Chapter 6 #2
He shrieks when I snatch him and break his hand. Then I turn around and toss Johnny the set of keys that unlocked both the door in the basement and the shackles. He catches them while juggling Yorick. I reach out and take Yorick from him so he has both hands free.
“Have you gotten a good look at his injuries?” I ask.
“I have, sir.”
“Good. Leave them looking the same.”
Johnny gives me a rare smile. “Right away, sir.”
“No! NO! Please! Atticus, we’re friends!” Priscilla cries out.
“Come on now! We’re already even!” Percival whimpers.
I ignore their screams, leaving Johnny in the mansion alone while I carry Yorick outside.
I send the dog into my car before we lose the thing since I’d then have to deal with Casimir, which would be even more irritating than dealing with all of this.
There’s a nice bench overlooking a small koi pond where I set Yorick’s broken and bloody body.
“You really didn’t have to maim them for me,” Yorick says.
“I did it so they’ll think about this before they try to fuck with me again.”
Yorick looks strangely disappointed. “Right.” His head tips down, like he’s going to doze off.
“I don’t have human blood on me, but as your maker, my blood will do for now,” I say, gesturing at my neck.
He only stares at me. I can’t tell whether he’s too weak to move or just being his obstinate self. My vote is for the latter because Yorick does enjoy trying me.
“Yorick, I don’t have the patience for this. Either bite me or not. It makes no difference to me,” I snap.
He continues staring at me, and in annoyance, I get up and head to the car, deciding that Johnny can deal with him when he’s done. I sit in the car and wait for Yorick to give up his theatrics and get into the car.
Obviously, Johnny is enjoying himself if it’s taking him this long.
I glance over at the bench just in time to watch Yorick face-plant off it and onto the ground. He’s a vampire, for fuck’s sake. A nearly five-hundred-year-old one. Being drained of blood isn’t the best. but he’s acting like he’s dying.
“Are you not being rather dramatic?” I bark as I get out of the car to pick him up. I roll him over and when I do, I end up pulling his shirt down just a little and see the spot where he was stabbed. The skin looks like it’s inflamed around the wound.
I pick his arm back up and stare at his injuries.
“What the fuck did they use on you?” I mutter to myself before biting my wrist and pressing it against his lips. He’s not latching on or swallowing, and I decide that maybe… possibly… he wasn’t being his stubborn self when he was refusing to feed from me.
“Yorick, swallow,” I order, lightly smacking his face. It causes his eyes to open, and he looks up at me as the blood runs down his lips. He seems to realize what’s happening and tries to swallow but chokes.
“Why are you so weak? What is in this poison?”
“I have a sample of it, sir,” Johnny says while he walks over looking as clean as when he went in. It has to be one of his most impressive traits. “They told me that they received it as a gift.”
“A gift from who?”
“Sybil, before she died.”
“Interesting,” I murmur as I check Yorick’s wounds, but even with my blood, they still haven’t started healing. How can this possibly be? “Is it lethal?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
I stare at Yorick for a minute. “I guess we’re going to find out,” I say before draining myself until I feel like any more could cause issues if someone were to attack us. Then Johnny picks Yorick up and lays him down in the back seat of the car while I take the passenger seat.
Johnny begins driving as I tap my finger against the car door before glancing back at Yorick. “Are you still alive back there?”
“You’re being semi-nice to me… so I must not be,” he whispers. “Death has taken me, and what have I done to be plagued by images of you even in the afterlife? I thought only then would I finally be free of your face.”
“See? He’s fine,” I announce.
“Are you reassuring me, sir?” Johnny asks.
“I sure as fuck wasn’t reassuring myself.”
“Of course not.”
I sigh and lean back in my seat with my arms folded over my chest and a poodle breathing over my shoulder.
“I will call Casimir and inform him that we have his canine,” Johnny says.
“Do it quickly before I have to interact with anyone else today.”
The drive is rather uneventful while Yorick sleeps and Johnny just looks overly pleased as he drives. I suppose it’s not often I allow him to do much.
When we reach my house, I open the back door and pull Yorick out before setting his feet on the ground.
“Can you stand?” I ask, but his wounds have hardly healed in the time it took us to reach home, even after I stuffed him full of my blood. His lack of response tells me he’s either asleep or unconscious, so I pick him up and start carrying him into my home.
“I never knew you’d carry me so gently,” he says as he reaches out and pretends to tuck my hair behind my ear. Since it’s too short to tuck, all it results in is a scowl from me. I growl at him while he gives me such a gleeful look.
He has always feasted on my irritation.
“Why am I carrying you? Johnny, take him before I drop him in the river behind the house and watch as he floats off to a different family. That’s what I should have done when I found you as a human, Yorick. Tossed you in a bucket and let you float off.”
“How sweet,” Yorick says before Johnny takes him and hurries off inside.
I follow, not because of Yorick, but because I want to know if the poison has progressed. When Johnny pulls Yorick’s shirt off and wipes away the blood, I see that it hasn’t progressed but it also hasn’t worsened, so that’s good enough.