Moving him gently, only an inch or two, Jackson managed to push the door open, and behind him were the house doctors.
Standing up, I turned away looking at myself in the mirror and I could see a slight darkness across my eyes, a shadow I had only ever seen once or twice, and that was during my training to become this so-called killing machine.
“Are you alright?” Jackson appeared behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off.
“I’m fine. Will Eric be alright?”
“He's lost a lot of blood, Miss Helsing, but we will take him to the infirmary wing and assess there.”
“Good. Jackson, I want every single camera on this floor looked at, and I want Molly in here checking for magic. This wasn’t just some random attack.”
“Miss Helsing?”
Looking at the doctor who spoke to me as I watched Eric being carried out on a stretcher, I felt a lump in my throat. After this morning, I needed to talk to Eric, to make sure we were ok, that he was ok, and to apologise for anything I did.
I knew his feelings for me, his love for me, and I used it to my own advantage, purely because I had an itch that needed scratching.
“Mr Brown appears to have – I don’t know how to say it,” The doctor paused looking at his feet as he swallowed hard.
“Bite marks.” I took the words from his mouth. “He has bite marks, doesn’t he?”
“I’m afraid so.”
I felt Jackson’s shock as it filled the room, a vampire hadn’t been able to cross into this house in centuries and, again, something under my watch like this happened. Perhaps Sophia should be in charge as I am the worst leader that has ever been through these walls.
“Jackson, I need to go.”
“What do you mean go? Eric needs us right now, you especially.”
“I know, I will be back in a bit, I need to hunt down Darius. Since he appeared, we’ve been getting attacked, our friends have been bitten, and honestly, I don’t believe my mother for one second saying I can trust him.”
“I understand that, and I get you are angry, but Eric will wake up shortly, and we can ask him what happened. If he says that it was Darius who attacked him, then by all means, rip his head clean off his shoulders if you want, but for the moment, we need to be at Eric’s side. He’s one of us.”
He was right, and my vengeance of Darius would have to wait, our friend needed us both and when he wakes, if he does, I will ask all I need to know. I just hope he wakes, and all is ok, and of course, that he hasn’t been turned into a vampire.
14
Eric eventually woke up after a day or two in the infirmary, and for the most part, I stayed at his side. Jackson and Molly looked for some sort of clue in his room to see what happened.
We managed to get some video footage of Eric returning home shortly after he left my apartment, however we didn’t see anything or anyone suspicious.
Empty handed again, I was becoming more and more frustrated as the hours went by. I had a feeling these attacks were Angelique and her minions, and if it were up to me, I would have headed to her home by now and set it alight.
“Hayley.”
Breathless and with his eyes finally open, Eric reached out an unsteady hand for mine, and I took his a little too quickly and not as gently as I would have liked.
“What happened?”
“We were hoping you could tell us.” I replied with worry in my voice. “You scared us all.”
“I remember leaving your apartment and getting back to the manor but,” He paused, looking away from me as if trying to recall some memory. “No, there’s a blank, as if someone has wiped my mind clear.”
“A vampire, we suspect a vampire broke in, attacked you, drained you of nearly all your blood, and they must have used their mind control magic on you.”
Standing up, I felt that same anger I felt after reading my mother’s letter,
“For fuck’s sake! This can’t be happening.”