“I’ll take it into consideration,” I said.
Josh followed the signs for the ER, slamming on the brakes when he drove under an overhang. “Here. I’ll park—Rupert, go in with Elder Maledictus—”
I don’t know what else he said, I unlatched the door and kicked it open with enough force that the car made an ominous creaking noise. I slid out, careful not to jostle Jade as I transitioned from sitting to walking.
I’d been trying to dab more of the potion on her lips, but I didn’t think she was getting much of it. I put the vial in my pocket, then strode for the front doors which automatically opened.
I walked into the sterile stale scent of filtered air and copious cleaners. A waiting room littered with plastic waiting chairs stretched to my side, but there was a front desk tended to by a man and a woman wearing scrubs.
The redhead—Rupert, apparently—scrambled in behind me as I stalked towards the front desk.
“She needs medical attention,” I said to the humans behind the desk. “Now.” My eyes glowed red as I used a power unique to vampires—pheromones—which made humans pliable and easy to order around. “You will focus on her and give her the best medical care possible and your absolute priority.”
Their eyes unfocused and one immediately turned to a computer while the other picked up a phone and spoke in a lowered voice.
Seconds later a herd of medical staff stampeded into the room—doctors, nurses, and other roles I didn’t recognize due to my general ignorance of human medical care. Confusioncreased their foreheads until I took a step towards them and the pheromones hit, making them dreamy faced and starry eyed.
“Medical care,now,” I snapped. “She was shot and there’s something wrong with her head.”
Their eyes stayed unfocused, but they moved efficiently, one of them fetching a stretcher, another pulled out a tablet, while the others scurried around doing more preparatory tasks.
“Possibly a concussion,” one medical staff member muttered to another.
“Check her eyes.”
“Understood.”
One of the humans peeled Jade’s eyelids back and shone a light in her eyes. “Her eyes aren’t constricting—she’ll need an MRI.”
A staff member wheeled a gurney up to me. “After her gunshot wound is addressed.”
The medical staff spoke quickly, but their voices were so neutral—from the hold I had on them—it bordered on uncaring. I gently lowered Jade onto the stretcher and was promptly crowded out as the humans gathered around her.
I clenched my jaw and held in the raging emotions I still couldn’t trace: Jade was my priority. I’d hold it together for her sake.
“Any other injuries?” the nurse—or doctor?—with the tablet asked as they started to push the stretcher down the hallway.
I started to shake my head, but Rupert—who was walking so fast he almost had to trot to keep up, added, “She’s a vampire slayer—a supernatural human.”
The nurse/doctor paused. “Can type O blood still be used for her?”
My mouth felt dry and I wanted to curse my ignorance. I was aware of blood types due to my drink of choice, but I had no idea if or how that affected Jade as a supernatural.
My disregard for humans was finally coming back to haunt me.
“Yes, she can take blood type O,” Rupert said. “But you should record that a potion was administered to the wound. Elder Maledictus attempted to give her an oral potion, too, but we were afraid she’d choke, so it was only dabbed on her lips and tongue.”
“Understood,” the nurse/doctor said, her voice emotionless.
As we passed through a hallway, a doctor in a white coat with a deep frown stalked up to the procession. “What’s going on—”
“No,” I said, putting my will behind it.
The doctor blinked, his eyes glazing over, and he abruptly turned around and walked back in the direction he’d come from.
Rupert eyed the man, his eyebrows crawling up his forehead.
“Do you have something to say?” I asked him.
