"Now! First order of business. Fixing your stupid leg."
Dante beamed.
Aileen was inspecting her new surroundings the best she could from over someone's shoulder.
"It's not that easy. You must be joking."
She grumbled to which the vampire scoffed.
"You doubt me... so sad. I can mend it, I was a doctor once."
"Yeah right... back when people used to piss on their hands and then go back to operating."
Aileen's sarcastic remark made the vampire prod at her injured leg, causing her to hiss in pain.
A bemused laugh left his lips before he jogged up the grand staircase, the carpet mottled with incomprehensible stains. The house place smelt like an old library, cobwebs decorated every available rafter and owls had made a nest in the crystal chandelier. She could also hear the faint cooing of wood pigeons, but did not see them which led her to believe that there were probably a lot more animals that had seeked refuge in this manor.
Dante opened the first door in a hallway to the left, placing Aileen down on a loveseat. She was now in a study, every surface littered with piles of yellowed papers, rats scampered across Dante's feet as he made his way across the room towards a desk. There he opened a draw and pulled out a small wooden box retrieving a vial from inside. His attention was then turned to the floor to ceiling bookcase, grabbing a ceramic dish and a case alongside some bandages. The vampire brought over the items, pushing away the papers that were on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
The case had a large brass buckle to which Dante unclasped and revealed two syringes and 6 needles of various sizes. Aileen didn't even want to think what they were used for because she had an inkling that it wasn't for medical purposes. He then opened the ceramic dish which was full of mud, he then let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the wet mud. Taking out a syringe and picking the thinnest needle, he assembled them together. He then pulled out the vial and filled the syringe till it was a quarter full.
"When I inject this into your knee, I want you to push the bone back into your leg, slather up on the mud and then wrap the bandage around the area."
Dante said, staring at Aileen, flicking the end of the needle.
"W-what! Is that syringe even unused? What's the mud for? Why can't you do it? What even is in that syringe, bone healing serum?"
She yelled, the vampire rolling his eyes at her.
"If I do it, I will try and rip your throat out. But I know that if I trust you with injecting yourself, you will cock it up. And I cannot even tell you if this is used or not, let us hope it is not. The mud though, the mud is special. It is actually dirt from an old grave. Except this is just that little bit more special. Also, do not be stupid there is not such a thing as a bone healing serum. It is something I have a conjured up over the years. It should mend your bones at incredible rates, one should say at the rate of a vampire."
He smirked as Aileen scrowled.
"So I was right. It is a bone healing serum."
"Shut up. Roll up your trouser leg and do not be such a wazzock."
He sighed, slapping her bad leg making her yelp.
Reluctantly, Aileen rolled up her trouser leg to above the knee and without warning Dante stabbed her with the needle making Aileen shout in pain
"Go! Time is of the essence. I cannot have you lollygagging otherwise the leg will heal with your bone still out of it."
Dante demanded before quickly disappearing out of the room.
Dazed, she hurriedly ripped off the cravat thinking the quicker she peeled the plush velvety fibres off her slowing healing open wound it would hurt less. She was wrong. Seething in pain Aileen shoved her forearm into her mouth, biting into her very damp coat and pushed the bone back into her leg. A muffled scream left her lips as tears streamed down her face. Shakily she reached out for the mud, sloppily taking a handful and slapped it onto her wound. Surprisingly the wet, cold dirt soothed the hot searing pain, spreading a thick layer over where Dante had twisted the bone out. A slow sigh left her lips as Aileen took the bandages, wrapping it around until the mud stopped oozing from the tight compress she had created.
The relief from the mud was only temporary, a new pain began to spread from the bandaged area. Gripping onto her leg tightly, Aileen screamed as short, sharp stabbing pains ran up her leg causing her leg to shake.
"What the hell have you done to me!"
She yelled out before the vampire came back into the room.
"Ah- so you did not die. Although... there is still a chance." Dante mumbled. "You look like shit. I do not think you were this sweaty before."
Aileen bitterly laughed at his statement, fighting the bouts of hot flashes and cold shivers and unable to come back with a witty remark.
The room began to spin and Aileen blinked to try and stop it from doing so. Slowly standing up, she noticed that everything went sideways, her ears ringing as nausea took over her. That's when she realised that the room wasn't going sideways but she was falling over.
Her last conscious thought was how was she going to protect her head from the hard floor, Dante not even making an effort to run and catch her.
VOUS LISEZ
House of Desmodus
VampireAileen wanted to know what happened to her father. She had seen his downward spiral for years. But once she unearthed his secret life, she finds herself trapped in a strange house with strange people.
