Bill walked through the sliding glass doors of the local hospital's emergency wing less than twenty minutes later, his large frame wrapped in the standard blue scrubs of an assistant surgeon reporting for duty. He had washed his hands, but the skin around his knuckles was still raw, and his broad shoulders carried a tense, rigid stiffness.
"Assistant Curt reporting for the regional core rotation," he told the triage nurse, his voice a heavy-set rumble.
Across the corridor, Claire froze, the sound of that gravelly, slow voice hit her ears like a physical shock. Her head snapped up, her eyes widening as she stared at the massive back of the man who had just taken the surgical clipboards from the desk.
"It was him" She could recognize that voice anywhere from the dark woods, but from his oblivious demeanor, it was clear he couldn't recognize her under the harsh, fluorescent lights of the hospital.
Her mind raced in tight, frantic loops.
"Why was a hospital surgeon targeting Caleb and the others in the brush? What was he doing out there?"
Before she could take a step closer, a senior nurse stepped between them, waving a chart.
"Doctor Curt, we need you down in the lower wards immediately. The ICU overflow is backing up." Bill was directed towards the far wing—the secure cup wards—which luckily was completely in the opposite direction of where the trauma stretchers and the boys were being prepped for surgery.
Back on campus, the dark alley behind the female dormitory block was thick with the scent of pine needle rot and iron.
Lira was busy pinning down Molly against the damp brickwork, her palms pressed hard against the girl's trembling shoulders. Molly's throat was dry with frantic spasms, her newly formed fangs visibly protruding over her lower lip, her human senses completely dulled by the sudden, overwhelming hunger that was tearing through her veins.
Lira had sent an urgent text to Damon few minutes prior, telling him to quickly steal two blood bags from the campus infirmary. With the entire dorms were currently swarming with campus guards, flashing sirens, journalists from the regional terminal, and state police inspectors, the main medical bay was in absolute chaos, making the blood storage vaults less of a priority for the night staff.
A soft rustle in the ferns signaled his arrival. Damon stepped into the shadow of the brick alcove wearing nothing but his silk pajamas, his expression completely cool despite the biting cold of the wind. In his right hand, he held three cold, plastic blood bags he had slipped past the distracted triage desks.
He looked down at Molly's thrashing frame, his dark eyes taking in the pale skin and the extended fangs. He didn't seem surprised at all that she had transitioned into a vampire so quickly after the incident by the lightning-scarred tree. He simply ripped the corner of the first bag with his teeth and handed it down to Lira to press against the girl's mouth.
"Were they always this violent when they were transitioning" Damon asked.
"More or less, considering that she took long to ...have her head snapped" lira chuckled, " you could have given her heads up it'll come to this but I suppose, you didn't".
"Well it's not like I lied to her about it , I simply left it out. But what to do with her before the sun comes up" Damon yawned seemingly tired or rather lazy to want to do anything.
"Hehe, now you're asking me after you bloody did all this," Lira rebuked sharply, her eyes darting toward the lights of the quarters. "I can only make a temporary daylight ring for her using the moonstone residue in my kit, I'm not a full witch, Damon. By tomorrow afternoon, the spell will start to burn through the silver."
Damon watched Molly tear into the plastic with a hungry, desperate finality. "That's enough time," he whispered back, making gestures for lira to calm down as she was starting to pin molly down even harder.
"A temporary fix is all I need to figure things out on the whole mess."
Lira wiped a stray drop of dark liquid from her sleeve, looking up at him through her hair.
"Maybe we should ask our new friend Fiona for ideas. Her little notes might have the tips to manage this whole thing while we stabilize the transition before the university registers the missing hours."
Damon nodded slowly, his mind already calculating the variables. "Perhaps."
He turned to leave, walking back toward the central plaza to keep up appearances. In his silk pajamas, he blended seamlessly into the crowd of half-dressed students who had poured out of the residential halls to gawk at the flashing sirens. He stood near the yellow tape line, looking at the blood-stained grass with a beautiful, performative pity, blending right in with the onlookers.
As he slipped past the perimeter, he walked right past Quive Stephenson, who had just stepped out of his black department vehicle—this time, notably alone, without Alice beside him to monitor the radio loops.
Down in the dark alleyway, Holly came running down the concrete steps toward where Lira was still holding the gasping girl. She carried a thick woolen blanket under her arm and a cold bottle of water. Without a word, Holly uncapped the bottle and poured the water straight over Molly's matted hair and face, dampening the sweat and the residue of the struggle. She then wrapped the heavy blanket tightly around her shoulders, completely disguising her as a student who had simply come back from a severe, uncoordinated hangover before the patrol could spot them.
Damon made his way back up the dark stairwell of his own dormitory block, closing the heavy door of his room behind him with a silently.
Inside, the space was illuminated only by the blue glow of a digital screen. Ryan was sitting cross-legged on the pad, his face caught in the cold light of a video call with Athalia, his fingers lazily levitating a small silver paperclip three inches above his knee as they discussed the movement of the metal trucks at the eastern terminal.
Before Damon could even speak, the phone inside his own pocket began to vibrate with a violent intensity.
He pulled it out, his eyes locking onto the unlisted, encrypted numbers on the display. A sudden, cold shiver ran straight down his spine.
It was a direct call from Elder Kael, who had of course sent him out with lira to have their experience, and now for him to call at this unexpected hours combined with the troublesome ongoing event.
He was sure that the night walkers had already deemed such things troublesome most likely suspect he was directly linked with it.