Chapter 128

Joseph’s POV

“Oh, my goddess!” Anna cried as we ran through the doors of the infirmary. “Is she—”

“No!” I barked at her as I placed Tessa’s body on the bed. “She’s not dead.”

Dr. Cornelia ran toward the bed with his equipment. Tessa remained unmoving; she was barely breathing. She stopped breathing when we were in the hideout, but she started to breathe lightly again once we returned to the village. I could still hear her heartbeat faintly, so she was alive.

“I’m going to need time to work on her. I need everyone to get out,” Dr. Cornelia ordered us.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I hissed.

“I need to focus on saving her life and I can’t do that when you are here, Elder,” he said, glaring at me.

When I refused to move, I felt Anna’s hand on my arm.

“Joseph—”

When I ripped my arm away from her touch, her words fell short.

“Eldest!” Dr. Cornelia shouted, looking at Bernard who was already on his way to me.

I knew there was no use fighting Bernard. He grabbed my arm and held me in his grasp; I struggled for a minute, but it was no use, he was stronger than me.

He dragged me toward the doorway with Anna following us.

“Just save her,” I pleaded to the doctor.

He looked remorseful, but he nodded his head.

“I’ll do what I can…”

Out in the waiting from, I couldn’t seem to sit still. I paced back and forth for what felt like an eternity. I could numerously beep and Dr. Cornelia shouting orders, which made my stomach clench into a tight knot every time.

If it wasn’t for Bernard, I would have already been running back into the room to see if he was okay.

“Joseph, please sit down,” Anna pleaded from one of the seats. “She’s going to be okay. You have to believe that…”

I ignored her; not because I was mad at her, but because I couldn’t form the words. The image of Tessa in my mind was too painful to grasp. She looked awful from all the wounds that occupied her body.

I felt sick to my stomach.

The clock continued to tick and soon an entire hour had passed before Dr. Cornelia entered the waiting room. His scrubs were stained red with Tessa’s blood; the look on his face made me feel ill.

“How is she?” I asked, glad that my voice came out stronger than I felt.

“She’s stable,” he said, meeting my eyes. “However, with the amount of blood she lost, it’s amazing she’s still alive. She was practically drained dry.”

The remaining air in my lungs escaped me.

“We tried to fill her with blood, but her body rejected it,” the doctor said, that remorseful look back in his eyes.

“Rejected it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “Why would it reject the blood?”

“I’m not entirely sure. But I’m thinking her body needs fresh blood,” he explained. “Something that isn’t in a blood bag.”

“Like a human donor?” Anna asked, standing to her feet.

Dr. Cornelia nodded.

“Okay, then we will go to the human city and grab a human,” I said, looking at Anna and Bernard who stood behind me.

“We can’t kidnap a human to use them as a blood bag,” Bernard said, folding his arms across his chest. “That goes against what we stand for.”

“I’m not letting Tessa die,” I said through my teeth.

“Maybe if we have someone willing to donate their blood to her,” Dr. Cornelia chimed in. “Her body will accept any blood type. It rejected the bags we gave her, but I’m hoping it’ll take fresh blood that’s kept warm in someone’s body. We don’t need to kill the human… just a donor.”

“We will have to expose ourselves to a human if we ask,” Bernard shaking his in disapproval.

“We could erase their memories,” Anna pointed out.

“What human would even want to help us in the first place?” Bernard asked. “I don’t want to use our abilities to make them—”

“I know a human that would do anything for Tessa,” I said quickly, staring between all of us. This was a very bold choice, but I was running out of options, and like Anna said we could always erase her memories later. But I knew she’d help Tessa without a second thought.

They all stared at me with curious looks.

“Her friend, Ruby,” I said to them. I looked at Dr. Cornelia. “She has a best friend Ruby back in the city she lives in. She would do anything for Tessa. I’m sure we can get her to help.”

Dr. Cornelia nodded.

“Okay, are you able to go there to get her?”

