My Guardian Vampire

“Mrs. Cryptcarde! I need you to calm down. It’s just an oxygen mask. You’re in the hospital.”

“Uh, doc, I think her IV fell out,” I heard a voice say. It took me a moment to place it as Tré. I turned and saw Mike, Tré, Katy and Gerard standing there. Mike put his hand on Gerard’s arm as if to hold him back. Gerard then turned to Mike.

“I’m fine,” Gerard said, not meanly. He smiled, and Mike nodded. The doctor cursed under his breath. I looked down, and saw the tube with the needle lying on the bland bed sheets with a clear, watery substance spilling out. I then looked at my arm, and saw blood starting to leak down the side of my arm.

“Ow,” I said. A nurse came over bringing a clean IV, and went to stick it in my arm. I held up my hand to stop her quickly. I felt the blood change course down to my upper arm and onto my clothes.

“No IV, as you can see it doesn’t stay in. I’ve been through this before. Bad veins.” I then pointed to my right arm, showing a scar that looked like the three finger holes of a bowling ball had indented itself into the crook of my arm. “PICC line works.”

“What the fuck is a PICC line?” Tré asked. He seemed nervous for whatever reason.

“PICC stands for Peripherally Inserted Central venous Catheter,” the doctor said. “An intravenous catheter is inserted through the skin, into a vein in the arm, in the region above the elbow and below the shoulder. The catheter is a long, thin tube that is advanced into the body in the veins until the internal tip of the catheter is in the superior vena cava, one of the central venous system veins that carries blood to the heart,” The doctor explained. I twitched slightly as the nurse shoved the IV back up my arm. She then taped it up to my arm to help hold it there. Tré then turned to Mike.

“Okay, so Mike, what is a PICC line?” Tré asked. Mike smiled.

“A PICC line is a long tubie thing that goes a long way up her arm,” Mike clarified. The doctor chuckled.

“Right. Long tubie thing. And we can only do it if she’s staying overnight, since it takes a while to do.” He then turned to the four of them. “So, which one of you is…” he looked at his chart. “Mr. Cryptcarde? Is he present?”

“This is Mr. Cryptcarde,” Mike said, putting his hand on Gerard’s shoulder. The doctor nodded, and advanced over to Gerard. He then put out his hand.

“Ah, Mr. Cryptcarde. We have never met, but I have heard much about you. It is an honor to meet such a respected man.” Gerard took the doctor by the hand and shook.

“And you are…?”

“Forgive me. I am Dr. John Emans. Please though, call me John.”

“Nice to meet you, John. My name is Billie Joe, though as a nickname my friends call me Gerard.” Gerard smiled. His smile seemed completely there, but his eyes showed no truth to the happiness, the cloud over them. This broke my heart.

“…Gerard. Odd nickname for Billie Joe, but if you insist.” I knew then the doctor was already suspicious of us. He then turned to me. “Now, Mrs. Cryptcarde, your husband here has told me much of what has happened. Can you please tell me your side of the story?”

“Well…” I trailed, thinking back. “A few days ago was when I first fainted. No history of fainting before. I was standing up, got extremely dizzy, and then it all went black. Today after waking up I began to feel dizzy once again. I vomited in the bathroom, the dizziness increased, and I passed out. On the way here I just fell asleep in the car. I’m usually such a light sleeper, I don’t know how I didn’t wake up as soon as I got here.”

“That sounds about the same as Gerard said…” he trailed, looking at a chart. He then flipped the page. “And yes. We did have quite some trouble resuscitating you. When you arrived your breathing was extremely shallow and the oxygen in your bloodstream was nearly depleted. You were almost a goner there.”

“I…almost died?” I said, looking at him like he was the crazy one. I wondered if that had anything to do with Billie’s “visiting” me in my dream, but had no clue.

“Yes. It was only a minute or two before you came to that your breathing returned. Admittedly, my team and I have no clue as to why this had happened. But we’re going to figure it out.” On cue, his beeper went off. He picked it up and looked at it and began to walk quickly towards the door. “That’s a code. I must go. If you have any questions later, have the nurses page me.”

