We still need man-things!

Chapter Twelve

Mike couldn't understand how she had arrived so quickly. The holy leader seemed to have appeared from out of thin air, probably only a minute ago, and appeared to know that her help in neutralizing the shooter was not needed anymore. Instead of using her powers to fight the enemy who was just killed, she had arrived to help the maid, who was barely alive.

Everybody in the medicine room kept their backs against the walls and had even stopped their cries as she leaned over Helga placed on the table and touched her pale face with her short golden metal claws.

"This girl needs surgery in my lab." She concluded without wasting the critical time. "Where is Alcina?"

"Probably drinking the blood of this dead madman." Mike was the first who dared to answer her question.

"Drinking or not, it's really surprising that you are still alive, young man." Miranda spoke to him with a smile on her face. "Isn't that interesting, as she usually drains boys on her first day? You must be truly special to survive so long."

"I don't know what you mean, but if you are really a village leader, then I want to know when I'm allowed to go home. My job here in this madhouse should be done. I just saved the lady's life."

"I know you are a hero, but we have quarantine, unfortunately. Please, help that wounded girl to my car outside first, then we can perhaps find some time later to talk."

"Of course. She will die otherwise."

By using the table as a stretcher, he and the servants maids carried the bloody and comatose servant through the halls and corridors towards the entry hall.

The main door leading outside was completely destroyed by a bomb, and the lifeless body of maid Anna was lying in the rubble next to the table that was used for holding the questbook. She was shot in the chest when she went to see what happened and probably tried to run away before collapsing on the ground.

Mike avoided looking at her and helped the girls load the wounded maid into Miranda's old Defender, which was parked on the street just behind the gate. He still couldn't believe that someone had just murdered three people in the house, and he was the hero who prevented the body count from being much bigger.

I just can't imagine what is going on. He thought. This is just insane.

Mother Miranda followed soon and offered some pills to the servants, which were probably to relieve their terrible emotional distress, which they avoided showing.

"We will meet again, sonny." She patted Mike on the shoulder before getting into her car and driving away with a powerful plume of snow behind her.

*

It took weeks for Helga to recover enough to return to her duties. She had lost so much blood that Mother Miranda had to quickly find three donors from the village and take the risk of infecting her with the nasty disease. Luckily, these suitable persons were not sick, and their blood had good quality, so she had escaped from the mouth of death, and her wound began to heal slowly.

In the meantime, Mike had a lot of work to do. When Miranda had left and the sleepless night in Castle Dimitrescu turned into the morning, a huge mess resulting from the attack had to be cleaned up.

As the temperature in most areas of the household had fallen near freezing due to broken windows and doors, the lady's daughters had limited time to be in there before the pain made it impossible to help. Because the maids were all in shock and quietly crying in their rooms without wanting to deal with dead people who had been their good coworkers, Mike offered himself to take the majority of this clean-up operation on his shoulders. He wanted to be sure that Lady Dimitrescu wouldn't drain him of blood and save her poor women from seeing things that nobody in their lives should ever see.