A Turn of Tides (A Shade of Vampire #13)(13)

Hell, I didn’t even know how to inject venom into someone.

I knew how to suck blood, but I’d never released venom.

I tried to recall the way my father’s fangs had looked when he’d turned me.

I spread my lips to give my fangs as much leeway into his flesh as possible.

And then it happened—a flow of ice-cold liquid shot from them and injected into the man’s bloodstream.

I jerked my head away from him.

It felt like I might have stopped too late.

Quite a bit of liquid had already entered his bloodstream.

I just had to hope that I hadn’t released too much.

He began convulsing on the bed.

Now that his transformation—or hopefully semi-transformation—was beginning, I had to figure a way to get him out of here and back to my submarine as soon as possible.

Wrapping him up tightly with the sheets so that his face was covered and his limbs restrained from convulsing too wildly, I picked him up in my arms and raced toward the exit of the ward.

There was no point trying to hide my speed anymore.

Someone was going to notice I was carrying a writhing patient away from his bed, so I might as well travel so fast they wouldn’t have a chance to even register what they’d seen until I was already well out of reach.

I whizzed through the halls, and Tobias’ struggling stopped.

My speed had likely knocked him breathless.

I crossed corridor after corridor, ignoring the shouts that were becoming louder and louder behind me.

As I reached the first storage room, an alarm began ringing throughout the hospital.

I sped across the room and entered the next.

I didn’t let up until I reached the double glass doors leading to the staircase leading up to the roof.

I sped up to the top, kicked open the door and ran out onto the roof.

A light drizzle had begun to spray the night air.

I rushed to the edge of the building and looked down.

I swore beneath my breath.

I hadn’t really considered how I’d get the two of us down alive.

Tobias was certainly in no position to be holding onto me.

And he was a tall man—not that much shorter than myself.

With him squirming like this, there was no way I’d be able to hold on to him while also getting us both safely to the ground.

I ran around the circumference of the roof and was relieved to spot what I’d hoped to see.

Another roof about fifteen feet away.

This was the more sensible option.

I could jump that without difficulty.

I stepped back away from the edge a few yards and, gripping Tobias more tightly, gathered speed and leapt through the air, landing on both feet with ease on the roof parallel to the hospital.

This building was lower, about two stories lower.

Still high, but at least I’d made some progress in getting down to a level from which I could just jump to the ground without risk of injury to either myself or, more importantly, Tobias.

Once I’d landed on this lower building, I ran around the edges once again.

While the building next to it wasn’t any lower, there were ledges that looked much thicker and easier to handle.

So I leapt again onto this second roof and, taking it slowly, managed to climb down to the ground on the overhanging balconies.

Now that I was on the ground, I lost no time in lurching forward.

I took a wrong turn a few times, but it wasn’t long before I found myself back on the promenade before the beach.

I ran across the sand and entered the water, holding Tobias up and kicking with my legs, propelling us toward the submarine I’d anchored about half a mile away from the shore.

I dragged him up to the submarine roof, opened the hatch and slid in with him.

Breathing heavily, I placed him down on a bed in one of the cabins and locked the door behind me.

Wiping sweat from my brow, I walked into the control cabin and picked up the phone Jeramiah had given me.

I flipped it open, expecting to need to go up to the roof to get a signal, but there was clearly something different about this phone.

It had a full signal already even in the thick walls of this submarine.

I slumped down into the chair, wiping sweat from my brow.

I navigated to his contact number and pressed dial.

I put the phone to my ear, listening to the rings.

The first.

The second.

The third.

He picked up after the fourth.

“Yes?” I swallowed hard.

“I think I’m ready to take you up on your offer.” There was a pause at the other end of the line.

“You were successful in creating a half-blood?” “He’s in transformation now.

I’ll know in a few hours.” “Call back then.” Jeramiah hung up and the line went dead.

I placed the phone down on the dashboard, staring at it as I chewed on my lower lip.

Tobias Cole.

I just had to hope that he would wake up as a half-blood and not a vampire.

I didn’t need a mad vampire for company.

I already had myself to contend with.

Chapter 7: Caleb

My brain was in a fog.

I found it hard to fix my mind on anything but the memory of Rose’s body burning into ashes by the lake.

It replayed over and over in my mind, a nightmare I couldn’t escape from.