Линси Сэндс - Meant to Be Immortal [calibre]

CJ had no idea how much time had passed when she heard Julius exclaim, “Oh, thank God. Dani.”

Glancing around, CJ watched a curvaceous woman with long, wavy blond hair rush into the room and head straight for the bed. Dressed in navy blue dress slacks and a sharp white blouse, the woman looked every inch the professional, and CJ recalled Decker mentioning his wife, Dani, was a doctor, an ob-gyn if she remembered correctly. But her presence there was somewhat confusing. Where the hell was the ambulance Decker had called? And why was the woman rushing to Marguerite rather than Mac, who was bleeding out on the floor? She might be an ob-gyn, but that was still a doctor and Mac was in desperate need of a doctor right now.

“Uh, hey,” CJ called out with a frown. “You’re Decker’s wife, the doctor, right?”

The blonde turned silver-blue eyes her way and smiled distractedly. “You must be the CJ Decker mentioned. Hi. Sorry, Marguerite needs me right now.”

CJ nearly goggled at that, but snapped, “So does Mac. He’s bleeding out here. Or he was,” she added with a frown, glancing back to his wound. Still no blood, but the bullet was poking out of the wound now, already halfway out from the looks of it.

“Bricker’s bringing blood. Mac will be fine,” she assured her, and then glanced to an anxious Julius and added, “And so will Marguerite. She’s just had a little upset. But her water hasn’t broken, she’s calming now and we’ll give her lots of blood to distract the nanos so they don’t attack the baby.”

“Nanos,” CJ breathed to herself with bewilderment, and wondered what she meant by Bricker was bringing blood? What the hell were they supposed to do with blood? Hook him up right here for a transfusion without tending the wound to stop the bleeding that wasn’t really happening?

“Here we are!” Bricker announced, sailing into the room with a large cooler in hand. “The police took Jefferson away, and I brought the blood. It’s all good.”

CJ peered at the man blankly as he set the cooler down on the floor next to Mac, but her eyes widened with incredulity when he flipped it open and grabbed a couple of bags to toss to Decker. She had no idea why. But then, nothing he had said had made any sense to her. The police wouldn’t have taken Jefferson away without coming in to review the scene and interview everyone, and she still had no idea what the blood was for or why he was throwing them to Decker who had turned back to Marguerite now, blocking CJ’s view of the woman. Mac was the one who needed blood, but unless Bricker had an IV stand, needle, and rubber tubing in his pocket somewhere to hook Mac up it was useless. They needed to get him to the hospital; he needed to be operated on to remove the bullet, she thought, and glanced back just in time to see the bullet push out of his chest the last millimeter necessary for it to tumble to the side and roll off onto the bed.

Okay, maybe he didn’t need an operation, she thought grimly, watching the hole that remained and expecting blood to either start bubbling or shooting out. Neither happened, though. Frowning, she leaned down to get a better look in the hole again. There was no blood rushing toward the surface. There was no blood at all that she could see, just flesh.

If it was flesh, CJ thought suddenly as she recalled seeing a movie once where bullets had ejected from a robot’s chest just like this. One of the Terminator s or something. Or maybe it had been a werewolf. She couldn’t remember, but this wasn’t the first time she’d likened Mac to a robot. That freaky silver that looked like liquid mercury filling his eyes had made her think of a robot, and his ability to perform sexually over and over and over again had made her think he was a machine. Now his body wasn’t bleeding and was ejecting bullets. Dear God, she hadn’t fallen in love with a robot or something, had she? Some kind of cyborg, or android, or—

“He’s not a robot,” Bricker said with amusement, and then shoved a bag of blood her way. “Here, hold this.”

CJ automatically took the cold bag, but she was staring at Bricker with uncertainty, wondering just how he’d known what she was thinking.

“Because I can read your mind,” he explained as he pulled a second bag of blood out of the cooler and then glanced toward the bed to ask, “Does Marguerite need more blood?”

“No,” Marguerite muttered, sounding less breathless and pained, but more annoyed now.

“It’s probably best to keep the nanos busy, Marguerite,” Dani said gently. “We need to keep them from attacking the baby.”

CJ did notice the use of that word again: nanos. But she was more concerned with Bricker’s comment about reading her mind. He couldn’t read her mind. Could he? And if so, how?

“Incoming,” Bricker called, and CJ watched him toss another bag of blood toward the bed. Dani reached up and caught it in the air and then turned and slapped Marguerite in the face with it. At least that’s what it looked like she was doing, but then she took her hand away and the bag stayed on Marguerite’s face. Although it did begin to shrink, CJ noted, and stared with fascination as the liquid inside disappeared and the bag compressed and wrinkled as it emptied.

Bricker turned back, saw her expression, and grimaced slightly. “Right. So, explanation time.”

CJ shifted her gaze to him, her mind rife with confusion.

He hesitated, and then asked, “I don’t suppose you can wait until Mac wakes up to explain everything? He’d probably really rather do it himself,” he pointed out, and when her expression didn’t change, said, “No, huh? Okay, then, how do I— Oh! I know, so you’ve heard of Casper the Friendly Ghost, right?”

CJ’s eyebrows rose, but she nodded.

“He was a good happy little ghost, not scary like the other ghosts?”

CJ nodded slowly again.

“Well, we’re like that, only we’re vampires, not ghosts. Happy Casper vampires.”

“Oh, my God, Bricker!” Dani turned to scowl over her shoulder at Bricker, snapping, “What the hell are you trying to do? Scare her right out of the house? Mac is so going to kill you.”

Bricker grimaced and turned back to CJ with a sigh. “Okay, so we’re not really vampires, that just sounds sexier. We’re actually immortals. We’re human just like you with souls and all that other good human-y stuff like consciences and so on, but we have these little bioengineered nanos in us that use blood to heal injuries, fight disease, and keep us young. But it takes more blood than we can produce to do all that, so we have to top up the old red juice on a regular basis,” he said, holding up the bag of blood between them. He then peered down at Mac and reached to open his mouth.

CJ had seen Mac’s teeth and had never noticed fangs in his mouth before this, so wasn’t surprised not to see them now either. But then Bricker opened his own mouth. Like Mac’s, his teeth looked perfectly normal . . . until his canines shifted and dropped down. While she gaped at him, he punctured the end of one index finger on the tip of one of those fangs, bringing about a pearl of blood that he then waved under Mac’s nose. It twitched as Mac caught the scent, and then his canines did the same shift and drop that Bricker’s had, presenting very long, pointy-tipped fangs.

While CJ gaped, Bricker slapped the bag of blood to his mouth and released it and they both watched as it began to shrink like Marguerite’s had, and then CJ murmured, “You said these nanos keep you all young.” Raising her head, she eyed him with curiosity and asked, “Are you saying you’re older than you look?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a grin. “While you’ve been treating me and even thinking of me like a younger brother the last few weeks, I’m actually older than you.”