Ethan barely looked at Flash.
"What…? What the hell kind of… magic?"
Flash spun sharply toward Ethan.
"Ethan! Listen to me very carefully. You don't have much time."
"The wound is too deep. You're barely holding on."
"I can pull you through this, but you have to trust me right now."
Ethan sat leaning against the crate, his palm still pressed to the torn wound on his neck.
The bleeding had slowed, but his face was deathly pale and his lips had turned blue. He struggled to lift his gaze to Flash.
"What… are you talking about…" His voice was barely audible.
Flash quickly crawled closer on his knees. He pointed at Morwen's body lying nearby, from which black ichor was still slowly leaking.
"His blood!"
"It can heal you right now. But you have to drink it."
"Just a little. Trust me…"
Ethan stared at him as if Flash had lost his mind. His eyes widened in disgust.
"You… serious?" he rasped.
"You want me to… drink that shit?"
"Yes, I'm serious," Flash spoke fast, almost feverishly.
"I'm not joking."
"Without it, you'll be dead in the next few minutes. I've seen how this works."
"Trust me just this once, for fuck's sake!"
Bruno, still lying by the beam, coughed up a weak spatter of blood and rasped:
"Do… what he says, Ethan…"
Ethan looked at Bruno, then back at Flash. In his eyes, pain, fear, and desperate hope were fighting for control.
He swallowed heavily, though the movement clearly caused him hellish pain.
"Fine…" he finally breathed.
"But if… this doesn't… help… I'll kill you later."
Flash gave a short nod and quickly crawled over to Morwen's body.
Without any hesitation, he dipped two fingers into the black ichor oozing from the hole in the vampire's chest.
"Here," he said, returning to Ethan and holding out his hand.
"Quickly!"
Ethan stared at Flash's black, glistening fingers with a clear gag reflex. His stomach clenched and his throat convulsed.
"Fuck…" Ethan whispered.
Still, he slowly extended his trembling hand and dipped his fingers into the alien blood on Flash's hand.
The thick, sticky black fluid coated his skin. Ethan brought his fingers to his mouth, held his breath, and with a grimace of pure disgust, licked them clean in one swift motion.
Instantly, Ethan doubled over. He vomited bile straight onto the concrete. His body convulsed with spasms as he forced himself to swallow at least some of the filth that remained in his mouth.
"Oh… you bitch…" he groaned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
And then he felt it.
It was as if molten iron had been poured into his veins. Ethan instinctively pressed his hand to the wound and felt the edges of the skin pulling together on their own.
The muscles beneath his fingers pulsed, knitting together with unnatural speed.
The bleeding stopped completely. The pain receded, as if it were being washed out of his body by a hot wave.
He breathed heavily, staring ahead with wide eyes.
"What… the hell is this…" he whispered, running his fingers over his neck.
The wound that had been a deep, ragged gash only a minute ago had now turned into a thin pink line, and then smoothed out entirely, leaving only a pale crescent-shaped scar.
Ethan slowly raised his gaze to Flash.
Flash was squatting beside him, watching with a tired, almost triumphant smile.
"Now you know I wasn't lying!"
Bruno, still pressing a hand to his chest, gave a weak smirk, though the movement clearly hurt.
"See? That's another thing from the dark world."
Ethan was silent for several seconds, simply feeling his neck. Then he looked at Morwen's empty shell and the black puddle that had almost stopped smoking, and rasped:
"If I turn into the same kind of freak now… I'll kill both of you."
Flash let out a quiet, broken laugh.
"Relax."
"One dose isn't enough to turn you. That's not how you become a vampire."
"But you'll live. At least for today."
"We need to leave right now. Before that thing comes back in someone else."
Ethan nodded. He glanced at Morwen's body.
"He… went… into someone…" Flash whispered.
"We… only bought time…"
Bruno smiled weakly, blood staining his teeth.
"Then go. Quickly. I'll hold him off… if he comes back…"
Flash grabbed his arm and shook his head in disapproval.
Gideon and Ethan lifted Bruno under the arms. He groaned in pain but didn't resist.
They moved toward the exit, leaving a bloody trail behind them.
Behind their backs, Morwen's body finally began to crumble into ash.
They had barely taken a few steps toward the exit, Bruno hanging between Gideon and Flash, his feet dragging along the concrete and leaving two dark streaks, when the air in the hangar suddenly thickened again.
It was simply a feeling as if someone had suddenly cut off all the oxygen.
The door they had just come through vanished, as if it had never existed.
In its place stood Roy.
He didn't look tired. He didn't even look angry.
He looked… bored.
His long black coat hung open, swaying gently behind him even though there was no draft.
His hair was slightly disheveled, the only sign that he had been in any hurry. In his eyes, the same cold white light that had burned in Morwen's eyes just minutes ago was already beginning to ignite.