"Excuse me?" Esmeralda asked. "What is this?"
"Just do it, Essie, I'll explain in a minute."
Reluctantly, Essie followed Nick's orders.
Amanda touched Kyrian's face. "They made a terrible mess of you."
"How's Tabitha?" Kyrian asked weakly. Amanda was touched by his concern for her sister when he was so hurt himself.
"I'm calling an ambulance," Esmeralda said, picking up the phone from the end table.
Nick grabbed the phone from her hands. "No."
The look on Esmeralda's face would have quelled most men. Nick just glared back at her without flinching.
"It's all right, Essie," Amanda assured her. "We can't take him to a hospital."
"He's going to die if you don't."
"No," Nick said, "he won't."
Esmeralda cocked a disbelieving brow.
"He's not human," Amanda explained.
Esmeralda narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What is he, then?"
"He's a vampire."
Rage suffused her face as she railed against them all. "You brought a vampire into my house? After what happened to Tabitha? My God, Amanda, where was your brain?"
"He's not going to hurt you," Amanda insisted.
"You're damned straight. I'm going to call-"
Nick stepped between Esmeralda and the phone. "You call anyone and I'll rip the phone out of the wall."
"Boy," Essie said in a warning tone, "don't think for two seconds you-"
"Stop it!" Amanda shouted. "Kyrian needs your help, Esmeralda, and as your little sister, I'm begging you for it."
"Do you-"
"Essie, please."
She saw the indecision warring in Essie's eyes and knew the thoughts in her mind. On the one hand Esmeralda didn't want to help the evil undead; on the other, she couldn't really say no to her sister.
"Please, Es, I've never before asked a favor of you."
"Not true. You borrowed my favorite sweater in high school to wear to that game where Bobby Daniels was playing."
"Es!"
"All right," she relented, "but if he bites anyone in this house, I'm staking him."
Kyrian lay still while Esmeralda and Amanda peeled his bloodied clothes from him. He hurt so badly he could barely breathe. Over and over, he saw the Daimons attacking him and he wanted blood.
"Let the sun have him." Desiderius's mocking voice rang in his ears.