Crimson Born - Amy Patrick Page 0,33
about him. But you don’t need to. I’m going to go back to the area—bring a few of our fastest guys. We’ll catch him.”
A bolt of inspiration hit me so hard I almost staggered. “Take me with you. I can help. He’ll listen to me. He knows me.”
Kannon shook his head side to side. “I can’t do that. It’s too risky, and you’re too important to Imogen.”
“Not anymore,” I assured him. “I told her I’m not going to be her heir. I’m still just a common vampire, like everyone else here. She told me I was free to leave the Bastion as soon as I complete my training.”
“Yeah. Right.”
He didn’t seem convinced. “Anyway, it probably wouldn’t do any good. It’s unlikely he’d still remember or recognize you. I think he’s been surviving on animal blood, Abbi. You know what—”
I cut him off, the suggestion too horrible to contemplate. “No. I don’t know anything—not until I see him.”
My mind filled with the disturbing images from the execution of the rogue vampire a few nights ago.
“Bring him back Kannon. Please.” I debated making my next request but then decided to do it. “And if he’s not... healthy... tell me about it first, okay?”
“No promises, kiddo, but I’ll see what I can do.”
With a wink he walked away, and I went to my room where I would unpack my bag. There was no way I could leave the Bastion now.
If the Bloodbound brought Reece here, and he was in bad condition like the other rogue had been, I had to be here to protect him from Imogen.
15
Not Himself
They found him.
It was about a week later when Kannon and his team came swaggering into the Rainbow Cave bragging about how they’d finally captured the rogue vampire who’d managed to elude them for so long.
I rushed over to Kannon. “Is it Reece? Where is he?”
Please please please don’t say the Grand Dome.
“Hey, cool your jets there, little sister. No one can see him right now. He’s in processing.”
“But it is him? You’re sure?”
He nodded, though he didn’t smile. “It’s him.”
“What’s the matter?”
Something was definitely wrong. Imogen had promised I’d be the first to know when they found Reece, but no one had notified me he was here, and Kannon was acting weird.
“I didn’t say anything was the matter,” he said.
“You didn’t have to. I can tell. What’s going on? Is he hurt?”
“No. But he’s not... himself right now.”
“What does that mean?”
“He’s sick, Abbi.”
I grabbed the sleeve of Kannon’s shirt, pleading. “What’s wrong with him?”
“It’s just as I feared. He’s been... drinking animal blood.”
My heart seized with dread.
Kannon’s grim tone matched his expression. “When I called in and told Imogen the kind of shape he was in, she gave me the option of just destroying him right there. But I couldn’t do it—because of you. And he’s strong. I told her if he can be rehabbed, he’d make one kick-ass Bloodbound.”
“Please tell me where he is. I have to see him.”
Kannon bit his lip and looked off to the side, but I could see he was on the verge of caving.
“Please. I just want to look at him, just for a minute. Maybe it’ll help him to see me.”
“Okay. But don’t tell anyone it was me who told you where he is. Our medical staff is trying to help him. The medical center is down the west corridor almost at the end. There’s a red cross painted over the doorway—a little joke of ours.”
“Thank you,” I said and rushed out of the Rainbow Cave.
Maybe seeing a familiar face would help with Reece’s rehab. In spite of Kannon’s warning, and the fact we’d only met that one time, I felt sure he’d remember me.
At least he would if I had made a fraction of the impact on him that he’d made on me. He was branded on my brain.
Unfortunately, when I reached the medical quarantine area, the staff wouldn’t let me into his room.
“Please. I need to see him,” I told the head clinician. “He’s a friend of mine.”
I had met the doctor at one of the Bastion’s social gatherings. Anthony Coppa had been an orthopedic surgeon in his human days, but once he’d turned, the constant exposure to blood had been too much for him. Now he worked exclusively with vampire patients.
“Absolutely not. He’s far too dangerous,” he said. “One of our nurses is currently regenerating a limb after getting too close. I doubt he’d recognize you anyway. His mind is muddled from the effects of