I've Got a Nice Big Vampire Problem

“Abby! What the hell happened? You look like you got sat on by a dinosaur-“

I covered Mackenzie’s mouth, and then quickly removed it. Mackenzie’s eyes narrowed. Getting cut off was Mackenzie’s biggest pet peeve, but I couldn’t have let her keep going. Every word said about how bad I looked probably tacked a year onto how long it would take to get kissed again.

Gavin and Mackenzie had just run into the infirmary, Mackenzie looking completely panicked. Of course, my hospital dress had been wrapped around my stomach, Red just finishing his examination, so my bottom half was completely visible, along with all my back. Mackenzie hadn’t cared at all, but Conan was a different story.

Mackenzie gave me a tight-lipped, curious look, probably wondering why I had covered her mouth. Conan came up behind me, untangled the dress and tied it up again, tighter this time. I ignored him and said to Mackenzie,

“We’ll talk later, okay?”

She nodded. “’Kay.”

Conan spoke next. “Do you know what has happened to the newcomer? “ I looked up at his face to see he was talking to Gavin. Then I looked at Gavin.

His face was stony. “He’s being fed now,” he said.

“Where is he?” Conan asked.

“The last I heard he was in the Freezers,” Gavin answered.

The Freezers?

“What are the Freezers?” Mackenzie asked.

Conan answered her question. “The Freezers are where we keep all of our...” He glanced at me, and then continued. “It’s where we keep all of our food.”

So by food he meant bodies. An awkward silence followed Conan’s voice. Trying to rid of the silence, I looked at Red, who had been standing politely to the side while we had talked.

I gave him a small smile – silently thanking him for being so polite, and then asked, “So may I go now?”

“No.” Conan and Red answered simultaneously, their voices completely different. Because Conan was the demanding and stern sounding one, of course, I shot him a glare. Conan just looked at me, not responding to my glare, so I looked at Red again. Red glanced at Conan, then me, and then proceeded to talk.

“I’m sorry to damper your day, Abigail, but your bones are bruised and could very well snap if any more strain is put on them, which we don’t want,” he explained. “So I’m going to keep you here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

I nodded; thankful he wasn’t reacting to Conan’s stupid behaviour.

Slowly making my way over to the wall, I turned and leant on it. I really wanted to sit down because my knees hurt, even though I knew it would be pure torture. I would have sat down too, if Conan wasn’t watching my every move with obvious scrutiny.

Gavin spoke. “Conan, Salvador wants to see you.”

I looked at Gavin, interested immediately. What reason did Salvador have to ask for Conan? And why had it taken so long for Gavin to spit it out?

Conan looked at me. Not knowing why he was looking at me, I said, “Yes?”

He turned his head to look at Gavin. “Did he say it was urgent?”

“He didn’t say it was urgent, he didn’t need to.”

What did he mean by that? I tried to read Gavin’s face, but it was stony and blank. How did he do that? Everybody else always had one emotion on their face at one time. I looked at Conan, realizing he did it. There were many times that I had no idea what Conan was thinking because his face was completely blank.

Conan surveyed Gavin for a moment and I frowned. What exactly was he seeing that I couldn’t? Were there hidden expressions on faces that only vampires could see? That would mean they would have ridiculously amazing sight. Would humans even be able to make such small movements with their face that other humans would not be able to see them? Or was it just vampires that could do that?

“Alright,” Conan finally said. I looked at him. He walked over to me and started to check me over.

I scowled. “I’m fine,” I said, crossing my arms. He was being rude to Red and me, and I didn’t appreciate it. I wasn’t going to embarrass myself by bringing it up and arguing about it, so I decided that being stubbornly resistant would be more effective.

Conan put his finger underneath my elbow and nudged it, wanting me to lift my arms so he could look at my sides. I clutched my arms tighter to myself and glared at him. Though I knew that my futile strength had no effect on his nudge, I knew he felt my resistance and would stop.

He looked up at me, his brow furrowed.

I gave him a blank stare as he stood straight. “Conan, I’m fine,” I said, my voice icy. “You can go, they need you.”

He stared right into my pupils. He was gorgeous and dangerous, and it was hard to stare into his eyes knowing that he was probably getting angrier with me as every second passed, but I wasn’t giving in until he realized what he had done.

“Alright,” he said, his tone flat. He turned and disappeared out of the room.

Gavin’s eyes moved from me to Mackenzie. “Are you coming?” The way he asked made me think he wasn’t really asking whether she was coming or not.

“No,” Mackenzie answered me. “Go without me, I’m staying here with Abby.” I gave her a grateful smile, knowing the moment she had made her statement Gavin was going to have a problem with it.

Gavin paused, looking at Mackenzie, his eyes flickering over to me again, then took a deep breath in. “Must you?” He asked.

Mackenzie nodded. “Yes.”

Gavin paused for another moment, clenching and unclenching his jaw. And then he nodded and disappeared, just like Conan had.

Mackenzie turned to me, her lips pursed. She was obviously having a little internal battle. “Alright Abby, let’s get you onto that bed,” she said, distracted.

I sighed. “Thanks Kenzie.” Mackenzie gave me a short smile. She took a step towards me and I shook my head, holding my hand out. “I can do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

“I won’t.”

I only took five painful steps, making it halfway to the bed, before Mackenzie made a grunting noise, swept me up and set me on the bed in only two milliseconds. Flames of pain licked my back and I gasped.

“WOW!” I cried, and then proceeded to breathe methodically until the urge to cry had been suppressed.

I looked at Mackenzie, who was sitting at the end of my bed, and noticed she still looked a little distracted and now apologetic. “Sorry,” she said, chewing her cheek. “You meant it when you said you wanted to do it yourself didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “It’s fine, I probably would have caused myself a whole ton more pain, so don’t feel bad. Really, it’s okay.” Mackenzie nodded. She looked down at the sheets and her eyes glazed over, like she remembering something. A small smile appeared on her lips, and just from seeing that little twitch of the mouth, a huge smile took over my face.

“So Gavin, huh?”