A/N: I know beat me with a wet noodle, I've been a bad updater. Humor me. Read and review, please.

Disclaimer: Jessie Renard, Redwind, and Amelia St. Cloud all belong to me. Excluding some minor characters, everyone else belongs to someone else.

Chapter 10

When Peter woke up, the world was tilted sideways. The pain in his head and chest was so intense he felt a bit nauseous. He finally figured out that it was his own body that was twisted at an odd angle, his head lolling backwards over the side of a bed. With a groan, he tossed over onto his stomach, pain shooting up his spine with the movement.

"Hey. Easy there cowboy." Said a voice from somewhere on his left side. He felt a gentle hand press a cool washcloth to his forehead. It felt terrific.

The owner of the voice helped Peter lean back against some pillows that were propped up against the headboard. That's when he got a good look at her. Again he groaned. "Jordan, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Playing Florence Nightengale to the Undead." Jordan replied with a wry smile. At least she hadn't lost her sense of humor over the past two hours. "What my bedside manner doesn't work for you?"

"I, for one think you have a lovely bedside manner, luv," said another voice from across the room. A slight but fairly painful turn of the head let Peter see that it was Nigel who was seated in a plush chair across from the bed.

"You're just saying that so I'll forgive you for keeping secrets about said Undead." Jordan quipped.

"Guys," Peter interrupted, "thrilling as this conversation is, do you mind telling me why you're both here. And while you're at it, where are Jessie and Cash?"

"Ah, they were escorted away under a shroud of secrecy." Nigel said, rubbing his hands together in a conspiratorial manner.

"You're such a bullshitter, Nige." Jordan rolled her eyes. "The blond guy. Cash? He had to make a phone call to some vampire big shot back in San Francisco. Jessie practically had to be dragged out of here for questioning about that evil Rave-os guy."

"Ravnos, darling" Nigel corrected.

Peter moaned, feeling a pain in his head he was fairly certain was unrelated to his Embrace. He turned to his British coworker. "So she knows…?"

"Pretty much everything." Nigel nodded. "At least, she knows as much as I do about our Kindred friends. The Prince of the City had us in for tea and a nice long chat."

"And this might just keeps getting better and better." Peter mumbled.

"You ain't just whistlin' Dixie." Jordan retorted.

There was a commotion in the hallway outside and Jessie burst into the room followed by Lionel. The later was rubbing his eye where Jessie had obviously hit him. She was yelling at the top of her lungs.

"And the next time you put one of your paws on me, I will rip it off! Now I want to see him and I…"

"Hey, hey. HEY! Have a little care for the Newbie, here." Peter ground out over her shouting. "I have a splitting headache."

Jessie's whole manner at the sight of him. She sat down on the side of the bed next to Peter opposite Jordan.

"Oh, baby." She checked him over, running a hand lightly over his bandaged arm. Her face turned angry again as she looked at it. "I will kill him! I swear by Cain, I will. He had no right!"

Peter just groaned as another wave of nausea overtook him. Jordan turned to Jessie. "What do you mean 'he had no right'?"

Jessie seemed to just notice the other woman and her eyes went wide. Before she could ask what Jordan was doing there, Nigel interrupted her. "Here by order of the Prince, luv."

Jessie nodded, as if that explained everything. Jordan wouldn't let up. "You said, 'he had no right.' Who were you talking about?"

"Cash." Jessie practically growled. She took the cold washrag from Jordan, pressing it to his forehead. "He had no right to Embrace Rocky. I had already claimed him. I should be his Sire."

Jordan took a moment to process this information. It was a new world to her and all the laws were alien. She had heard the guard, Lionel, say something about a Herd member who had been "claimed" by Clan Gangrel. She could only assume that meant Peter. Jordan started to remember bits of conversations. During their meeting at the rave, Jordan recalled Jessie telling Cash that Peter was "hers."

She also recalled that Amelia had said Nigel was also a member of the Herd, and had been so since meeting Jessie. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she looked at her boyfriend. "So does that mean you intend to…Embrace…Nigel too?"

"What?" Jessie looked up from her doting on Peter to see Jordan giving Nigel a worried stare, and Nigel looking as if someone had just killed his puppy. "No!"

Nigel frowned at Jessie's vehemence. She smiled slightly and her tone softened. "You make your own destiny, Nigel. You can choose any Sire from any clan that you want. That's assuming you want to be Embraced at all. Some of people choose to live out their lives within the heard and just go when their time comes."

Nigel smiled at this and Jordan looked relieved. Jessie smirked and added, "Besides, you seem like more of a Tory to me than a Gangrel."

He laughed out loud, prompting another confused look from Jordan. He sat down on the bed behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Clan Toreador is the artist's clan. What with my background in photography, she'd saying it might be a good fit."

"Oh great, not only are my friends turning up vampires, now I have to deal with an undead boyfriend too!" Jordan's eyes went wide.

Nigel shook his head. "It's just for future reference, darling. No one says I have to.."

He was cut off by Peter's body arching off the bed as another shot of pain ran through him. His fingernails, which had converted to claws, tore at the bedding. Jessie grabbed at his arms, pinning them above his head. "Shit."

Nigel and Jordan jumped off the bed. Nigel tried to shield Jordan from their friend bodily, but she just rolled her eyes at him and ducked around for a closer look. Peter had opened his eyes which had turned an almost glowing ice blue. His pupils were dialated and he began to flail, baring a set of razor sharp teeth every so often. Jessie was holding him down with a grip that looked like it could brake his wrists.

"Is that really necessary?" Jordan asked. Peter looked more like he was going in to a seizure than anything else. And being a trained doctor, Jordan knew that this was not a way to handle a seizure patient.

"It is if you don't want your throat ripped out!" Jessie countered. "You guys need to get out of here. You're Warm and it's making him worse. Go get Cash and tell him the First Torment has started. Go now!"

Nigel rushed Jordan out of the room without further ado. Jordan felt the need to comment. "Well, that was a bit rude. What'd she mean we were making it worse?"

"We're human, luv." Nigel replied, looking around for the Gangrel Primogen. "First Torment, from what I understand is brought on by bloodlust."

"Oh." Jordan mumbled, a confused look on her face. Then, it dawned on her what he meant and her eyebrows shot into her hairline. "Oh! You mean he would have…"

Nigel nodded.

"To us?"

Again, Nigel nodded.

"That's….really…gross." Jordan concluded.

"Don't knock it til you've tried it, luv." Nigel mumbled.

"Huh?"

He was saved the trouble of responding as the Kindred he'd been looking for rounded a corner into the hallway, followed by an old Native American man with tribal tattoos littering his face and forearms.

"Cash!" Nigel shouted out. At the raised eyebrow the two men gave him, Nigel held out his hand in greeting. "Sorry, we've never been formally introduced. Jessie's told me a lot about you. Nigel Townsend."

"I know who you are." Cash said brusquely.

Seeing that Cash wasn't in the mood for pleasantries, Nigel retracted his hand. "Yes, well, now that we're all acquainted."

Jordan cut him off. "Jessie says she needs you. She said something about the First Torment starting for Peter."

"Shit." Cash said heading in the direction of Peter's room.

"Cash, we are on a deadline." The old man pointed out.

"Yeah, man, I know." Cash replied. "Just give me five minutes to get him set up."

Cash closed the door after himself leaving Jordan and Nigel alone in the hall with the elder Kindred.

"Well," Jordan said after a moment. "This is awkward…. So…sucked any good blood lately?"