I've got only one thank-you this month, and it goes out to akira45 for favoriting this story and me! Of course, all you anonymous readers, and those of you who keep on coming back for more.

Chapter 9

Vampire Blood

Lin held up the syringe. Seras had given it to him the night before. "You'll need to inject it into his arm where the IV is so they won't notice a new hole." She had said. "There's just enough there to give him a fighting chance. I don't trust giving him any more; it could do more harm than good."

Lin sighed. I still wish we didn't have to do this. He thought. But I don't want Nate to die either. Just because he's a vampire hunter doesn't stop him from being my friend.

Kaminala put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "It'll work," She reassured him. Lin nodded, still not entirely sure. "Lin, it'll work. Their blood types are the same."

"Yeah, but Seras said there wasn't a guarantee—" Lin started.

"That he'll die." Kaminala interrupted. "Lin, it'll work. Don't ask me how I know, it just will."

Lin nodded, gulping. He put the syringe to Nathan's arm and injected the vampire blood. He removed the needle. They waited; nothing happened. "Well, looks like all we can do now is wait." He sighed, pocketing the syringe.

Kaminala's eyes lingered on Nathan's face for several more moments before nodding in agreement. She grasped his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Yeah," she whispered. "I was hoping for something a bit more…dramatic."

"Like what?" Lin asked.

Kaminala shrugged, still holding Nathan's hand. "I dunno…like him waking up." She said. "He looks as…lifeless as before."

Lin nodded. "C'mon; we'll be late for dinner." He said. "Wolf invited us to his place for pizza, remember?"

"Yeah, I know." Kaminala said. She gave Nathan's hand another squeeze, a little firmer this time before leaving.

If the two had stayed just a few moments longer, they would've seen a sharp spike in his heartbeat.

000

"Und it gets better; the dummkopf decided to go from 80 kilometers per hour to zip, und stood on the break!" Wolf said, motioning with his hands what had happened. "Ah, mein Gott…I never screamed so lout in my life, or so many swearwords." He laughed. "I vas surprised his ears veren't bleeding ven I vas don vith him. Then again, there vas one hell of a holdup because of his stunt!"

Kaminala shook her head. "Oh geez…I think your driver had a 'failure to engage brain' moment."

"Must haff." Wolf said, pouring himself some more Pepsi. "Ugh…you should've seen him ven ve got back to our HQ. Not only did I yell at him in the car, the person in charge of the investigation—yes, I know I vas the one in charge in reality, but on paper I vasn't—laid into him ven ve got back. It vasn't pretty; I didn't stick around for the whole thing, the incident on the Autobahn had given me a headache, but from vat I heard through my room door it vas a miracle fists didn't start flying." He downed half the glass before finishing. "Needless to say, he vas off the team the next morning."

Taguchi groaned. "Failure to engage brain is right." He checked his watch; it showed 10:30 pm. "Shit! I was supposed to be home by now!"

"You'd better get going then." Lin said.

Taguchi nodded as he packed up his things. "Why aren't you two leaving?"

"My parents gave me the go-ahead to stay over, considering how they know these two," she pointed to Lin and Wolf, "aren't going to try anything."

"And my parents don't care how late I stay out unless I've got homework." Lin said. His face sobered. "Well, that, and my dad's been drinking again…."

Taguchi frowned. "Why's that?"

Lin shrugged noncommitically. "Don't get me wrong, my dad's a good guy, and doesn't get drunk very often, but when he does it's scary." He replied. "You guys haven't met him, sober or otherwise, but he can't hold his liquor to safe his life. After about three beers he's blitzed, and by the time he's done with his fourth he gets nasty. Thankfully he has the sense to not go beyond one drink, but sometimes it gets to him…."

"Ouch," Wolf commented. "Has he been arrested from it?"

Lin shook his head. He downed the last of his 7up. "Thank goodness no." He replied. "Most of the reason he'll get drunk like this is because of the situation and the stress it causes. We don't have a lot of money, and we live in the bad side on Chinatown anyway, which only makes things worse. On more than one occasion my parents have made the comment that we must be the only house on the block that isn't owned by a drug dealer. Add that to the fact that they're sending me to a private school, and trying to save for my college…." He trailed off and shrugged before staring into his empty glass.

They were silent for a few minutes before Taguchi broke the silence. "Y'know, if you guys need any help—"

Lin held up his hand and shook his head. "Hey, nobody in my house—well, apart from my oldest bro, but we don't count him 'cause he got kicked out—has fell to drug dealing, and I don't think it'll go that low." He said. "You don't need to give me or my family any help, 'Guchi. We'll be fine."

Taguchi nodded. "See you guys tomorrow, then." He said, and left.

As the door closed, Kaminala stared at Lin, her face hard. "Spill the beans." She said.

