Chapter One

Spin Control

The shrill howl of the ambulance could be heard clearly as it turned onto the road leading up to the admissions building. A nurse and a doctor kept a careful watch on the boy as he rested on a cot in the security office, where the paramedics could quickly get to him. From where I stood it was an impossible situation. In the evening I could work my magic with minimal risk, but broad daylight posed some unfavorable scenarios that would only lead to exposure, or worse.

About ten minutes later the ambulance whirred to a stop at the foot of the concrete walkway. Two paramedics leapt from the back of the van with their own stretcher while security guards held the doors wide open. While they were inside assessing the situation I bolted out of the door so fast there was no difference between me and a gust of wind. Inspiration struck!

I stood as close to the ambulance as possible without being seen. Then, when the paramedics came back out with the boy on the stretcher, I rushed to his side. His shirt was soaked with blood and I pretended to be mortified as I approached.

"Billy? Oh my God, Billy!" I shouted, recalling the name Alyson gave me.

"Sir, we need to get him to a hospital!"

"Please, let me go with you," I said, with as much emotion as I could muster. "Let me go with you, he's my cousin. Someone just told me what happened, oh god, Billy!"

"You can ride in the back with us."

I stood aside while they loaded Billy into the cabin. Then I sat beside one of the paramedics as they fitted themselves with safety masks. I was given one as well for my "protection".

"He's lost a lot of blood," the first one observed. "Let's get his shirt off."

While the second paramedic cut through Billy's shirt with a pair of surgical scissors the first one pulled the right sleeve off and pushed the IV needle into a vein. He taped the tube down and handed the bag to me as the blood began to enter his system.

"Can you hold this sir?"

I took the bag and watched as they tore the shirt back. As I suspected the bite marks were in the hairiest parts of his chest, between the nipples. Drying blood was smeared over his stomach, but the wound had stopped bleeding long ago.

"These are human teeth marks," the second paramedic observed. He looked at me. "Sir, has your cousin been engaging in violent sexual activity?"

"It's possible," I answered with a frustrated sigh. "Billy's never been the smartest one in our family."

"What the…" the paramedic looked at the IV bag I was holding. The blood was emptying gradually, as if someone were drinking from the tube like a straw.

I focused on the paramedics and dominated them into losing the next few moments. The EMT had to focus on driving, but I fixed it so he would forget anything he heard back here.

"Oh, what I do for you people," I groaned.

Billy looked up at me. The pain still racked his body, but the worse had been over hours ago.

"Listen to me," I whispered, cutting into my wrist. "I know what's happening to you. Don't talk, just blink if once for yes, twice for no. Okay?"

Blink.

"Did a girl do this to you?"

Blink.

"Was it a girl from this campus?"

Nothing. He probably didn't know.

"Okay, did she drain your blood and make you drink hers?"

Blink.

"Did anyone else see this?"

Blink, blink.

I let the blood from my wrist flow over the bite mark. There was a fleshy sound as the wound mended and healed itself. Then I took a moist towel from one of the compartments and cleaned away all the dried blood.

"All right, listen to me. It's very important that you don't talk about this to anyone. Just be prepared to do as I tell you. Blink if you understand."

Blink.

Good, I thought. I wasn't in the mood to argue.

When we arrived to the hospital the paramedics suddenly forgot about the bite marks, the blood, and the IV bag, which was now fully emptied into Billy's body. Instead the staggering and the fainting were all due to massive dehydration, which is what the paramedics told the doctors as he was rushed to the emergency room.

"Good work," Professor Murphy said when I called her. Her manner was brusque but the praise was genuine. "Do you have any other information?"

"Only that it was some girl. And from what Alyson tells me this guy slept around so often it could be anyone."

"Any ideas on the clan?"

"He hasn't said anything."

"Well stay with him until he does. If we can't give Eric something by tomorrow morning he'll have to tell Zarius, and you know what that means."

I shuttered. Zarius was our prince and the master of the Vermont territories. He was a Nosferatu and from what the professor once told me he was the oldest vampire in New England, dating back to Geoffrey Chaucer's school days. He wasn't what bothered us. After all he was the Dean of admissions at Southern Vermont College, a very prestigious private college in Bennington. What bothered us was his enforcer, known throughout New England as the Kindred Slayer.

"We won't let you down Professor."

"I know you won't."