Sinking his dagger into the Vampire’s neck gave Paul the inches he needed to maneuver around and drop the creature to the cold, concrete floor. He positioned his knees so that he could press the beast’s arms down and then withdrew the blade from his neck and sunk it into his chest several times.
The Vampire seemed relentless. “Please! You mustn’t!” he shouted again as Paul continued to stab. A gurgling sound emanated from the man’s throat, and with one more jab with the knife, he disappeared.
“I think he’s the last,” Jeb said over his shoulder as Paul tried to slow his breathing. He could only nod. “Come on. Let’s check on Patsy and Tanner.”
The reminder was enough to get him off of his knees, and Paul followed his friend through the hole in the wall, ducking to get under the hanging piece of concrete still attached at the top and stepping over the remnants on the floor.
Margie was standing next to Patsy now, but it seemed as if she must’ve checked on all of them. Grant was next to Stanley, checking his pulse. It was obvious the other four Guardians were still alive because they were jerking and bucking on the table, but Stanley was perfectly still.
“What did they do to them?” Paul asked.
“How the hell would I know?” Margie replied, placing her hands on Patsy like that might somehow stop the twitching. The blonde girl’s eyes were closed, and drool was running down the side of her face. “You’re a Healer.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a doctor.” He thought the two Healers from Roatan were upstairs tending to the wounded, and he didn’t know if either one of them was an actual doctor either. Paul looked over at Tanner who was convulsing so hard, he was afraid the rickety bed might collapse. Jeb must’ve noticed, too. He motioned for Derrick, and they went about unhooking their friend, moving him and the thin mattress onto the floor where at least he wouldn’t fall if he they couldn’t get him under control.
“Damn it,” Margie muttered. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish my brother was here.”
Paul’s eyes widened. He couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting Jamie anywhere for any reason. “Can you see if he can help at all? Or shall I?’
“Go for it,” she replied as Patsy began to vomit. Margie was already unhooking her and the two of them turned her to her side so she wouldn’t choke.
“Jamie, can you see what I’m looking at?” Paul asked, hoping the Healer wasn’t in the middle of anything.
“Holy shit, yes. What did they do?” he answered almost immediately.
“I don’t know. There are some spent needles.”
“Is there a microscope anywhere?”
Paul gathered a few of the syringes he spotted on the floor and carried them over to a row of cabinets on the other side of the room. He quickly opened them all but didn’t see anything.
“What do you need, boss?” one of the new Guardians from Roatan shouted from across the room.
“Microscope!” Paul shouted back.
“I saw a whole lab room down the hall. I bet there’s one in there,” the other man, a tall guy who looked to be in his mid-thirties, said as he ran out of the room.
“Take those syringes with you and follow him,” Jamie insisted, and Paul tailed the other Guardian down the hall.
“Here you go.”
Paul thanked him and quickly ran into the room. Shelly and Toni were right behind him. “We need a microscope,” he said, and the girls spread out, searching the cabinets.
“Here!” Toni shouted, pointing at the apparatus sitting on a shelf. It was hard to see because there was so much crap everywhere. Books, beakers, jars of fluids he couldn’t identify, lined every visible part of the counter, and Paul absently wondered if any of the parts he saw floating in those jars belonged to him.
“Okay—what do I do?” Paul asked as he knocked everything away from the microscope that looked unimportant at the moment. Several glass jars and beakers shattered on the concrete floor, and he made a note to destroy this place before they left.
“Get a clean slide if you can find one, and put a few drops from the syringe on it. It doesn’t have to be much. I just need to see what it’s made of.”
Paul didn’t answer, only did as he was told, hoping the slide he’d found in a container by the microscope was clean. There wasn’t much left in the first syringe, but he emptied it onto the slide, getting a drop or two. He positioned it, careful not to lose the sample, and then looked into the lens.
Jamie sighed. “Okay—I think that might be what he used to try to turn them into humans, but I’m not sure. Is there a hydrometer anywhere?”
“A what?” Paul asked, having never heard that word in his life, at least not that he recalled.
“A hydrometer… just look around.”
“Boss! We found these!” Shelly came running over with several other completely full syringes, some with blue lids and some with red.
“That’s perfect,” Jamie said. “Tell them to look for something that looks like a kitchen scale with a silver circle on top.”
Paul took the syringes and repeated Jamie’s request, but as soon as he turned back around, he saw something that looked like the machine Jamie had described. “Is it this?”
“Yes, that’s it.” Jamie talked him through how to measure the density of one of each of the new vials, and Paul did his best to follow the directions, even though his hands were shaking and he had no idea if any of the tools he was using were clean or reliable.
When they had finished their science experiment, Jamie was silent for a few moments. “Do you know what he did?” Paul asked, running out of patience.
“Yeah, it looks like he gave them a shot of a similar chemical to the one we’ve developed, but I don’t think he used enough Krypton to destroy all of the Guardian DNA cells. The second shot looks to be straight potassium chloride.”
“Potassium chloride?” Paul echoed. “You mean like they give people on death row.”
“Exactly. I doubt there’s much there that can help, but if you can find anything at all to help slow their pulses down, it will help. Something like aspirin would help, but what you really need is some heavy duty drugs, like calcium channel blockers. You’re not going to find any of that. Get some towels, soak them in cold water, switch them out as they warm up. If they calm down enough to drink, get them plenty of water. But Paul, I think they’re all going to need blood transfusions, and the sooner the better.”
It was Paul’s turn to be silent. When he finally spoke he said, “Can you walk me through that?”
“I can’t. I’m getting ready to go on a hunt myself. You can contact Sicilia, though. She can help you. She’s also on her way to a hunt, but she’s a little farther out than I am.”
Paul took a deep breath. There really wasn’t anyone else he wanted to help him, but he understood Jamie had a job to do. “Okay. I’ll get her on the horn then.”
“Good luck, Paul. You can do this. Theoretically, I think Hines missed the mark on that first shot, so the second one shouldn’t kill them. But you don’t want to mess around.”
“Do you think I have time to move them? I’d be more comfortable knowing there’s nothing coming for us.” It seemed like there should have been more Vampires inside the facility, but he had no way of knowing at the moment how many they’d taken out.
“I wouldn’t screw around with it, man. I’d just get it done. You’ve probably got all of the materials you need right there in that lab.”
“All right. Thanks.” Paul was tight lipped for a moment as he disconnected from Jamie and sought out Sicilia. The other Hunter didn’t ask a lot of questions, only started giving directions, and Paul, Shelly, and Toni started gathering up what they needed, hopeful by the time they returned to the other room, it wouldn’t be too late.