Lin blinked at her. "What beans?" He asked.

"You know what I mean, Lin Xi-Joon." She said. "You may not have wanted to say anything in front of Taguchi, but you can't keep it from Wolfgang and me. He's Kaltraine, and I'm a werewolf. Taguchi is the only person in this group who's completely normal, apart from his hobby of hacking computers."

"Seriously, I don't know what you're talking about." Lin said, lying through his teeth. He had a sneaking suspicion that wasn't going to work against Kaminala and her tell-me-now-or-face-my-wrath look.

"Down, Kaminala." Wolf said quietly. "Ve both know he's hiding something—hell, Taguchi probably knows too, he just doesn't pry—but I think it's pretty clear he doesn't vant to tell us. Not right now, at least."

Lin gave Wolf a silent nod of thanks. The German returned it. Kaminala sat back, glaring at the two of them in turn. "Fine, have it your way." She said. She got up and pulled her sleeping bag out of her backpack. "I'm going to bed."

Lin let out a breath as she left the room. "Thanks for that." He said.

"Don't mention it," Wolf said, taking a sip of his Pepsi. "Just remember; you're going to haff to tell us sooner or later."

"I know that," Lin said, grabbing one of the now-cold pizza bites. He popped it in his mouth. I just hope I can put it off as long as possible.

000

Meanwhile, something was happening at the hospital. One of the nurses was making his rounds, and was checking up on Nathan Harrison's readings, making sure everything was normal. He was improving, as he had been for the last few days, though at an accelerated rate. The nurse thought nothing of it, only made a note of improvement. He was about to leave the room when he heard something.

He turned. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though something had definitely happened, and it had come from Nathan's bed. It had sounded like a sharp intake of breath, but that was impossible. The kid was on life-support; he was barely hanging on. He couldn't have gasped like that.

But he had. The nurse walked back to the bed, and checked the overhead readings again. They hadn't changed; slightly higher, but at the same steady rate he'd just recorded. He leaned in to study them closer, just to make sure when Nathan jerked suddenly.

And then that one jerk turned into a series of spasms.

The nurse placed his hands firmly on Nathan's shoulders and kept him still. The teenager was jerking uncontrollably; something was going wrong. "Get a doctor, ASAP!" He shouted out the door to a passing nurse. "This kid's having a fit or something! He needs attention!"

Less than a minute later a doctor came bustling in with three more nurses. "Hold him down. Langley, get his legs; Astrid, help Travers with his shoulders; Newman, get me 55 milligrams of sedative, now!" the doctor barked. The nurses obeyed, their combined efforts barely keeping the kid from hurting himself. He was jerking too wildly for the doctor to get the syringe close enough. "Travers! I need you to steady his head so I can get this into his neck without hitting something."

The nurse nodded and steadied the teenager's head. His eyes were open now, pupils dilating wildly. The bright blue eyes were staring at the ceiling, not seeing it. Something bad was happening to the kid, and it looked like it was on the verge of killing him.

The doctor managed to get the syringe into the teen's neck. He pulled away once the sedative was administered, but it hadn't done anything. "This isn't good…Astrid, get the oxygen mask off him. He's starting to hyperventilate."

Astrid nodded and freed Nathan's face of the oxygen mask. His breathing evened out slightly, but he was still gasping for breath. "Damn…the sedative isn't working…Newman, 100 milligrams of sedative! We need to get this kid out before he has a seizure or something!"

Newman nodded and measured out the requested dosage. When he was done, the doctor carefully injected it into the teen's bloodstream. Travers looked apprehensively to the monitor over the bed. The kid was still jerking, but it hadn't gotten any worse than before. His vitals on the other hand were behaving erratically; his heart rate had gone up to nearly twice its normal rate, his breathing was shallow and erratic, and his blood pressure and brain activity were skyrocketing.

"Damn," The doctor swore. "We need to get this kid stable." He looked angry at himself, about the fact that no matter what they did the kid was still having the fit. Even Travers had to admit he'd never seen anything like it.

Then, suddenly, Nathan stopped spasming. He fell still and silent, his eyes still fixed unseeing at the ceiling. His vitals not only evened out; they were going back to normal before their eyes. It looked like his body was repairing itself.

The doctor sighed, staring at the readings in disbelief. "I can't believe this," he muttered, dapping at his bald spot. His face was shining with sweat, as were everyone else's. "Travers, I want you to stay here until we're positive this kid'll be fine. Astrid, take a blood sample up to the lab. I want to figure out what made him have that fit."

The nurses followed the orders as Newman went to finish Travers' rounds. The nurse looked to the kid. What the hell just happened here? He thought.

As always, read and review everyone! Keep reading, everyone!

~Hikari Hellion