit too much like a warning. If he worried at the side of the man’s neck like a dog with a toy, he’d take out his jugular vein and that might be all she wrote.

“Don’t hurt him,” I said.

“He’s already eating him!” the paramedic hugging the back of the ambulance yelled.

“No, he’s just feeding on the blood. If that’s all he does, your friend will be fine. I’m going to have the other medic get out of the ambulance,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“I’m talking to the vampire.”

The vampire bit deeper at the man’s neck.

I changed my grip on my gun, slowly, carefully, so that I was holding it left-handed and pointed at the vampire. I didn’t have a killing shot for sure, but if it started to tear out his throat I’d shoot regardless. I spoke to the paramedic. “What’s your name?”

“What?”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Gerald, Gerry.”

“Okay, Gerry, here’s what we’re going to do. You are slowly going to move toward my hand and you’re going to stay at my back, between me and the wall, and you are going to get out.”

If the Wicked Bitch or the vampire she was using knew anything about guns, they wouldn’t let him get out, but I was betting that she was like a lot of the really old vamps. Modern firearms weren’t their thing. I flexed my free hand at the paramedic like I was trying to get a child to take my hand to cross the street. Gerry the paramedic moved toward me.