~O~
Shun tapped a steady rhythm with the heel of his shoe on the leg of the chair he was sitting in. The repetitive rhythm filled the room and chased away the silence that continuous tried to take back control. "Where in the world is he?" Shun muttered under his breath. The raven-haired teen was currently waiting on Loran to show up and administer the treatment that was needed to help him overcome his addiction. If Shun knew what to do, he would have administered the treatment himself, but Loran was much more knowledgeable in things of this nature, and honestly, Shun was afraid he would mess something up; sticking a needle into one's own arm wasn't exactly common knowledge to most people, after all.
So, rather than risk having to stab himself several times with the intravenous needle, he opted to wait for Loran to show up and take over. Shun sighed once again and glanced around the room. It was an empty room for the most part. A few boxes were stacked in the corners, as well as some furniture that appeared as if it hadn't been used in years. In other words, it was just a storage room. Loran had felt that the storage room would work best for the treatment. It was a place that was seldom frequented by the other Clan members, so there was no risk of anyone showing up unannounced, which was extremely important, especially since Shun's relapse needed to stay secret; last thing he needed was word of it spreading through the Clan like wildfire and reaching Sinclair.
The raven-haired teen shuddered at the thought. It had angered Sinclair enough the first time his addiction was discovered, and Shun didn't even want to think of the Vampire Lord's reaction to a relapse. The door to the storage room suddenly opened and Loran hurried inside, making sure to quickly, but quietly, close the door behind him before anyone could notice. "Sorry I took so long. I dropped in to tend to Sinclair and ended up letting the time get away from me," he explained. Shun held up his hand dismissively and said, "It's alright. How is he doing?" Sinclair's health had become common knowledge in the Clan rather quickly and left everyone eagerly waiting for his recovery. Loran placed the bag in which he carried the bags of blood in on one of the abandoned tables and said, "He's doing much better than he was a week or so ago. He might actually be able to resume his work in the next couple of days."
Shun felt somewhat relieved to hear thins news. "That's great," he said. Loran nodded and dug around in his bag for several pouches of blood, as well as a fresh IV line. "Yeah, now the only one left who needs to get better is you," Loran said as he untied the rubber tube. Shun's state of relief vanished upon hearing Loran's words. He knew he had a long way to go before he was once again cured of his addiction. The first time he fought against the drug, it had taken him over a month, and he knew that bouncing back from a relapse would take even longer than the original process.
"Can we even keep this treatment secret for the whole duration?" he asked. Loran looked at Shun, his gray eyes filled with seriousness, and told him, "Probably not, but by the time everyone finds out you will have been in the treatment for several weeks, maybe even longer, so it won't be that big of a deal. However, we need to make sure it stays secret for right now because the last thing Sinclair needs is the added stress from finding out." Shun nodded, knowing all too well that the Vampire Lord would take this personally and add Shun's recovery to the ever-growing list of things that needed to be taken care of. Loran walked over to Shun's side and expertly fed the intravenous line into the raven-haired teen's arm. Shun bit down on his bottom lip as he felt the needle and tube traveled up his vein.
It was a very different feeling from having a hypodermic needle puncture his vein to inject a drug. This was almost uncomfortable, for the needle was long enough that, if he moved too much, he could feel it move within his arm. Loran then hooked a fresh bag of blood to the other end of the tube. Crimson liquid then turned the plastic tube from clear to red as it traveled down the line and into Shun's veins. As soon as the fresh blood merged with his, Shun felt instant relief. A week into the treatment and he was still feeling withdrawal symptoms from the drug, even though nowhere nearly as bad as before, but still enough to cause him great discomfort. But the fresh blood gradually diluted the contaminated blood in his veins, providing more and more relief with each treatment. "Better?" Loran asked.
Shun replied only with a nod of his head. The treatment lasted its usual duration of ten minutes, which was normally when the pouch of blood ran out. Once it did, Loran removed the IV line and disinfected the area on Shun's arm where it had been placed. "There, all done for today," Loran said, his voice almost proud. Shun knew that the gray-haired Vampire took pride in helping to heal his friends, but it still surprised him sometimes. Shun stood up from his chair and was about to thank Loran when screams cut him off. Both he and Loran bolted from the room and ran out into the hallway. "What in the world is going on?" Shun asked. Loran narrowed his eyes and said, "Sounds like it's coming from the main room. Let's go." Shun nodded and quickly followed behind the gray-haired Vampire.
He wasn't sure what to expect to find, so he braced himself against as many of the possibilities as he could think of. The two rounding corners and ran down hallways until finally reaching the main room. When they did, they both stopped in their tracks. Several of the Clan members were gathered around somebody on the ground. "Move," Loran said, his voice filled with authority. The Clan members did as commanded and stepped aside, allowing for Shun to see who they had been clustered around. Shun looked and realized that it was nobody that he knew from the Clan. "Where did he come from?" Loran asked the Vampires that had previously been tending to the stranger. "We heard somebody knocking on the door and asking for help and to be let in before the sun came up.
When we opened the door, this kid stumbled in and we quickly saw he was bleeding. That's when we called for help," one of them explained. Shun glanced back at the stranger and saw the blood seeping between his fingers as he clutched his abdomen. The stranger was hardly old enough to be considered anything else other than a kid; if he was older, then the glasses and childish haircut had Shun fooled. Loran was too busy looking over the kid's injuries, so Shun took the incentive and began asking questions. He didn't expect many answers, but he wanted to put a story to this. "What happened?" he asked the kid as he knelt down beside him.