The doctor left, an awkward silence filling his place. I decided to be the first to break it.

“I really almost died?” I asked. Gerard came over to my bedside and held my hand.

“Yes,” he said, rubbing my hand. “But I wasn’t worried, not really. I read your mind.”

“You saw Billie?” I asked. Gerard smiled his clouded smile, and nodded.

“Yes. But don’t worry. I let you two talk things out without my extra company.”

“Did you hear about Damien?” I asked. At the mention of his name, Mike and Tré seemed to tense.

“I heard enough, the important part I think. You should tell Mike and Tré about it though.”

“All right,” I said, and turned to them both. “Damien is going to come after me. Or at least that’s what the possibly imaginary Billie Joe said. Though I don’t know why I would think this on my own…But real or not, he said that Damien wouldn’t come after me directly, but…through something or someone else, something that couldn’t relate to him. He said that if he just killed me outright, people would retaliate. We apparently need to be very careful. Damien thinks I’m a threat and coming after him or some bullshit for power. We have to talk to him first and tell him I’m not a threat before he gets me.”

“I never even thought of Damien,” Mike said, his eyes wide and looking lost. He hit himself in the forehead. “I can’t believe I never thought of him. Damnit Tré, what are we supposed to do?” He kept hitting his forehead, as if trying to pound an idea into his head.

“Mike, Mike,” I said and raised my arm, motioning for him to calm down. My IV fell out.

“Damnit!” I cursed in a harsh hiss. Gerard hit the “nurse” button on my little remote. A nurse quickly walked in, just as Gerard was putting gauze on my arm.

“I’ll fix that right up for you,” the nurse said. She had a very kind face, her smile making me even feel just a little less stressed. She shook her head when she saw my arm. “I don’t care what that doctor says. I’m gonna go to the head to get you an order for a PICC line, or just not put another one in after this one.” She put the needle back into my arm.

“Thanks,” I said, and squint to look at her tag. “Mrs. St. Pierre? Is that right?”

“You can just call me Rosemary,” she smiled.

“Rosemary,” I acknowledged. “Al-Lilly. Lilly Green Cryptcarde.” I held my free hand out, and she shook it.

“Cryptcarde?” she said, surprised. “We haven’t had a Cryptcarde here ever I think. And I would know,” she smiled. “What brings you here now?”

I patted my stomach.

“Baby,” I smiled. “And something else we don’t know, if it’s anything at all. It might just have to do with being pregnant. I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never been pregnant before.”

“I’ll keep an extra look on both of you then,” she smiled, and patted my hand. “Anything else you need?”

“I think I’m good for the moment, thank you,” I smiled. “It was nice meeting you, Rosemary.”

“Same to you, Lilly,” she said. She then left, and I watched her leave.

“She was very nice,” I said. Gerard nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” Mike said as he paced the room, his fingers curled next to his lips in thought, “this is what we do: we get Ali checked out first, find out if she’s staying overnight or not. If not, then we can take her with us. I don’t want to endanger her especially since she is pregnant, but it is better if she comes and talks to Damien himself. But if Ali must stay, then she will, and Gerard and I can go to Damien ourselves. I’ll have Tré stay here for Ali’s protection.”

“Wait,” I protested, “I’m not gonna let any one of us be endangered here. I can’t let you guys go, especially if I’m not there with you. And what if this was all just a crazy pregnant dream? You could be going there for nothing.”

“Pregnant dream or not, it’s a good idea to make sure Damien knows our intentions. And don’t worry, we won’t be hurt. I’m afraid a human however might be too much for some of the vampires to handle.”

“Mike,” I said testily, “I can’t agree to this. No way.”

“Ali,” Mike said, with more conviction, “there’s not exactly much you can do about it. I must look after your own safety first. Your orders do not surpass my judgment of what I know is best for you.”

“Order?” I asked, surprised. “Mike, that wasn’t an order. I can’t have you getting hurt, especially not over me.”

