Vampire's Prey

Chapter 41: Toxin

Previously:

I rush back to Rahlan. Dropping the sword, I kneel beside his still form. "Rahlan..."

He's lying with his cheek pressed against the stone. His eyes are closed, and his cape is tangled around his legs.

"Wake up." I shake his shoulders, but his body remains limp.

Tears prick my eyes. He's not dead. He's just asleep. He's not dead. He's just asleep.

I lift his shoulder, pulling him over with a groan. He must have bones of iron to be so heavy. He's not dead. There's no way an oil could hurt someone as tough as him. It's impossible.

I strain to let him down gently onto his back. His head lolls onto the stone. He's not dead.

"Rahlan, please wake up." I raise his head up off the hard floor and rest it on my lap. My fingers touch his cheek. His skin is cold, but he's always cold. Why won't he wake up?

He needs help. He needs help, and I don't know how to help him. My eyes jump around the chapel looking for someone who might, but we're alone.

Jaclyn was outside. "Jaclyn!" I scream.

"Jac-Jaclyn!"

She bursts through the door wielding a kitchen knife. Her gaze lands on me, and she goes pale. I'm cradling a huge vampire.

She quickly snaps out of it and rushes over.

"They-" my voice cracks. "They shot him with arrows. Poisoned. I can't- I can't wake-"

"I understand." She kneels beside me and rests two fingers on his neck. Her stern words pull me back from panicking. She's a healer. This is her domain. There's not a person in this whole village better equipped to help Rahlan.

She pinches his eyelids open with two fingers. His red iris is as still as his body.

"He's unconscious," she says. I knew he couldn't be dead, but hearing her say it helps me breathe again.

Her eyes run up and down his body. "He was struck with arrows?"

"Three." I nod. "In both arms and the hip."

She carefully lifts his arm. There's no sign of blood seeping through his sleeves. I run my finger down his cheek, over his rough stubble. Please wake up.

"I need better light." She stands and quickly disappears out the door.

After he was hit with the arrows, I watched him digress from stumbling to unconsciousness. I imagine taking his hand and somehow pulling him up to stand again, but I'm afraid I'll hurt his arm further by enacting a fantasy.

Jaclyn returns carrying a roll of material with two long wooden rods. She lays them out beside Rahlan. It's a litter.

"Lift his shoulders," she instructs.

Keeping his head propped up against my lap, I dig my fingers under his torso and grab his leather coat.

Jaclyn wraps her hands around his ankles and gives me a nod. Straining, we manage to lift him onto the litter, and I gently rest his head on the coarse material.

Jaclyn and I both grab the ends of the wooden rods, and we stand. He's heavy.

We hurry out of the chapel with quick short steps, and she leads the way back to her home.

My fingers burn under Rahlan's weight. I would have asked one of the village men for help, but Rahlan's complexion would immediately give him away as a vampire. Fortunately, the streets are empty. Jaclyn is the only one I can trust, the only one who will help me. If the villagers found out, they'd kill all three of us. Ivan could be raising a mob to storm the chapel at this moment. Jaclyn's risking her life to protect Rahlan, a vampire like the ones who enslaved her, just because he's important to me.