“You ran her over—with your car?” Mikhail laughed. He didn’t do that very often. He sounded like a coughing seal. Gregor scowled. It really wasn’t funny.
Well, maybe it was a little funny.
“Look,” Mikhail said, wiping his eyes. “I’m sure this can be worked out. If she’s your intended, of course you can feed from her. How are you going to breed with her if you can’t convert her? Go get her, and I’ll find someone to consult on this.”
Chapter 9
“I cannot believe what a fucking idiot you are.”
The trick to hospital life was to sleep as much as possible. To hover just below the threshold of consciousness where you were not hurting, or worried or bored, just numb. She’d done a pretty good job of it, too, coming out of it only to argue with her family and doctors. Late night was the best time, when the ICU was quiet, or as quiet as it gets, and no one visited. Which is why she was very surprised to wake up to these words late on her second night there.
Gregor? Cracking open her eyes, she saw his massive black silhouette in the greenish fluorescent light. The memory of their night together had kept her company in these quite hours alone. She held the memory close, and knew that even though he hated her for leaving him, he would also remember their night together, how good they were together, long after she was gone.
She never wanted him to see her like this.
“Get lost, Faustin,” she said, her voice a croak. “You don’t belong here.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Maddy groped for the call button at her side.
“That won’t work.”
“Please tell me you didn’t do anything to the nurses.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve just arranged it so that we can talk.”
Maddy rolled her head toward at the curtain to her left. “Mr. Zimmerman?”
“Isn’t listening.”
Vampires. The low, electric hum of her machinery became loud in the silence as she considered what to do with him, the wheels of her mind turning slow. All the little computers attached to her pinged and chirped their slow chorus. Her oxygen tube itched her nose.
“So, talk.”
Taken off the offensive, he seemed at a loss. His eyes flicked nervously over the tangle of wires emerging from the collar of her gown, the tubes at her wrists, the machines behind her. “Well, first…uh, I have to give you this.”
Gregor fished a big gold crucifix out of his pocket. He dangled it in front of her like a hypnotist. It was an Eastern Orthodox cross, the kind with the extra bars. “My mother wanted me to give this to you, and to tell you she’s praying for you. See, the writing on the back says, Save and Protect in Russian.
“Your mother?” Maddy was wondering if she was having one of those strange hospital dreams. “What in the hell does your mother know about me?”
Gregor picked up her hand, carefully, because it had an IV in it, and pressed the cross into her palm. “My mother hopes you will marry me.” Then he knelt down on one knee and kissed her knuckles. “Madelena, I hope you will marry me.”
Oh shit. It was like being hit with his car all over again. She struggled for breath, her eyes on the ceiling tiles, the ceiling tiles a blur from tears. “I’m dying, Gregor. You know that, don’t you?”
“I’ve come to offer you a chance at life.”
“Oh my God.” It was just like Lestat and Claudia. “You’ve come to make me into a vampire.”
“Well, yes, that’s part of the plan.”
“Forget it.” She pulled her hand from his. “I won’t do it.”
Gregor stood up and put his hands on his hips. “Now what’s your problem?”
Tender moment officially over.
“Because I don’t want to be immortal. It’s not right. We all have to move on.”
He threw his arms out. “Why are you so goddamn death obsessed? Look, it’s not an issue. None of us are immortal. I’m not offering you immortality. I don’t even know if I can offer you a full life.”
“Just what are you offering me, then?”
“A heart transplant.”
“Christ, Gregor.” Maddy sighed. “You think I haven’t been through all this with my own doctors?”
“I want you to meet someone. Can I bring him in?”
Maddy lifted a hand. “Bring him in. Bring anyone you want in. Why the hell not?”
Gregor stepped through the curtains, and returned a few moments later with a sleek, handsome man wearing jeans and a sweater, and carrying an attaché. He gave her the “don’t worry, I’m a professional” bedside smile that she’d seen so many times, so she knew he was a doctor right away.
“Madelena, this is Dr. Felix El Khouri.”
“Hello, Madelena. You can call me Felix. I’m pleased to meet you.” He spoke in an intriguing French accent. “I’ve been reading your charts. You’ve quite the history.”
“You’re telling me.”
“You’ve refused further interventions, I see.”
“If you’ve read the chart then you know they would just be gestures at this point. I’d rather not go through it. What kind of doctor are you, anyway?”
“I’m a cardiac surgeon—or I was, until recently—Harvard Medical, Johns Hopkins, New York University. But then I met my wife and became a vampire, and now hospital work is not practical for me anymore.”
Ah, a vamp doc. That’s why he gave off a sexy vibe. She wondered if there were any dorky vampires, or fat vampires, or loser vampires. Felix continued, “But don’t worry, I’m not much out of practice yet. And I have a plan for you.”
“There’s nothing left to do. I’m not a candidate for transplant.”
“Ah, but with vampire blood in your veins, you will be.” Excited by the idea, he waved his hands like a magician. “Madelena, vampire blood is amazing stuff. It’s infection proof, it just assimilates everything, even transplants.”
“You know this for certain?”
“Not for certain. We haven’t done this before, as far as I can discover, but theoretically, it should work.”
“You have a donor heart for me?”
“No, and to be honest, it might take a while to find one through unofficial channels. A clean one, you know. I don’t think you’d want a heart taken…ah…unscrupulously? In the best case scenario we will find you a vampire heart, but that would be even more difficult. Anyway, that is all talk for the future. Right now, I want to implant a Jarvik 2000.”
Maddy groaned.
“You know it? I don’t mean the full mechanical replacement, the Jarvik-7. I’m speaking of a heart assist. The Jarvik 2000 is an axial blood pump. Unlike the 7, we’ve had some success with extended use of the 2000. I think you will do well with it until we can find you a heart.”
Maddy gestured for him to continue. “I’ve read about it.”
“Now, your case is a bit of a…what is the term? Catch-22? It will be hard on your heart to be turned so quickly, but you will need vampire blood to accept the Jarvis. We’re going to have to do it all at the same time. We’re going to drain you, transfuse you, take your heart off line and install the pump.”
Maddy sniffed at the idea. That was crazy. Felix nodded in agreement. “It’s not certain to succeed. If I had the choice, I would separate the two procedures by weeks, but you don’t have the time.”
“Odds?”
“There’s no precedent by which to set odds.” Felix chewed on his pen. A bad sign.
“Come on. I know how you guys think.”
He shrugged. “You are weak, but the will counts for much. I’ll give you 4 in 10 that you will survive the transfusion, and then raise your odds to even for the installation. But if you survive, I think you’ll do well with the pump. How you’ll do with the donor heart will depend on your health later. That I can’t predict.”
Maddy fingered the cross, its warm weight reassuring in her hand. She thought she was done with these decisions, and there had been peace in that. Could she put herself through it? Split open yet again, and maintained by machines, nagged by. The perpetual doubt and worry. She looked over at Gregor. She bet he didn’t have a clue what this artificial heart meant for her—or for them.