“Intention or not, anything not formed in a question to me is an order, and I must obey. Unless, like I said, it’s for your own safety.”

“Wait, what do you mean 'you must obey?' It's just someone telling you something."

"Not for us," Tré said. "It's wicked weird. Control is really important to vampires, for this reason. When you tell us to do something, we literally have to do it."

That’s just not cool,” I said, shaking my head. I didn't want control over anyone. “Mike, Tré, I don’t want control over you, even if you’re being dumb. Can I stop it?”

“No, I’m sorry Ali,” Mike said, frowning. “Billie tried to use it as little as possible. There are ways around it, for the most part. Just ask me a question. Or tell me to remind you every time you give me an order that you’re giving me an order.”

“Okay…” I said. “Mike and Tré, tell me whenever I’m giving an order, please.”

“No please,” Mike smiled. “Please means if we want to. You have to order it, no please or if you’d like or anything like that.” I sighed.

“Mike and Tré, tell me whenever I’m giving an order.”

“Gotcha. That was an order, by the way,” Mike said. I shivered.

“That’s way too weird. You’ve been doing that all your vampire life?”

“Weird, innit?” Tré said, smiling. “It’s like, you could tell us to go jump off a bridge, and we’d do it. Go Fuck ourselves? Do it. Though I’d do it anyways,” he said, and smiled wider. Katy and I laughed. “But the weird thing is… tell us to hate someone, and we’d want to kill them for no reason. Forget someone? Done, never think of them again. Remember someone or something? Brought to your memory, like that,” he said, and snapped his fingers. “Though if you’re told to love some-” Tré put his hand over his mouth, and looked up at Mike as if he just accidentally cut his head off.

“It’s okay Tré,” Mike said. He gave an extremely small, tired smile and shook Tré’s arm comfortingly.

“Do I want to ask?” I asked. Tré, with his hand still over his mouth, rapidly shook his head “no.”

“It’s okay,” Mike said, and looked away to the side. “I was told to love someone. And I’ve never been able to stop. Not for a single, stupid moment.”

Oh, that was heavy. I felt so sad for Mike at that moment.

“Mike, I’m so sorry. There’s nothing I can do to help?”

“No,” he said, his face becoming harder. “Nothing at all.” He wiped the side of his eye with his sleeve.

‘Holy shit, Mike is crying!’ my mind yelled. Apparently this hurt him deeper than I had imagined.

“It’s just some stupid thing I have to go through. We all have to go through our own shit. This is just mine.”

“Well…” I said, and pursed my lips, deciding what I could do for him. My stupid hormones were overreacting, and I was getting extremely upset that Mike was sad. “If you ever need anything, Mike, you already know you can talk to me.”

“Yeah, Mike. Any of us,” Gerard agreed, taking my hand as he saw my upset state. “Even if you need someone to run the sun with.”

“Run the sun?” Katy asked, changing the topic. “What is that?”

“It’s where you outrun the rays of the sun as it rises,” Tré said, his eyes lighting up. You could tell anything with speed was Tré’s thing. “Extremely easy with our speed on a straightaway, but not so much in the city where you have to climb and jump over things. It’s a lot of fun, completely exhilarating.”

“Yeah,” Gerard said, “and I know I’m pretty slow compared to you guys, but still, if you ever needed anyone to beat, I’m here.”

“It’d be nice to have a win once an awhile, I admit,” Mike agreed. “I could never outrun Tré or Billie. Tré is just like a monkey on drugs, swinging and jumping through any course. Billie’s age gave him an edge for speed over me, and he was so much shorter he could simply duck under stuff. I’m tall and lanky, not built for speed or ducking.”

“Sounds awesome,” I said, wishing I could do it myself. I remembered all the times I ran away from home via forest, running as fast as I could go while only having a split second to jump or duck over things. Though I was obviously terrified for my life as I did it, it did have the perk of a huge adrenaline rush.

The adrenaline rush was so awesome; it was almost worth having the fear of being hacked to bits shoved into you from your supposed sanctuary.
Almost.