The kid, face contorted in pain, looked up at Shun and said weakly, "Attacked….by Hunters…" Shun felt his blood run cold, and any sounds that had filled the room quickly hushed. "Hunters? Here?" one of the Clan members asked. The kid nodded weakly. "Yes…I was attacked but was able to run and lose them…." Shun shook his head. He knew that Bay View was home to many Hunters, but as far as he knew, there were none in Wardington. At least, not that he had heard of. The kid coughed and flecks of blood landed on the ground. "Try not to talk too much," Loran said quietly, "You'll make the injury worse."
The kid nodded and remained quiet after that. In the room, Shun could hear his Clan mates whispering to one another, but he didn't have to drop in on their conversation to know what they were discussing; they were most definitely talking about the Hunters in the city. This was something none of them had had to worry about before, and now, knowing that Hunters could be lurking outside of the enclave only fueled their worry. Shun overheard one ask, "Should we tell Sinclair?" That was all it took. Loran looked up from his current patient and locked eyes with the other Vampire. "No," he said sternly, "you will not make any mention of this to Sinclair until told otherwise. Do you understand?" The Vampire, taken aback by the sudden reaction from Loran, nodded his head. "Understood," he replied.
Loran gave a nod of approval and went back to the work. Shun didn't blame Loran for trying to keep Sinclair's stress down, but even he knew that the Vampire Lord needed to know; his people were at risk, after all. "I'm sure he can handle the news, Loran," Shun said with caution. The gray-haired Vampire didn't look up this time when he spoke. "No, he's almost recovered, but he still needs to rest. If he catches wind about this then there's no way we would get him to stay in his room."
Shun sighed. "He deserves to know," said the raven-haired teen. He saw Loran's shoulders tense up. "You don't think I know that?" he said calmly, "I'm simply trying to do what is best for this Clan. If Sinclair resumes his work when he isn't completely well, then he will only get worse. And right now, Alucard is running things, and he isn't exactly skilled enough to run the Clan for a long period of time. We need Sinclair to be fully rested before anything is done around here." Shun sighed and decided to drop the argument. Loran, still diligently looking over the stranger's wounds, turned to one of the Vampires standing in the room and asked for assistance in getting the kid to a room The Clan member obliged and helped Loran carry the stranger down the hall.
~O~
Once they arrived in one of the vacant rooms, Loran dismissed the Vampire that he had asked for help. The Clan member asked if there was anything else he could do to help. "No, I can take it from here," Loran said. The Vampire nodded and left the room, leaving the gray-haired Vampire and the stranger alone. Loran turned to where the kid laid on the bed and said, "Alright, now let's take a better look at those wounds and see what needs to be done." He then lifted the kid's shirt, exposing his abdomen, and immediately realized something wasn't right. While in the main room, Loran hadn't taken a good look at the wounds and had been too focused on seeing if the kid was stable enough to last long enough for treatment.
Now, up close and personal with the injuries, Loran found them strange. The wounds almost appeared as if they had been self-inflicted, as if the kid had stabbed himself several times, but not to the point to kill himself. This doesn't look like the work of a Hunter at all, he thought to himself. That was when his instincts kicked in a told him to get away, but he was too late. The kid had jumped from the bed and grabbed onto Loran's shoulders, pulling him to the ground. For such a scrawny Vampire, the kid was surprisingly strong. Loran tried to call for help, but felt something stick into the side of his neck; a needle.
"This ought to keep you quiet," the kid sneered. Loran felt his body suddenly grow heavy and sluggish. The kid proceeded to climb off and now loomed over Loran. "Don't take any of this personally but I am just doing my job. Honestly, I applaud the fact that you were willing to help an injured stranger, though. It made my job a hell of a lot easier," the kid said with a grin. Loran tried to get up, but whatever had been injected into his veins was proving to be too much for him to fight against. "Y-You….You're a…Hunter?" Loran asked weakly.
The kid bowed, as if he had just finished a performance, and said, "Indeed. Don't worry, though. I don't intend to kill you. At the moment, you are nothing more than bait for some bigger fish. Although, my boss may see it fit to dispose of you by the end of all of this, so don't get your hopes too high." Loran could feel his conscious hold beginning to fade; it wouldn't be too much longer before he was completely out and at the mercy of his attacker.
"Why….Why me?" he managed to ask. The kid Hunter knelt down beside Loran and said, "I've been watching the Vampires in this Clan for the past week without anyone ever noticing me. It has been my job to scope out whoever I feel would be the best to lure Sinclair and Gillfrey out into the open for my boss, and you just so happened to fit the bill. You obviously are valuable to these Vampires, so I'm pretty sure when they learn of your kidnapping, they'll come running to your rescue, and that's exactly what my boss wants."
Loran didn't have the strength to say anything else. Instead, all he could do was lay there on the ground helplessly and watch as the Hunter left a white envelop on the bed. "So they'll know where and when to come get you," the Hunter said, as if Loran had asked him a question. The Hunter then knelt down and picked up Loran's limp body.
"And in case you are wondering how I plan to get you out of here without being seen, I have that taken care of, too. In my week-long stay here, I have found every possible entrance and exit in this place. In fact, today was the first time I used the front door. So, don't worry. We'll get out of here without a single soul noticing us." Loran tried to cry out in protest, but whatever drug had been put into his veins had completely taken control now. He was helpless. Please…..Please nobody come looking for me….Please….And with that thought in his mind, the sedative finished taking hold, and Loran fell unconscious.
In case anyone is confused, Dexter is the one who kidnapped Loran as part of Levi's plan from several chapters ago (about a week has gone by since then). I felt it was time to start moving the plot alone, so after restarting this chapter several times, I settled on this. I hope everyone enjoyed it, so please read and leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~