I nodded but then froze. Our teleportation abilities don’t allow us to teleport that far. It would still take a few hours to get there. I didn’t want to leave Tessa for that long, but I knew I had to if we wanted to save her life.

“You’ll be okay leaving Tessa?” Anna asked, reading my face.

I looked at her, wanting to say “No, I’m not okay with it, but I have to do it to save her.” But those words failed me.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, another voice sounded from the doorway.

“I’ll go,” Connor said, leaning against the door frame. “I can go there and be back within a few hours with the human girl.”

I hadn’t realized Connor was there and listening.

“You’d do that?” I asked, raising my brows.

He shrugged.

“Well, yeah. You are my best friend. She’s important to you so I guess that means she’s important to me too.”

I sighed relief as I nodded my thanks to him and he gave me a grin in return.

“I’ll just add to the list of things you owe me,” he said, walking toward us. “What does this girl look like?”

I reached into my pocket to pull out Tessa’s phone that found in the hideout before we left. She didn’t have a passcode to it, so it was easy to access her photos. It didn’t take long to find a picture of her, and Ruby and I showed the photo to Connor.

His eyes widened and he whistled.

“Holy shit; she’s hot,” he chirped.

I rolled my eyes, wanting to punch him.

“Can you remain focused?” I asked, pressing my lips firmly together.

He laughed.

“Of course,” he said, turning away. “Just text me her address and I’ll head there right now.”

“Can we trust you to bring her here safely and without her being terrified?” Anna asked, folding her arms across her chest, and glaring at him.

He glanced at her, giving her a lopsided grin.

“I’ll be a perfect gentleman, Miss Anna. You know me,” he said, winking at her.

“You better be,” she warned.

I took out my own phone and texted him the address to Ruby’s apartment.

“If you run into any issues, call me,” I told him, eyeing him carefully.

“Yeah yeah,” he said, waving me away with his back turned. “I'll be back in a few hours.”

He was gone without another word.

I couldn’t believe it… Tessa’s life was hanging in the hands of Connor.

He better not fuck this up.

…

Third Person POV

It took a couple of hours, but Connor made it to the city. He looked at the address that Joseph had given him and went directly to the apartment.

He wasn’t really sure what he was going to say to this Ruby girl, but Tessa’s life depended on it.

He went up the few flights of stairs until he reached the door that had the same number listed in the text. Connor could hear her heartbeat as he stood outside her door.

Knocking, he heard the shuffling of her feet.

Soon, she was opening the door and a petite girl stood before him. His heart nearly stopped when he saw her in person. She was so beautiful; breathtakingly so.

She stared up at him with large eyes and for a moment, it seemed as if time had stopped.

“Um… hi…” she said, creasing her brows together. “Can I help you with something?”

Connor had never been tongue-tied before, but at that moment, he could hardly form words.

“Hi…” He finally managed to say.

“Hi…” she said in return when it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything more.

He blinked a few times, gathering his thoughts quickly.

“I’m sorry…” he said, clearing his throat. “I don’t mean to bother you. But your friend, Tessa, is in trouble.”

Her demeanor completely changed and soon she had a hard look on her face.

“Tessa?” She asked, stepping closer to me like she was wherever I said to spring. “What’s going on?”

“She was hurt. She needs fresh blood to recover. For some reason the bags of blood her body is rejecting. We need a donor to give her blood.”

He wasn’t explaining this correctly, he was aware. But he couldn’t form the words.

“Wait, she was hurt?? How??” She asked; he could hear the anger in her voice.

“Her blood was drained and—”

“Drained?? What the fuck are you talking about??” She seethed. “Who are you??”

“My name is Connor,” he said quickly. “And you are Ruby…right?”

“How do you know me? What the hell is going on? Where is Tessa??”

She was mad; this was his fault.

“She’s with Joseph right now. Kind of. She’s in the infirmary—”

“Infirmary?? Like a hospital?” She asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Yes…” he said, shaking his head, trying to clear his head. “I’m sorry. I’m not explaining this right. I’m a vampire. Joseph is a vampire and Tessa is in serious trouble. If you don’t come with me… she will die.”