My knees started to hurt after a few minutes of crouching, and I had to give up and sit down cross-legged, feeling lukewarm blood saturate the back of my pants. I told myself to think of it as a puddle of water, which actually helped a little.
I fed Maven for as long as I dared, but when I got light-headed and started to see spots at the edges of my vision, I had to stop and clutch my hand, trying to slow the bleeding. Luckily, it was only about five more minutes before I heard Simon’s Chevy pull into the little alley between Magic Beans and the next building.
Simon happened to be having dinner at the Pellar farmhouse when I’d called, so he and Lily had made some excuse and driven over together. They climbed out of the car and rushed toward us, each holding a backpack. With a grunt of greeting, Simon unzipped his pack and pulled out the same lantern he’d used when we were hunting the Unktehila, setting it up next to Maven’s body. The blaze of light was almost shocking, and I squinted away from it. I wanted to tell him to turn the lantern off—what if someone saw us?—but we were tucked in a tiny lot behind a Dumpster. I doubted it could be seen from the street.
I’d warned them to wear old clothes, but I didn’t realize how much blood my own outfit had collected until Lily rushed over to me and I followed her shocked gaze downward. My jeans were saturated, my silk blouse and blazer were decorated in damp dark blotches, and my skin was stained red in patches that ran from my arms to, probably, my face. It looked like I’d fallen into a bathtub of red dye. Luckily, I was just too dizzy to be properly grossed out. “This is why I can’t have nice things,” I mumbled to myself.
Lily crouched down near Maven’s head, right next to me. On the other side of her, Simon was pulling out what appeared to be his own personal vampire feeding kit, which included bandages, sterilized needles, IV tubing, and surgical knives. “You’re really going full-time with the Dr. Frankenstein bit, aren’t you?” I asked weakly.
“Frankenstein was just misunderstood,” Simon said, his tone so serious that I couldn’t decide if he was kidding or not. He handed the IV kit to Lily, who’d done a couple of years of medical school. She had already put on surgical gloves, and she expertly inserted an IV into the back of Simon’s hand. It was attached to a long tube with some sort of one-way stopper on the end. Quinn had passed out again, so Simon unceremoniously poked the end of the tube through his lips, provoking a hilariously confused expression from the vampire.
“Hey, dipshit,” Simon said brightly. “Let me get the first round.” Quinn rolled his eyes and held the tube to his lips.
Lily was stripping off her surgical gloves. “Can you feed Maven?” I asked her.
“In a minute. You’re too pale.” She took my wrist, checking her watch with her free hand. “Tachycardic,” she muttered to herself. She reached toward me until she could put both hands on my face, like a mother feeling for a fever. “Shit. You’re clammy. You lost way too much blood.”
“Yeah, I was just starting to think that myself,” I said unsteadily.
“This a severe hemorrhage, Lex. You could go into shock.”
“Later.”
“You need a blood transfusion—”
“Later,” I said stubbornly. I tilted my head toward Maven, lifting my eyebrows.
Lily sighed. “Let me see your hand.” She made a clucking noise when she saw the cut I’d made. “Sloppy. But it shouldn’t scar, since you got some vampire saliva in there. Stitches or butterfly bandages?”
“Butterflies.”
“I figured.” As she taped up my hand, I watched Maven’s still form. She still looked bad, but maybe a tiny bit better than when I’d first arrived? It was so hard to tell with the change in lighting. I wanted to ask Quinn what he thought of her condition, but he’d have to stop drinking blood to answer, and he needed it more than I needed an answer just then.
“How much belladonna did she get?” Simon asked, seeing my gaze. When I looked back at him, I noticed the old spark of scientific curiosity in his eyes. I cocked an eyebrow, and he blushed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come out . . . excited. I’ve just never actually seen any of the Solanaceae in action before. Do you know how strong the dose was?”
“No, but she took two vials in the back.” While waiting for the Pellars, I’d checked Maven for puncture wounds. There were two marks right next to each other in the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades.
“They shot her in the back?” Lily said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “That’s so . . . tacky.”
“Yes, it is.” I heard the anger in my own voice. It really bothered me that I hadn’t thought of the possibility of a dart gun.
Lily had finished bandaging the back of my hand and was digging into her own pack. She pulled out a half-gallon container of orange juice, with about a third of the juice still inside, and a package of Newman’s Own cookies, handing them to me. “This is what my mom had available. You need the glucose and hydration.”
As I took the food, she picked up the IV kit again and began swabbing the inside of her arm. “I get better veins there,” she said when she saw me looking. “Simon?”
Her brother leaned forward and helped Lily insert the IV needle, moving very slowly so he wouldn’t disturb the needle and tube taped to his own hand. For a moment, watching the two of them literally tying themselves to vampires, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. Simon may have been Quinn’s friend, but neither Pellar really owed the vampires anything. They’d come because I’d asked, and they had done so without a second thought. My vision blurred a little. I told myself it was just blood loss.