Bremmer’s shock lasted only a moment as he took in Ember’s state and instantly dropped to his knees beside her.
“What’s happened, and why does she smell like her insides are liquefying?” Bremmer wiped the blood that was trickling from her nose, held it up to his own nose, and as he smelled, his brow flinched and he grimaced. “Jesus. She’s dying. If we don’t get blood into her stomach fast, she won’t survive the hour. Bring her to the clinic. I have to get some blood bags and an N.G. tube.”
Truman lifted her and carried her to the clinic down the hall from Bremmer’s residence, laying her limp body on the examination table the moment they entered. Bremmer left the room, and Truman watched her. Blood was now dripping from both nostrils, and a small amount trickled like a tear from her closed eye. She was dying, and he could do nothing to save her. He pulled a chair up beside her and held her hand, letting his forehead drop to their clasped hands.
When Bremmer returned, he went to work, setting up an I.V. stand with the blood bag and feeding the N.G. tube down her nose to her stomach. He spoke as he worked and adjusted the feed. “Amazing that the very thing we need to survive can kill us so effectively if introduced into our bloodstream rather than our digestive tract. The venom that sustains us sees living blood that hasn’t been processed by our digestion as a foreign agent. Much like an allergic reaction in humans. Of course there’s good reason for that. If you could ever suppress the venom’s reaction to living blood in the bloodstream, you’d be on a good path to curing vampirism—if you could consider our … condition a disease to be cured. But in all the centuries we’ve studied the toxin, we’ve never found a way to suppress it … without killing the host of course.” And then looking to Truman, he offered a small smirk before continuing. “Not many of us truly want to be cured anyway though, do we? Wouldn’t you prefer an eternity with her than just a lifetime?”
Truman said nothing at all and just watched Ember. Of course he wanted an eternity with her, but he wasn’t able to think about it at the moment—not at a moment when he didn’t know if she’d survive to live an eternity with him, and he would choose death over even a short lifetime without her.
He wiped the blood from her nose and from around her eyes with a wet washcloth, but it continued to drip, and he continued to wipe. It felt like an endless routine that would never end as it went on for hours. Bremmer continued to hang one blood bag after another. Her heart was still beating slowly, and Truman was in a constant state of terror and apprehension waiting to hear its last beat. He feared it more than anything else in the world, and it gripped him now in a way very reminiscent of her human death. Every time her heart stalled for a moment longer than it should, his own lurched in his chest, and he gasped in terror.
Angus stopped in to see her shortly after they’d arrived, and he looked concerned. Angus was one of the few councilmen he actually believed was concerned for Ember’s wellbeing and not just on keeping him happy. Angus sat by her side and watched Truman as he washed her face. Her condition wasn’t getting any worse, or so Bremmer had told him. The problem was it wasn’t getting any better yet either. Her body was healing itself as she digested the blood that was being fed to her by the N.G. tube, but the venom was still attacking her tissues in response to the living blood still in her blood system. According to Bremmer, it would until every last ounce of the live blood had died or been cleared from her system, and that would simply take time. He just hoped she would have time.
When he looked at her pale face and saw it was perhaps slightly less pale than it had been before, he relaxed marginally. When he wiped her nose, eyes, and ears clear of blood and realized the trickle had slowed just slightly, he relaxed just a bit more. And when she moaned in her unconsciousness, and Bremmer smiled at him, he allowed himself to think perhaps she might just come through this. Angus had remained with him during Ember’s fight, and it was only when Ember’s eyes fluttered and her body moved that he took his leave to update the council.
It was another two hours before the blood stopped dripping from her eyes, ears, and nose completely, and it was shortly after that when she finally opened her eyes. It was nearly morning, and she’d been fighting for ten hours to survive. Her eyes fluttered at first and sank back closed for another minute or so before opening and remaining open. He had an odd and irrational fear she would once again forget who he was, and as she held his eyes for the first time since the rotating door, he panicked for half a second until she offered him a weak smile.
He smiled, and she squeezed his hand in reassurance. Her lips were parched, her skin even paler than normal, her eyelids heavy and barely held open, but she was alive. Her body smelled itself again and not of liquefying, dead tissues, and though her skin was streaked with blood that he’d tried to wipe clean from her face and ears, there was no new blood. He leaned gently to her lips and kissed the dry skin of her mouth. Her body looked starved considering how much blood she’d consumed.
“I’d like her to stay another day or so.” It was Bremmer of course, and he was watching them both.
“For any particular reason?” He certainly didn’t want to risk her health, but he also wanted her back in their residence.
“She’s weak.”
“I can handle weak.”
“She’ll need to feed regularly.”
“I can handle that as well.”
“I’m serious, Truman. She may have consumed a lot of blood today, but her body has used every last ounce of it fighting to keep her alive. She’s as weak as her body can tolerate, and she’ll need to rebuild her strength over the next twelve to twenty-four hours.”
“I said I can handle it.” He was glaring at Bremmer, doing his best to make sure the man understood he was now responsible for her again, and he could take care of her needs.
“Very well. You will call me if you have any problems or concerns?”
“Of course I will.” And rising from her side, he held his hand out to the man who’d saved her once again. “Thank you, Quentin. I appreciate everything you’ve done for Ember. She’s been lucky twice now to have you around when she needed you most, and I won’t ever forget that.”
Bremmer nodded before instructing Ember on how to expel the N.G. tube as he pulled it from her stomach. It left her gagging and choking, and as her eyes filled with tears, Truman gripped her hand, and she clamped down on his. He lifted her in his arms, still wearing the clothes she’d arrived in that morning and now covered in blood. He carried her to the elevator, and she nuzzled into his neck as the elevator ascended to their higher level. When they entered their home, he laid her on the chaise lounge by the wall of books she was so fond of, and he walked to the thermostat, turning it up high. The weather was cool now that fall had set in, and he wanted her body warm and content while she recovered. He left her for the bathroom as her gaze trailed after him, and he started the bath before returning.
Once he’d carried her to the bathroom, he sat her on the side of the deep bathtub while it continued to fill. He kneeled on the floor in front of her and slowly removed her dirty and bloody clothing. She watched his face while he worked, and she said nothing at all. When he pulled her shirt over her head, her hands covered her breasts, but as he looked to her eyes, she dropped them slowly, showing him her hard and erect nipples. The skin of her chest was tinged in the color of her blood that had soaked through her shirt. He reached to her waist to undo the button and lower the zipper. She lifted her bottom from the side of the bathtub as he slid her jeans and underwear down to her thighs and then pulled them from her legs.