Staggered footsteps outside of the doorway drew Cadence’s attention, and she realized Jamie was headed back. Since Tara seemed to have calmed a bit, she hastily jumped up and went to help him. By the time she got to the hallway, he looked like he was about to fall over. She rushed forward and put her arm around him, catching a few loose items as they fell from his hands. “I gotcha, Doc.”
Once they were back in the playroom, Cadence lowered him to the floor, and Jamie took a few calming breaths. Perspiration beaded his brow, and he had a glossy look to him, like he was about to pass out. Or throw up.
“Looks like I’m giving Tara her blood transfusion. With my own blood,” she said, wishing it was as easy as opening the refrigerator and pouring it down her throat like she’d seen Faye do with Bonnie only the night before.
“Just give me a second,” Jamie said, blinking a few times like his eyes wouldn’t focus.
“I don’t think she has a second,” Cadence replied, pulling up the sleeve of her sweater. The dried blood made a crunchy, ripping sound as she pulled it away, but she did her best to ignore it. “I gave Aaron the shots in Ireland. I can do this.”
“This… is so different.”
She shrugged. “Can’t be that hard. You do it.” She winked at him, hoping to at least boost his spirits with a bit of good natured ribbing even if she couldn’t restore his energy.
Tara had on a T-shirt so there was no need to pull anything up on her. Cadence took one of the alcohol wipe packets Jamie’d carried in and wiped down her arm. “Tourniquet next?” she asked, and he nodded. Looking at what he’d brought, it appeared as if she would be using two needles and some tubing to take the blood out of her arm and put it directly into Tara, rather than going through some sort of fluid bag. She shrugged, assuming he knew what he was doing.
She bent Tara’s elbow and began to pump her arm, trying to get a vein. If only she could scoop up some of the blood spattered throughout the building and reuse that.
The sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway drew her attention, and without letting go of Tara’s arm, she reached into the back of her waistband and pulled out her Glock.
“It’s me,” Brandon called before he got to the doorway, and Cadence dropped her weapon. “Cass sent me to check on Tara.”
“Well, Brandon, I’m not gonna lie to you. It doesn’t look good,” Cadence replied with a heavy sigh. “Luckily, Dr. Findley is here to conduct the world’s first ever self-inflicted blood transfusion.”
“No… just… no,” Jamie said, shaking his head, but Cadence could tell he was trying not to laugh. She didn’t really think this was the world’s first, but she couldn’t imagine it’d been done too often.
“You’re gonna do it?” Brandon asked, skeptical.
“Unless you want to.”
“Hell, no,” he replied. “All right. I’ll go tell her. Anything else I can do?”
“Nope, just go watch for Aurora and Meagan and make sure they get in okay. Help the Healers find all of the Guardians who need them,” she replied. She thought she saw a blue bulge in Tara’s arm and rested the girl’s elbow on her knee so she could try to show Jamie.
“’Kay,” Brandon muttered, turning and heading out the door. He almost collided with Dax, who was coming in, and Cadence didn’t miss the tension between them as they tried to skirt around each other, finally working it out.
“Wonder what that was all about,” she whispered to Jamie, but if he’d seen it, he had nothing to say. “Will this work?” she asked, gesturing at the vein as Dax approached Faye.
Jamie leaned toward Tara’s arm, and Cadence called over his shoulder, “What’s up, Dax?”
“Cass wanted me to see if Faye knows the security code,” he said, looking at the doctor who they easily could’ve mistaken for a corpse if they didn’t know a Vampire couldn’t kill a Guardian.
“I doubt she’s going to be able to help you much, but you can try,” she replied, turning her attention back to Jamie.
He seemed to have more energy now, and without a word, he began readying the needle. Cadence was relieved that he was able to insert it into Tara’s vein without causing so much as a whimper from the girl, and once he was finished with her, he gestured for Cadence to give him her arm and wiped it off with a new alcohol wipe.
“Don’t I need to….” Before she could finish her sentence, the needle was in her arm. “Okay, guess not.” She wondered why it was so easy for him to find a vein for her but knew there was no point in asking right now. A few seconds, and a little bit of tape, later, he was finished, and she watched a steady stream of red liquid flow out of her arm into Tara and hoped it didn’t just start springing out of various holes.
Dax was whispering with Faye, who seemed to be answering one way or another, and a few seconds later, he got up and ran out of the room.
“I guess she’s recovered a little bit.” Cadence tried not to look directly at her own arm. Blood didn’t make her queasy anymore, not since she’d seen it by the bucketful, but the fact that this was her own blood made it slightly different.
Jamie dropped down on the floor next to Tara and placed his hand on her shoulder. Cadence knew that was the best way for him to channel whatever energy he had left into the girl. “Jame, what do I do if you pass out? How will I know when she has enough blood, and I don’t have too little?”
“Ten, fifteen minutes,” he said without opening his eyes.
Luckily, the clock on her IAC was still working. “Okay. Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty,” she teased. He smiled and she was relieved to see the grimace on Tara’s face dissipate as his healing powers took over.
