8
The drive to the Hospital’s emergency tunnel, then to the Trauma Bay, was a haze.
Amelia hung on to Mikhail’s body, hand still pressed into his wound, her mind lost in a whirlwind of emotions.
No outside movement registered. Then Zacharia was pushing her aside with a firm but steady grip, and some people in medical attire were transferring Mikhail’s body onto a gurney, while his blood dripped from her fingers.
“Poison! There must be poison in him!” she shouted, emerging from her stupor. There was no other explanation for his critical state. He was an immortal, the strongest man she had met. He couldn’t die of such a wound…
She was losing it, but couldn’t stop herself.
As a medical student, she had seen plenty of blood and dreamed of becoming a surgeon.
But what had happened in the car with Mikhail was nothing like surgery in an operating room.
There was no sterility, no plan, no instruments – only her bare fingers into an open cut.
And fear – too much fear.
She wasn’t supposed to experience such deep fear for someone she didn’t want in her life any longer than necessary, nor to feel as if a part of her died when Mikhail’s heart stopped. Her heart shouldn’t have any fragments left that could still break.
Yet, when they cut his clothes and performed defibrillation, her own heartbeats ceased.
The first electric shock didn’t restore his heart’s rhythm. Then, the doors burst open, Nyavolski rushing in, shouting words she wasn’t able to comprehend. A second electric shock followed, and she clutched her hands, nails digging into her palms, while she waited for the sound of Mikhail’s heart.
It didn’t work.
It didn’t work, and only moments ago, she’d tilted the contents of Ana’s vial into Mikhail’s mouth without Zacharia noticing.
How could she be so fucking stupid? In those horrible seconds, when his heartbeat had paused, Amelia hadn’t been thinking straight.
She thought it was the reptilian’s knife that had poisoned him, but it might have been her as well.
Because there was not one single guarantee Ana wasn’t lying about the vial’s effect. God, how…
Just then, the straight ECG line changed to a feeble rhythm.
“Move him to the OR!” Nyavolski shouted.
Amelia’s eyes widened, fixing on the emerging waves on the monitor.
“Out of the way!”
She stepped aside, making way for the gurney and the medical stuff. She went to follow them in the corridor, when someone grasped her shoulder.
“You did well.” It was Nyavolski. She hadn’t even realised he wasn’t amongst those transferring Mikhail. “Now let me do my work. When Mikhail wakes up, he’ll probably want to talk to you. Okay?”
She nodded, and then she watched them take him to the OR.
Legs stiff, she headed to the closest restroom and washed the blood from her hands. All alone with her reflection in the mirror, she observed her features drained of colour. This shouldn’t be happening. The dread. The ground shaking beneath her feet at the mere thought of him dying.
She grabbed onto the sink’s edges. She was the Oracle and Mikhail was not her… friend. Moreover, she wasn’t there for him, but for the ring.
Making it back to the emergency hall, Amelia looked around. There wouldn’t be a better time for her to rummage through Mikhail’s stuff. Her stomach clenched at the idea, but she didn’t slow her footsteps.
She was familiar with the Hospital’s layout.
The building had a main body and two wings that ended in an arch, leading to a big antechamber.
The first ten floors adhered to the typical hospital design, serving the medical needs of the vast immortal population.
In contrast, the upper levels exuded a markedly Gothic atmosphere, characterised by dark colours, heavy wooden furniture, and a profusion of arches and intricate ornaments.
She headed straight for the lift and pressed the button to call it. Then, she waited, sweat forming on her palms.
“Hey.” She turned around, facing Zacharia’s bulging frame. Her throat went dry, though he couldn’t have possibly guessed that she was about to steal from his best friend and boss. “How’re you doing?”
“They took him to the OR,” she said.
His ice-blue gaze scrutinised her face. “My question was about you.”
“I’m fine. Just wondering what to do now that I’m back here.” She added the last bit in case he started doubting her motives for walking around. Fuck . How was she supposed to steal the ring if guilt twisted her features every time she attempted something?
“I’m glad,” he said. His sudden concern for her well-being made her raise her eyebrows. “You know, the previous Oracle was an oddball, and we thought you’d become the same.”
“Oh…”
“You seem cool for now, though.”
The lift arrived.
“Thanks?”
Zacharia gestured her inside the cabin, and she followed. “Stella arranged a room for you. I guess you’re staying at the Hospital?”
Amelia shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve got elsewhere to go.”
“I get it. Reminds me of the times when I was forced to leave the vampire tribe I’ve grown up in and had no direction in life.”
Amelia wasn’t sure what the hybrid was aiming at with his sudden friendly manner, but she’d appear too suspicious if she didn’t engage with him. “Did they make you leave?” she asked.
He leaned on the cabin’s wall. “Nah, I ran away from them. Because I was too ashamed of my secondary, hybrid form. Didn’t want to disappoint the vampire lady who’d been taking care of me since I was a baby.”
“Why would you disappoint her?”
“Because I’m a hybrid. Before the Changes, abandoning hybrid children was a standard, albeit morally condemned, practice.
More often than not, it happened before it was even confirmed they were hybrids – merely showing traits typical of more than one species was enough.
My folks abandoned me near some cow’s hay and that’s where the vampire lady stumbled upon me. ”
Amelia’s brow creased. “It sounds terrible.”
He tsk-ed. “Not really. I belong to both vampires and lycanthropes, possessing mixed qualities, yet in truth, I belong nowhere, and that suits me just fine. After all, who needs large clans and gatherings that demand family reunions every decade or so?”
She needed those. Dreamed of those. “But the vampire lady adopted you despite your mixed species?”
A short bing announced their arrival on the fourteenth floor.
“She, and I , didn’t know I was one until I reached immortality and unlocked my secondary form.
” They walked out in an empty vestibule, arches leading to similar corridors on either side.
“In vampiric clans, there’s a ritual to celebrate a creature’s achievement of immortality.
When someone feels their body is ready to undergo the first transformation, the clan would prepare a celebration night with fire and special blood.
Then, in front of everyone, the creature would step forward to experience its first transformation.
When I was ready for mine, I waited until I was alone and then changed.
I was too afraid of what I might see – and with good reason. ”
Amelia’s curiosity sparked. “What did you see?”
“I was neither a vampire nor a lycanthrope – I was something that can’t really be described with a single word.
I resembled a transformed vampire because my secondary form had a humanoid shape with vampire fangs and red eyes.
But unlike a vampire, my body wasn’t smooth and white but covered in fur like a wolf. A vampire with fur.”
“I… Wow.”
Zacharia frowned. “It wasn’t wow. It was more like – a thousand fucking devils !”
Amelia couldn’t help but laugh.
“That was pretty cold-hearted of you.” He shook his head, stopping in front of a closed door.
She placed a palm over her mouth to hide the smile still on her lips. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, whatever. I’m used to it.” Zacharia waved his hand before retrieving a key from the pocket of his jacket. He handed it to Amelia. “Here. Get some rest.”
That immediately returned her focus to Mikhail. “I don’t want to. Can I go to the OR?”
“You must know better than I do that he’d need some time to heal before seeing you.”
“But we still don’t know if he’s going to make it…”
“The worst has passed, trust me. He made it to the OR. This means he’s making it out. I’ll let you know as soon as Nyavolski calls.”
She was too exhausted to challenge the steady and determined manner in Zacharia’s voice. When they separated, she strolled into her new room. Pacing inside for a time that felt like hours, she couldn’t make herself relax, yet she couldn’t walk out and start searching for the ring, either.