The front door of the cabin swings open as Kai and Andrej come barreling in with a body hanging between them. A big body, a body that held me not so long ago.
"What happened?!" Henrich shouts as he jumps to his feet. "Here, lay him out here.” He empties the kitchen table of its contents, knocks everything on the floor and when Havok is laid out my heart finally stops.
He's been beaten.
Badly beaten just like in my dream.
And when the three of them start speaking in Slovakian, clearly excluding me from the conversation, I lose my fucking shit.
"Nope! Not fucking happening!" I rush over to them and muscle Kai out of the way, kind of. "I want to know what the fuck happened so you will speak nothing but English from this moment forward, got it?!"
Kai and Andrej blink at me while Henrich shakes his head, already assessing the damage done to Havok. “Was he beaten with a mace?"
My eyes snap to Havok's face, the purple and blue barely visible through the blood. I follow his features down his neck, his throat and over his chest.
Andrej nods. "Laced."
“Fuck," Henrich grits as he tears open Havok's shirt to expose more wounds, deeper ones over his chest.
"Laced?" I start to pace, fingering the gears around my neck. "Laced with what? Some kind of poison? Thumbtacks? Cocaine? Laced with what?!"
Kai helps Henrich strap Havok down to his kitchen table with a few belts, his body convulsing and twitching unnaturally as Andrej grabs my shoulder. "Laced with vampire blood."
"What the fuck?!" I'm yelling. And crying. Pacing. A real fucking mess. "What does that mean? Why isn't he waking up?"
Henrich pokes and prods around Havok's chest. "Vampire blood is toxic to those it did not originate from. It does not appear any of it has entered any of the main arteries or his heart directly but I need to get him cleaned up before I can be sure." Then he pulls a barbed spike from muscle and drops it on the table. "Especially if there are more of those."
"He's going to be ok though, right? I mean, you can get all of those little burr thingies out of him and then give him an antibiotic or something and he'll be ok, right?"
Henrich looks up at me then over to his brothers before moving to the sink.
"Henrich? Please tell me he's going to be ok."
Kai pulls me toward him and wraps an arm around my shoulders while Andrej just stares at me.
Great.
First they speak a language I don't understand now they're not going to say a word.
"Henrich? Henrich, please. Please tell me..." I choke down a sob at the complete panic, the total heartbreak I feel.
"He should eventually be fine..." Henrich begins washing Havok's face. "It will take time, lots of time but—"
"Why? I don't understand? Why is it going to take lots of time for him to heal? The other day he healed in a matter of minutes, he..."
"Little one, you have to understand, the vampire blood is a game changer for Havok. It will work it's way through his body like a poison, especially if the barbs were in his skin for longer than a few minutes. Eventually his body will push the poison out but..." He trails off, and looks to his brothers. "But Havok has not exactly been taking care of himself the way he should."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
Henrich clears his throat and blushes, obviously this is making him incredibly uncomfortable.
Which is why Kai steps in.
"Vampires need to feed regularly, take in human blood to maintain full health."
Immediately I tense as jealousy flares in my chest.
So help me god if I find out he...
